They Never Picked Up My Calls, So I Made Dolls That Answer novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Come Upstairs

I watched that ten-second clip again and again.

Each time my own face said the same thing, and each time it sounded worse.

She'd cut it one word early.

That was all it took.

I went downstairs barefoot.

The whole shop was standing around the sewer's laptop. They looked up when I came in, and every face was the same: sorry.

"Turn it off," I said.

"Elsie, we can post the rest," the sewer said. "Fletcher was standing right there. He heard the whole thing."

"Then it's my boyfriend's word against a crying girl with four million views."

Fletcher looked up at "boyfriend."

I didn't take it back.

Gus was at the bench with his arms folded.

"So what do you do?"

"I don't fight her on her phone," I said. "That's her house. She's better at it than me."

"Then where do you fight her?"

"Somewhere she can't edit."

At three the email came from Toy Fair.

"Due to recent public concerns, we are unable to proceed with Keepsake Dolls' exhibitor booth in the Hospital and Wellness pavilion. Your deposit will be refunded."

At three fifteen Brightwater posted a photo of their booth design. Two stories. A giant red felt heart on the front.

I closed my laptop.

Then I drove to the hospital.

The nurse met me in the fourth-floor family lounge.

"I saw it," she said. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Help me."

"How?"

"The network chair. The woman deciding at Toy Fair. You've met her."

"Twice. At conferences."

"Can you get her one video?"

The nurse looked at me. Then she looked down the hall at the rooms with the dolls in them.

"Give me two days," she said.

She didn't need two.

By the next night the parents had done it themselves.

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