Page 61 of The Ex-Best Thing
I’ve lived in this house for a week and a half, and it’s about time I’ve watched the movie that is plastered all over the place. I walked down into Bodega Bay today and ate lunch from The Birds Cafe. It was a lot of walking, but it did me good. I also chatted with the woman who made my sandwich about the photos they had up on the wall, depicting the movie and Tippi Hedren’s fantastic sixties hair.
Now I’m determined to watch it.
But not alone. That would be crazy. It’s a Hitchcock movie, for heaven’s sake.
I could use a distraction, anyway, since my lunch excursion was followed by a quick stop in the market, where I saw my name splashed all over the magazine headlines in the racks next to the gum.Canceled. Where is Bree? I’d Hide Too After What She Did.
We Don’t Deserve Jaida.
The last one makes me want to vomit. Why do they even print those anymore? Doesn’t everyone get their news from TikTok?
I find my phone and swipe away all the notifications,suppressing the guilt when I catch Noah’s name on a text. But Zoey said Peanut was doing well, didn’t she?
Benny’s phone number is right at the top, so it’s easy to find. I call him and hit the speakerphone button. We’ve grown up using speakerphone so the cameras could pick up both sides of the conversation, and it was a habit none of my sisters or I ever broke. I don’t have a reason not to use it, do I? It’s more comfortable this way.
“Hi,” he says warmly.
“This is a business call.”
He chuckles. “What’s up?”
“I need Nancy’s phone number.”
There’s a beat of silence. “Okay. I’ll send it to you.”
“Thanks.”
“Everything okay?”
“If by that you really mean, ‘Hey Bree, did you break and call your entire family and log into X today to see how badly the world hates you,’ I can safely tell you that I stayed off my phone, but I still know how much the world hates me.”
“That’s not—you know, I think you should talk to your family. It might be nice to have more people in your corner.”
“I have you and Nancy. Who else do I need?”
He doesn’t argue. “My buddy out in Sebastopol said we can use his studio after hours, but he needs to double check the building cleaning schedule before he can give us a date.”
“How much extra did you have to pay for this?”
“Not much.”
“Whatever it is, I’ll cover it.”
“I’ll let you know when I have a date, okay? Probably sometime next week.”
“Thanks, Benny.” I twist some dark hair around my finger. “Listen, I get that your grandma isn’t agoraphobic. I figured that out when she had to walk however many streets over to break down my door. But there’s something going on, isn’t there?”
“She…yeah…there’s something going on.”
He doesn’t say more, so I don’t press. “Well thanks, Benny.”
He laughs, and I can hear how amused he is. “You and Nancy Rhodes are friends now?”
“Pulling someone out of the depths of despair is bonding.”
“I can see that,” he says, except he sounds like he doesn’t really buy into it.
I try to sound chipper. “Well, have a good night.”
