“James is going to flip out big style. Delete them. Quick.” She hoped against all hopes they hadn’t been shared.
Lizzie was on her own phone. “Philip, there’s a video of Tasha, dancing.”
Tasha stretched over to look at Lizzie’s phone and covered her face with her fingers spread. Philip looked too and they all laughed nervously at the video of her dancing with Alex.
“It’s embarrassing, but not incriminating.” Tasha looked at Philip who was nodding at the relatively innocent dancing they were doing.
Then Lizzie screamed. “Oh my God, Tasha! You are in so much trouble.”
She looked back at Lizzie who replayed the video that showed Alex moving up behind her and grinding.
“Delete, delete, delete,” Tasha screamed as her own phone pinged a message alert.
Lizzie laughed as Philip scrolled through his profile and deleted all posts, photos and videos before he slumped back in his seat. “All done. We have averted a major disaster there.”
“And the moral of the story is...never upload to Facebook when drunk, ever,” Tasha shouted as she nudged him.
They all giggled and breathed a huge, collective sigh of relief before Tasha turned to Lizzie. “I know you usually tell your dad everything but unless he asks about it would you not go out of your way to tell him?”
“But if he asks—” Lizzie sounded nervous.
“I will tell him myself, eventually, but if he asks, you should tell him. I would never ask you to lie to your dad, either of you, ever.” She smiled thinking she might have been slightly unfair in even suggesting Lizzie not telling Jim, but she would never ask anyone to lie, not for her.
“Unlike Maddie,” said Lizzie.
“Who is Maddie?” asked Tasha as Mike appeared.
“Lizzie, we need to go if we’re going to get you to school on time.”
“Do I have to? I’m really going to miss you,” she cried dramatically as she hugged Tasha tightly.
“Oh Lizzie, that’s really sweet and I will miss you too, so text and Facebook me, but you have to go to school or we’ll both be in trouble. More trouble for me,” she laughed and was rewarded with a huge grin breaking out across Lizzie’s face before she complied with Mike’s request and followed him out to the car.
Tasha started piling the breakfast things up. “So, who is Maddie?”
Her phone pinged again, but she ignored it as Philip answered. “Step-mother number two. She was an actress, but not like you. I rediscovered her when I was about fourteen and my friends were visiting online porno sites. That may have been the deciding factor in me being gay.”
Tasha laughed at the notion of seeing his step-mother in pornos deciding his sexuality for him and then she laughed longer and louder at the expression of distaste he wore along with a shudder.
“But Lizzie and I caught herentertainingfriends a couple of times and we were told not to tell Dad or he would be angry and we wouldn’t be able to visit anymore.”
“No way,” cried Tasha. “Who were the friends she wasentertaining?” She was eager to learn more of the six ex-wives.
Philip laughed. “I thought they were boyfriends, but it turned out they were casting directors and she insisted she hadn’t slept with them which I think the old man believed which would indicate she was telling the truth on that at least. With hindsight, I think she knew her marriage to Dad was done so was setting wheels in motion for after it ended.”
They both laughed now.
“We didn’t tell the old man the first or second time, but by the third time I did because poor Lizzie was so scared Maddie was going to stop us seeing Dad. She was crying every night and got into trouble at school and even began wetting the bed. I felt I had no choice but to run the risk and tell him.”
“And?”
“He went ape. He believed me straight away and Maddie was out of the house that night and divorced within six months. It’s why Lizzie feels the need to tell him everything, because he told us he would never abandon us and we would always come first and if anyone asked us to lie they would only ever do it once.”
“Shit. I asked Lizzie not to tell him.”
“But you told her not to lie, it’s different,” reassured Philip, but Tasha wasn’t sure.
Philip’s phone beeped again. “Oh no. Dad got Juan to check Facebook this morning and he saw the stuff before we deleted it.”
