Page 449 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

I walk across the living room.

Start collecting my purse,

my phone,

my plant…

He sets the wrapped gift on the table,

rounds it,

meets me in the kitchen,

eyes denim waters washing over me.

“C’mon. Sleep here. Please⁠—”

“Drew. I’m fine. I’m not drunk anymore,” I say, reaching for my keys next.

He snatches them up before I can, looking at me scared, anxious, worried, like a thirteen-year-old boy who’d been hurt one too many times by alcohol.

“Slow down,” he begs,

finger looped in the key ring,

and he takes a step back,

taking the keys into his fist.

“I need you to slow down.

“Please. Gimme a second.”

A ragged exhale tears from my throat,

and I drop my eyes to the hardwood.

When I force my chin up to face him again, he sees the panic in my eyes, the silent ultimatum that if I don’t bolt through that door, whatever is left of me will shatter on his floor.

“Drew. I’m okay.

“I wouldn’t lie to you about that,

“and I’d never put that on you, okay?”

The fight drains from his shoulders, and his hand falls dead against his jeans, defeated. “Where are you parked? Lemme at least grab your car and pull it up.”

I clutch Andison to my chest, relieved to not have to walk in the cold alone in the dark. “Two streets back.”

Andrew’s sliding into his jacket,

his heels thudding hard into his boots.

Then the storm door groans after him

before the latch clicks.

I stand in the narrow hallway,