The line goes silent. Joy knows he’s there. She keeps checking the screen and the call hasn’t dropped. He’s just not saying anything because he’s thinking. Oh my god, this is gonna be hell. She can imagine it: ten-to-fifteen-minute-long pauses as he sorts through his thoughts with only a hmm as a clue she should wait. She needs to see him in person, to stare him into talking. Maybe she can convince him to stick to video calls or—

“But I wanted to hear your voice,” he says. “Do you really want me to text you instead?”

Joy slides down farther into the bed, melting like a piece of ice in the sun, and pulls the blanket over her head. She doesn’t want her empty room to see her face. “Absolutely not.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh no. Oh no,” Joy says, beginning to giggle.

“What?”

“I think I can hear you thinking. You’re thinking, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” Fox sighs. “Damn it.”

Joy bursts out laughing.

Fox waits until she’s done and asks, “How was your day?”

“Not entirely miserable. Not great. You?”

“It’s definitely better now.”

She shoves her face into her pillow. When she’s regained control she says, “Oh, that’s good.”

“Isn’t this late for you? I would’ve expected you to be asleep by now.”

“Oh, me and my old lady internal clock are definitely in bed. Sometimes it takes a while for me to drift off if I’m not dead tired. I usually watch a movie or something.”

“No wonder you fell asleep during our Nic Cage marathon. We started it too late and you’re used to going to sleep with a movie playing. Makes sense now. I thought you just didn’t appreciate one of the greatest and most opportunistic actors of our time.”

“It’s probably also that.”

Fox laughs. “What are you watching tonight?”

“Nothing yet. Do you want to watch something together? We can use the sync projector app.”

“Uh, sure. Yeah. That’s a great idea.”

They choose a movie, something they both wanted to see, and spend the next two hours creating their own running commentary. It’s not perfect. It doesn’t magically feel like they’re back in the cabin talking under the stars until she falls out, but it’s close. Hours are passing, she doesn’t notice them at all, and before she knows it, the movie is over and he’s asking, “Are you resting?”

“Not even close.” Joy feels wired, like she accidentally had a full cup of coffee right before bed. Pepper is out cold and kitty-snoring on her back.

“Are you coming to Summer’s game night tomorrow? Or I guess it’s tonight now.”

“I haven’t thought about it. Do you think it would be weird if I did? Because of all the stuff with Malcolm.”