"Right, you told me. It's exciting to take on a new venture."
I'm such an idiot. Of course we had this conversation. It's not like I could just whisk my daughter away without prior approval.
"It's okay, isn't it?" I can't believe I have to ask for permission to have a job. What if she says no? If she wanted to, she could crush me like a flea.
Speaking of which, my legs itch like crazy. I lean over, scratching one bite and then another. It looks like I had a wrestling match with a cactus—and lost.
"Tabitha, I have enough to do with babysitting Jon here. I can't tell you what to do as well." Her voice is clipped.
"So I take it he's not great?"
She sighs. "I know I can trust you with this information. You'll keep our secret. No, he's not. He has virtually no short term memory anymore, and he's quite impulsive. As if he wasn't impulsive before."
Paisley is proof of that.
"Oh." I don't know what else to say.
"I have to tell him about the accident every day. He doesn't remember it. He thinks it's about five years ago."
If the last five years have been wiped from his memory… "Does he … does he know who Paisley is?"
The silence on the line tells me all I need to know. Oh, my poor little girl.
"We'll continue the child support, obviously. But until he's had some more healing, I don't know if he should see her. It'll confuse both of them, I'm afraid."
My heart is breaking for my little girl who loves her occasional father.
On the other hand, is this my get-out-of-jail-free card? Can I move on and be done with them? Life can't really be that easy, can it?
How would this impact Paisley? I mean, I never knew my dad and I'm fin—
Okay, maybe not the best example.
Any way you shake it, Paisley is probably going to have parent issues. At the end of the day, don't we all? I'll do my best to alleviate them. Her dad was in an accident and has a brain injury. Sucky things happen.
"I guess it's a good thing I came to New York for the summer then," I say lamely.
I think I hear a sniffle on the other end of the line. It must be static, though. I can't picture Anastasia Jerome crying. "Will you still send me updates on Paisley? Pictures and everything? I … I miss her. It's best not to have her around, but it doesn't mean Nico and I don't miss her."
The pain in her voice makes me wonder if I've been judging this situation all wrong. "Anastasia, um, I need to ask you something. About Paisley."
"Okay," she says slowly.
Here goes nothing. "So, after our reunion and everything, once you and I'd connected, I tried to stay out of the public eye, especially with Paisley. I basically gave up my entire career. I didn't want to be out trotting about with Paisley and have someone connect the dots between me and you guys."
"We've always tried to portray a certain image, whether it was the truth or not. You know how it is. You create a public persona, and then you get stuck living it, no matter how far from reality it becomes."
I do know. We all had our roles as the Sassy Cats that had very little to do with who we actually were. Hell, it's hard to develop a public image of yourself when you don't even knowwhoyou are.
"I never wanted to be one ofthoseHollywood couples with torrid affairs and scandals, yet that's exactly who we became."
"Can I be totally honest?"
"Please, Tabitha. I expect honesty from my friends."Friends. She considers me her friend.
"I was afraid to have a public presence. I thought that if anyone ever figured out Paisley's paternity, you'd ruin me."
Anastasia laughs. "Oh, come on. I dated Callie for a while. You know I'm notthatevil."
