“You said you were having a shitty night,” Holly says. “Since you know the source of my shitty night, it’s only fair that I know yours, even if it wasn’t accompanied with public humiliation.”
I smirk at her. “How do you know it wasn’t? I was here before you were.”
Grinning, she shakes her head. “There’s no way Laura would have turned a proposition down, and unless you walked out of the bathroom with your pants at your ankles, there’s nothing you could have done to compare.”
“Fair. My problem wasn’t accompanied by public humiliation, but I’d almost prefer it if it were.”
She leans closer, interest burning in her eyes. “Now you have to share.”
I don’t, and we both know it. Still, I find myself saying, “Funny you should mention the Labelles,” I say, breaking eye contact to stare at my drink. “They’ve suddenly shown an interest in my daughter.”
Honestly, I know I’m probably making too big a deal out of this, but thinking about them makes my chest feel tight, like I can’t catch my breath.
“Wait,” she says, her nose scrunched. “Aren’t they her grandparents?”
“In name, mostly. They wanted to take Jane after Millie died, saying she was a baby and I was a clueless man, but I’d been an equal partner in raising her before Millie died. Besides, Millie hated her parents and never wanted them anywhere near our daughter. So I told them to fuck off, just like she would have wanted.” I take a breath. “They’ve sent her ridiculous gifts for birthdays and Christmases over the years, but they’ve mostly stayed in the background…until recently. They want to see her now that she’s older. They say it’s their right.”
“You can still say no,” Holly says sympathetically. “Youareher father.”
I pause. “Shewants to seethem.”
“Oh.”
Holly’s right. I could still tell her no, and while I’ve told Jane her mother didn’t get along with her parents, I haven’t told her much else. I’m a firm believer that sometimes you need to formyour own opinion, even when you’re a child, but it’s hard to bite my tongue. So I’ve stuck to telling her that Millie cut the Labelles out of her life for reasons Jane’s too young to understand. I agreed to one Sunday afternoon a month, but then Jane begged to go to Asheville with them to see an ice skating show that she’s been begging to go to and I couldn’t get away to see. So I agreed, reluctantly, which is where they are now, probably sitting in some front row seat while I drown my sorrows in steak and whiskey. I can’t help but wonder if this is the beginning of something nefarious.
Because I don’t trust them for a fucking second.
