“What are we supposed to do? Our train tickets home are in there, my money, your money, our IDs, my car keys.…” Stevie shook her head. “Why couldn’t you have brought your own bag?”
I drew back at her tone. “How is this my fault? She’s your sister—”
“She’s not my sister—”
“Fine, stepsister, sorry. But what does my bag have to do with anything?”
“Because maybe if you hadn’t made me carry all your stuff, at least one of our bags would still be on the right side of the door.”
“Or both of them would be gone. And I asked if I could put my stuff in your bag. I didn’t make you. If you didn’t want me to, you should have told me no!” My voice had risen, and it bounced off the wall of the lobby. Stevie took a breath, like she was going to say something, then just shook her head.
“Sorry,” she said, running a hand over her face. “This just…”
“It’s okay,” I said quickly, wanting to put this behind us. “Let’s regroup. What do you have on you?”
“My phone,” Stevie said, holding it up. “Thank god.”
“Seriously.”
“Um…” She dug in her coat pockets. “The MetroCard, nineteen dollars and thirty-seven cents, and half a pack of gum.” She looked up at me and held it out. “Gum?”
“Thanks,” I said, taking a piece, despite the fact that Stevie only ever chewed bubble-gum-flavored gum, like we were still in elementary school. “Okay, so we have a little bit of cash, we have your phone.…” I reached into my right coat pocket and pulled out three quarters and a dime. “Eighty-five cents…” I reached into my other pocket, and when I realized what I had, I smiled.
“What?”
“Look.” I held up the hundred-dollar bill, beyond relieved—this would surely be enough to buy our tickets for the performance and get us around. “We have more than enough cash. We have your phone. I’m sure we can leave the dog with that guy. It’ll be okay.” I unwrapped the gum and popped it into my mouth, hoping that if I said this with enough conviction, it would turn out to be true.
“Okay,” Stevie said, nodding. “Great. So… do you think we should just wait here until his uncle comes back?”
“Wait here?” What was she talking about? We had to go see Mr. Campbell’s play at eight.
The door swung open again, and Brad came trotting out on his leash, the guy walking behind him. “Any word from your uncle?” I asked hopefully. I was happy to see that the dog looked so comfortable with him—it would mean I wouldn’t feel too guilty leaving Brad behind with this guy when we had to go.
He shook his head. “No updates,” he said. “I’m really sorry. But I can give you my number. And I can take yours, and that way when I do hear from him, I can call you right away and let you know.”
“That sounds great.” It really seemed like it was the best we were going to do for the moment.
“Yes, thank you,” Stevie said, giving him a quick smile. “That’s really nice. I know this isn’t actually your job.” She unlocked Ophelia. “What’s your number?”
He told us an area code I didn’t recognize, then added, “I Cruise.” Stevie and I both stared at him. I wondered if maybe he’d just had a tiny stroke and this was how it was manifesting.
“What?” I asked, after a moment.
“Sorry—that’s what the numbers spell out. It’s usually easier than just giving them to you.”
Stevie typed his number into her phone, widening her eyes a fraction of an inch at me.
“How did you figure that out?” I asked because I knew Stevie wouldn’t. She truly would have made the world’s worst detective. Murderers and bandits would have been wandering around free because asking a follow-up question might have made someone momentarily uncomfortable.
“No,” he said with a laugh. “I only know it because Paradise Cruises has been trying to buy my number for years. They’re trying to get all the numbers that spell out that phrase, with all potential area codes, and apparently, I’m one of the only holdouts. They call me constantly, trying to talk me into it. But so far, I’ve held out.”
“Because you care deeply about your number? Or because you hate Paradise Cruises?” I arched an eyebrow at him. I knew I was flirting, just a little bit. Obviously, there were bigger things to deal with here,