Lou had hitched a ride from Amy to Maggie's as her younger sister and Georgie had agreed to help her with waitressing since Lou didn't feel like paying her staff extra now that the reunion budget had been exceeded already with the various changes to the plans.
Both Amy and Georgie were helping getting drinks available for the first-arrivals while Lou was making sure everything was running smoothly otherwise. She checked that all the banners were up and that there were water bottles and enough pencils for her and MJ at their signing booths.
There were moments when Lou thought if maybe she was crazy to go over all this trouble for Mary Jane Sutka, but then she realized that she needed closure and this reunion would hopefully provide her some. If she wasn't going to do it now, she would never be able to fully shake the shadow of MJ off of her. Who knew if she ever got a second chance?
When the bell on the door chimed again and announced about the arrival of Mitch, who was now showered and dressed in his best, Amy took a second look and was almost ready to go to him and tell him that they were closed for customers tonight, even though it said so on the sign in the street.
But then as she saw what he was wearing, Amy realized that Mitch had not just come here to grab a coffee and a slice of pie.
"What is he doing here?" she asked from Lou as she passed her older sister with an empty tray, "He didn't go to your school, did he?"
Lou looked around and noticed Mitch who was looking for her in the crowd. She smiled a little, feeling relieved, knowing that he really had followed through with his offer and it had not been an empty promise.
"No, but he's my plus one," Lou informed Amy and gave Mitch a little wave. He noticed her and slowly started to make his way to her.
Amy was surprised, "When did that happen...?"
"Just few hours ago," Lou replied and could already sense a series of questions coming her way, "And no, we are not together, but I didn't want to come here alone, especially knowing how MJ will have her perfect husband with her..."
"Lou, seriously, you got to let it go," Amy scoffed, not even afraid to call her out on it. Her sister was becomming borderline obsessed, "I mean, now you've involved Mitch, too? I feel sorry for the guy..." she added, because Mitch probably had no idea what he was getting into.
"Well, he got himself involved, actually," Lou corrected, "And he too has some bones to pick with MJ's family, so it's like killing two birds with one stone, really."
"The less I know, the better," Amy decided eventually and went to get more wine for the people. Lou tried to brush off Amy's attitude, because she didn't know the extent of this whole MJ problem.
Meanwhile, Mitch stepped in front of her. "She here already?" he asked, carefully looking around and wondering who here could be Lou's nemesis.
"Not yet, but she should be here any minute now," Lou let him know, somewhat relieved as it gave them time to settle before MJ would waltz in. "You look good", she complimented him. Of course, Mitch always looked good to her, but it was nice to see him all dressed up like this.
"Oh, thanks," Mitch felt flattered and smirked. "So, how is it going?" he changed the topic as he still felt somewhat weird around Lou when it came to her giving him any amount of attention, "Seems like people are having a good time."
Lou didn't see it the same way.
"Yeah, I guess. Everyone's just expecting MJ to come... They keep asking about her and I keep texting her, but she hasn't gotten back to me, so it's just a waiting game at this point. Figured I'd just keep the drinks flowing until she finally gets here, so they'll be satisfied. I'm starting to think that the only reason they came was because she's going to be here. - Like, the whole idea was to catch up after all these years, but for some reason MJ's signature feels more appealing to them than us looking back on one of the best times of our lives!"
"I wouldn't worry about it too much. Give it some time, I'm sure the magic will wear off as soon as they realize she's still just a person like everyone else," Mitch tried.
"Yeah..." Lou nodded, hoping Mitch was right. "Are you hungry? We got burgers and fries."
"Free burgers? Hell yeah, I am," Mitch replied with a grin.
This new partnership with Jack was physically demanding, but that was also part of the reason why he loved it so much. Working outdoors gave him an appetite of a horse and a good night's sleep at the end of the day, and that was a good routine to have. If it wasn't for Tim Fleming, things would have been pretty perfect for him right now.
Lou touched Georgie's shoulder as she was making her way to the kitchen, "Georgie, can you get Mitch a burger, please?"
"Yeah, sure," the girl replied.
Lou smiled pleasantly, "Thanks, honey."
Meanwhile, Mitch's attention shifted to the old yearbooks Lou had laid out on the side table. He walked closer and started to browse through them, "These yours?"
"Uh, yeah," Lou confirmed, walking closer as well to take a better look. "Thought maybe it would be fun to look back and laugh at our teenage selves."
"Oh, for sure - I mean look at you," Mitch said delightfully as soon as he saw a picture of Lou with her friends. It was strange to see Lou so much younger, but still looking kind of the same, "How long ago was this? The fashion looks so... uh... 90s."
"It's late 90s, yeah," Lou told him, "We graduated in 2000. Can't believe it's been so long, I feel like it was just yesterday," She had been so stressed about Mary Jane all this time that she had not really took time to recall all the other things that had come out of high school because most of those things were good, "That's me and Marnie, my bestie through elementary till high school..."
"Is she here?" Mitch asked.
"She..." Lou started talking, but didn't know what to say as she was so embarrassed with the way she had been behaving these past few days, "She was supposed to be here, I sort of started to arrange this reunion with her, but then... I kind of took over and she got mad at me."
"What? You? Taking over? Huh. Doesn't sound like you at all..." Mitch joked and got a little punch from Lou on the shoulder as she was somewhat annoyed but still able to take the joke as she could recognize the truth in his snarky comment, "Let me guess; did you get your spreadsheets involved in this, too?"
Lou was starting to feel kind of a butt of the joke, because even though she knew how people often thought her spreadsheets to be ridiculous, they were actually very helpful as they gave her thoughts more structure.
"You can say what you will about my spreadsheets, but had it not been to one of them, I wouldn't have even gotten out with you," Lou reminded him. This was something she had shared with Mitch himself on their first date at the park.
"And that's a good thing?" Mitch continued, not really thinking what was coming out of his mouth.
Lou knew she could play along with people's mocking most of the time, but she was slowly starting to feel like maybe Mitch was targeting her on purpose and it made her feel unsure what he was trying to do.
"I don't know. Is it not...?" she asked directly, steering the conversation to much more serious direction.
Mitch noticed the change in Lou's tone and the smirk on his face died as he got somewhat uncomfortable. He didn't really know what to say, but he was saved by a bell - or a burger in this case - when Georgie walked back with his meal.
"Here you go," Georgie said as she handed him the plate, "Enjoy."
"Thanks, Georgie," Mitch replied, taking the plate and then looking at Lou. Whatever magic had lingered between them just few seconds ago, was now gone. "I'm gonna..." he continued, gesturing toward the burger.
"Yeah, of course." Lou nodded excessively and started backing off. "I'm going to go to the toilet anyway, so... you'll enjoy that."
Mitch took a seat from an empty table and sat down, "Okay, thanks."
Lou turned around and started walking toward the toilets, feeling like her cheeks were all of a sudden somehow hot while the rest of her body was becoming cold. She really hoped this feeling would pass before Mary Jane got here.