For a moment, I feel a spark of interest. “What movie?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Sync deals can be huge—like Blake says, imagine one of my songs in the soundtrack to a movie… wow.
Then exhaustion sweeps over me, making my limbs heavy. I cover my eyes. “Okay. I’ll… think about it. And I’ll get to those emails.” I end the call abruptly, which I know is rude, but I can’t listen to him talking to me like everything is normal.
* * *
When there’s a knock at the door that evening, I know who it is. I sigh as I amble over to let Mabel in.
She beams a smile at me, although there’s a hint of wariness in her eyes. “Hi!”
“Hi, Mabel. Come in.”
“How are you doing?” she asks, breezing in with the energy of a tropical cyclone.
“Okay. A little frustrated.”
“Oh? About what?” In the kitchen she sets a bag on the counter.
I shouldn’t have said that. “Nothing.” I wave a hand. “Well, my manager called this morning. He was talking about work stuff. I felt pressured.” Why am I telling her all this? I don’t even like her.
“That sucks.” She pulls a package of sour gummy worms out of the bag. “These are for you.”
“Oooh. Thank you.” I’m actually excited about this mouth-puckering candy. I rip it open right away and pop one in.
“Don’t they realize you need time to get back on your feet?”
“He thinks I’ve had enough time.”
“Well, there’s no schedule for this kind of thing. You have to take the time you need.”
One corner of my mouth hooks up and I shrug. “I guess. I feel I should have been back on the job after a day or two.”
She snorts softly. “Maybe if you’re a machine.”
I eat another candy.
“Are we watching the game?” she asks, thankfully changing the subject.
“Sure.”
She has another bag of popcorn that she pours into a bowl. She also brought a big jug of lemonade, which I love.
“How did you know I like lemonade?”
“Lucky guess.” She grins. “Marek told me you like sour candy, and lemonade is sour, so I took a chance. This stuff is really good.”
I take a big pull on the straw. Delicious. Sour. Icy cold. But I’m drinking it anyway.
“I want to apologize for the last time I was here.” Mabel regards me with a solemn expression. “Maybe I was a little excited to meet you, and I’m always kind of chaotic and undisciplined and I should have realized you were overwhelmed and shut my mouth.”
I blink at her.
“My boyfriend is very introverted,” she goes on. “I’ve learned a lot about being with introverted people and?—”
“Undisciplined?”
