Page 77 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

Andrew looks at me,

caught and confused. “What?”

I mean, his reaction makes sense.

Fucking another guy doesn’t necessarily scream ‘sex with you meant everything.’

I did it to give us both an exit.

And now here I am,

asking him not to use it. Again.

I shrug.

“You wanna go back to Jersey tonight?”

He rocks back on his heel, studying me, unsure if the invitation means we’re breaking or building something. “No, Allison,” he says—half-laugh, half-ache. “No. I don’t wanna go back to Jersey.”

Mickey grins all-knowing, gestures toward the elevator. “Alright, get goin’. The two’a you have a good night.”

I feel Andrew’s eyes on me as we walk through the lobby, my spine steeling, knowing I just made everything worse.

The marble throws my footsteps back at me, shallow and quick and whispering, you fucked Brandon, for what again?

‘Cause now he’s following me to my elevator. That leads up to my penthouse.

Where he might even sleep tonight.

In my room.

In my bed.

Next to me.

Where I can’t slip out before sunrise.

Where I can’t run if shit hits the fan.

Not when I live here.

I’ll be stuck.

Ah, fuck.

Brilliant move, really. How does one ghost from their own address?

Jump off the fucking terrace?

Technically… that’d work.

I could become an actual ghost…

And what is he even doing,

following me up after I what I did?

This kid is stupid.