When Gale drops Dakota off at Madge's place on Friday, he looks chipper. Madge on the other hand just got home from work and really feels tired out from a busy week. Thom and Delly's engagement night was tons of fun, but she and Jo got home pretty late and it's thrown off her whole sleep schedule for the past few days.
Nevertheless, she puts on a happy face and smiles at her daughter. "Hey baby. How was school today?"
"Fun," is her response, as always. She looks around and spots Johanna in the kitchen and decides to run over to her. "Auntie JoJo!"
"Hi KoKo," Jo laughs, picking her up and bouncing her up and down.
Madge watches for a while as her daughter laughs and chats happily with Jo, but then she turns back to Gale who's looking at her intently by the door. He hands her the weekly bag unceremoniously. "Thanks."
"For what?" he asks with a chuckle, raising his eyebrow.
"For this," Madge offers, holding up the duffel. "And dropping her off, I guess. I know you do it every week, just felt like the thing to say."
Gale nods, maybe he understands. He fidgets with his car keys in his hands, jingling them and playing with the metal hoop. "Hey, we should meet this weekend to go over finance stuff, you know," Gale mentions, and even the mention of the word has Madge groaning.
She does know. Every so often they need to just sit down together and go through their records. Bills and any big expenses that they might need to deal with together. But Madge can't think of any recent big expenses, they usually only even touch on the subject of money if it's a medical bill or lessons of some sort. Or if they're talking about her parents. Always her parents.
"Sure," she shrugs, not really having a valid excuse not to meet him. When Madge got home from work today she immediately changed into a t-shirt and a pair of pyjama shorts, and right now she feels severely underdressed standing next to Gale in his suit. "When?"
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sounds good," she nods. "Do you want me to come over to your place, or…"
"Tomorrow some of Thom's guys are coming in. To seal off the tiling for my bathroom, I think they're using some loud machinery which obviously wouldn't be ideal."
"I thought your bathroom was finished," Madge ponders out loud, trying to recall their conversation with his family.
"Not totally, there are still some final touches to be made."
Usually they just go over to his place, because when they meet at hers, Johanna is always there, and Johanna is distracting as hell. She's always peering over shoulders and huffing at how much some child expenses cost, while cracking jokes that make it hard to stay on track. After a couple of failed attempts of getting things done Madge knew they had to relocate.
"Okay, so where should we go?"
"We could go to a coffee shop?"
"With Kota? I don't want her to get bored, you know how she is when she's forced to just sit there," she keeps in mind, and Gale tries to think. It's hard to keep a four year old entertained in a small public setting. At least in their homes they can turn on the TV or switch tasks and games for her every so often. "I mean you could just come here, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever."
But Jo pipes up. "How about I babysit her here and you two go to the coffee shop? That way you guys don't have to deal with me," she snorts, pretending to be pissed but probably getting it. It's not an attack on her person at all, Jo actively tries to keep them off track and won't even deny it.
"Really Jo?" Madge asks with a thankful smile.
"Yeah, really. I haven't spend time with this one in so long," she explains, nodding at Kota who's at the kitchen table, sipping on a juice box. "We'll just stay here. Or go do something fun, whatever we're feeling then."
"That would actually work better for us," Gale adds, lowering his voice for only Madge to hear. "Because we can plan her birthday too. Coming up soon, right?"
She nods blindly in agreement, before her eyes widen and register the date. Dakota's birthday is coming up and she hadn't even thought about it before. Madge had been so distracted with work and other aspects of her life that she forgot her daughter's birthday was in this same month. Well, she knew it was in the month, she just didn't realize how quickly this month had come. Madge curses at herself for it, and now she feels irritated that Gale was the one to bring it up first. "Yeah, yeah, definitely. We should plan something nice for her. Can we meet at Sae's around 2? Would that work?"
Gale nods. "Yeah, okay. See you then."
"Bye, Gale."
"Later, Undersee," he nods, smiling boyishly before heading out of her door. Madge wonders what his plans are this Friday night, whether he's going out or staying in. She for one is waiting for Delly to come over, she's bringing Indian food and they're going to have a girls' night in, sipping wine and catching up. She and Johanna haven't talked to her since the party, Madge wonders what she and Thom have been up to.
She sits down at the kitchen table next to Dakota, and laughs when her daughter gets out of her own chair and asks to be placed in her lap. Madge lifts her and bounces her up and down, smiling into her light blonde hair.
"I missed you, KoKo."
Kota just smiles back brightly, biting her straw and staring down at the table.
"Tell me more about school? What did you do today?' Madge knows she probably hears the question far too often, it's Gale's favourite conversation starter too. But they genuinely want to know what their daughter is up to, and Kota really does thinks about it most of the time.
"Um…" she ponders, racking her brain. "We did crafts. Finger painting."
"That's wonderful, I can't wait to see your art," Madge smiles, kissing her chubby cheek. She turns to Jo who's on her phone, presumably texting Delly. "Is she on her way?"
"She said she was on the stairs, like, seven minutes ago," she shrugs, raising an eyebrow.
Then Delly bursts through the door, not even bothering to knock. She has two bags of takeout in her hands and a brown bag from the liquor store tucked under her arm. "Hi! Sorry, I ran into Gale on the staircase. We had a little chat."
"No problem. Just take your sweet time getting us fed," Jo deadpans, taking out plates and utensils from the cupboard and bringing them into the living room.
"I said I was sorry!" the blonde tries to justify, shedding her coat and handing Madge the food. "Besides, we literally just talked for a second. I like him."
"Marry him too, I dare you," Jo challenges with a smirk, and Madge snorts.
"I hate you guys," Delly whines with false spite. "Why can't you just be happy for me?"
"We are happy for you," Madge assures, but Delly turns to KoKo sitting on the couch.
"KoKo, are you happy for me?"
"Why should I be happy, Delly?" They'd decided ever since Dakota learned to talk that Delly would be addressed by her first name. Not Auntie or anything else. Jo on the other hand never really minded at all, and probably finds it sweet.
"I'm getting married to Uncle Thom," she replies as-a-matter-of-factly, still brimming with excitement two days later. She puts out her hand and kneels by the couch to show the little girl her jewelry. Dakota opens her mouth in amazement and stares.
"Married? That's hard. Mommy and Daddy aren't even married."
"Well, sweetie, that's different," Delly laughs, stroking her hair affectionately. "But yes, he asked me to be his wife on Wednesday. Didn't Dad tell you?"
"I think so," Kota replies innocently giggling. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks," Delly grins, satisfied with what she got out of that interaction. With that, she turns to her friends and smiles coyly. Madge and Jo have been staring. "Okay. We don't have to talk about my engagement anymore."
"No that's not what I want! I want to hear all about it," Madge insists. She isn't banded together with Jo, who couldn't care less about mushy, lovey dovey things (though she suspects her friend secretly does care a little bit). "Please. How are things between you guys now? Are you really excited, already planning?"
Delly shakes her head and shrugs. "Not yet, I don't really care about the specifics as long as it's big." She knows herself, Delly's the type to take things as they come but also dream about those huge ceremonies and receptions. "And right now, I feel like we're closer than ever. We're back to that period of time when we just started dating, the honeymoon phase or whatever?"
"That sounds awesome," Madge smiles, shoveling more food into her mouth.
"And you know, for all the time that he worked late and that we lost, he sure knows how to compensate," Delly jokes with a teasing grin. She rolls her eyes at her friend, looking over at her daughter to make sure she wasn't listening too closely. Johanna snickers.
"What does that mean to you guys? Like, every night?" Jo interrogates, but Delly just keeps mischievously smiling and sipping wine from her glass. "More than that? Damn Cartwright, I don't even know if I should be grossed out, moved or impressed."
"Moved, just moved" she responds, encouraging her friend's ridiculous vocabulary.
They eat and talk until Dakota get's tired, yawning and asking to be put to bed. So the three women take a little break to get Kota washed up and tucked in; Delly reads her a bedtime story while Madge strokes her hair into slumber, Jo watching by the door.
When KoKo's out cold and breathing rhythmically, the friends leave and go back to their conversation.
"Madge, can I just say for the thousandth time how much I adore your daughter?" Delly asks rhetorically, brimming with joy. "She's adorable and so much like the two of you. All of the best parts."
She hopes that is true and lifts the wine glass to hide her proud smile. "Thanks Delly."
Sae's is a convenient coffee joint downtown. It's right by Madge's workplace, and funnily enough they used to hang out in here when they were in college and still dating. They're peculiar memories, mostly ones of studying and keeping each other company. Madge thinks that they're neutral memories too, otherwise he wouldn't offer to meet here so often.
When she arrives at two she isn't surprised that Gale is already sitting at a table by the window, because she's always on time for things and Gale is always grotesquely early.
He doesn't seem to notice her walking in, his eyes are glued to his phone while scrolling vigorously with his fingers. So she decides to buy two coffees for them and bring them over.
"Hi," Madge greets when she puts the steaming cups on the table. Gale looks up, surprised and confused.
"Hi, how long have you been here?"
"Not long. I just thought you'd want coffee," she smiles politely, and he accepts her offer, holding the black coffee and giving it one sip.
She looks at him for a second, really looks at him. Never does she really see him in normal clothes anymore, but right now he's wearing a dark grey t-shirt and washed out jeans. He looks good, Madge notices the looks the barista is giving him but doesn't mind it.
"Okay, do you want off start with Kota's birthday stuff or actual business?"
"Birthday stuff, please," she begs jokingly. Money isn't fun, Madge would much rather plan her daughter's fifth birthday than talk about her vaccination schedule. "Do you know who has her this year?"
"I do," Gale answers, almostly solemnly. "Sorry."
Madge candidly laughs and instantly hopes he doesn't take offense. "You don't have to apologize. You've done nothing wrong."
"We'll obviously plan to do something for her, though. So you'll get to see her."
"Of course," she nods, then stopping to think. This year Madge wants to make it super special and memorable for Dakota, because it's probably one of the first years that she'll actually remember. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Well she loves the park," he offers, and Madge can't believe that didn't come to mind. KoKo loves spending time in parks, watching pets and playing on the playground. She's thankful her birthday is in October when the temperature is still warm enough to be outside, otherwise she wouldn't know what to do.
"Okay, well why don't we plan a party for her? We can invite all of her classmates and have a little picnic."
"That sounds incredibly fun," Gale agrees, smiling at the idea. "Okay, let's do it."
"Cool," she states in return, surprised at how little resistance he had to her idea. The cogs in her brain are turning again, and she's getting into planning mode again. "Well we don't have to do too much for now, but I guess this week I can hand out invitations after school to some parents? We're lucky that her birthday's on a Saturday."
"And I can pick up the food, decorations or whatever when the time comes," he nods and Madge smiles.
"Thanks, Gale."
"No problem, obviously I will, Undersee."
She doesn't know when they got into the habit of unnecessarily thanking one another, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's better than not getting along, because then nothing good comes out of that. Right now when they're getting along, she barely has to think about her family, or having to see his over Thanksgiving, though the thought is looming over her head. Someone clears their throat beside them, so Madge looks up.
"Magdalene."
"Finnick!" she exclaims, smiling brightly back at him. "What are you doing here?"
"I just finished the Saturday show," he reminds, and Madge nods back remembering the fact. The radio station is just down the street and Finnick is just grabbing a coffee before he heads home. She hadn't even thought about that when she agreed to a meeting here with her ex-boyfriend. Speaking of, Gale sets down his coffee which makes a thudding noise, nodding at her co-worker.
"Hey man, I don't think we've met before, in real life at least." The two men shake hands tightly and Finnick gives him a signature grin.
"Well then, you know who I am. And I'm guessing you're the infamous Gale Hawthorne."
That word causes Gale to raise an eyebrow and Madge to pep up. "Infamous?"
"Oh, didn't Madge tell you? We have an 'I hate Gale' poster up in the office. Everyone throws darts at it and everything."
Gale chuckles with a false sense of humour, but doesn't seem to be amused. Madge feels bad, Finnick's up front sort of humour isn't for everyone and Gale certainly isn't enjoying it. And there was probably a point when she didn't care about that either, when she would let people say whatever they want about Gale and she wouldn't even think about his emotions in it. That was years ago, when he had just broken up with her.
But now things feel different, she doesn't know why. Nothing has tangibly changed, but the conversation she heard between him and her best friend at the engagement party definitely changed something.
"No, I'm just playing around. I've only heard good things about you, it's cool to finally meet you in person," Finnick reconciles, and Gale nods in response. He uses his words sparingly, it was something she always loved about him. "So what are you guys doing? Looks fun," he asks, gesturing at the papers and notebooks splayed across the small coffee table.
"Every few months we meet up to update each other on finances, bigger picture baby stuff, you know," she explains.
"Parenting sounds thrilling," he deadpans, but Madge defends her role.
"It is. Maybe one day you'll find out."
He scoffs and stuffs one hand in his pocket and extends the other, holding his cup out to raise his glass out to them. "I'm gonna run. I'll see you at work on Monday, Madge."
"Bye Finnick."
"Bye. Nice to meet you man?" he says to Gale while walking away. And after that brief intermission Madge takes out some of her bills, ready to get right back into the process, but Gale seems bothered.
"He seems into you."
Madge almost cries of laughter in disbelief. "What?"
"Odair. He could be interested in you," Gale shrugs, but she only shakes her head in response.
"No, trust me he's not. He's really into this other girl, irrationally so. And besides, he's like an older brother or a cousin."
But why does she find the need to try and justify this to Gale? It shouldn't matter to him anyway, but clearly it does to some extent, and Madge just wants to ease that. For a minute they just sip their coffees. Gale studies his phone again and she just studies him. His eyebrows are furrowed, she's not sure what's the matter.
"Can we move on to the money stuff?"
He looks up, perplexed for a second, but then nods. "Yeah, yeah. Sure, let's do it."
So they get through the rest of their tasks, and Madge ignores the fact that he's probably feeling a little bit off, hoping that not acknowledging it will keep them on track. And for the most part, it works. They're back into the groove of operating in no time. They get past the bills, everything is being spent pretty close to budget and equally too.
When they had just learned that they would be raising a child together, Madge had tried to make the entire sharing process as methodical as possible. It's worked to some extent, but it didn't minimize their interaction of anything of that nature that 21 year old Madge would've wanted.
But to be honest, 21 year old Madge was secretly desperate for him to take her back and spend more time with her. Maybe this is ironically, her getting what she wants after all.
A/N: Things are getting... emotionally complicated.
Thank you for your patience with this one, I've been swamped this week. I'm afriad that the next two weeks might have irregular updates too as I'll be doing some travelling, but I'll make it a main priority to bring you guys more of this story!
Reviews always appreciated, thank you so much for reading and sticking around.