Desiree was still playing with the dogs when I finished eating and showed no signs of letting them go. I was eager to speak with Sophia and get some clues about the missing parts of Dub’s story, so I encourage Desi to go to bed early and rest up for her big day. Surprisingly, she did not protest and went upstairs. I gave her a moment to change before following her.
“Everything packed for school?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you have your schedule?”
“It’s right here. They emailed it.”
“Good. Good. Don’t forget to see the principal when you get there. Are you sure you don’t want us to come?”
“I’ll be fine, Daddy.”
I sensed I was getting annoying, so I dropped it.
“Alright. Just checking. What do you want for breakfast?”
“Whatever is in the fridge is fine! You don’t have to make a big thing out of it.”
I put my arm around her.
“But I do.”
“I love you, Des. You’re gonna be great. Sleep well, okay?”
“Goodnight.”
I went back downstairs and found Sophia waiting patiently in the kitchen.
“Is she okay?” she asked.
I snorted.
“You know she is. She said we don’t have to make it a big thing. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she wanted to be rid of me.”
“Silly. So, what’s going on?”
The question un-paused all the previous questions I had before seeing about my daughter, and I was unsure of where to even begin. Hypotheticals always seemed to do the trick, so I tried one
“If I was a bad father, would you leave me?”
“What in the world are you talking about?” she asked.
“That’s a real question. If Des grew up to be the brat of all brats, and it was my fault, would you kick me out?”
“Ummm…”
She thought about it for a long time, squinting her eyes and staring off into the corner of the room.
“I,” she began. “Ruining my child would be quite hurtful, and I’d definitely be very angry with you for a while. Things may change between us, but…” She let out a long sigh. “I’m not sure I’d consider separation, though. At least not right away, maybe.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too.”
“Where is all this coming from?”
“Did Maia say anything to you when they were here? Like…problems they’re having?”
“Problems? Not really. She mentioned some personal things, but nothing about their relationship. Honestly, it sounded like she was going through a midlife crisis. She mentioned struggling with her purpose and how to manage all her responsibilities while still being true to self.”
“Hmph. That sounds very familiar.”
“What’s this about, Luca? What happened??”
I inhaled and let out a long, exasperated breath.
“She asked Dub to leave.”
Sophia gasped.
“No! That’s awful!”
“Yeah. I know he’s not telling me everything, and I don’t know what to think. It doesn’t make sense! I just can’t see her throwing him out because Tami is a brat. There has to be more.”
“I agree. I remember you two talking about this.”
“I knew you were listening!”
“How could I not! You were right there!”
“I’m just messing with you.”
Thinking about my friend’s disintegrating marriage was killing my vibe, so did a 180. We couldn’t solve this in one night with the little information we had, so why continue talking about it?
“I have two very cool ideas,” I said.
“Let’s hear them!”
“Okay, first, Love Day is coming up, and I’ve been wanting to do a big family vacation ever since the kids could walk. What if we rent a big house and spend the weekend in Sulani?”
“Okaaay, I like this plan, but what does it have to do with Love Day?”
“I’m thinking, we get Less to watch the kids while we go on a date Friday night. Then Saturday, I take the boys, and you and Less take the girls, and we can do the woohoo talks. After that, we can do whatever. Then, Sunday is Beach Cleanup Day, so you and I can take all the kids to the beach while Less does whatever she wants.”
“Woohoo? Already??”
“I know. I’m not looking forward to it, but I just know Less is gonna make me talk to them, anyway. Plus, kids today are a lot more grown than we were. It’s probably not too early.”
“Yeah, you’re right. What was the other idea?”
“Alright, I know we said we would save the lottery money for the kids, but I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. A million simoleons is a TON of cash! Do we really want to give kids fresh from high school hundreds of thousands of dollars?”
“Well…when you put it that way, maybe we do need to rethink it.”
“Exactly. We have a little bit of time to consider how to do it, but in the meantime, I think we deserve to enjoy our money, especially since we have more time. We can start with our house dilemma.”
“I’ve been thinking about it, too. I’m guessing you have an idea?”
“We love both our houses, yet would prefer not to live here anymore. What if we renovated our other house and add some elements we like about this house? We could have the contractors work on it while we’re away and move in when we’re back.”
“I think I like this plan. Tell me what you’re thinking of doing.”
“Well, for starters, we could…”
