“Hey, what’s up?” he said. “I’m working. Did you need something?”
“I see that. And I see your daughter is your desk.”
He grunted “I’m, sorry, is that a bad father thing to do?”
I ignored his smart comment. “Can you spare a minute? Come over? I need to talk to you.”
“That would involve me leaving my child while I walk in the next room.”
“Tony.” I whined his name. “Stop. Please.” I pointed to my room.
Tony set down his work, swung his legs over the bed and stood. He walked to the door, and as he passed me said, “My daughter is still traumatized over you fighting with me.”
“And I’m traumatized over her recent fashion designer pictures.”
“What?” He chuckled out the word.
“Never mind. Did you want a drink?”
“That would make me a bad father.”
“Stop it,” I said. “Please. And can we stop this… please? You and me. This isn’t us.”
“I’m traumatized and injured emotionally, so I don’t know how well I am right now.”
“Tony…”
“I felt like I couldn’t do anything right…”
“Are you being serious? Because I feel really bad.”
“Not completely.”
“For however you feel, I am sorry.” I stepped to him. “I am really, really sorry.”
He started at me for a second. “I’ll take that drink.”
I lifted a finger and walked over to my dresser and poured him a glass of wine. “So you forgive me?”
Tony pulled out a chair and sat and the small table. “Anna, you’re going through a lot. You really are. I understand it. You’re healing. It’s okay. It’s still really early.”
“It’s no excuse and it’s not okay to treat you like that.” I handed him the wine and sat across from him. “Forgiven?”
“Are you admitting you picked on me?”
“Oh my God, Tony I didn’t pick on you.”
He bit his bottom lip and smiled. “I’m not mad, I was just being cautious with you because I don’t want us to fight, Anna. Even a little. A spark of disagreement, yeah, that’s fine. But today. You had a crazy day. Crazy days happen.”
“It was crazy.”
“And you really never acknowledged what happened with Gil.”
“I did.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I feel bad. I feel really bad. He and I communicated all the time. He was a good guy. He didn’t deserve not to make it to the shelter.”
I rolled the glass of wine between my hands. “Will it be odd for me to say I am jealous?”
“I won’t even ask for an explanation. I know why you’re jealous. Gil got to be with Jackson first.”
“Yep. Did you feel the same way when your son’s mother died?”
“No.” Tony took a drink. “She killed herself. She’s probably burning in hell or purgatory or something like that.”
“Oh my God! I would never have expected you to say that.”
“I don’t really feel that way. She’s with him. That’s what she wanted and I couldn’t take it from her. She loved him as much as me and I was jealous to think she got to see him first.”
“So… you didn’t say, but it is obvious you were getting information from the fire hall people.”
Tony raised his eyes from the glass. “Are you wanting to talk about this?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“What?”
“It’s too soon, you’ll bite my head off again, start picking on me, call me a bad father.”
“Tony, I apologized and… and… I underestimated you. I didn’t give you credit and you got the information you needed.”
“Without…” Tony lifted a finger than stood. “Gathering them in a room and having group therapy.” He poured more wine. “Wait… can I have more wine or will that make me a bad dad?”
“Stop it.”
“Oh no.” He shook his head. “You got a long time on that one.”
“As long as we are still friends.”
He grumbled a ‘hmm’, and returned to the table.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing. Anyhow…” He exhaled. “In a nutshell, Lenny was a dick. He controlled all the food from the get go and even though they were only in there a few days, there were a lot of fights. He led the group here to prove it was here.”
“Did any of them indicate they thought he was up to something?”
“Yep. Three.”
“So, Lenny is the bad one. What about the ones at the fire hall?”
“From what I gathered there were fifty there and we can expect about ten of them to come. They were Lenny’s buddies.”
“And the people here are okay?”
“Not all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Risking you taking the high road and high diddle, diddle, everyone is fine and fiddle and I’m overreacting, I think we should look at three or four of them working on the inside for Lenny.”
“Which ones?”
“Don’t know yet. I will.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“Well, I have to get back.” Tony finished that second glass quickly. “I wanna get the papers cleaned up and get some sleep. I want to figure out a way to watch the fence without putting lights outside to be a beacon.” He stood. “Even though that will make me have to hand my daughter over.”
“Oh my God!”
Tony smiled. “I’m giving you a hard time. All kidding aside, I have to get some sleep. Thank you for the wine.”
“No, problem. Any time.”
“I know.” He headed to the door.
“Oh!” I blurted out.
Tony stopped. “What?”
“I almost forgot. I have a gift for you. Sort of my peace offering, but I had it in mind to give it to you before things went nuts today.”
“A gift?” He asked. “You shopped in the bunker?”
I moved to my dresser and opened the top drawer, pulling out my old bingo bag.
“Did you actually play Bingo?”
“Yes, I loved it.” I reached in the bag. “I wanted to give this to you when we got here. But things really went bad, with Jackson and all, and it slipped my mind. I’m sorry. But here.” I reached for his left arm and raised the worn, but gold watch. “I know monetarily it doesn’t hold worth, but it will since a lot of people like you lost theirs to the EMP.” I slipped it over his wrist. “Before you can make a Tony sarcastic comment and ask if it was Gil’s… No.” I fastened it. “It was my father’s. He never took it off. It means a lot to me.” I fixed the watch. “You mean a lot to me. And think of it as my way of saying, I’ll always make time for you.”
Tony started. “Really?” he smirked. “Really?” He laughed a little. “That was really corny.”
I cringed. “It was. I was trying to be nice.”
“Anna, you are nice. You don’t have to try. You had a bad day. Your son… you lost your son not long ago. Your friend, that means the world to you, and don’t say he doesn’t… is gone. I think you’re doing amazing.”
“So are you, Tony. And I know I probably don’t tell you enough…”
“You don’t.”
“I didn’t even say it. But I will. I appreciate you very much. Thank you for all that you do and have done, or will do.” My hand flung out. “I told you on the way here, I needed you and I do. And now that you have this watch, I don’t have to hear you on the radio calling out every ten minutes, ‘What time is it’?”
Tony added to my comment. “And having them tell me to look at the wall.” He smiled. “Thank you for this. I will take good care of it.”
“I know you will. Get some sleep.”
He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “Thank you again.” He turned and walked to the adjacent door and paused.