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Ravi reentered the room. “Audra’s on her way.”

I groaned and fell face first into the sofa.

Thirty minutes and a glass of chardonnay later, my mother was storming through Ravi’s front door, stepping over my purse and phone still lying on the floor. “I don’t care what that man’s last name is. If he ever speaks to my daughter that way again, I’ll tear his balls from his body with my fingernails.”

Maribel giggled. “Go, Mama Honeycutt!”

“Hey, Mama.” I waved half-heartedly.

“Baby.” She sat next to me on the couch, still clad in her pink dress from the diner and smelling of French fries. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

With a sigh, I gave a truncated version of the story, and her plump lips tightened with every sentence uttered. She scrunched her nose after I finished, letting silence settle over the four of us.

Then she stood. “I’ll kill him.”

I forced her back onto the sofa.

Her fists clenched for several seconds before she rolled her shoulders and took a breath. “Alright. So what’re you gonna do?”

I shrugged. “I have to leave him.”

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to do nothin’, Shay Honeycutt. Haven’t I taught you anything? You don’t do something just ’cause a man tells you to.”

“I’m not doing it because he told me to. I’m doing it because you told me that when you love someone, you do what’s best for them, and I’m not what’s best for Cam.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I reckon he might have an opinion on that part.”

I gripped Mama’s hands, and my voice dropped to a mere whisper. “I’m not good enough for him.”

She sighed heavily. “This again? Shay, baby, what on earth gave you the idea that people need to be ranked like horses? We’re all just doing the best with what we’ve got, and you got practically nothing, yet you still manage to do good with it. If we’re applying value to humans, then you’re a coin of solid gold.”

A gold coin.

I thought of Bennett’s thought experiment, of the man protecting his gold coins.

“You have to say that because you’re my mama.”

She snorted. “Well, ain’t that a load of bullshit. You think I say these things because I’m your mama? I say these things because they’re the truth. If you were a deadbeat fuck-up, I’d still love you, baby, but I’d make sure you knew you were a deadbeat fuck-up, and I’d help you get your head out of your ass to straighten up.”

Like magic, laughter exploded from me, watery and bright. “Really?”

“Of course! When have you ever known me to lie?”

I leaned into her, still laughing.

She set her arms around me. “So, now I’ll help you get your head out of your ass so you can see the light.”

A knock thudded at the front door, and we all looked at each other, confused. Then the blood drained from my head as I remembered Cam was supposed to meet me here tonight.

“Oh, god.”

Ravi headed toward the door.

When it opened, Cam’s voice filtered to us all. “Hey, man. I told Shay I’d bring dinner, but she wasn’t answering her phone, so I just brought pizza.”

“Um—” Ravi paused for an awkward moment, then he handed off the baton. “Shay, it’s for you!”

“Just tell him to come in,” I said, my voice lifeless.