“Add it to my tab,” Alex tells her. Then he says to me, “So you reached out to her?”
I nod. “She’s somewhere for work with no cell service, and it makes me antsy. I want to be sure she gets my messages.”
“She will,” he says. “And even if she doesn’t today, she knows you love her, Ted.”
My nose stings. I will not cry today. “How do you know?”
“Because, based on everything you’ve told me about yourfriendship with her, Lauren would have no reason to question how much you love her or that you’re thinking about her today, even if you can’t reach her. Because, since I’ve met you, all I’ve seen is that you show the people in your life how much you care about them. There’s no room for doubt. Your coworkers. Your friends from the library. That crank who owns your building—”
“Mr. Fleischer,” I tell him.
“Mr. Fleischer, that’s right.” Alex smiles. “That guy is atrip.”
“He’s lucky he’s cute,” I mutter. “And a decent landlord, now that he knows it’s me upstairs and I keep him well stocked with baked-good leftovers from the store’s coffee bar.”
“Why’s that?” Alex asks. “The lucky-he’s-cute part.”
“The man listens to the TV in his living room, right beneath me, so loud that I can hear the newscastersbreathing.”
Alex laughs. “My dad’s like that, too, with the morning news. He’s not even that old or hard of hearing, either. I think he just does it because it gets my sister out of his hair every day from eight to nine.”
I smile. “Which sister?”
“Sophia. The oldest. She lives with my parents, and she’s always on Dad about taking his meds and busting him sneaking—” He mimes drawing on a cigarette, as he pushes Mia up into the air.
“Thea!” Mia yells.
“Mia!” I yell back.
Mia smiles my way, a web of dark waves cast across her face. “Push me!”
“Please,” Alex reminds her.
She rolls her eyes. “Daddy, Iknowthat.”
“Mia.” He tickles her as she drifts back in her swing. “Sosaythat.”
She wriggles in her basket swing, shoving off his tickles as she shrieks, “Thea,pleasepush me!”
“Gladly,” I tell her, stepping in as Alex moves aside.
We’re quiet for a minute, except for Mia, whose happy squeals ring out in the air. I glance over at Alex and catch him staring at me.
I must be staring back at him, too, because suddenly Mia’s swing is about to barrel into me. I leap back just in time not to get clobbered, pushing her up in the air again.
Alex asks, “What’s your favorite food?”
I do a double take his way, but I’m careful this time to bring my gaze back to Mia. “I don’t know,” I tell him.
His brow furrows. “Why not?”
“Same way I don’t know what my favorite book is, either. I’m not done yet. How could I know what’s my favorite, before I am?”
The furrow deepens. “But when you’re done reading or… eating, won’t that mean you’re dead?”
“Yep!” I tell him.
“Ted, that is morbid.”