Page 80 of Second Chance

Xanax, comes the response.

The doorbell startles Tony up from googling the side effects of Xanax and trying to figure out whether they could cause someone to kidnap a professor.

It’s chaos from the start: Woken by the bell, Emilio wanders in and tries to talk himself out of staying for dinner since he feels so bad for overstaying his welcome; Blake shoots upright and blearily tries to help while getting in everyone’s way; Lia squalls at the sudden uproar; Colette and Gianna pretend, badly, that they only went to Hannaford’s to pick up more drinks; and there, in the entrance, Meredith Rosenbaum arrives with a carry-on suitcase in one hand and an expression on her face painfully reminiscent of Daniel’s at the end of a long day.

Tony sets the extra chair he’s carrying down. “Hi, Meredith.”

“Hi,” she says. “You look bigger when you’re not on FaceTime.”

It’s barely a joke, but he snorts with laughter anyway. “Thank you for being here. Come in. Let me take your bag.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m here. Have you heard anything?”

Wordlessly, Tony shakes his head. He pulls her bag down the hallway and leaves it in front of the bedroom. “Fuck,” he muttersto himself. He has no idea where Meredith will sleep, especially if Emilio sticks around.

They’ll figure something out. Maybe his family will go home.

Dinner is hectic. None of the chairs are the same height, and the only tables in the apartment are Daniel’s desk and his second overflow desk, both of which are full of crap they have to clean off.

It’s a chance for Tony to catch Colette alone, to ask if they found anything.

“Nothing,” she says with a grimace. “It looks like her room was ransacked, but…”

“But she’s a college student. It might just look like that. How did you even get in?”

“Gianna knew the RA and asked for the master key.”

Hopefully, the RA didn’t find that at all suspicious.

“It might be good,” Colette offers. “There were no weapons. Nothing strange or dangerous, besides cheap vodka.”

“She might have taken everything with her.”

“Tony.”

Tony ignores her and sees about getting the desks to the living room.

“He’s going to be so pissed,” he groans as they carry out the proper desk from the office. “Took him all summer to get through all his papers and find the surface of the tables.”

“I think if he comes home safely, the state of his desk will be the least of his worries.” Colette means it to be encouraging, but the “if” doesn’t fill Tony with hope.

Somehow, between 5:00 and 7:30 p.m., Ma managed to produce a salad and two separate lasagnas, one vegetarian andone with meat. She also made her own garlic bread. It’s the tearaway kind, and it would be impressive if Tony didn’t know most of her kitchen cheats—she lets it do the second rise in the preheating oven so she can make it in under two hours.

The makeshift tables can barely fit all the plates, so they serve themselves in the kitchen and eat as best they can in the living room.

“I keep telling Daniel we need to get a real table,” Tony apologizes to no one in particular. “Sorry.”

“That’s fine.” Meredith smiles like her brother, all crinkly eyes. “Reminds me of college.”

“Right…well, I guess, in a way, Daniel still is in college.”

They discuss what they should do over dessert (brownies, quick and easy, and Ma’s one concession to the fact that whipping up a full meal for nine on a moment’s notice is actually a ton of work). Everyone kindly pretends there is anything tangible they can do.

Lisa offers to use her school supplies to get missing posters copied. Blake says he’ll tag along with her to work so he can start hanging them up immediately, which means they need to make the posters tonight. Gianna offers to make something on photoshop; Meredith finds a good picture of Daniel on her phone. Colette helps Ma with the washing-up while Tony and Emilio put the furniture back where it belongs.

Tony pauses to catch his breath when they’ve got the desks in the office again.

“You all right, man?” Emilio looks better for the sleep, his eyes sharper.

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