Page 344 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“you’re lookin’ at the punchline.”

The room breaks into laughter.

“Anyway, she orders a whatever-New-Yorkers-drink, he shows off and makes her a real daiquiri, and they had, what—six days together? Seven? Enough to fall stupidly in love.” I shake my head. “Stupid ‘cause she had a one-way flight back to Cuba early Christmas morning.”

I pause, scanning the crowd,

then grab the mic.

“But Corey fuckin’ Taylor wasn’t about to let her get on that plane.”

Cheers break out, hoots and hollers.

“My mother,” I go on, glancing down, “listen, now you’ve probably been wonderin’ where I get all this drama? I’ll tell you—my stubborn, spitfire mother. And she tells him—” I lean on the crowd, waving them on. “Well, c’mon people, if you know the song, Allison’s Version, let’s hear it.”

“I’ll be waiting at the Rockefeller Tree,”

they sing.

I nod, smile burning my cheeks. “Christmas Eve night, she told him she’d meet him at that Rockefeller Tree, and if he’s not there when the clock strikes twelve? She’s gone.”

Another round of applause ripples.

I imagine Mom, smiling to myself.

“Yeah. Nah. What she probably said was

“Cariño, I crossed water to get here.

“You can cross Manhattan.”

Laughter erupts.

“And, yeah,

“well,

“you can guess what happens next.”

I step back for a moment,

adjusting my grip on the mic.

“Every year growing up, they karaoked “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”” I groan dramatically. “Every. Damn. Christmas. Didn’t matter if they loved or hated each other. They did it.” I surrender a palm. “Not for me. That song drove me insane.

“But when Mom died,

“I couldn’t let Dad sing it alone.

“So I sang it with him every Christmas after that.” I bite into my lip. “Which only lasted three more Christmases.”

Silence bleeds through the room,

and suddenly,

I can feel my own heart beating.

“Feels like forever ago, doesn’t it?