Winnie’s lips twitched with a smile. “So you thought of me like your dog?”
“Hey,” I said. “Coop was my world until he got doggy cancer.”
“Is doggy cancer different from regular cancer?”
I shrugged. “I’m not a doctor, but yes. Yes, it is.”
“Okay, people,” Gretchen said. “We’ve got another snow machine on its way, but it’s coming from somewhere in Massachusetts, so it’s going to be a few hours. Normally, I’d send everyone home for the night, but our schedule is tight and we’ve got to get this scene in. Head back to the hotel if you want. Grab a bite to eat. Cammy will send out an email when we have a firm ETA on the new machine.”
I grabbed my phone from where it sat on the chair next to Winnie’s. One missed call from Topher, three missed calls from Tamara, and twelve text messages. I needed to figure out what the hell was going on.
Winnie still sat there, a little dazed as she buttoned up the front of her dress.
“Hey, Winnie?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“I wasn’t thinking of you like my dog,” I told her. “More like the first thing I’d grab in a burning building.”
She blinked a few times, looking stunned.
Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that. I wanted to fold the words back into my mouth. But instead I held up my phone. “I gotta deal with a few things. Let me know if you want to go over our scene or anything before the new snow machine swoops in to save the day.”
She nodded again, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the arms of the chair even harder. “Sure.”
“Have you talked to my mom?” Topher asked. He’d picked up the phone before I could even get through one ring.
I paced back and forth in front of the gumball machine assembly line. I’d snuck into the fake Santa’s workshop that we’d used for the opening of the film when I announced to all the workers at the North Pole that I’d be going on my journey. It was mostly dark except for the strip of safety lights overhead.
“No,” I said. “Why?” I tried to not sound suspicious. Topher wasn’t a teenager anymore, but I still didn’t want to risk my status as the Cool Uncle.
He sighed into the phone. “Thank God. Okay, so Mom opened a letter from UMKC confirming that I dropped out this semester.”
“You didwhat?” I asked, losing my Cool Uncle status in three little words.
“Dropping out makes it sound so much worse than it is. I’m taking a gap semester. People in Europe do it all the time.”
“Toph, I never went to college, but I’m pretty sure your mom doesn’t give a shit about what college students in Europe do.”
“And that’s the problem!” he said, as though he’d just made the most profound statement that I definitely did not get.
“Okay, back up. Why are you not in school right now?”
He took a breath. “I just figured that with you being gone for a little bit and me being in charge of the place...”
Shit. I could see where this was going.
“...that I could take some time away from school. I don’t even think college is for me, honestly. You didn’t go to college,” he said. “And look at you. You’re, like, a pizza mogul.”
“Bud,” I said. “I’m flattered, but this really should have been a discussion between you and your parents.”
“Yeah, because my mom is so good at discussions.”
Nope. I was not going to fall for it. He would not con me into shit-talking his mother in front of him, no matter how right he was. The thing was that Tamara could do discussions. She just loved so big and so hard that sometimes the discussions got... loud.
“So now your parents think you dropped out of college to run a pizza parlor?” I asked.
“I mean, you’re missing a few details, but that’s the gist of it.”
