Emma checked the time and groaned. “It’s 8:00 a.m., guys! What time is it over there?”
“Time for you to wake up,” they chorused in creepy parental unison.
Emma shuffled up against the bedframe, smiling sleepily. Her parents were still in their pj’s in their hotel room with the light on, which told her absolutely nothing about what time it was there.
“How was your night?” Bitsey asked.
“It was…” Emma stopped, her heart squeezing in her chest as she thought back to Arthur’s lost gaze on her as she turned to leave. He hadn’t chased after her. She was relieved andsogoddamn disappointed. If he’d tried to ask her to come to LA again, or even just asked for one more tryst, it would’ve made things so much harder.
Emma cleared her throat. She didn’t want to think about that.
“You guys want to hear something really stupid?” she asked. “They tookThe Harpy’s Holidayoff Netflix.”
Bitsey groaned. “What are we going to watch on New Year’s?”
“Right?” Emma said. “It’s so dumb! Let us have this one thing!”
Her parents laughed. Then they both sat there, waiting. Shooting each other not-so-subtle looks. Trying to get the other one to ask.
Emma sighed. “The party wasfine, okay? I left pretty fast.”
“At least you went,” Glen said immediately.
“Right,” Bitsey agreed. “There’s never any harm in showing up.”
Emma chewed her lip. She wanted to argue therehadbeen harm in showing up, that she would’ve been better off staying home. That last conversation with Arthur had been awful, all longing and desperation from both sides. She felt like she’d been pried open with a can opener. She feltexposed, like a raw nerve, liable to flinch at the lightest touch. There was areasonwhy she’d gone with anger for so long. It was easier. Dealing with this crap was messy and complicated, and ithurt.
“Emma?” Bitsey asked. “Are you okay?”
Emma opened her mouth to say she was fine, shut up, and move on to presents now.
Instead, she swallowed and said, “I think so. I don’t know if I ever, like,mournedhim properly. I just got mad and didn’t process any of the shit under it. Turns out I’m really fucking sad! I feel sostupid. I really thought we were gonna—”
Her voice broke. She put the phone down, giving her parents a lovely view of the blank ceiling.
“It’s so stupid,” she croaked. “We broke up when we were kids! I can’t believe I’m still so screwed up over him! He swans into town and talks to me a few times, and I’m just—I’mgone. It’s soeasywith him. I hate how easy he makes it.”
She sniffed, wiping her face on her sleeve.
Bitsey’s throat cleared uncomfortably. “You can keep going, hon. We’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”
Emma rolled her wet eyes and picked the phone back up. “No, I refuse to do this right now. I’ll talk about it later. Right now I just wanna have a good time opening gifts with my parents. Where’s the gift I gave you before you got on the ship?”
“Right,” Glen said. “About that…”
“We didn’t want to say,” Bitsey said over him. “But it seems to have gotten lost in transit.”
“We bought ourselves something to make up for it,” Glen added. “You can pay us back.”
Emma laughed wetly. “Shit! How much was it?”
“Soexpensive,” they said as one.
Emma’s next laugh was cut short by a knock on the front door.
She frowned. “One second, someone’s at the door. Probably the neighbor needing a snow shovel again. I don’t know how she keeps losing it.Don’topen anything.”
She set her phone on her pillow and headed for the front door.
