Page 476 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“I’m not tryin’ different things⁠—”

“Sonny, I said okay, okay?” He jams his thumb to the tile next to him, where a notecard’s sitting after the tape came unstuck from behind the door. “What I wanna know is why the fuck this says don’t kill the spider?” He leans closer, brows up. “What spider?”

A laugh tumbles out of me,

and his head inches back.

“Do you know what’s worse than seein’ a spider? Not seein’ a spider. So tell me right now⁠—

“where’s the fuckin’ spider, Allison?”

I shrug.

His eyes widen.

“You don’t know?”

He slaps at the back of his neck, then swipes his hair. Looks behind him fast. “Yeah, nah. We’re leavin’,” he says, climbing to his feet, then bends down to scoop me up so fast my arms fly around his neck.

“What?” I’m still laughing.

“Nah,” he says. “I’ll sit next to puke.

“I’ll sit next to a rotten carrot.

“I’m not sittin’ next to no goddamn spider.”

// DEC 26, 3:07 AM //

My eyes crack open.

The room is black except for Manhattan spilling in through the window from all the golden squares climbing chrome towers. The time blinks 03:07 a.m. in bleeding red neon from the record player. Means I slept for almost eight hours, passed out as soon as my body hit the floor.

Andrew’s face is wedged between the blanket and the place behind my ear.

Our heartbeats knock against each other.

Ba-boom.

Ba-boom.

A sleepy duet.

I close my eyes and hear him breathe,

warm and steady against my scalp

and down the side of my throat,

while the city hums below us.

The window’s cracked open an inch,

wet tires, truck brakes,

and sirens rising and falling.

The winter air crawls right in