Chapter 16. Part 4

Pleasantview, same day.

“Daddy, when you and Katrina move, can I have a pet?”

“Um, sure, I guess? But you’d need to ask your mother too. Unless you want your pet to live just with me?”

“Will I have my own room in your new house?”

“We don’t know yet, Illy, we haven’t found a house yet. It depends on how many rooms it’ll have. Maybe you need to share with Beni, but that’s okay, isn’t it?”

“Mhm. But if I have my own room, can I have a pet that can live with you?”

Don tried to shrug and say something non-committal, but Iliana wasn’t having it.

“Daddy? Can I have a pet then?”

“Well… I don’t know if Katrina wants to have a cat or a dog. And I shouldn’t make you promises I can’t keep, should I?”

“That’s okay, I don’t want a dog. Or a cat.”

Don let out a breath of relief. Something small in a cage then. He could probably manage that. Iliana could take it home with her after her nights spent at his place. Neither Kaylynn nor Katrina should put up too much an objection.

“So you want a hamster? Or a guinea pig? I don’t think you should get a bird, they make so much noise.”

“No, Daddy, I want a pet spider.”

Don stopped in his tracks and stared at his daughter. “You want a spider? Why would you want a spider?”

“I think they’re creepy and awesome.”

“Illy… I don’t know about a pet spider… Do you really think your mom would agree to that?”

“No, that’s why it need to live at your place. They’re not so hard to feed. They eat bugs. You could find some bugs, couldn’t you Daddy? And feed it when I’m not at your house?”

“No, I think a spider is out of the question. Can’t you get a pet rat? They’re kinda creepy too? Or a chinchilla? Or a bunny?”

“How about a snake? A small one. They don’t eat so often, so I can feed it myself. And I promise I would never let it out so it could go and hide somewhere in the house.”

He shuddered at the thought. Don had never thought of himself as much of a coward, but the thought of living with a snake or a spider or something equally disgusting in the house – no, he was sure he’d never get a wink of sleep. And neither would his wife, he was damned certain of that.  

“Illy, I think if you want a pet, it needs to be cute and cuddly, or both Katrina and Beni would be scared of it, and you don’t want that, would you?”

Iliana sighed and shook her head. “Things that aren’t cute can still be nice to have.”

Where did these ideas come from? Don wondered. Had he been paying so little attention to his daughter that he hadn’t noticed her developing into a bit of a weirdo? Was she being teased at day care, or was there a new friend putting these thoughts in her head?

They reached Kaylynn’s place just as the front door opened and a young man came out to pick up the news paper.

Ah, Don thought. You.

Kaylynn usually picked up and dropped off Iliana herself, and whenever Don had been over to her place, the tenant, friend, whatever he was, had either been out, or kept to his bedroom, and even though this Nick had been living with Kaylynn for over a year, Don had never met him. He wondered how much of that was intentional, but now he took a good look at the guy whom he was sure was responsible for Iliana’s sudden beliefs that “creepy” and “awesome” were words that belonged together.

He saw the black clothes, the pale skin, the fact that he seemed fine with renting an uncomfortable room too small for a double bed, and that as far as Don could remember, he had never once seen this guy around town. This guy was as strange as they came. Probably hardly ever went outside. He’d bet anything there was a TV and a video game set in his room. His friends were probably weird and strange too. Don hoped they never came around when Iliana was home.

Iliana had run ahead to hug him before Don could stop her, and he noticed that Nick at least knew how to smile. At her. When he saw Don, he visibly tensed up and even took a step back.

Watcher, I’m not gonna bite you, Don thought and held out his hand for a handshake.

“Hi there. You must be Nick? I’m Don Lothario, Iliana’s dad.”

Nick stared at the outstretched hand for a couple of seconds, and then nodded his head in a greeting.

“Nice to meet you, Dr Lothario. Nick Darthe.”

“Nicky, Daddy says maybe I can have a pet when he and Katrina buys a new house and I get my own room! Isn’t that cool? Do you think I should get a snake or a spider? Daddy thinks I should get something with fur instead, what do you think?”

Nick sent a panicked look at Don but smiled at Iliana as he ushered her inside.

“Um… Kay isn’t home yet. She’s running late. Would… would you want to come in and wait, Dr Lothario? If you needed to talk to her, I mean.”

Don didn’t have anything to say to Kaylynn today. This was just a drop-off. They had their schedule, it was working, all child support was paid up, he couldn’t think of anything they needed to coordinate on or inform the other of. And Nick, as far as he understood things, was a frequent babysitter for Iliana, it’d be perfectly fine to leave her in his hands, if Kaylynn felt comfortable in doing so. There was absolutely no reason why he would need to come in with them. None at all.

“Sure, I’ll wait. And we can get to know each other a little bit better.”

Nick flinched.

He was obviously nervous. Don tried to smile reassuringly, but it seemed to make things worse and when Nick spoke, his voice was trembling.

“Can I get you something, Dr Lothario? Water? Coffee? A-anything?”

“You can just call me Don. I did call you Nick after all.”

“Yeah. Can I get you something?”

Don sighed. He kept making it worse and he had no idea why.

“I’m fine.”

He took a look around the room. New pictures on the wall, and he was surprised to see Nick in one with Kaylynn and Iliana.

“There’s you,” he said, coming to take a closer look.

He raised his hand to point to it, and Nick almost literally jumped out of his way.

Did… did he think I was going to hit him? Don thought, horrified. Something was up with this guy, and Don was not making it better at all.

He took a step back, to give the other man more space, and even tried to put himself with his back to the wall so Nick had the exits free. There was probably more one could do to deal with people who obviously had lived through some kind of trauma, but enough time had passed since Don had learnt about it and him becoming a heart surgeon that he didn’t remember it. It was rarely a surgeon’s job to deal with frightened patients. Not this kind of fear anyway. He couldn’t even tell what this kind of fear was.

“It’s nice of Kaylynn to include you in a family photo,” he tried. “But she’s always been a kind person. And she doesn’t have much family.”

“Yeah.”

“You spend a lot of time with my daughter, I suppose?”

“Yeah.”

Don forced himself to hold back an exasperated sigh. That probably wouldn’t help either.

“Daddy, my room is too small for a snake cage.” Iliana said as she came into the kitchen. “So it needs to live in my own room at your new house.”

“Honey, I told you, I don’t think we’ll be getting you a snake. Or a spider.” Don insisted. “And we can’t get you a pet, or your own room, until me and Katrina buy a new house and even then, you might need to share with Benazir. I haven’t promised you anything yet, Illy, and you need to hear me on that.”

“But, you said-“

“No, I didn’t. I did not say.”

Nick carefully leaned down so he could be eye-level with her and spoke in a tone more gentle than Don had ever managed in his whole life, with his daughters or when speaking to patients.

“You know, Iliana, snakes eat mice. And mice are really cute, aren’t they? Do you really think you’d be able to go to a pet store, buy a mouse, and take it home, and then let a snake eat it? Wouldn’t you feel bad for the mouse? What if your father let you have a snake, and instead you wanted to keep the mice too? Or what if little Beni thought the mouse was cute? What if she wanted to keep it as her pet. Or if she had another pet that the snake would want to eat? She’d be so sad if it did, by accident. And accidents can happen no matter how good you are at taking care of something. And I know you wouldn’t want Beni to get her pet eaten up.”

“Beni doesn’t need a pet,” Iliana insisted. “She’s too small.”

“But if you have one, don’t you think she’d want one too? It’s not fair for just one of you, is it? She’ll be your age soon.”

Iliana looked disappointed. “I guess so. I don’t want to make Beni said.”

“So, if you do get a pet one day, maybe you should ask for one that eats fruits, or seeds, or hay, that you can feed in a bowl? But like your father said, you’re not going to get one right now. We have time to think of a good one, and learn all about it.”

“But it should look creepy,” Iliana insisted, with a look to Don, who sighed.

“Fine. Something that looks creepy but isn’t actually creepy.”

“Something awesome.” She insisted again.

Don glared a little at Nick. How dare he be able to convince his daughter that easily? And to even talk to Iliana about the future, Don still wasn’t sure he could convince Katrina and Kaylynn to let her have a pet, and above all – we have time to think of a good one?

Dammit. This was Don’s daughter, not Nick’s.

Kaylynn chose that precise moment to walk through the door and Iliana forgot all about pets – for now – to go hug her.

“Don, hey,” she said as a greeting. “You’re still here? Everything go well?”

“Yeah, she and Benazir got into a fight over the good crayons, but they sorted it out by themselves. She’s a good big sister.”

“I’m glad to hear it. So, you’ll pick her up on Friday then?”

“Yeah, but I might need to drop her earlier on Sunday, me and Katrina are going house hunting.”

“I heard. Good luck.”

She turned to Nick. “Deadline?”

“Met.”

“Happy about it?”

“Could’ve used another round of proof-reading.”

“I doubt it. Last thing you turned in was great, and you only proofed that once.”

He actually smiled at her, a happy smile that Kaylynn returned and Don was putting two and two together. Damn, he thought, this is the kinda guy she’s into now?

Like with Iliana, there was no fear when Nick was talking to Kaylynn, no pulling away from her touch or presence. And she seemed perfectly at ease around him too. If they weren’t already a couple, he’d bet they’d be one soon. And Nick’s close relationship with Iliana made perfect sense now too – if Don would’ve wanted to get into bed with a woman who had a kid, he’d make damned sure the kid liked him too.

“Well, I should go,” he said and saw with annoyance that Kaylynn had almost forgot he was still there.

“Oh, I wanted to ask you something. I would’ve asked Nina, but I couldn’t think of a way of bringing it up.”

“Yeah”

“Is it really true that Dina is dating Daniel?”

“Apparently. Not sure I get why, but I guess there are a lot of couples I don’t really get. She could definitely do a lot better.”

He made eye-contact, just briefly, with Nick, who looked down quickly.

“Strange,” Kaylynn seemed to agree.

“Yeah, well, one of them will eat the other up and spit them out, and that will be it, I expect. I need to go, Nina and Beni are at my place, and I want to say goodbye to them before they go.”

He usually just waved to Kaylynn these days, but today he pulled her into a hug.

“Bye Kay, have a good week.”

“You too, Don, don’t forget to call Iliana tomorrow.”

“I won’t.”

He knew he would feel bad afterwards, but he held out his hand, once again, to Nick, who now had no way to escape it. He made sure he got a little too close to the younger man, and that he squeezed the hand a little too hard.

“Nice to meet you finally, Nick. You certainly made yourself at home here. I’m sure I’ll be seeing lots of you in the future. Often.”

And with a last hug for his daughter, Don left, feeling good about making Nick feel intimidated and uncomfortable – for about as long as it took to reach the side-walk, before it was quickly replaced by shame. The guy probably didn’t deserve that.

*

Benazir looked up from her toys when Don came through the door, but quickly went back to playing when it became clear he hadn’t brought Iliana back with him.

He found Katrina and Nina in the kitchen, where he had left them an hour ago. In fact, they’d been there for hours and hours now.

“You’re still at this?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you’d be done by now.”

“We’ve got the basics down,” Katrina said, barely looking up from the table, “but we need a proper business plan, and I want to get that done today, so I can start looking for a business to outsource the sewing to.”

“And a name,” Nina said. “We really need to decide the name.”

“What’s wrong with the one you had?” Don asked. It had taken Katrina days to come up with TopShopClothing.

“Too commercial, according to Nina. Besides, I want to be a designer, not run a low budget t-shirt shop.”

“I think we should just use your name,” Nina replied. “It makes the most sense for an online business. They’ll search your name to learn about you, and then find a website and a business with your name. And from there, they can pick either the shop for your finished pieces, or to see your newest designs and hire you for something special.”

Don tried to keep himself from rolling his eyes. They didn’t really think they could make a business out of selling clothes on the internet, did they? And he shuddered to think about all the money that was going into this too. Katrina was investing most of her inheritance in it, and Nina had contributed what she could too, but Katrina was mostly making her a partner because she’d be running the website and doing most of the online marketing work. Don frankly didn’t think it was the right time to spend money on a business that maybe would never be profitable, when him and Katrina were planning on buying a new house within a year. Once they could find one.

But he said nothing, and just smiled. If you don’t support an idea, just try to pretend.

“I like it. katrinalothario.com or something.”

Nina cast Katrina a glance. “You going with Lothario?”

“Well…” Katrina said, avoiding eye-contact with Don, “I did change my last name, but I think my brand should remain as Caliente. It says that in the catalogues I’m in, after all. And the interview I made for that magazine after I made Dina’s wedding dress. And it said Caliente in the article about Cassandra’s wedding too. So it makes the most sense.”

“Sure.” Don pretended to agree, feeling his patience dropping and the need to pretend to be supportive vanish. “And how much is this going to cost us again? I’m afraid both Beni and Iliana have heard us mentioning moving and getting actual bedrooms in our new house, so… are we still planning on afford it?”

“Can we afford it, says my husband the heart surgeon,” Katrina muttered. “My dream, Don. My dream. End of story. This is going to be a success, and then we can not only afford a big house, we can afford to have it remodelled too. Like Cassandra and Ajay are doing, Nina got a peek inside last week and she said it looks fabulous, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t use that word, exactly.”

“We’re not going to be able to afford a house like that, ever, babe,” Don said, “even if everything goes as you hoped, that’s way out of our-”

“If? If everything goes-”

The sound of the phone interrupted her, and Don went to answer it and almost choked from surprise when he heard who it was.

“Cassandra? Aren’t you on your- wait, is everything okay with your guy?”

“What? No, no, I’m not calling about Ajay, Ajay is fine, but Don, I can’t get hold of Dina, she’s not answering her cell phone, or at home, or at the restaurant. And Nina isn’t home either, have you seen her?”

“Uh yeah, she’s here, hold on.”

“Nina?” he said turning back to the table. “Cassandra needs to talk to Dina, it sounds important, and she’s not answering her cell phone.”

“She dropped it, it broke,” Nina said. “She hasn’t gotten a new one yet. I know she had plans with Daniel today, but I don’t know what they were. And she said something about getting together with Mary Sue for something, but I’m not sure when exactly. What’s going on?”

“Cassie? Nina said Dina might be with Daniel Pleasant, or with Mary Sue, maybe you could try one of them?”

“Thank you, I will,”

“What’s going on anyway, you sound upset?”

“Something happened.”