The Last One at the Wedding

Frank immediately tries to call Maggie back but gets a busy signal. He realizes that she must be trying to call him, so he hangs up and waits for her call back. The phone rings again after just a few moments, and this time Maggie’s voice comes through crystal clear. She tells him that she has been meaning to call for a while and does not want to talk about their past disagreements. He asks if she is still working at Capaciti, the Cambridge startup that hired her three years ago. She tells him that she is and adds that she is getting married. Her fiancé’s name is Aidan, and the wedding is to be held at his family’s New Hampshire property. In spite of “everything,” she tells Frank, she would like him to be present at her wedding.

Frank has spent the bulk of his adult life driving a “package car,” what UPS calls their delivery trucks. Although he does not have a college degree, he has done well for himself and is nearing early retirement with a paid-off home and car. Until his wife, Colleen, passed away, Frank notes that he would have considered himself “blessed.” As Maggie tells him more about her fiancé and his family, Frank becomes slightly concerned. He is proud of his own working-class accomplishments and wants his daughter to be well taken care of. He doesn’t like that Aidan is an artist who is still building up his portfolio while teaching one course at a local college. He doesn’t like that Maggie and Aidan met just six months ago, and he especially doesn’t like that Maggie refuses to tell him anything more about Aidan’s family, including what Aidan’s father does for a living. Maggie is clearly growing annoyed with Frank’s questions and suggests that he meet her and Aidan for dinner in Boston, where Maggie lives.

Frank googles art teacher salaries and is chagrined when he sees the results. As he is mulling this information over, Maggie calls back. She wants him to meet them at their apartment rather than a restaurant. Frank’s worry escalates: Maggie is already living with this penniless young man? He reflects that his daughter might make better life choices if her mother had not passed away when she was so young. Colleen had a fatal aneurysm when Maggie was 10. Frank’s sister, Tammy, helped him to care for Maggie, but he knows that Colleen would have done a better job of raising their daughter than he did.

Frank sets out from his home in the small town of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania for Maggie and Aidan’s place in Boston. On the way, he reflects on the early years of his own marriage and thinks about how nice it will be to help Maggie and Aidan financially as they navigate the early stages of their careers and grow their family. After a long, two-day drive he arrives at what Google Maps tells him is his destination. Frank is puzzled: This building looks like a futuristic office tower. Inside, the concierge greets him by name and a valet comes to park his jeep in the underground garage. He is ushered upstairs to a penthouse apartment accessible directly from the elevator. He is shocked to discover Aidan’s obvious wealth and to learn that his father is the CEO of Maggie’s startup. Maggie looks more beautiful than she ever has and deliriously happy. She shows Frank around the apartment, which is full of Aidan’s paintings: realistic portraits of “everyday” people. They have a personal chef who begins preparing a meal. Aidan arrives a few minutes later. He is wearing expensive but understated clothing and sports a large black eye. He claims to have been mugged just a few days ago. He seems nervous and quickly downs two drinks. Their first meeting feels awkward to Frank, who unknowingly offends Aidan when he tells him that his paintings look like photographs. He is not quite sure what he thinks of Aidan yet.

Maggie leaves the table to take a work call, and when she returns, she tells Frank that she has been given an important promotion: She will be working on the development of electric air travel vehicles and is in talks with the CEO of UPS. Frank is stunned. He knows of the UPS CEO and cannot believe that his daughter has met him. He becomes emotional and hugs Maggie. Aidan seems to prefer silence to conversation, and Frank is struck by how little interest he seems to have in his fiancé’s father. Frank goes to the bathroom and notices both the expensive range of products that Aidan and Maggie have (including bamboo toothpaste) and their malfunctioning toilet. Hoping to fix it, Frank opens the lid. He easily sees what’s wrong but also notices a black plastic bag taped to the underside of the tank lid. He ponders this suspicious item, hoping to investigate further. Just then, Maggie knocks on the door.

Following their meeting, Frank arrives home to find Maggie and Aidan’s wedding invitation waiting for him. Curious about Maggie’s in-laws-to-be and hoping to pay for at least some small portion of the wedding, he calls Maggie to ask if she will give him Errol Gardner’s number. Initially, she does not want to give it to Frank and explains that the Gardners do not expect him to pay for anything. She tells Frank that she told Errol that they didn’t have a lot of money when she was growing up. Frank gets upset and brings up that he took her on vacations and paid for her entire college education. Somewhat mollified, Maggie agrees to have Errol call him. Frank learns that Tammy has spent time googling the family and that they are astronomically wealthy. Errol even supports most of his siblings and their offspring. When Errol calls, he and Frank trade parenting stories, and Errol agrees to let Frank pay for part of the party’s bar tab.

Frank rents a tuxedo, writes a toast, and makes other preparations for the wedding. He tries to get together with Aidan so that the two can get to know each other, but he keeps pushing their outing off and eventually Frank gives up. Maggie is also too busy to see much of him, and Frank tries not to be hurt by her behavior.

Frank gets a haircut in preparation for the wedding. On a whim, he asks his stylist, Vicky, to be his date. She tells him that she has to work, but she squeezes his hand warmly and suggests lunch after he gets back from New Hampshire.

Frank gets a strange envelope in the mail. It has no return address and only contains one photograph. The picture shows Aidan standing with another woman. Both look happy. On the back is written, “Where is Dawn Taggart?” (48). Frank calls Maggie, and she explains that Dawn is Aidan’s ex-girlfriend who went missing. Maggie also dismisses Dawn’s mother as unstable and “white trash” because she grew up in a trailer. (Frank also grew up in a trailer and bristles at his daughter’s use of such derisive language). Maggie assures Frank that Dawn’s mother is only after the Gardners’ money and that they hired a private investigator who determined that Dawn likely took off to get away from her mother. The police also investigated Dawn’s disappearance and were never able to connect Aidan to it. Frank remains unconvinced by Maggie’s explanation and finds himself increasingly suspicious of Aidan.