“And just, like, whatever, Cherry. Like—you could replace the sink in the bathroom. I know you want to. Just do it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe I will.” She motioned toward the living room.
Tom walked ahead of her. There were new piles of stuff spread outon the coffee table and stacked on the armchairs. Cherry sat on the couch. Tom stood there for a second at the edge of the room.
“Okay,” he said. “This is untenable.”
“What is?” Cherry was already eating.
He gestured with his spoon around the room. “This. There’s no place for you to eat.”
Cherry shrugged. “It’s tenable. I’m tenning.”
Tom looked embarrassed. “I’m kind of seeing it for the first time...”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Sorry. I’ll clean everything up tomorrow.”
“You don’t have to.”
He stood there, still looking around with his brow furrowed.
“Sitdown, Tom.”
He looked over at her. Then sat at the other end of the couch.
The soup was bland. Cherry wished she had something better to offer him—so that he would thinkshewas better. So that he’d think she was doing just fine.
Tom was eating his soup doggedly, still staring out at the room. Ashamed.
“I haven’t watched theThursdaytrailer,” Cherry said. “But everyone says it looks great.”
He glanced over at her and then down at his food. He shrugged.
“Are you done with your part?” she asked. Tom had been hired to write the film’s script, and he was an executive producer. The last Cherry had heard, he was spending a lot of time on set.
“Mostly,” he said. “I still have to promote it. They want me to do these daylong junkets where I sit there with the actors and say the same thing over and over. They gave me media training.”
“Is that why you’re moving to Los Angeles?”
His forehead was still tense. “Not exactly. I guess Los Angeles seems as good a place as any. Maybe I’ll be inspired to do something new there.”
“Thursdayin L.A.?”
“Ah.” Tom poked at his soup with his spoon. “No. No moreThursdayafter this year.”
Cherry frowned. “No more?”
“Nope.” He stirred his soup.
“You’re not serious.”
He looked up at her. “I am serious.”
“You can’t endThursday.”
“I can’t?”
