and I was reminded that I wouldn't be seeing her later that night.
“Oh, yeah?”
He nodded. “She came in with this really hot chick. A friend, I guess, but she seemed to leave pretty pissed off.”
“Hot chick?” I screwed up my face, trying to think. Andy didn't have many friends. There was Elle, a nurse she hung out with on occasion, and she mentioned a Jamie every now and then. But while Elle wasn't unattractive, I wouldn't have described her as really hot, and Jamie, she said, lived close to her house on Long Island. I couldn't think of a reason why she'd come all the way here. “What did she look like?”
“Dude, this was a few weeks ago, I don't remember.” I leveled him with a knowing glare and he easily relented. “Okay, fine. She was tall, blonde, curly hair. She looked like a fuckin' model.”
I nodded as my curiosity got the better of me. So, later on, when I’d finally had enough Coke and wings and conversation, I dared to go home, calling Andy before I had to face the silence alone.
“Hey,” she answered on the first ring, just as I turned the knob.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“How are you doing tonight? You okay?”
I braced myself as I pushed the door open and stepped into the apartment for the first time by myself. “Yeah, I'm fine,” I muttered, peering across the living room and into the kitchen, not knowing exactly what I expected to see.
“What have you been up to?”
“Went and saw Goose after work,” I said, closing the door. The sound seemed to echo off the walls. “Ate some wings and shot the shit for a while. What about you?”
She sighed into the phone, a sad, lonely sound. “I just did some laundry and hung out with Jamie.”
“Hey, what does Jamie look like?” I asked, walking quickly to the bathroom.
“Um ...” Andy hesitated, allowing several seconds to go by before answering, “She's, um ... Well, she's got dark eyes and hair and skin. Um, I mean, she's a kid, so she looks like a kid, I guess.”
“A kid?” I narrowed my eyes as I stood in front of the toilet and unzipped my pants. “You hang out with kids?”
“She, um, she lives in the neighborhood and I've been babysitting her for a long time. So, she's really attached to me.”
“Oh.” I nodded, trying to remember if she ever mentioned being a babysitter. “Okay. That's sweet.”
Andy was silent for a moment, until she asked, “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, Goose just mentioned tonight that he saw you at the bar a few weeks ago with a friend. So, I was just wondering—”
“I told you, I bumped into an old friend after that show and I went out with her afterward. Remember?”
There was a hint of defensiveness in her tone that I found slightly irritating and curious. But I took a deep breath and considered that maybe it was simply because I had forgotten something that she'd clearly told me.
“Oh, right,” I said, nodding to myself. “I forgot.”
“I went to Goose's place because it was the first bar I thought of. I wasn't hiding anything from you.”
Narrowing my eyes at the frantic sound in her voice, I said, “Sweetheart, you don't have to explain anything to me. I was just wonderin'.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled against the phone. “Okay. I'm sorry. It's just ...” She sighed again. “It's just been a long day.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered sympathetically. I felt my shoulders sag and relax as I left the bathroom and hurried past my father's room, foolishly afraid that the door could swing open at any second. I had never been afraid of ghosts, and I was never afraid when Andy was here. But now, I was absolutely petrified. “I miss you.”
“I know, I miss you, too. But I'll see you tomorrow.”
“Will you stay here tomorrow?”
Andy was quiet and I feared she'd say no. “Vinnie, I have stuff I really need to get done here. I'll try to do as much as I can tonight, but I might have to stay home tomorrow, too.”
I closed my door behind me and raked my fingers through my hair. I wouldn't beg her and sound as weak as I felt. But dammit, I was slipping and the one person I had to hold onto wasn't here. She was only an hour away, but right now, that hour felt like an eternity.
“Maybe I should come and stay with you. You know, to christen your bed,”