to do, Calvin? I don’t know what to do.”
He pushed me back just a little, shifting my weight from his chest to my own feet, and looked into my eyes. “What do you want to do, cupcake?”
The answer came quickly.
“Let’s get out of here. I want to go home.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Polly tapped on my bedroom door.
“Hey, you decent?”
If by decent she meant dressed, the answer was yes, sort of. Pulling on leggings under the sleep shirt you’d never bothered to change out of that morning counts as being dressed, doesn’t it? At least technically?
“Sorry I didn’t get to say good-bye to Calvin,” she said after I waved her in, “but first day at the new job and all.” She shrugged. “Did he get home okay?”
I nodded. “He texted me a couple of hours ago. He was in a cab, heading back to his apartment.”
“That’s good,” Polly said. “It was nice of him to drive you all the way home and then hang around to cheer you up.”
After leaving the hospital, I told Calvin to drop me off and I’d catch the next flight to Charleston. It would only have taken him a couple of hours to drive back to New York, but he insisted on coming back to Charleston with me and staying on for over a week, cooking and hovering and, as Polly said, trying to cheer me up. He meant well, everybody did, including Polly, so I now scooted myself into a sitting position in the middle of my bed and tried to pretend that I didn’t want her to go back upstairs and leave me alone.
“How was work?” I asked.
“Thrilling!” she said, clapping her hands together with feigned enthusiasm. “I rang up about a zillion chicken sandwiches, put new rolls of toilet paper in all the bathroom stalls, and mopped up no less than three spilled Coca-Colas. All in all, a red-letter first day in the exciting fast-food industry!”
She chuckled. “It’s okay for now. It’ll pay some bills until I find something better or until we find out if I’ll be able to reopen the shop. Have you heard anything from Trey about the zoning?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t heard from Trey or Lorne since the baby shower. Not too surprising given that I’d banished them from the party, and probably just as well. I wasn’t in the mood to see Trey. I wasn’t in the mood to see anybody, but Polly sat down on the edge of the bed just the same.
“So?” she asked cheerfully. “What did you do today? I mean, after Calvin left.”
The more interesting question would have been what had I not done. A partial list included not showering, not putting on real clothes, not making the bed, and not really even getting out of bed. But I was pretty sure Polly could tell that by looking at me, so I spread out my hands and shrugged my shoulders to indicate the obvious.
Polly kicked off her shoes, twisted sideways, and sat on the bed, crossing her legs under her body so she was facing me. The look on her face told me she was about to launch into A Serious Discussion. I closed my eyes for a moment. I was not in the mood for this.
“Celia. I know that losing Peaches was devastating. And I know you’re depressed. But really, girl . . .” She cast her gaze around the room, taking in the rumpled bedclothes, the drawn shades, the untouched yogurt parfait that Calvin had made for my breakfast and left on my nightstand before saying good-bye. “How much longer are you going to go on like this?”
“I don’t know.” I looked at my lap and bunched the edge of the sleep shirt into my fist. “I’m trying, Polly. I really am.”
“No. You’re not.” I looked up. Polly’s expression twisted into the kind of frown that comes when disappointment turns to anger. “You’re not trying, Celia. You’re wallowing. And I’m getting worn out with worry from watching you do it. Everybody is,” she said, leaning closer than felt comfortable before launching into her list.
“Calvin flew home feeling like a failure because he couldn’t cheer up his best friend. Teddy is moping around the house like a whipped pup and the pups are doing the same because they can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. Felicia’s so distracted that she burned her hand, taking a tray of benne wafers that you wouldn’t eat out of the oven. Caroline decided not to go to