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“I love him,” she saidsimply.
“And that’s worth all the shit he’s put youthrough?”
She didn’t answer, and I didn’t expect herto.
Tonight, a bunch of guys are going over to one colleague's house, where he’s introducing them to his son who's starting Oxford next year. Even if I didn't already have plans, I didn't feel like spending the evening drinking scotch and bragging aboutaccomplishments.
My second offer, from a female colleague I've hooked up with before, should've been moretempting.
I told her I had a commitment. She pressed a key into my hand before I could refuse and said I could come byafter.
The key is still sitting on the coffee table when the hotel attendant departs. I turn on the gaming system, grabbing the headphones I brought from home. There's no one else in the virtual room, and I check mywatch.
Since I sent Daisy a picture of Jet in an old-fashioned red phone booth this morning, I haven’t gotten aresponse.
She’ll behere.
It’s become our routine. Every week, no matter what. Through graduation, first jobs, late nights, even travel. Occasionally we’d reschedule in advance if we knew there was something unavoidable. But nevercancel.
The first time we played together, we were both stressed with exams, which in retrospect seemstrivial.
“Tell me something good,” she said to me when I finished capping a list of complaints about school andlife.
I glanced over, my shoulder brushing hers from where we sat side by side. “Somethinggood.”
Her mouth twitched at the corner. “Yeah. Somethinggood.”
Now, it’s our way of connecting, of reassuring one another we’re still here, no matter how high or low life gets.Weare.
I send off atext.
Ben: ???
Daisy calls me a minute later. “Hey. I'm still at theoffice."
My head fallsback.
I’m so damned out of it, I wasn’t thinking about the timedifference.
“I'm in London for a conference. Didn’t you get my picture ofJet?”
“In the phone booth. Right." Her voice is distracted, and I wish I could see her face. "By the time I get home, it'll be late. Two or three, yourtime.”
I pick up the key card, turning it in my hands. “What's going on withyou?"
"Well. I walked in on Lil with a guy yesterday. I know she’s an adult and she can do what she wants. But it felt like she was trying to be something she wasn’t,like…”
“LikeVi.”
“Yeah. Ioverreacted."
Despite the mention of her twin, Daisy’s voice, her presence, her existence halfway around the world at the exact same time has the knot in my shouldersloosening.
“Tell me something good,” Isay.
Silence comes down the line for a minute. "Marc texted. Does thatcount?”
Definitely not. A stone settles in mystomach.
