Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman

Author:Matthew Norman [Norman, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

In the elevator, Robyn digs her phone out of her purse. Caleb taught her about the search functions on Twitter and Instagram the other day, so she’s advanced from social media voyeurism to full-on cyberstalking.

She thumbs out “Margot Hammer” and sees pictures of the drummer in Roland Park and videos of her playing at the Horse. There’s Margot writing in a little notepad at the coffee shop. She sees a picture posted by someone she doesn’t know in which Margot is standing under Caleb’s basketball hoop looking up at birds. I saw her! the caption reads, and there are tongue and guitar emojis. The post has 427 likes. “Jesus,” says Robyn, because she is 100 percent certain that she doesn’t even know 427 people.

At the crosswalk outside her building, she types “Margot and Billy,” and there they are, no last names required.

Luv them.

Good for her.

Go Margot!

Team Margot 4LYFE

Is it weird that this gives me hope?

Suck it Lawson Daniels!

Find a guy who looks at you like Billy looks at Margot!!!!

That last one was posted by HellaBella93, and she has a point. In the image, Billy is looking at Margot the way an infatuated teenager would, and it’s impossible not to remember when Billy used to look at Robyn like that.

Another post reads: i luv them, but i kinda love him more!!! #luckymargot

Robyn gets it. He was easy to love; he still is. Last Saturday, she was in her driveway watering flowers. Billy opened the apartment windows and played “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac on the Steinway, which he knows is Robyn’s all-time favorite song. “Rob!” he shouted. “These acoustics! I’m never leaving this place!”

She closes Twitter and opens Instagram, where she finds a video titled “Why I Love Margot & Billy.” A girl with pink hair and thick-framed glasses wears a T-shirt with cats on it.

“Okay, so, yeah,” the video girl says, “my hot take? How could we not love Margot and Billy? The world’s the worst, right? Death, disease, the Supreme Court…the patriarchy! And then along comes this rainbow of happiness. We love Margot and Billy because they’re something good and sweet in a pretty shitty world. I just hope I find my Billy. If you’re out there, hit me up, Boo.”

“Oh, get a life,” says Robyn.

Now she stands at the foot of another tall building downtown. She closes Instagram, checks her email. She was due on the twelfth floor five minutes ago in office 2112A. A quick text to Aaron. On my way up.

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