“Good. Go to sleep.”
“Yeah.” I snuggled in close to Perry and did as I was told.
When I woke up, Perry was gone and Alan was sound asleep.
Kissing his cheek, I slipped out of bed, found some sleep pants and poked my head out to the living room.
“Harve, I know what I said,” Perry was saying into his phone. “But that was months ago, when it was summer. Trials are coming up and I can’t do both. This is what I’m choosing. At least for now. Maybe after this is over. Or…” He paused. “I don’tknow. I don’t want to draw renders of other people’s designs anymore. In fact, I don’t think I want to do that at all.”
I watched his back as he listened to his boss on the other end of the phone, nodding, and mm-hmming.
“I’m aware,” he said. “Keep the stipend.”
Another pause.
“I don’t have that kind of—seriously? You can’t do that, actually.” He crammed his hand into his hair. “But I don’t?—”
He started pacing as he listened.
“Harve, seriously. Why are you doing this?”
“What?” I asked, coming out into the room. “What is he doing?”
Perry waved a hand at me. “Wait a sec, Ev.”
“No, I won’t. Look at me.”
“I’m on the phone.” But he did turn to look at me.
“I know you are. And you’re freaking out, so tell me what’s happening.” Cupping his face, I wouldn’t let him look away from me. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t.”
“Let me try.”
He muted the phone and dropped it from his ear. “I tried to quit. Harvey says if I do, he’ll make me pay back all of the stipend.”
“So we’ll pay him back.”
“It’s thousands of dollars. We don’t have it.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll barely have enough to live on, never mind paying him back.”
“So use the money collected at Evan’s café,” Carol said, sitting up from where he’d been lying on the couch.
“That’s for the kids,” Perry protested.
“Babe.” I kissed him carefully. “Let us help you. Tell Harvey you’re done so we can go practice, yeah?”
He looked around the room from me to Carol, to Michael, who’d been at the table doing his puzzle, and to Robbie and Mikko making breakfast together.
“I shouldn’t quit my job,” he said to no one and to everyone.
“I did,” Robbie said.
“Sure, butIdon’t have a sug—a Mikko,” Perry said. “Sorry, Mikko.”
