Page 61 of Bring You Back

Whatever. Facts are facts. Julian was drunk, too. He was gone all night, with his partner in slime, and the two were still together this morning nursing big breakfasts, resembling death. Like old times.

Reyna, however, doesn’t resemble death in any fashion. She’s handling the aftermath well.

“He brought you here before he called me,” Tommy adds to Julian’s case. We’re both letting me down.

“But he still called you,” Reyna points out with a disappointment that shoots right through Tommy. His stare slips from hers, but he tries to be understanding with a simple nod.

Smooth, Reyna.

“Hey.” Her voice brings him back, and she reaches to take his hand, realizing she hurt his feelings. She’s not blind tothat. “Thank you.”

Tommy squeezes her hand and shakes his head like she shouldn’t have to thank him for taking care of her. “Always.”

“Always.” She returns her hand to her lap and divides a shamed look between the two of us. “I’m sorry I drank.”

A sympathetic smile touches my lips, because I’ve been there. But if she hasn’t figured it out already, she needs to know that drinking won’t help her in the long run, so I try for a scare tactic. “Well, keep it up and you’ll be just like Valerie. That runs in families.”

I see Tommy look at me in my periphery, and I almost expect him to dispute, but he knows I’m right. Reyna needs to hear this. Drinking was the last step to her becoming Valerie 2.0 and she took it.

“I know,” she says, then shrugs. “Last night was just … I couldn’t find a reason to fight it anymore.”

“But you have reason now. . .” I say, the words weighted, anticipating confirmation.

“Right?” Tommy presses when she hesitates a response.

Finally, she nods, mustering a small smile. “I don’t wanna do it again.”

Tommy and I exchange a look, knowing that’s not an answer, but it’ll have to be good enough.

With that, he gives another departing “Out” as he heads for the door, swinging his finger back and forth between me and Reyna. “You two can. . .”

Subtle, this one.

“I can’t wait to. . .” I say, imitating his finger dance.

Reyna laughs and waves at him as he leaves through the door to the yard. He waves back with his finger, a more enthusiastic dance, and I laugh.

At theclickof the door closing, Reyna and I are transported back to the ice cream shop—closed mouths, averted stares, no buffer between us.Notokay.

Music builds from outside the bedroom, drifts in through the door. Hootie & the Blowfish. “Let Her Cry”. Valerie’s mourning jam in the morning.

I thought I’d be dead before I ever had to hear this again. But nope. Fate got the wrong Godfrey.

This reconnects Reyna’s stare with mine and we share an eye roll, but we still say nothing. She occupies herself with closing and stacking our carry-out boxes, and I refuse to be in this position again.

“Who’s your favorite?”

Reyna pauses with the boxes, breathing a laugh instead of an answer, and for a moment, I think she remembers bestowing that title to Tommy. I don’t find out, though, because she says two words I wasn’t expecting to hear.

“Not you.”

She softens it with a wink.

Sober Reyna is definitely back.

Her phone vibrates before I canDittoand she pats her bed until she finds it under the pillow. Eyeing the screen, she tucks her hair behind her ear and says, “It’s Julian.”

The dark-haired elephant.

---