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I’m worried too, but not for the same reasons Phillip is.
“Why would you be?” I ask, carefully keeping my eyes on the table.
Phillip sighs. “I offered to foot the bill for a nicer,saferplace, but she’s insisting on living in this little shit hole. You know what she’s like, she won’t take my money, but she has her inheritance from my parents too. She could be living off that for a few years and focusing on her art, but she wants to teach eight-year-olds how to make pinch pots instead. Hell, between my connections, yours and Cash’s….” He trails off.
I know what he isn’t saying. He wants Daisy to be like us, to have the kind of career we have.
There are not a lot of people who can look at the money and fame and glamour and say,“No thanks, not for me,”but that’s all Daisy’s been saying since she was old enough to know better.
She saw it all for what it was long before I did.
Fuck, I’m so proud of her.
Daisy wanted for nothing growing up, she could be doing anything she pleased right now with a fat trust fund and inheritance at her disposal, but instead, she’s standing on her own two feet and turning her back on the shiny, glamorous life Phillip wants for her.
“You know, most guys I know are desperate for their twenty-two-year old’s to be a little more independent.” I manage to start moving again, snatching up a box cutter to cut into the closest box, and I feel the weight of Phillip’s gaze as I pull out a selection of new brushes that I know I won’t be using.
Yet another fact I’ve concealed from my supposed best friend is that I haven’t created a single noteworthy thing in years.
He clears his throat uncomfortably, and I know I’ve struck a nerve. “Yeah, well, wait until you see where she’s living. Listen, I came here for a reason, not just to chew you out. I want you to give Daisy a job. Didn’t you need an assistant?”
My blood runs cold, and it takes everything in me to keep my expression neutral when I look up at Phillip, abandoning the box on the table. “You want me to hire Daisy as my assistant?”
Phillip shoves his hands into his pockets and strolls over to look at another of the many half-finished paintings leaning against the walls. “I think it would be better for her career than teaching after-school art classes.” He tells me over his shoulder. “She would meet the right people, maybe get her foot in the door. Plus, you can keep an eye on her for me, make sure she’s not having too tough a time.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, desperately trying to think of a reasonable objection to this. There isn’t one, or at least not one I could give Phillip without him breaking my nose and never speaking to me again.
“I’m not sure I even need an assistant. I’ve been managing.” The towering pile of mail beside me tells a different story, and so does my pissed-off manager and the hundred or so emails in my inbox waiting to be returned.
Phillip rolls his eyes. He knows I’m full of shit. “Don’t be an asshole. Look at this place.” He nods to the long-dead houseplant in the corner. “You need an assistant. God, I don’t know how I’d manage without Juliet. That’s why I pay her an obscene salary.”
He laughs, but privately I think that Phillip’s pretty, much-younger PA, Juliet, has reasons for dealing with his shit that have nothing to do with the pay.
“Do you even know if she’dwantto work for me? Why not check with Cash? I’m sure he knows people.” I manage to ask, biting back my comment about Juliet.
Seeing Daisy every day, having her in my space… it’s out of the question. I’ve violated Phillip’s trust enough, and knowing what I know now, that this obsession isn’t entirely unrequited…. I know a recipe for disaster when I see one.
Phillip would be shoving his only child directly into the jaws of a feral, possessive monster.
My friend turns back to look at me, shrugging like what Daisy wants is unimportant in this situation. “She’s talented, Penn. You agree, right?”
I nod instantly. I may not have attended the show, but I certainly saw the pieces in Daisy’s senior thesis. She’s always shown promise, but seeing the way her art has matured and grown over the last few years is breathtaking.
“I don’t want her to waste her talent.” Phillip continues, his brow furrowed. “I don’t think she sees herself as she is. Probably because of Georgia.” He scoffs in disgust.
Phillip’s college girlfriend Georgia, Daisy’s mother, has always been an inconsistent presence at best in her daughter’s life. She’s had the habit of popping in and out as she pleases, never staying for the hard stuff, and never offering more than she takes. Georgia’s always been fond of being the mother of Lip Lowell’s only child but less fond of actually being Daisy’s Mom.
Christ, what the hell am I supposed to say to that?
“I’ll ask.” I agree reluctantly. “Just ask, Phillip. I’m not going to pressure her into it. She’s a grown woman. She can make up her own mind.”
On the contrary, I’ll be doing my best to make the job seem as unappealing as possible. Long hours, shit pay, and anything else I can think of to make sure she doesn’t take it.
I’ll have to talk to her though, even if it’s just a text message, and the memory of our last call makes my hands clench reflexively on the edge of the table.
“Tell me to stop, Daddy.”
My old friend beams at me. “I think it’ll be great for both of you.”
