He's almost surprised by that answer, given that somehow he angered her to sickness last night (and he refuses to believe it's because of anything he actually did so much as the way she insisted on seeing it, as if she enjoyed being that upset, as if she interpreted everything he said in the worst light on purpose to make herself a martyr the same way his mother does). He nestles in closer to her, wrapping a leg around hers, feeling her ankle with his foot.

"I can't call out of work today, or I would." At that instant he hates his brother and mother more than anything, because it's for them that he has to go to work, for them that the budget is so tight. "But that's not for another two hours."