Mavis spends another night getting drunk with Matt, who distills homemade bourbon in his garage where he lives with his sister Sandra. On their way out, Buddy invites Mavis to a performance of Beth's "mom rock band". The following day, Mavis meets Buddy at the bar, where they see Matt again, as he is the bookkeeper.
He tells her that her plan to reclaim Buddy is irrational and selfish, but she ignores him. There she reconnects with a former classmate she barely remembers, Matt Freehauf, who became disabled after being beaten by jocks who erroneously assumed he was gay. Beforehand, she goes alone to the bar, Woody's.
Believing it to be a sign she and Buddy are meant to be together, Mavis leaves Minneapolis, returning to her hometown of Mercury, Minnesota, to reclaim her life with Buddy, under the pretext of overseeing a real estate deal.Īrriving after listening to "The Concept" by Teenage Fanclub from an old mixtape Buddy gave her in high school, Mavis arranges to meet him the next day at a local sports bar, for old times' sake. Mavis receives an e-mail with a picture of the newborn daughter of her high school boyfriend Buddy Slade and his wife Beth.
Mavis Gary is a 37-year-old divorced, alcoholic ghost writer of a series of young adult novels, on deadline with her editor to finish the last book of the soon-to-be-canceled series.