Page 435 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

a blanket to my chin,

fire hot against my back,

eyes still closed.

“I told you I had it.” Paola whisper-yells. “Last thing I wanted was you drivin’ all the way back from Long Island at this hour. In this weather. Tryna kill me?”

Andrew whisper-shouts back.

“Yeah. You had it?”

“She’s asleep.”

“I asked for one favor. One.”

“Call you if she ever shows up,” Paola argues. “And that’s what I did.”

“I asked you to take care of her.” His voice splinters at the end. “She ever shows up here, you take care of her. You love on her. You don’t let nobody make her feel stupid for comin’. She doesn’t run to people, Ma. She doesn’t run to anybody.”

I grip the blanket tighter.

“She comes here?” he says low.

“It’s an emergency. I told you that.”

Paola’s voice falls quiet.

“And I did take care of her.”

“You got her drunk.”

“I gave her wine, Andrew.”

“Yeah. That’s always the answer in this house, right?”

“Andrew—”

“What? Somebody cries, pour wine. Somebody’s sick, pour wine. Somebody’s dyin’, pour wine. Real fuckin’ Harding tradition.”

Sera laughs. “It’s not like she forced wine down her throat.”

“My girl doesn’t drink,” Andrew fires back.

The room falls silent.

My eyes widen under my lids.

“Your girl?” Sera repeats. “Oh, she’s your girlfriend now. Okay. Well, your girlfriend came here uninvited, ruined Christmas Eve Girls’ Night, started goin’ off about plastic killing you and threw out half your kitchen!”

“She did?” Andrew asks.

“She replaced it,” Paola is quick to explain. “She bought us new glass containers. The plastic was the problem.”

“The plastic wasn’t the problem,” Sera mutters.

“Microscopic particles were giving Andrew cancer,” Paola bites out.

“Oh my God,” Lisa groans.