Sing

CHAPTER 26.

MONICA

I crouched on the stairwell. It was late. Jonathan couldn’t see me that next hour after he’d given me the ring, or the one after that. Sheila had come and gone, her lips pressed together in a line of rage. Eileen called to see if I was there, and if I was, was he lucid enough to see anyone. This was fucked, but I figured, if Jonathan had wanted his family involved they would have been involved.

I called Darren.

“Do you have something blue?”

“Technically, yes.” He stepped out of the studio to finish the sentence, and I could hear the rain and traffic in the street behind him.

“Something pretty and blue?”

“Okay, what the fuck?”

“I’m getting married, and I have this ring that’s borrowed and this belt is like a hundred years old.”

“What the hell...?”

“Can you just bring me something blue, please?”

He started a sentence, but didn’t finish it. Took a breath, started to say something else, and stopped himself.

“Darren?”

“Jesus. I didn’t...I don’t know what to say. I haven’t been there for you, have I?”

“Be here for me tonight. Something reasonably attractive. And blue. And new, if possible. I’m stretching the definition with what I have here.”