Page 27 of Without You, Scotch and Sammy 2

He laughs. “Pretty much. I’ll wait outside.”

He doesn’t give me an option, just reopens the heavy door and strolls out.

I order my own coffee and breakfast, then five minutes later, Angelo jumps up from the metal table and chairs on the sidewalk out front, holds the door with one hand, takes my coffee with the other, and we do the awkward stroller shuffle again.

He sets my coffee down in front of me as soon as I sit, then dropping back into his own chair, he sips his coffee and stares. “You do still have that power, Soda. By the way.”

I frown and sip. “Huh?”

“The power to hurt him.”

“I don’t--”

“You always thought he was like your Superman. Like he could fix anything.”

“Yea--”

“Superman has kryptonite.”

“Ang--”

“You’re his kryptonite, Soda.”

“Can you stop calling me Soda?”

He frowns. “Why? It’s your name.”

“No. My name is Sammy.”

“Sammy?”

“Samantha!”

His eyes flash. “I thought you hated that name? I thought you begged him to never call you that?”

My heart thuds painfully as memories batter at me. “He told you that?”

“Yeah… He told us just about everything. He told us how you hated that name because your mom called you Samantha, and you hated it because she was always so horrible.”

“Well--”

“He also told us how you left with them… You dumped his ass and went with them. So maybe you’ve adapted to being called Samantha… But hey, what do I know? I’m just a lowly mechanic. Not a smarty pants like you lot.”

He’s trying to hurt me. He’s shooting round after round, and he’s hitting me square on with every shot. “I didn’t go with them.”

His brows snap together. “Come again?”

“I went with them at first, I got them away from here. But then I left again. In however many days since I last saw you guys, well, it’s been that long, give or take a couple days, since I’ve seen my folks.”

“You didn’t go with them?”

“Not in the end, no.”

“So why didn’t you come back to him?!” he booms.

Lily screeches in the stroller, startled from his shout and jumping in fright. Ang looks in her direction, and though he looks apologetic for a beat, he doesn’t say anything. He’s pissed.

I reach back and unclip the straps holding her in, then standing and turning, I grab Lily and hold her against my chest. I pat her back and bounce her in an attempt to calm her cries.

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