Madison forced a smile, even though a wave of sadness threatened to drown her. “He’ll be fine.” She would do anything in her power to make that happen.

Sherry searched her face for a long time before lowering her gaze. “I’m sorry if I overreacted.”

“It’s okay. I…I will try to stay out of his upbringing. It’s none of my business.”

“You can tell me when you think I’m making a mistake with him. Rita Mae does that too. But tell me when he’s not there to hear it.”

“Got it.” We’re almost behaving like a real couple. This thought made Madison pause. Shaking her head, she pressed the button for the elevator again.

Sherry touched her forearm. “Thank you.”

Madison answered her with a forced smile.

“Hey, Mad, what’s up?” Phil asked as soon as Madison had accepted the call.

Reminding him that she wanted to be called Madison probably wasn’t the best idea after she’d kicked him out last weekend. Relieved that he was still talking to her, she dropped onto the couch.

“Same old.” She looked around. Sherry was sitting with Jake at the table doing math homework while Rita Mae was preparing dinner in the kitchen. “How about you?”

“I’m great actually. Listen, you won’t believe it.” Phil clicked his tongue. “We got banned from the Contaminated. They told us not to come back. Ever!”

“How the he—” She peeked over to Jake, who was busy doing his homework. “Um, I mean, how did that happen?”

“It’s kind of all your fault.” Phil chuckled. “We went there after your party got…ah, canceled. Anyway, Liam was a total fuck up. He powdered his nose together with a guy he had picked up as if there wasn’t going to be another day. First they were just dancing like maniacs on our table. But then all of a sudden they started fucking like rabbits. On the table for all to see.” Phil barked a laugh. “Can you imagine? Everybody and their dogs got out their phones. It’s even on YouTube. I tell you, that was the first live porn of my life. If you wanna see it, search for ‘Contaminated’ and ‘gay porn.’ About half an hour ago it was still up.”

Madison’s jaw dropped. Had there ever been a time when she would have found this funny?

“Mad? You still there?”

“Yeah. And no, thanks. I’ll just take your word for it.”

“You okay? Still pissed because of the party or what?”

“I’m sorry, okay? But you really could have tried harder to be quiet.”

Silence.

Finally, Phil said in an unusually serious voice, “Really, Mad, are you okay?”

“Sure, why?”

“You’re so different. Is it because of your sugar pie, or is something else going on with you? Got a bad diagnosis at the doctor or something?”