Try for drinks?I am this man’s only child.
Molly:I’m leaving on the 26th
Molly:My flight’s at 8am
Dad:OK—I’ll be in LA next month for meetings. I’ll take you to dinner.
How lovely.
Part of me wants to call and yell at him to, like, at leastpretendhe is disappointed by this. But if he knows I’m angry, he’ll just be defensive, and that will make me angrier, and I’ll start crying, and hate myself for crying, and he’ll tell me I’m being childish, and I’ll hang up on him.
Speaking speculatively, of course.
So I just type “ok.”
Dad:Merry xmas!
I don’t reply. Suddenly, I’m gripped with anxiety. Nothing triggers me like my father’s rejections.
I consider waking up my mother to commiserate with me on what an incurable asshole he is—her favorite subject outside of real estate prices—but then I’ll end up ruminating all night.
I don’t want to think about him; I want someone to hold me and make me forget.
Fuck it,I think.
I pull up my email and search for Seth’s address.
From: [email protected]
Date: Mon, Dec 24, 2018 at 9:02pm
Subject: Hey
You in town?
CHAPTER 12Seth
I am not in town. I am in Nashville, at my brother’s house, with my family.
But I am very tempted to sneak out, charter a plane, and fly to Florida, just for the pleasure of replying to Molly Marks’s email in the affirmative.
My brother Dave walks into the den, where I am holed up, attempting to assemble a tricycle for my nephew.
“Need help?” Dave asks, looking skeptically at the sea of bolts and screws and random shiny red metal bars scattered on the floor around me.
“I might just throw it away and write him a check,” I say. “How much do you think? Five hundred?”
“He’sthree.”
“All right. See if you can attach that wheel with that metal thing over there.”
“TheAllen wrench?”
Dave is a mechanical engineer. My lack of familiarity with tools pains him.
Within minutes, and with scarcely a cursory glance at the inscrutable diagram that passes for instructions, he has assembled the mini red bike, handlebar tassels and all.
