She rolls over and grabs the receiver. “Opal?”It’s Ty. Before her mind can fully waken, her body softens, opens to desire.“Hi.” She sits up, tents the sheet around her nude body.“How are you? How’s Zack?”“I’m fine. We’re fine.” She doesn’t tell him that Zack is visiting Billy. That she misses her son so much she can barely eat, that she has lost five pounds, that she can count her ribs just looking in the mirror. If she loses Zack, really loses him—impossible, her mind shrieks—she will shrink and die.“I’ve been thinking of you.”She catches her breath, releases it in a long exhale.“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t,” he says.No sense following that line of conversation. It’s a dead end. Over. Done. Her mind knows this. Her body just hasn’t gotten the news yet. “How did the taping go in Cambridge?”“Not bad.” He inhales, pauses. “Opal, I want to see you. Can I? Can I see you?”She closes her eyes. Just once—once—she wishes something wonderful could happen to her without cost.
