Teddy crossed her arms, too, even though she knew it was combative body language; right now she needed the armor. “Yes. Why?”
“Why?”
It took Teddy a moment to realize that Sophia was asking a separate question, not mimicking her like a petulant child. “Because I want to.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sophia asked, tilting her head. “Because—”
“Sophia!” Teddy practically shouted, then lowered her voice because she didn’t want the entire neighborhood to hear. “What the hell are you doing? We’ve barely had a real conversation since you went to college. You left me at home alone. And now you want to give me sisterly advice?”
Sophia’s eyes widened. “I didn’t leave you alone. I was a kid and I went to school.”
“I don’t need your help. Not now—it’s too late. Not everyone has known what they wanted to do for their entire lives. Some of us have to figure it out, and it sucks. Sorry I haven’t wanted to be a lawyer since birth. Maybe I need to pick something and go with it and see what happens. At least I’m trying!”
She got into the car and slammed the door, pulling out of the driveway and barely glancing back at Sophia’s openmouthed stare.
Teddy tried to remember the last time she’d yelled at Sophia. Maybe never. When Sophia had gone to college and become a lawyer and married Craig, Teddy had never once yelled at her for forgetting that she even had a little sister. But letting her feelings out now felt surprisingly okay. All of the resentment toward Sophia for being the “perfect” one, all of the sadness Teddy held over their relationship . . . it had all exploded back there in the driveway. She felt like she was flying, like she was going over a waterfall, like she was on fire . . . but in a good way.
She flipped on her turn signal and headed to Everett’s.
55
Everett barely heard the first knock on the door. Or the second. But by the third, he realized that the knock was real, outside of him, not in his head. And it wasn’t stopping. He stood up, sketches sliding off his lap, and walked to the door. The knocking kept going, loud and persistent.
He swung open the door and found Teddy, her fist poised to knock again.
“Hi!” he said. “What a nice surprise to see you!”
“Is it?” she asked, lips pursed. “Is it a surprise?”
This felt like a trick question, but he wasn’t sure why, so he answered, “Yes.”
“Okay, then,” she said, brushing past him and into the apartment. “In that case, I must’ve imagined that we had plans tonight.”
Everett shut the door. “We . . . Oh, no.”
“‘Oh, no’ is right,” Teddy said, turning to face him. “You were supposed to be at my mom’s house for dinner.”
“I was supposed to be at your mom’s house for dinner,” Everett said, raking his hands through his hair. “I was. Oh, shit.”
“I had to sit there as everyone stared at me and wondered where you were. Except for my sister’s husband, Craig, who was eating mac and cheese like nothing was wrong, which is a very Craig thing to do but you wouldn’t know because YOU HAVEN’T MET CRAIG!” Teddy took in a deep breath. “Oh, I don’t like this. I don’t like sounding like this or yelling at you.”
“Hey.” Everett crossed the room and put his hands on her shoulders, peering down into her face. “You’re allowed to be angry. I fucked up. I was supposed to be there, and I wasn’t, and I’m so, so sorry.”
“You are?” Teddy asked in a small voice.
“Yes, Teddy! I can’t even tell you how sorry I am. You can be as mad at me as you want. Yell at me. Break a lamp. Here.” He flexed his arm. “Punch me on the biceps.”
Teddy bit her lip. “That would hurt my hand more than it would hurt your arm.”
“You can try it,” Everett said. “I deserve it.”
Teddy sighed. “Just seeing you makes me less mad, but I was so mad, Everett. I yelled at my sister. The entire drive over here, I was coming up with all these terrible things I was going to say to you, and I’m not the kind of person who comes up with angry monologues.”
“Well.” Everett put his arm down. “Maybe you should be. It’s probably too soon for me to say this, since I haven’t even started making it up to you, but it’s kind of nice to see you angry.”
“What?”
Everett wrapped her up in his huge arms. “I like seeing your emotions. It makes me feel like I know who you are inside, you know? I don’t want to see only the put-together, sweet, pretty parts of you that the rest of the world gets to see. I want all of it, even the angry, ugly parts. Even when it’s directed at me.”
Everett could feel Teddy swallow against his chest.
“But you’re not ugly when you’re mad,” he said into her ear. “You’re actually kinda hot.”
She laughed and pulled back. “I hate you.”
“You don’t!” Everett said. “And I promise, you tell me when the next dinner at your mom’s house is, and I’ll be there with bells on. Not literally, unless you want me to wear them as a form of atonement, and in that case, bells it is.”
“Okay.” Teddy took a deep breath and nodded. “So . . . you were working?”
Everett groaned. “Yeah. The meeting in New York got bumped up, so I was trying to get ready for it and completely lost track of time. You want something to drink?”
Teddy shook her head and sat down on the sofa.
Everett sat down beside her. “It’s, like, I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t turn my brain off. All I’m thinking about is if the Imagination Network is gonna like the show.”
“Wait,” Teddy said. “The Imagination Network is in New York? That’s the meeting you’re going to?”
Everett nodded.
“The Imagination Network that wants to buy your show?”
“Well, that’s the hope, anyway,” Everett said, taking a sip of the now-warm beer on his coffee table. “We’ll see what happens.”
“I didn’t know . . . I wasn’t . . . ,” Teddy started. “So the Imagination Network is in New York?”
Everett knew he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what. “That’s correct.”
“So if they bought your show, you would . . .”
“Move to New York,” Everett completed her sentence.