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“What?”
Her smile widened. “You were thrust into confrontation with a person who triggers you like few can, and your immediate urge wasn’t to use.”
“I wanted to physically harm him,” I said, brow furrowed in confusion. “How does that mean I passed anything?”
“Did you harm him?”
“In my head.”
“In your head is acceptable.” She laughed. “Congratulations, Joey. You’ve earned yourself a phone call.”
128
Incoming Calls
AOIFE
The call came on a Sunday night.
The one I’d spent the entire summer waiting for.
When the unknown number flashed across my screen, I debated answering, but something inside of me told me not to ignore it.
Sprawled out on the couch, looking like a beached walrus and stuffing my face with grapes, I snagged my phone off the sitting room floor and clicked Accept. “Hello?” I said with a yawn, using the remote to turn the volume down on the television, where Scream, my old creature comfort, was playing.
“Molloy.”
My heart.
My poor, poor heart jackknifed in my chest at the sound of his familiar deep timbre. “Joe?”
“Yeah, baby, it’s me.”
“Joe?” I cried, face contorting with emotion as I tried to roll myself off the couch, knocking my punnet of grapes all over the floor in the process. “Is that really you?”
“It’s really me.” His voice came down the line and I had to sit back down because my legs were shaking too badly to keep me upright.
“Oh my god.” The floodgates opened, and I cried loud and ugly down the line for a solid three minutes before I had the ability to compose myself. “Hey, stud.”
“How’s my queen?”
“Missing you,” I choked out through tears. “How are you calling me right now? Are you home? Oh my god, please tell me that you’re back in Ballylaggin and on the way over to my house.”
“Soon,” he told me. “I promise, baby. I’ll be back to you soon.”
“Then how?”
“Finally earned myself some phone call privileges,” he explained. “So, expect a lot of phone calls.”
“What are you calling off?”
“There’s a communal phone in the day room.”
“I’m surprised you remembered my number.”
“Are you kidding? I memorized your number when I was twelve.”
“You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice,” I told him through tearful laughter. “God, Joe, I’m shaking so hard I can hardly hold my phone to my ear.”
