“Do you see?” Lindsay screeched much louder than was probably appropriate for the work environment. It couldn't be helped, though. She was feeling upset and irrational, and she needed to get it out of her system. “Do you see what I'm talking about?”

“You need to calm down,” Shira responded, trying her best to placate her friend. She could understand why Lindsay was upset, but there was no way they would really be able to talk about it if she just kept pacing and screeching the way that she was.

“The minute they come up, he just goes on and on about them. Kali's such a great cook, Miriam's so smart, blah blah blah. Who fucking cares? I'm surprised he doesn't have pictures of them in his wallet!” She stopped pacing, and turned to face Shira, a look of pure horror crossing her face as she dropped into the chair behind her desk. “Oh my god, I bet he does. I bet he does have pictures of them in his wallet. Perfect little Miri and her model gorgeous mother. I hate my life.”

“Aw, honey.” Shira stood up and walked over to Lindsay so that she could place a hand on her shoulder in comfort. “You don't hate your life, you have a great life! And I totally see what you mean now, he does talk about them a lot and it is really weird, but he cares about you too! Trust me.”

“He cares about them more.” Lindsay was pouting like a 4-year-old now.

“He's known them longer, and they live on his property. He cares about them in a different way,” Shira continued to try and be the voice of reason.

“I just feel like they're this barrier in between us, and every time they're around around or he starts talking about them, I feel like I'm being left out of something. I don't know what to do about it.”

“Easy.” Shira shrugged, perching herself on Lindsay's desk.

“Easy?” Lindsay repeated, raising an eyebrow skeptically. If it were easy, she would have figured it out a long time ago and solved herself a lot of worrying.

“Yeah. Look, Justin obviously loves that little girl a lot, so all you have to do is spend some time with her, get in good with her, and show him that you care about her too. If you do that, he'll be totally impressed. Trust me.”

“I don't know...” Lindsay's voice trailed off, clearly still skeptical of Shira's solution. She wasn't a huge fan of kids to begin with, let alone kids who were standing in the way of her relationship with her boyfriend.

“Trust me,” Shira repeated. “It's fool proof.”

“Hold that thought,” Lindsay requested as her cell phone rang loudly, interrupting the conversation rudely. “Lindsay Campbell.”

“Hey, Linds, it's Justin!” Her boyfriend's voice rang out from the other end of the line.

“Hi there.” She was a little surprised to hear from him, considering he'd only left less than an hour before and they'd made plans to see each other that evening before he had to leave the next day. Justin wasn't generally the clingy, call-all-the-time type. “What's up? Couldn't wait to talk to me tonight, just had to hear my voice now?”

“Of course!” Justin laughed half-heartedly. “Actually, I, um...something kind of came up tonight.”

“Oh.” Lindsay's face fell visibly and Shira gave her a questioning look. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

“No, no, it's nothing. It's just...well, it's kind of hard to explain.”

“Try me.”

“Well, Miriam has this dance tonight. It's like, a father-daughter thing, and she doesn't have anyone to go with and she was really bummed and...you know, I can't say 'no' to her...so, I'm going with her. It starts at 7, but it'll be over by 10, so I can still come over for like a half hour or something afterwards. I have an early flight tomorrow, but seeing you before I go is really important to me and-”

“You're not her father,” Lindsay finally managed to interrupt, barely overcoming to lump that had formed in her throat upon the mere mention of Miriam getting in the way of their plans.

“I know I'm not, but she doesn't have anyone else, Linds. You understand, right? I mean, that sucks. No dad, she doesn't know her grandparents...what was I supposed to do?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Don't be mad,” Justin pleaded.

“I'm not mad. Just stop by tonight.”

“Okay, see you then.”

“Bye.” Lindsay hung up her phone and resisted the urge to throw it against the wall. Teeth gritted angrily, she turned her attention to her curious best friend. “He can't go to dinner with me tonight because he's going to some father daughter dance with Miriam. A fucking father-daughter dance, Shira!”

“Well, that's perfect!” Shira exclaimed encouragingly.

“How is that perfect?”

“What time is the dance?”

“Uh...7-10, I think he said.”

“Okay, so it's, what, 2 now? You can get to Justin's by like 2:30, and that'll give you a 3 and a half hours,” Shira calculated out loud. “Yeah, it's totally perfect.”

“Please tell me what you're even talking about,” Lindsay requested wearily. All of this was starting to wear on her.

“Oh, nothing. Just the perfect sucking up to the kid opportunity. It's a dance, so she'll need a nice dress right? You go over there, take her shopping and buy her something her mother would never be able to afford, and she'll love you forever. It's perfect.” Shira could tell that her friend was still skeptical, so she gave her yet another encouraging smile. “Seriously, Lindsay. Trust me on this. Head over there right now and buy the kid a dress. Total bonding material.”

“I don't know.” Lindsay frowned, biting down on her bottom lip subconsciously. “I should stay here, I have a ton of work to do, and that probably won't even work anyway. I know nothing about kids anyway, they're all slimy and high maintenance and-”

“Okay, dear, slightly insane best friend,” Shira cut the other woman off with a laugh. She stood up in an effort to make herself taller than Lindsay, and thus more authoritative. “You can catch up on work this weekend, and you'll do fine, just get up and go.”

“But-”

“Oh my God! Do you want this relationship to work or not?”

“Of course I want this relationship to work!”

“Then get out of here!”

* * *

“Miriam?” Kali called, making her way towards her daughter's bedroom. She stood in the doorway and peeked in, but all she could see of her daughter was two bare feet sticking out from under the bed. raising an eyebrow that Miriam couldn't see, she chuckled. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for my shoes!” Miriam's muffled voice responded. Her feet began wiggling as she pushed herself out from underneath the bed and emerged covered in dust. Kali made a mental note to make her daughter vacuum under there more often.

“Which shoes?”

“The nice ones. You know, the red ones with the strap that you bought me for my birthday?” Miriam gestured in the air as though she could somehow make the shape of red shoes with a strap and her mother would know what she was talking about.

“Ooh, yeah. Those are over at Justin's. I'm pretty sure I saw them under a chair up in the studio,” Kali informed her, plopping down on the bed next to the clothing options that Miriam had laid out for the dance. There were only two, proving that she was much more decisive than her mother, who had been known to go through every possible combination in her wardrobe before deciding what to wear.

“Ooh, yeah,” Miriam's voice echoed her mother's unintentionally. “I went up there to talk to him after my debate team thing. I remember now. Thanks!”

“No prob. So, which one are you wearing?” Kali inquired, gesturing to the two outfits next to her.

“Well,” her daughter began, popping up off the floor in an unnaturally perky manner. “I was planning to wear this one with my red sweater.” She pointed to a cream colored dress that Kali had made for her for Easter. It was a little shorter than it had been originally, considering that Miriam was growing at a alarming rate, but it still fit. “But there's a rip in the hem I didn't notice before. So I guess I'll go with the black skirt and green top.”

“Oh, I can fix that,” Kali informed her with a wave of her hand as she examined the hem in question.

“Really?” Miriam's face brightened for the twelfth time in the half hour since Justin had agreed to go to the dance with her.

“Yeah, absolutely. It'll take me like 15 minutes, but I'll have to run out and get some thread, 'cause I'm pretty sure I don't have any left in this color.” She stood back up and tossed the dress over her arm. “I'll run to the fabric store and get some. I should be back in about a half hour.

“Okay.” Miriam wrapped her arms around her mother's waist gratefully. “Thanks, Mom. You're the best.”

“No problem, babe.” Kali replied, dropping a kiss on the top of her daughter's head. “Justin went out for a bit, so don't go anywhere while I'm gone, and don't answer the door or anything until he gets back, okay?”

“Mom, this place is like the most secure house ever. It's not like anyone we don't know could get in,” her daughter pointed out.

“I know, but still...stay here, don't answer the door...it just makes me feel more comfortable, okay?”

“Okay, crazy lady.”

“I'll be back in a few.”

* * *

Lindsay was still feeling incredibly uncertain as she approached Justin's front door to put Shira's plan in motion. She didn't know how she'd let her friend talk her into this – she still maintained that it was a ridiculous idea – but she didn't have any ideas of her own, so she supposed she'd just have to trust the woman with the ideas. And Shira had never let her down before. But still, as she stood on the front porch, gazing up at the three stories of house before her, she had to take several deep breaths before she could even begin to convince herself to enter. She briefly considered just getting back in her car, driving away, and never again returning Justin's phone calls simply so she wouldn't have to deal with the issue of the cute little pseudo-daughter living in his house, but the little voice in the back of her head assured her that was a really dumb ass thing to do, and she forced herself to enter.

Justin had recently given her a key to the house, so she didn't bother ringing the doorbell, instead opting to just unlock the door and enter the foyer on her own. The light was out and it almost seemed as though no one was home, deepening her uncertainty.

“Hello?” she called, her voice echoing in the open foyer. There was no response at first, so she tried again. “Hello? Is anyone home?”

Suddenly, the light in the next room flipped on, and a pair of brown eyes peeked around the corner, looking a little frightened. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hi there.” Lindsay attempted her friendliest voice, accompanied with a rather forced smile as Miriam's familiar small frame made its way around the corner. “I'm Lindsay. You remember me, right? Justin's friend?”

“Justin's not here,” Miriam replied in response to the question. The look in her eyes had gone from fear to something resembling disapproval or dislike.

“Oh. That's...okay,” the blonde stuttered uncomfortably. She was beginning to worry that children were like dogs and could sense fear. “I'm actually not here to see Justin. I'm here to see you.”

Miriam frowned, her thin fingers reaching up to play with the cross that hung around her neck. “Why?”

“Well, because...Justin told me about this dance you guys are going to tonight, which sounds really fun and great, and...well...you need a dress right? So I thought maybe you and me could go shopping for one before the thing tonight. I thought it might be fun, and we could get to know each other and everything.” She finally began to relax slightly as she continued to talk. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. She liked shopping. She was good at shopping. It might actually work.

“I already have a dress.” Miriam immediately shattered the older woman's false sense of confidence. “My mom made it for me.”

“Oh.” The wheels in Lindsay's head were whirring at an alarming speed as she tried to figure out a way to get Miriam to do what she wanted. She was here now, and there was no way she was backing down. “Well, what about accessories? Are your ears pierced?”

“Yeah.”

“Great! We could go get you some nice new earrings, maybe a bracelet, and some stuff for your hair. come on, it'll be fun!”

“Well,” Miriam began slowly, becoming a bit more convinced at the mention of new earrings. “I don't think I should. Mom and Justin are both gone right now and Mom told me not to leave, and her cell phone's broken right now so I couldn't call her and-”

“I'll leave a note,” Lindsay interrupted. “Come on. I'm sure your mom won't mind, as long as you're with a trusted adult.”

“Yeah. Okay. I guess you're right,” Miriam agreed, easily swayed by this logic and the temptation of accessories.

* * *

When I was a kid, I used to dream a lot about what it would be like to have a father. I always jealous of the kids who had them, you know? I was even jealous of the kids who had deadbeat dads who would only show up every once in a while, or the kids whose dads had died or something, because at least they had them. I mean, I had one, obviously, since I wouldn't exist without him, but I had never even met him. Not once. As far as I know, he wasn't even there when I was born. I'd never even seen a picture of him growing up. Mom described him to me and answered all my questions when I asked – his name was Sean Wilder, he lived next door to her growing up, he was three years older than she was, and he left Hawaii the month before I was born. He was 18, just graduated high school, and he wanted to travel. So he did. Mom and I weren't going to stand in his way. She never told me that part. Nothing that made me feel like it was somehow my fault or that he had purposely left to get away from me or something, but I knew. I mean, obviously, he was never there right? Clearly I was in the way. Or I would have been if Mom had tried to force him to be in my life or something.

Eventually I stopped asking about him, though. There was no point. Mom always told me I was free to contact him whenever I wanted to, but I didn't want to be the one to do the contacting. I wanted him to contact me. I wanted him to want to meet me. I didn't want to be around him if he didn't want to be around me.

The funny thing is, I think Mom noticed when I stopped asking about my father so much, but I don't think she ever realized why it happened. It was about a year after we moved in with Justin. I don't think she ever made the connection.

Then again, neither did I until years later. At the time, I just knew that I didn't feel so abandoned and alone anymore. I mean, it still hurt that my dad wasn't around, but it was more like the pain of a bruise that's nearly fadied instead of the pain of someone hitting me repeatedly in the head with a bat. Something about having a semi-decent male role model in my life dulled the pain a lot. Kind of like a really strong pain killer, but without the unpleasant side effects.

* * *

“Okay, I would like to announce that I just ran about 3 hours of errands in just under an hour and a half,” Justin boasted as he re-entered his home after going to pick up his dry cleaning (they had the shirt he wanted to wear to Miriam's dance), stop by his accountant's office, and stop by one of the studios he'd been working on to go over a few minor adjustments that had come to him in the middle of the night. He was well aware that he could be talking to no one, but he saw a light on in the kitchen, so he headed that way.

“I know, I'm amazing. This sort of accomplishment takes a special talent that even I can not explain. Please, hold your applause.” He stopped in his tracks, ending his facetious bragging session as he came upon Kali standing in the kitchen, phone in hand and tears streaming down her face. Within seconds he was by her side. “Whoa, what's wrong?”

“I-I-I,” she stammered through her tears, unable to get the words out in between her heavy, uneven breaths. “I went out for a few minutes to get some stuff, and I...I...and...I came back and...I can't find Miri.”

“What?” Justin exclaimed loudly, more than a little surprised by the way that sentenced had ended. “What do you mean you can't find her?”

“I left and I told her not to go anywhere and not to answer the door or anything, and I came back and she's no where to be found!” The distraught mother was still crying, but her breathing had evened out slowly as Justin subconsciously rubbed his hand on her back soothingly and she was having an easier time forming cohesive sentences. “No note, nothing.”

“Well, did you look everywhere?” Justin asked, beginning to feel a little panicked himself. He paused to remind himself that his house had extensive security, including cameras, gates, and part time security guards and that there was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for Miriam's disappearance.

“Of course I did!” Kali was a little irritated at the suggestion. “What, do you think I'm stupid or something?”

“Of course I don't think you're stupid, Kal, I'm just trying to figure this thing out. I assume you've called around to the neighbors and stuff?”

“Yeah. I even called a couple of our old neighbors in Watts and some of her friends from school. No one's seen her.” She wiped her eyes, glad that she had opted not to wear mascara that morning. “You know where she is, don't you?”

“Um, obviously not.”

“She's with that boy. Max,” Kali spat out the name venomously. “I know it. I just know it. All of this dance stuff was just a ploy to get us out of the house doing stuff for her so she could sneak out with him, and I don't know why because I am a perfectly understanding mother and I told her should could see him as long as she was honest with me about it and why doesn't she listen to me? What did I do wrong?” She collapsed onto the stool next to her as if worn out by her own tirade.

“You did nothing wrong,” Justin assured her, resuming his soothing back rubbing. He paused to consider the idea of Miriam running off with a boy. “Do you really think she's with him?”

“Where else could she be?”

“Well, that's okay, then. She's probably safe. I mean, they're just kids, right? How much damage could they do? They're probably just out bowling or something,” he rambled on, trying to convince himself that this was not a situation to be worrying to much about.

“Bowling?” Kali couldn't help letting out a short laugh. “Seriously, Justin? 'They're just kids'? Do the words 'pregnant at 15' mean anything to you?”

Justin's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and he grabbed his keys off the counter where he had tossed them upon approaching Kali. “Okay, that's it, we have to go find them.”

“Yes. Yes. I like the way you think,” Kali agreed, nodding her head fervently and following him towards the door.

“We'll go to the kid's house first, do we know where he lives? Then we can check parks and stuff and when we find them, I can kill this Max kid, right? Totally. I'm going to beat the shit out of him.”

“You're like one of my top five favorite people right now.”

As they reached the front door, however, it swung open and the little girl in question entered, followed shortly by Justin's girlfriend, who was practically buried in shopping bags.

“Miri! Oh, thank God!” Kali flew at her daughter immediately, a rush of air flowing out of her lungs as she sighed in relief. She wrapped her arms around Miriam, practically suffocating her in the process.

“What's with you?” Miriam's voice was muffled due to the hug of death, but Kali still understood every word.

“Where the hell did you go? I told you not to leave, what were you thinking?” It came out sounding like less of a reprimand than she'd intended, as tears of relief were beginning to flow down her cheeks.

“Lindsay left a note.”

“There was no note,” Kali contradicted her daughter, slowly turning to face Lindsay as she spoke. She hadn't even fully registered Lindsay's presence until Miriam mentioned her.

“Oh, don't be mad at her,” Lindsay urged Kali, dropping the shopping bags on the floor by the door and closing it behind her. “I took her shopping and I forgot to leave a note, totally my fault.”

“I'm not mad at her.” Kali immediately felt a surge of anger towards the blonde's nonchalant tone. “Why did you take her shopping?”

“Oh, I just thought she might like a new dress for the dance,” Lindsay explained brightly.

“She has a dress. I made it for her. And why are you taking my daughter anywhere without even bothering to tell anyone? You don't just take someone's kid without even leaving a note or waiting to see if it's okay or something!” she ranted to Lindsay's increasingly dumbstruck face. Kali couldn't remember the last time she'd felt such a mixture of being angry and insulted, and she didn't particularly appreciate it.

“I told you, I forgot,” Lindsay snapped with a glaring lack of apology.

“You don't forget! She's 13-years-old! You don't just forget to tell someone that you're taking their 13-year-old daughter out of the house! I barely even know you!”

“I-”

“Stay away from my kid,” Kali snapped, and that was the end of that. Giving Miriam's arm a slight tug, she led her daughter out of the foyer and back to their house, leaving Justin and Lindsay standing alone in the front of his home.

“Well,” Lindsay huffed. “That was an overreaction!”

“What?” Justin replied, having been too dumbstruck to speak up until this point.

“You'd think I took Miriam out on a boat and encouraged her to jump into the ocean or something. I took her shopping, big deal!”

“Linds, you just took her without telling anyone. You should have at least called me or something. We were worried sick,” Justin explained as calmly as he could, feeling a bit irritated with his girlfriend himself.

“Oh, so this is my fault?” Lindsay clarified incredulously. She rested her hands on her hips defiantly.

“Well, yeah. You're the one who did it. Miriam's just a kid, and you told her you'd leave a note. It's not her fault you didn't. You're supposed to be the responsible one here.”

“Unbelievable!” The delicate hands went flying from the hips and up into the air in disbelief. “I try to do something nice and all I get is people freaking out on me about it!”

“Lindsay, of course she freaked out!” Justin's voice was filled with exasperation. “She came home and her daughter was gone without a trace. How would you feel if you didn't know where your kid was?”

“I don't know, Justin!” Lindsay's screeching made its second appearance of the afternoon. “I don't know how I would feel, because I don't have a kid! We didn't all get knocked up at 15!”

“Come on, Linds-”

“No, I will not come on!” She slung her purse over her shoulder, fulling preparing to stomp out of the house as soon as she was done with her little tirade. “All I ever hear about is that fucking maid and her fucking perfect daughter, so I was trying to be nice and be a part of that part of your life, but apparently I'm not allowed in because it's some secret club that only servants and their worthless little brats can join.”

“Hey,” Justin tried to interject, but Lindsay just kept talking.

“But you know what? Whatever. I don't even care, because I am so sick of that stupid bitch and her little bastard daughter and you acting like she's so special and worthy of your attention just because mommy couldn't keep her legs shut!”

“Hey!” This time the interjection was a lot louder and angrier as Justin's face reddened, outraged at his girlfriend's words. “Get the hell out of my house.”

“Excuse me?” Lindsay asked, appalled.

“Get out. No one talks about my girls that way in my house. Get the hell out.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

She slammed the door behind her, knocking over all of the shopping bags on the way.