Page 50 of Charm City Rocks
Tanya smiles. “Perfect once again.”
He winks, bored now with her and this banter. “Off you go. I need to ring my daughter.”
Tanya wheels away to go eat grapes at the craft-services table, and Lawson taps Poppy’s name on his mobile screen. It rings a few times.
“Hello, Dad.”
“Pop Star!” he says.
“Hmm,” Poppy says. “I guess I like that one better than Popcorn.”
“I know you do, love. See, I listen quite well.”
“Mm-hm. If you say so.”
Lawson smiles. He loves the sound of her voice, how her accent exists between two places, like coordinates plotted over the Atlantic Ocean. “How are things up in San Fran, then? They’re treating you well? You don’t need me to bust anyone up for you? I can do that, you know. I’m famous and powerful, and I’m quite good at pretend fighting.”
He can hear her typing. His daughter is in a bloody office, of all things—in something called a cube.
“So, how’s the starlet?” she asks.
“Be nice, now,” he says. “Willa sends her love.”
“I’m sure she does,” says Poppy. “So, what’s up, Dad? I have a meeting in six minutes. I’m presenting something.”
Often, when they talk, Poppy begins by setting parameters.
“Righto. Just wanted to ask, you keeping track of this business with your mum?”
The space between them goes silent. “What do you mean?”
“This American chap. In Balti-wherever, which I’ve recently learnt is somewhere near Washington, D.C. Just seeing if everything’s on the up-and-up. The Internet and all. You can never tell what’s what, exactly.”
“She’s fine,” says Poppy. “More than fine. She’s…Dad, she’s good.”
“So, it’s real, then, this thing?”
Another silence. Lawson wishes he’d called on FaceTime so he could see her expression. “Dad, I’m gonna ask a favor, okay?”
“Anything, darling.”
“Just…just leave her alone.”
Fifty feet away, three cameramen have started disassembling the machinery attached to the fake Porsche. “Bit harsh, love,” he says. “I’m just trying to make sure—”
“Come on, Dad,” she says. “Don’t screw this up for her. Okay?”
Chapter31
Margot thinks about that research assistant from Netflix again—that kid who apparently lives rent free in her head.
“What, um, exactly have you been up to since Burnt Flowers broke up?”
When he asked her that, Margot wanted to know his address so she could go there and slap him across his stupid face. The question had pissed her off for two reasons. First, although it was a reasonable question, there were about a dozen different ways he could’ve asked it that would’ve sounded less accusatory. Second, and more importantly, it pissed her off because she had no idea how to answer it without sounding like…well, the Unabomber.
Margot forgives him now, though, whatever his name is, because she keeps imagining him asking her a slightly different version of the same question.What, um, exactly have you been up to since you got to Baltimore?Her answer, this time, would sound like a fantasy camp for wayward adults. Her answer, this time, would sound like bliss.
When Billy’s not giving lessons, they go places together. They’ve been to a few small concerts at a place called the 8x10. At each show, Billy and Margot stood together at the back of the crampedclub and were the oldest people in attendance by a long shot. They’ve been to two more Orioles games. Once it was just the two of them; the other time Caleb came, too. Clancy the beer vendor complimented her Orioles cap both times and officially gave her permission to call him Fancy Clancy. They’ve been to Charm City Rocks a few times, too, mostly to see Patty and Grady and to hang out with Gustavo across the street and eat pretzels. Gustavo is considering naming a special pretzel after her, and Grady recently upgraded the lightbulbs above the Wall of Fame to a higher wattage so people can see her signature better.
