Let’s meet here. I’ll lie in my hospital bed and help you scheme.
MOM
Let’s make it a cookout! I’ll send a spreadsheet out for dish sign-ups.
MARCO
Say… 3 p.m.?
ALDO
Party O’Clock!
ELLIO
I’ll bring the ping-pong balls.
JULIAN
really?
I swallow, weirdly touched by the messages streaming across my screen. It’s a mix of arguing over who makes the best potato salad and who knows who on the zoning commission, and in Vinny’s case, a piercing interrogation over the original complaint’s contents, whether Nomi has been contacted by any zoning investigators, and if so, who. I didn’t realize he had so much experience in front of the zoning commission, but apparently him and Veronica often team up to get the zoning outcomes their clients need, a tit-for-tat, keep-it-in-the-family situation between a real estate agent and the lawyer that helps her get her way. I hadn’t known, but why would I? When have Ieverdeigned to talk to Vinny? I always avoided him because he’s Gino’s son, but Vinny saw what went down at the party, and he didn’t call me out. There’s clearly more to Vinny than I thought.
Toallmy family, really.
The fact that everyone’s pulling together for me and Nomi, thinking hard about how to get us out of this trouble, means more than I can say.
Maybe Nomi’s right, and I haven’t given them the chance to love me the ways they know how. But I feel it right now.
Ifeel it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NOMI
I wish I had a nice, normal self-destructive habit. Drunk-texting exes, like Graham. Falling in love with bartenders, like Eve. Spending two hundred bucks at the Container Store on organizational systems I never implement, like Mom. But no, in this regard, I am a classic overachiever. Whenever life is going great, I get sick. When life is going badly, I get even sicker.
I haven’t been able to eat for three days.
Every time I do, the cramping begins. Painful, gripping cramps that feel like burning ropes wrapped around my insides, searing into me. I spend half my days in the bathroom, begging for the attack to begin so the painful cramps will finally stop. But that’s another way Crohn’s screws with you. When there’s no bathroom, or you’re stuck in traffic, or your plane’s beginning the ascent and it’sfederally illegalto get up, that’s when the urgency hits. But when you’re home, safe and alone? The cramps persist for hours. The kind of pain you can’t watch TV through, or play on your phone, or do anything other than rock back and forth and beg for it to stop.
But tonight, I’mnothome, safe and alone. I’m at my dispensary-that-can’t-dispense, in a booth with Julian, Veronica, and Vinny, discussing our case for the fourth night this week, which means I’m on borrowedtime. The only way I’ve been able to hang as long as I have is by starving myself and taking frequent hits off my heaviest CBD strain. It’s very low on THC, and my mind’s still clear, but IfeelJulian’s eyes every time I press the vape to my lips.
I take a small sip of my protein shake, the only thing sustaining me this week, and nod at whatever Veronica’s saying. She’s listing other boundary-pushing businesses that have been granted approval, outlining how they’re similar to Stranger Drugs so we should be approved, too. Vinny’s taking notes, making thoughtful arguments, and Julian’s sitting there, half in awe of his cousins’ fast-paced back-and-forth strategizing, half with a worried eye on me.
After Edna’s impromptu Save Stranger Drugs cookout last weekend, it’s been a D’Angelo full-court press ever since. While Vinny and Veronica are heading the legal front, Edna is overseeing the family’s social-political machinations, all from her bedside. It was truly something to behold, how this tiny, sick woman lit up with a problem to solve and a mission to execute, surrounded by her loving family. I felt guilty seeing Edna muster so much effort when my own motivation feels like air leaking from a punctured tire. But that’s always what happens when I have a bad flare-up—my will gets drained away as weight peels off, and my disease starves me into depressed, resentful submission.
“I’ll draft up the business comparators section of the brief, you take the introduction, legal standards, and persuasive case law supporting the commercial zoning designation.” Veronica pins Vinny with her gaze, but he just gives her a thumbs-up as he jots more notes. He glances up at me, a thick, shiny lock escaping his slicked-back hair. “How’re the community testimonials going? D’you have your volunteers lined up?”
I shift in my seat, sitting straighter. “Yep. I’ve got three clients to speak on our behalf, and written letters of support from five others.”
Vinny frowns. “We need more, a blitz. We need the Commission to realize that everyone they’ve ever admired and respected will goapeshitif they don’t have access to your dispensary.”
My belly instantly clenches, but Julian covers my hand with his. “We’re on it.” He looks at me, a half-smile exposing one slutty dimple. “If we can get half the people that terrorized me on your behalf to help, that’ll be plenty.”
God, he’s hot. But the cramp seizing me digs in, and sweat dots my forehead. I slip my hand out from underneath his and try to smile back. “I’ll—send another text out.”
He frowns a little as I make more distance between us, but I hate being touched when I’m sick.
