Page 78 of A Break in Communications

I relaxed, just a little. She seemed like she actually believed herself… strangely enough. “You… you mean that?”

“Yeah. I’m going to show herI’mthe catch andshe’smissing out. I’m going to go find her.”

“No—no, not that either,” I blurted, turning after her, but it was useless, Kelcey striding after Veronica like her whole life’s purpose was here, marching under an arch that had too many Christmas lights on it. Was it the damn lights? Were they cursed? I’d believe it from something Kelcey was in charge of ordering.

“Anna,” Berg said, his voice strained. “Is this a good moment now to—”

“What’s all this?” Sean’s voice said, and I looked with a heavy, sinking sensation at where he came up wearing that tacky tweed outfit again—Sean Dobbs, the very one I’d told directly that Lucy and I weren’t a thing and that there weren’t anyconflicts of interest. At this point it was all just a bad joke, tasteless humor. I needed a Vaudeville cane to slide in from stage right and yank me away from the scene. “Mister Berg, Mister Gould, it’s good to see you both,” he said, and I whirled back to him to make sure I could get to him before Mom did.

“Hi, Sean,” I said. “Don’t worry about the gathering—my mother just decided she should come say hi before the event started, but she’s on her way—”

“Not before I see your girlfriend, I’m not,” Mom said. “Where’s Lucy?”

“Oh. Er.” Sean stopped, shifting awkwardly, exchanging confused looks with Berg. Between that, Kelcey storming away to throw herself into the fire, Mom looking at me like I was trying to stop her from seeing me marry Lucy here and now, and me waiting for the comedy of errors to culminate with a piano falling on my head, the only person who seemed happy in this whole thing right now was Gould, who just smiled broadly taking it all in like he was having the time of his life. This whole thing had started with Gould’s account. If he was some kind of trickster demon, I wouldn’t blink at the revelation.

“Don’t worry about any of this,” I said, with all the conviction of a snowball rolling into hell. “Mom just loves her little games—”

Gould spoke up. “I want to see Lucy too,” he said. “Aren’t you supposed to always be together? You two seemed to be married already.”

“Aren’t they, though?” Mom said, beaming again.

“Mom, please—”

“I don’t want to interrupt this,” Berg said, but he didn’t have to interrupt, because that was when I heard the clicking footfalls of Lucy’s heels, and I looked back at where she strolled towards us, a smile playing on her features as she looked over it all.

“Your sister is making a move on our coworker again, Anna,” she said, and I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Yeah—Iknow.Despite my warnings—”

“I think they’re wonderful together,” Mom said, practically beaming. “What did you say her name was? Kelcey? You’ll have to introduce me during the party too.”

“Mom, it’s not aparty,it’s apress release,” I started.

Gould laughed. “You’re going to end up with nothing but daughters as far as the eye can see, too, Maria,” he said, once again going unsubtly towards his go-to ofby the way I love my gay daughters,and as much as I loved that for him, did he have to keep bringing me and Lucy into it? Did he have to? Was it part of his demonic contract?

“Yes, Kelcey is her name,” Lucy confirmed. “Veronica already broke her heart once, but seems like she’s going for round two. Ah, well. Preston girls are tricky ones.”

I gave her a helpless look. “Lucy—”

“Anna,” Berg said, and Mom scolded him again.

“Michael!”

He cringed. Gould chuckled. “Maria—”

“Lucy,” Sean said, “why don’t you—”

“Everybody,” Lucy said, raising her voice a little higher. “Can we maybe get ready for the press release? Official start time is in ten minutes.”

“Ah, Jesus,” I blurted, turning away from the commotion that had sucked me in. “Okay—Mom, this has been great, go away,” I said. Mom beamed at Lucy.

“Lucy, it’s so nice to see you—how’s—”

“Excuse me,” Berg said. “Can we talk? Just for one minute? Before the event starts?”

Mom gave him an incredulous look. “We’ve been talking already!”

“Well—” It was Sean who spoke this time, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. “We should probably discuss some, er—”

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