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AMY
“Idon’t know why you’re bothering with this guy,” Mike said over the phone. “He still isn’t talking to you?”
“It’s not that he isn’t talking to me,” Amy said, even though it sort of was like that. “It’s that we haven’t really…been communicating.”
“Okay, how is that different that what I said?”
“It’s not as if he just ignores me when I pass him in the halls. Or when we have to see each other for medical reasons. I mean, he’ll answer my questions and stuff.”
“Oh, wow, he’ll answer your questions? And meanwhile you’re carrying his four children, living away from home, putting your career on hold, devoting yourself entirely to him. The bar is really on the floor, isn’t it?”
“Mike, stop,” Amy said. “I’m trying to clear the air with him.”
“I mean, you’re the one who’s been complaining about him all this time,” Mike said. “You’re the one who’s been telling me how horribly he’s treating you. I’ve been trying to convince you to come home—I don’t know why you haven’t done that.”
“Because I’m here to do a job,” she said. “And I can’t fly now anyway.”
“But you could have flown back when all this started.”
“Probably not. With quadruplets, everything is a little risky.”
“So get on a boat, I don’t know.” Mike let out a sigh. “And today I call you and you tell me you don’t have time to talk because you’remaking him a picnic lunch?”
“I have to try this,” Amy said. “I have to make up with him, if it’s even possible to do that. This is the father of my children, Mike.”
“The father of your children is being an ass.”
“I know. I’m not denying that. But it’s not like he’s just some guy I’m dating. I can’t walk away from him because he’s annoying me. You get that, don’t you? I have an obligation here. Ihaveto try to make this work.”
“I just don’t like him mistreating you,” Mike said. “I’ve got half a mind to fly out there and handle the situation myself.”
“Oh, what are you going to do about it?”
“Knock him around a little, maybe.”
“You absolutely are not coming over here toknock him around. Are you crazy?”
“When people fuck with my sister, yes, that makes me crazy,” Mike said. “My God, Amy, how many times have you gone charging into battle because you thought someone was messing me around? Remember my junior-year girlfriend?”
Amy groaned at the memory. “Melissa. I remember her. She was awful.”
“She wasn’t even that bad, she was just sixteen.”
“She was flirting with other guys!”
“Yeah, and I was flirting with other girls. We were teenagers. We didn’t know how to be decent people to each other. And even so…you charged right in. You cornered her in the cafeteria and went off on her.”
“Well, she deserved it.”
“And so does this Adriano.”
“This Adriano. Like it’s the first time you’re hearing of him or something. You know who he is.”
“And I know there’s nothing special about him. I’m perfectly willing to let him find out what happens when you don’t respect my sister.”
“Don’t you dare,” Amy said. “You’ll only make things worse if you do something like that. I forbid it. Let me handle this.”
“By making him a picnic.”
