Cat In A White Tie And Tails

“Why wouldn’t I?” Rafi said. “Did you ever ask yourself that?”

Molina put the cold wet side of the beer bottle against her temple. “No.”

“Why didn’t I see what a crazy, judgmental witch you were?”

That roused her, wanting to defend herself, but he went on too quickly.

“Why didn’t you see what a controlling, manipulative bastard I was. You wanted to be a police detective, didn’t you?”

“We weren’t like that,” she said, finally sitting up and setting the beer bottle on the sofa table.

“No kidding.”

Her deep, frustrated exhalation stirred the hair still hanging forward over her face. “I panicked.” She eyed him through the defense of her veiling hair. “I hadn’t planned on getting pregnant.”

“Like I had?”

“I couldn’t understand. We’d always been careful. I thought. There was a pinhole in my diaphragm.”

“Oh. Evidence of tampering. You want to go to the prosecutor with that today?”

“Circumstantial,” she admitted. “But I’d been so careful—”

“Yeah, I get it. You were the ‘little mama’ to your however many stepbrothers and sisters after your mom remarried when you were a toddler. Enough already on the kids. I get that. And I didn’t want to be tied down either. You do remember that about me?”

“We were being pitted against each other at work. Would the system reward the minority guy or the pushy woman?”

“We had a lot in common. We shouldn’t have let them use it against us.”

“I panicked. Having a kid made me even more vulnerable on the job, not to mention my druthers.”

“Did you consider doing what you accused me of not wanting, ending the pregnancy?”

“None of your business.”

“Carmen, listen to yourself.”

“Yes. Okay? I couldn’t do that, anyway. I wasn’t looking for anything like that. I was probably a hormonal mess by the time I realized what was happening.”

“So you ran. Did you ever think what that might do to me?”

She shook her head. “Try being pregnant. It’s all about you and the baby. I’d decided you’d won the rookie contest and wanted me at home and pregnant, like my stepdad wanted my mom to be, even if it took my child labor to keep the family fairy tale going.”

Rafi didn’t say anything more, just pulled out his smartphone. Molina was thinking if she saw another one of those today, she would scream.

“Okay, we’re caught up on our past. What about Mariah’s future?” he asked.

“You can’t seriously be saying it’s anything more than school and good grades and some career direction in choosing a college.”

“Would that scenario excite you?”

“No, but I had to leave home and put myself through a criminal justice degree on my own. I had no support. Nada. I can afford to provide Mariah with what she needs. If you want to informally help underwrite that and won’t be interfering, I’m okay with it.”

Rafi just laughed. “This is sounding like a two-party deal in Congress these days. You get all the authority and time with our daughter, I get to provide underwriting.”

“What do you want, outings with her at the Circus Circus Adventuredome? All you can eat brunches off the Strip? Twice a month, say.”

“Carmen, Carmen, Carmen.” He watched her flinch at every repeat of the name only her intimates dared use, like Detective Morrie Alch on a good day, smiling almost tenderly at her obvious unease. “That would have been fine a few years ago, when Mariah was a kid. Now? No. Mariah is a young adult and she’d run away screaming from those lame, useless outings, and you know it.”

She did, but didn’t admit it.

“Let me help her with her dreams, Carmen, like I did with you those many years ago.”

“Singing? I never went anywhere with that,” Molina said.

“You still could. I was pretty good as your agent-manager, and nowadays, everybody’s their own record mogul.”

She thought, desperately seeking wiggle room.

“You’d keep her away from sleazos like that Crawford Buchanan leech,” he said.

She kept silent.

“And, the real sweetness of the deal is that you don’t have to introduce me as her father, just as the guy from the teen TV reality show house. She almost won that talent show.”

“If that obnoxious Zoe Chloe Ozone hadn’t distracted everybody with such a ridiculous rap number.”

Rafi smiled. “Come to think of it, Temple’s persona had that Lady Gaga freak thing going before Lady Gaga became a household name. What do you say? I’d find Mariah a really good voice coach, help her make some credible YouTube showcases. Drain off some of that incredible energy that could get her into trouble on her own. And,” he added, “she likes me.”

Molina had seen that, and it worried her. “You won’t expect paternal credit.”

“She’s not ready, you’re not ready. I’m not ready.”

“But … if we keep that from her, she’ll be angry at both of us if it should … when it came out.”

Rafi smiled to himself, as if thinking of something else, before meeting her pointed gaze head-on. “Yes, that takes the burden off you being the only liar in the house.”

Bingo! He was right, dammit. “It was a necessary evasion.”