Landline(58)

Georgie kicked Seth one more time. He stood and picked up the receiver—holding it in the air for a few seconds, pinching the handle like it was a bomb—then tossed it to Georgie.

Heather waited in the doorway. Hang it up, Georgie mouthed. Now.

She held the phone up to her ear and waited for the click. She could hear voices at Neal’s house—his parents. She could hear Neal breathing.

Heather rattled the phone onto the hook in the kitchen.

“Hello?” Georgie said.

“Hey,” Neal answered.

Georgie felt her face get all soft; she looked down so Seth wouldn’t notice. “Hey. Can I call you back?” She hoped this was the right Neal. (She didn’t mean the right Neal, she meant the young one.) “I know I wasn’t supposed to call,” he said, “but it was getting late, and I thought—I don’t know what I thought, that I wanted to talk to you, I guess.”

This was the right Neal. “It’s okay,” she said, “but can I call you back?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’ll call you right back.”

“Good morning, Georgie.”

Georgie looked at the clock. “It’s almost two there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Neal said. “But . . . not there, right? I called now because I didn’t want to miss telling you good morning.”

“Oh.” She felt her face go globby. “Good morning.”

“A-ha!” Seth said.

Georgie looked up at him, stricken.

He leaned against the closet, pleased with himself. “You’re not wearing pants.”

“Is that Seth?” Neal asked.

Georgie closed her eyes. “Yeah.”

She could hear Neal’s defenses coming up—and falling down, like Iron Man’s armor snicking into place. She could hear it from across the country and fifteen years away.

Neal’s voice was central air: “Did he just say that you weren’t wearing pants?”

“He’s being an idiot.”

“Yeah. Well. You’re calling me back, right? When you’re done with Seth? Is that what’s happening?”

“Yeah,” Georgie said. “That’s what’s happening.”

“Right.” He exhaled roughly into the phone. “Talk to you soon.”

He hung up.

Georgie threw the receiver at Seth, hard. But not hard enough—the cord caught and coiled back in on itself, falling to the floor. For a second, she was worried that she’d broken it. (Could she just plug in a new phone? Apparently the brown Trimline was magic, too, so she could always call Neal from the kitchen.) “It’s not enough for you to ruin my marriage now,” she seethed, “is it? You have to ruin it everywhere at once.”

Seth eyebrows jumped up—he looked like she had hit him with the phone. He looked like he wanted to shout, “Rules, rules, rules!”

“Ruin your marriage . . . ,” he said.

Georgie let out a breath and shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said that.” She kept shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just . . . Why did you open your mouth?”

“You think I’m ruining your marriage?”

“No. Seth. I don’t. I think I’m ruining my marriage. You’re just an accessory.”

“I’m not an accessory—I’m your best friend.”

“I know.”

“I’m always going to be your best friend.”

“I know.”

“Even if this—”

“Don’t,” she said.

He fell back against the closet, kicking it gently, then resting his foot against it like he was modeling orange chinos. (He was wearing orange chinos.) Then he folded his arms. “What does that even mean,” Seth asked, “‘everywhere at once’?”

“It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just tired.”

“And scared,” he said quietly.

She looked down at the comforter. “And scared.”

“And talking to me about it is clearly a catastrophic idea. . . .”

She pulled her lips into her mouth and bit them, nodding.

“So let’s not talk about it, Georgie. Let’s just write.”

Georgie looked up at him. Seth was being as sincere as he knew how—his face was so open, she practically didn’t recognize it.

“It’s the only thing I can fix for you,” he said.

Her eyes dropped to the phone. “I have to call Neal back.”

“Fine. You call Neal back. Then get dressed. I’ll track down our coffee and find a place to set up. . . . And then you’ll come out when you’re ready—and I won’t mention that you sleep pantsless, but I’ll always know from now on, Georgie, always—and we will write ourselves a script. We’ll go Amy Sherman-Palladino on its ass.”

“I love Amy Sherman-Palladino.”

“I know,” he said, crunching his eyebrows at her meaningfully. “I’m your best friend.”

“I know.”

“I’m going out to the kitchen now.”

“Seth . . .”

“And you’ll be out in a minute.”