Emma bit her cheek. Her knee-jerk response was to change the subject. But she was earnestly trying this wholeopening upcrap, and Luna had been good about it. Hadn’t made fun of her once.
“I’ve been better,” Emma said warily. “I’m getting a punching bag. Late Christmas present to myself. It’ll be here by New Year’s.”
“Yay!” Luna said. “I’m so proud of you. It’s hard telling people what’s really going on. God knows I suck at it! Anyway, see you at the party. I’ll save you some eggnog.”
Emma barely had time to hang up before a video call came in.
Her parents’ faces flickered into view, both of them leaning in so close to the screen she could see their pores. They looked exhausted but happy, and Emma’s heart clenched.
“Hi,” they chorused as one.
Emma waved. “Hey! One second, I have this one last thing to wrap.”
She eased another raggedy piece of wrapping paper over the mug. It was shoddily done, but she doubted Hazel would mind. She placed it to the side and shuffled over to the plastic Christmas tree they’d bought her when she first moved out.
“Okay,” she said, slapping the box of decorations she’d dragged out from the garage. “Ready. Where’s yours?”
Glen held up a tiny plastic tree they must’ve bought at a gift shop the last time they docked. It was barely the size of his forearm.
“We had trouble finding decorations small enough,” Bitsey explained. “But we have some!”
There was a pause as they both arranged their cameras in front of their trees. Emma strung tinsel around her tree, grinning as she listened to her parents squabble over the proper way to hang a car air freshener on their minuscule tree. Apparently, the air freshener was one of the only decorations they could find that was small enough, as well as a Santa head bauble, a mini candy cane, and pipe cleaners instead of tinsel.
“I love it,” Bitsey declared. “I think this might be our best tree ever.”
Emma laughed. “Hello?”
“Yours is okay, I guess,” Bitsey amended, leaning into the frame to see it. “Oh, that’s lovely. Glen, look, she put up that one she made in grade school. I thought you’d thrown it out.”
“I thought about it,” Emma said. “But… I don’t know. Seemed like the time to bring it back out. Been thinking a lot about the past recently.”
Bitsey traded a look with Glen, who abruptly appeared in the frame.
“We were just talking about that last Christmas we spent together,” Glen admitted. “Us and Arthur, I mean. We’d just finished the tree, then Arthur took you on a walk. Then you came back and he was gone.”
Emma gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to do this right before she had to go to the party and see him schmoozing with his costar who he may or may not be dating. Especially if he was going to try to talk to her again, all sad and vulnerable like last time. Of course, he’d finally let his mask drop when it was too late.
“We were so surprised,” Glen continued. “We really thought you two kids were going to last.”
Emma cut him off. “Yeah, can we not talk about that? Bit of a buzzkill.”
“Oh.” Glen paused. “Sorry. You made all that noise about talking more about, um, your feelings—”
“But we won’t talk about it if you don’t want to,” Bitsey said, fixing Glen with another pointed look. She readjusted the phone, the camera swinging to the cabin carpet and the ceiling before focusing again on their faces.
“Great,” Emma said, shoulders sagging. “So, how are things on the boat?”
“He did call me a few years ago,” Bitsey added. “Asked how you were doing.”
Glen gave her a look that clearly meant,why am I not allowed to talk about it, but you are?But he didn’t look surprised. How long had they been sitting on this?
Emma swallowed. “What do you mean? He never called.”
“He did,” Bitsey said. “This was New Year’s morning… What was it, five years back?”
“Four,” Glen corrected.
“Four or five,” Bitsey said. “He wasverydrunk. He said he was dating a lot, and that they were fun, but you were the only real thing in his life. The only person who really loved him.”
