"Here. Try this."
Marley's glazed-over eyes came back into focus and the red, green, and white Christmas lights of the evergreen looming before her faded back into view. It took her brain an extra millisecond to pull her eyes from the large Christmas tree standing stories high in the large foyer of her grandmother's mansion and turn towards where the command had come from.
Her sister, Stella, was suddenly standing right next to her, holding out what looked to be an ordinary chocolate chip cookie.
"Here. Try it. I'm serious."
Marley unwrapped her arms from where they had twisted upon themselves in front of her chest and took the cookie from her sister.
"They used butter instead of Crisco. It takes like crap. Amateur hour."
Marley was nodding before she swallowed. Stella was right. The caterers had used butter. The result, they were now serving the high and mighty guests of Theodora Clausen's annual Christmas Eve party flat, gummy chocolate cookies.
"Too bad no one thought to ask your advice," Marley finally said, a large piece of cookie stuck in her teeth that her tongue had to work to get out. She handed the rest of the failed cookie to her sister who then wrapped it in a napkin and went looking for a trash can.
Marley watched her go, jealous that Stella seemed completely oblivious to the pathway she created before and behind her. Her outfit was nowhere near the apparently required deep forest green velvet or cherry red silk that the rest of the guests wore.
She was wearing a loose navy blue peasant top with a flowered pattern that Marley knew she had borrowed from their mother. It set off her dark brown hair and serious expression.
It was weird seeing Stella without her apron, an accessory she was hardly ever without as the most time Marley and Stella got to spend together was on the way to and from work when it hung over Stella's shoulder. Or during their lunch breaks when they were lucky enough to coincide when Stella didn't even bother taking it off, happy to walk around the city with a black apron splattered with flour tied around her waist.
Once her sister had disappeared back into the depths of the party and Marley lost sight of her among the throngs of people filling the first floor of her grandmother's Hamptons home, Marley's eyes panned back to the giant Christmas tree.
She too wasn't dressed for the occasion. Her mother had told her to pack something nice and Marley had assumed the black slacks she'd had to buy for her grandfather's funeral that spring and the white blouse she wore for interviews and college dinners would have been fine. She didn't know it yet but she was dressed like the servers hired to work the event.
Staring at the tree, taking in its numerous ornaments, none of them handmade and all of them color-coordinated, Marley saw all the stories her mom used to tell her and her sisters when they were little come to life.
It was always Gabbie who asked for the stories, the youngest of them all and the most demanding. Their mother, Avery, seemed happy to comply.
She told them stories of magical balls and parties where the women were dressed in the most expensive fabrics and the men in neat black and white suits, everyone so handsome and beautiful, the music incredible and never-ending, the laughter and friendship flowing.
She made it seem like a fairy tale, her old life, the life she left behind when she choose to elope with a broke comedy writer and move into a studio apartment in Washington Heights, against her parents' wishes.
Stella was the first to grow disinterested in the stories and Marley soon followed, her child's brain maturing enough to know there must be more to the story. If such a place existed if it was so magical as Avery described it, then why had she left? Why didn't they ever see Grandma and Grandpa?
Gabbie never doubted for a second the validity of Avery's stories. Even as a teenager, in her senior of high school, Gabbie was just enthralled with Avery's old life as she had been as a child.
If Marley listened close enough and waited she could catch drifts of Gabbie's light laugh floating above the general din of the party, every few minutes catch sight of her light blonde hair as it moved with ease through the crowd.
Marley had never fully believed her mother's stories but here she was, standing in front of a Christmas tree the size of a giant, just like her mother had told her about.
"You have to special order them."
As if reading her mind, Marley's cousin, Christian, answered the question rumbling around in her brain.
"Where did you even get a tree this big?"
"Gran has a reoccurring order, the three tallest Canada has to offer. You saw the one out front?"
Marley nodded. It would have been impossible to miss the giant Christmas tree that greeted everyone permitted through the large iron gates that acted as the entrance to Thea's large estate.
"Where's the third?" Marley asked.
Christian nodded his head towards the main living room to their left, behind him. His light blonde hair went with him and he flicked his head to the side to keep the fringe above his eyes from obstructing his view.
Marley looked past him and could only see the edges of the tree, the large black grand piano with its hired lounge singer for the night blocking her view.
Marley hadn't made it that far into the house yet. She had barely made it home from work in time to throw her duffle bag into the back seat of her dad's beat-up old Subaru and scramble into the back seat with her two sisters before they were driving away from the city.
When she had arrived, there were already workers setting up for the party and Grandma Thea took just a few minutes to greet her newly non-estranged family and show them to their rooms. She alerted Avery that her old room would be hers and that the three girls were to follow her to the east wing. The house was large enough that she had to distinguish which wing was which.
Three rooms, right in a row, one after another, were theirs. First Stella, then Marley, then Gabbie at the end of the hall. Neither Stella nor Gabbie hesitated in racing into their new living quarters for the next week. Marley only finally entered her own when she noticed Thea standing there, waiting for her reaction. Gabbie's squeals of excitement did enough to make up for Stella's mediocre exclamations and Marley's complete lack of a reaction.
It felt weird, having such a large room to herself. Did Grandma Thea know that the three of them shared one room back in the city?
Marley forced herself to enjoy the space. She had a week off of work and an excuse not to be in the city during the busiest time of the year thanks to her grandmother and her insistence that they come to stay with her for the holidays. She should enjoy the room.
Marley muttered a 'thanks' to Thea over her shoulder, her grandmother nodding and leaving her doorway empty, proclaiming that the party started in an hour and they were expected downstairs in forty-five minutes.
"-you holding up?"
Marley's eyes had gone wide a long time ago and her brain had given up fighting the overwhelm once the party began. Marley had to fight to focus on her cousin's face and asked him to repeat the question.
His smile was small and sympathetic. Marley had only met him that spring at her grandfather's funeral but she had a gut instinct that they were going to get along just fine.
"I said, how are you holding up?"
Christian leaned forward to ask the question directly into Marley's ear as if the volume level of the house was the reason she hadn't heard him.
Marley nodded.
"It's quieter in the kitchen. Barely but you won't stand out in there."
Marley was about to reassure him that 'no, she was fine where she was, thanks though,' when Gabbie appeared long enough to grab Christian's hand and pull him back into the party.
Her laugh and light hair trailed right behind her, Christian turning long enough to wave a quick goodbye to Marley.
Marley's gut twisted at how easily Gabbie could enjoy herself in such a strange setting. Even her clothes seemed to fit in just enough. Where she had gotten the black velvet dress, Marley didn't know. It didn't look like one of their mothers.
A part of her liked how well Gabbie and Christian got along but a part of her hated how much time they had gotten to spend together. Gabbie hadn't had a job to keep her in New York over the summer and so had been the first of the Harkin family to visit Grandma Thea after she made it known at her husband's funeral that she wanted to make amends, wanted a chance to get to know her granddaughters.
Gabbie had even made it out to the Hamptons for Thanksgiving while the rest of her family had to work. She seemed to fit right in while Marley was stuck standing in a quiet corner of the large foyer, staring at a Christmas tree that was too large for her brain to comprehend.
The kitchen seemed like a welcomed change. Christian had been right, Marley didn't stand out in the kitchen. It helped that she was dressed exactly like the servers and that fact hit her square in the face as soon as she walked through the swinging doors.
The kitchen seemed almost as busy as the party outside but it was a hurried, organized chaos.
Immediately Marley was in the way. She just barely moved out of the way as three servers, their trays filled with drinks, pushed past her, and re-entered the fray.
The caterer stood in the center, the marble-topped island headquarters for the kitchen, barking out orders.
A breakfast nook off to the side and away from the center of activity caught Marley's eyes. She ran there before she could get yelled at or trampled on.
The bench that bordered the breakfast table on all three sides was nearly full, boxes of wine glasses and plates filling up the seats. Marley could just barely sit on the edge. She had to force her hands not to start wrapping the silverware placed before her in the pristine cream napkins like she would have done if on duty at the restaurant with nothing else to do.
The well-oiled machine of the catering company worked around her, ignoring her presence entirely. It was the most servers and cooks she had ever seen for one event. The few events Stella had gotten them hired for were usually birthday parties and graduation events.
The biggest party they had ever done was a baby shower on the Upper West Side but what Marley saw working around her was levels above that.
"I wouldn't be sitting if I were you."
A young man, not dressed in a white shirt and black slacks, but instead in a full-on black tuxedo, was leaning against the opposite wall of the breakfast nook, watching the chaos happening around him.
"Excuse me? What do you-"
"Thea Clausen's not known for being kind to hired help who slack off. I wouldn't let her catch you sitting down on the job."
When he turned towards her, something in Marley's brain told her that she had seen him somewhere before. The subway? On the street? Somewhere in the city, she knew that. Before she could tell him that no, she wasn't a server, before she could figure out exactly where she had seen him before, he stood up straight from his lean and started to leave, leaving with her one parting word.
"Incoming."
Marley looked over her shoulder and saw her grandmother enter the kitchen. The noise level in the room immediately died down out of reverence. When Marley looked back, the guy was gone.
"Marley. There you are."
When it became known that Thea was not in the kitchen for any of them, the servers and cooks resumed their talk and the machine started up once again.
Marley stood from her spot as her grandmother approached.
"Here I am. Is there something you needed? I just wanted-"
"I imagine this all very overwhelming for you," Thea said.
Marley nodded.
Thea did not try and flatten herself against the wall. The servers had to adjust their treks to avoid her.
"You came in here to get some quiet. It's safe to say my Christmas Eve parties are not known for their peace and tranquility."
Thea's smile was tight and rigid but Marley could see she was trying. She returned the smile.
"I apologize for not informing you or your sisters about the expected dress code. It was my job to equip you three. It is my fault you're dressed as a server."
Marley blushed and looked down at her shoes. Even those, her nicest dress shoes that she wore for church, seemed cheap and old. Marley looked up when a soft hand was laid on her shoulder.
"Forgive me, Marley. I will rectify my mistake."
Marley looked up to meet her grandmother's eyes and found her own staring back at her.
Stella looked exactly like their dad, same dark hair, long nose, dark eyes. Gabbie looked exactly like their mother, light hair, bright eyes. Marley had always stood right in the middle, light brown hair, hazel eyes. Avery said she was the perfect blend of the two families. Now Marley knew which part of her was her grandmother's.
"I forgive you."
"This is quite the adjustment, I'm sure. I can't offer you empathy as this is the life I was born into and the life I have always led. Will sympathy do instead?"
Marley stared at her grandmother for a long moment before nodding again. Her words were like her smile, her posture: stiff and rigid but they seemed genuine. She was trying. Marley had to give her that.
"Thank you. I came to find you because I would love to take family photos in front of the tree in the foyer. If you would care to join us."
"I would love to."
Thea's smile softened as she turned to lead Marley out of the kitchen and back into the center of the party.
A/N:
Okay. What do we think so far?
Personally, Stella's my favorite already (continuing my trend of liking my side characters more than my main characters.)
On to the next chapter!!!