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“Everybody cares about that.”

“Look, she loves you. She wouldn’t be with you if she didn’t. Level with her. Tell her what’s going on with you. Get back on your meds, get back in therapy. If you don’t want to work for Tony, fine. Find something else. Coach a sport, open your own gym, go back to school, or find a place that can give you more than ten hours a week.”

He didn’t answer.

“You’re calling your doctor,” I said. “Tomorrow. And you’re filling your prescription at my pharmacy.”

He jerked to look at me. “What? Why? That shit’s like ten miles out of the way!”

“Because I want to know you’re taking it. I love you and I want to make sure you’re okay.”

He looked at me. I didn’t blink.

“All right,” he said finally.

“I’m going to be around more,” I said. “We’ll hang out.”

He drew in a deep breath. Then he glanced at me. “Thanks for the jewelry box thing. I still think she would have liked the bear though.”

“Ha.”

“And thanks for driving her up to the cabin next month. Tony’s gonna pay me for the repairs, so that’ll help. It’ll all be fine. I just gotta get my shit together.”

“It will. It will be fine.”

And I would do everything in my power to make sure it stayed that way. For both of them.

12

LARISSA

I turned off the shower and heard voices from outside the bathroom. Mom was laughing. A man was here.

Phil. It had to be.

I rolled my eyes and wrapped my hair in a towel.

She’d gone out with him a few times now, but he’d never come in. I did not like this development.

I just got home from my side jobs. It was after nine. I wanted to make some dinner and watch TV in my living room and now he was out there.

The bathroom was too steamy and the fan didn’t work because of course it didn’t. I usually cracked the door while I got ready to cool the room down, but I couldn’t with him in the apartment. I slapped lotion on my legs, irritated.

I couldn’t understand what she saw in him. By all accounts he was unemployed. He wasn’t attractive, he wasn’t even funny. They never were.

This was one of the things I liked about Mike, he was the polar opposite of the men Mom dated. Mike didn’t want anything from me. He had no bad habits, had his life together.

Mom cracked up again, louder this time. I grabbed my earbuds, a second away from putting them in, when I heard Mike’s booming laugh. My mood changed instantly.

I wrapped a robe around me, put on my slippers, and opened the door.

My boyfriend was in the kitchen, crouched on the floor petting Woofarine. Phil was nowhere in sight.

“There she is,” Mom said from her seat at the table.

Mike looked past her and beamed at me. “Hey, babe.”

I smiled. “What are you doing here?”