“Like the Dolly Parton song? I wonder if they named her—oh no. Probably not. She’s kind of a home wrecker in the song. It’s really pretty though.”
“She’s a really pretty girl,” I said, realizing for the first time that it was true, objectively if nothing else. “She has a great smile with this little gap between her front teeth and a twisted sense of humor, but I kind of like that.” I found myself telling Mom about Jolene—what I knew at any rate—and carefully omitting details that would not have added to the picture I was painting. When I was done, even I could see how I would have been crushing on this girl if things had gone a little differently.
“What did I tell you?” Mom said. “I knew you’d find something to like. When will you see her again?”
“Um. I don’t know. We only just met.”
“Oh, of course, but it’s nice, you know? Jeremy won’t talk to me about girls and—well, it’s just nice.”
Greg used to talk to her about stuff like that. I felt that old-but-never-gone sadness flare up at the way her voice had thickened. I tried not to let mine do the same. “I promise to keep talking to you about her. I’ll try to see her again today.”
“Maybe you can get a picture of her,” Mom said, and then added, “She doesn’t even have to know you’re taking it.”
“Mom, that’s called stalking, and most girls don’t like it.”
“You’re teasing me again, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m still not taking pictures of unassuming girls for you.”
“My funny boy. You’re just making me miss you more.”
“More than Jeremy. Not much of a compliment.”
“I miss you both the same.”
I rolled my eyes, but the effect was lost on the phone. “Right. Did he even call you yet?”
“He will. He’s probably still asleep.”
“I can fix that.” I lowered the phone and distantly heard Mom telling me not to wake my brother as I headed to the other room to do exactly that.
The blanketed lump on the couch showed me Dad was still asleep. Once in the other still-darkened room, I not so gently shoved my lousy brother over. “Get up and talk to Mom.” I left off the word I wanted to call him, since Mom would have heard.
“Adam, what the—” not-Jeremy said. Dad was blinking up at me. “What’s wrong with your mom?” He moved quicker than I did, seizing my phone before I thought to correct him. “Sarah? Are you all right?”
And then I had to listen to Mom’s muffled explanation that I was supposed to be giving the phone to Jeremy. It got more awkward when Dad explained that, after I’d gone to bed, he and Jeremy decided to change the sleeping arrangements. The conversation itself wasn’t the problem; it was listening to my parents talk as though they were strangers that hurt. Dad, with his husky sleep voice that he kept trying to mask, and Mom with her painful over-politeness. These were not people who’d been married for twenty years. Who had kids together. The strainedhow are yous that they exchanged before hanging up made it worse.
“Sorry,” I said when Dad handed my phone back.
“Might want to rethink your wake-up call.”
“I thought you were Jeremy.”
“He offered to take the couch.”
“Yeah. I got that,” I said, ending the longest conversation Dad and I had had in weeks. I left him to get up or go back to sleep or whatever. Jeremy was sitting up on the couch and scratching himself when I walked through the living room/hall.
“What was that about?”
“It’s about you being an ass,” I said. “Call Mom.”
Jolene
The doorbell rang as I was looking over the footage I’d shot on the balcony yesterday and trying to decide if the poor lighting was a cool stylistic feature or if I’d ruined the shot. I was about to hit Pause on my laptop when those last few seconds, the ones of Adam peering at me from his balcony, began playing. The fading sunlight lit only half his face, revealing a slight pinch between his brows that said he was curious despite his annoyance.
The lighting, I decided, had been perfect.
With a sigh, I went to answer the door. It was way too soon for the Chinese food I’d ordered, unless they had a time machine. I didn’t really expect it to be my lunch when I opened my door, but nearly as surprising as time-traveling delivery guys was the person actually standing there.
