"You know, you could buy her a stuffed animal for way cheaper at the toy store."
Billy turned, glancing over his shoulder as he held Aly up throw another ball. "But she wouldn't have as much fun and besides, didn't you ever play these games as a kid?" He smiled, turning his attention back to his daughter as she screamed in delight as the ball finally hit the target.
"Actually, no—My parents didn't take me to these things. Dad said they were run by charlatans and thieves and, being here now, he was not wrong." Heather narrowed her eyes as she glanced around the carnival lot.
"Well, she's having fun and that's all I care about." Aly turned around, hugging the small pink unicorn. "Look," she grinned, holding the animal up to Heather.
Heather smiled. "I see that. I guess we need to come up with a name, huh?"
Aly shook her head as she took her hand. "I'll have to wait til I get home and ask Mommy. Mommy always helps me name my animals."
"I could help you name this one," Heather offered, glancing up at Billy for approval, "Since it'll be staying at our house. What do you think? Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I'll ask Mommy later….when I call her tonight." Her big, brown eyes gazed up at Billy. "I can call her tonight, right Daddy?"
"Of course you can. You know you can call Mommy anytime you want." He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the smile return to his daughter's face.
Aly was young—soon to be four, but somehow she picked up on far more than he anticipated. Though the divorce had been amicable for the most part, she still sensed the tension that existed between her parents and she did her best to navigate. It broke his heart to watch his daughter tread so carefully on around him—as if she wanted to protect his feelings—even if she was too young to realize it.
And Heather, well that was a whole other situation. It wasn't that Aly didn't like her—quite the opposite. Aly liked her quite a bit until she began to realize that Heather was playing a role, a role she had no need for.
"Look!" Billy raised his head to follow his daughter's outstretched hand. The merry go round sat in the center of the park.
"Can we ride it, Daddy?"
"Sure we can," Billy said with a smile. "Why don't we look for three horses real close together so we can all sit beside each other."
"Okay," Aly chirped happily as she began to scope out the offerings.
Billy glanced over at Heather who smiled gratefully at him. It would never be the way it was…that was once in a lifetime, but he hoped—in time—maybe they could all be happy.
"This is really lovely." Phyllis stared down at her plate as the waiter lifted the dome.
"I took the liberty of ordering for you. I hope you don't mind. In restaurants like this, I always go with the chef's specialty." Mark carefully unfolded the cloth napkin and placed it across his laps.
"Well, it looks beautiful." She reached for her fork, hesitating for a moment.
"What's the matter?"
"I just…I don't really care for capers, that's all. I wonder if we could ask the chef to prepare one without them."
Mark furrowed his brow. "You don't ask the chef to make changes to a signature dish, sweetheart. That's rude. Just try the capers…I'm sure you'll like it. He's worked in the best restaurants in the world. I'm sure his palette is more refined."
Phyllis sighed, taking a bite, the acidic brine immediately assaulting her mouth. She chewed quickly, swallowing hard before taking a drink of wine. Forcing a smile she whispered, "You're right, of course. It's lovely."
He smiled. "See, I told you it would be. Oh." He stopped for a moment, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small box. "I almost forgot. I have something for you."
"Mark." Her mouth fell open as she looked at the box. For a moment she'd been afraid it was a ring, but the box was far too large for that. The relief that flooded her body was strange, but now certainly wasn't the time to open that door. She reached out, taking the box in her hand. "You didn't need to do that."
"That's the fun part," he smiled, "I didn't need to. I get to. Go ahead, open it."
She opened the box to reveal a gorgeous pair of emerald and diamond earrings. "Mark," she breathed. "They're beautiful…really. This is too much."
"Not at all. I just closed a huge deal and this is the least I could do since I've been out of town so much. We've barely been able to see each other these last few weeks."
Phyllis blinked. How sad was it to say she'd hardly noticed. When they were together, Mark spent much of the time on the phone, taking business calls, or returning text messages that were simply too urgent to wait. There was always a reason for the distraction and every missed date or preoccupied conversation brought another gift, another promise to do better, and he did…sometimes.
Like tonight, she thought to herself, he hadn't taken a single call. In fact, she was fairly certain he hadn't even looked at his phone.
"And there's one more thing." He pulled out a small bag and handed it to her. "This is for Aly."
"Mark." Phyllis shook her head. "Honestly, this is too much."
"Look…I know you didn't really want to introduce me the other day and I'm really sorry about that. I had no idea she was at the office or I never would have stopped by like that. I know you wanted to wait until we were sure where this was going, but now that I've met her….I just wanted to do something nice for her too."
"You did…if you recall…you took us both out for pizza, and a movie, and ice cream….on a school night. I'm fairly certain you are her new favorite person. You might have even achieved superhero status."
"Well, I'm touched, but it's nothing really. Just a necklace..and no diamonds are precious stones..just a pearl."
Phyllis smiled. "She'll love it. Thank you." She reached across the table to take his hand, feeling for the first time that things might actually work out.
His head turned suddenly as he reached into his pocket. He grabbed his phone, glancing down at the screen. "I'm really sorry," he said quickly, glancing up at her, "I really have to take this. I'll just be a second."
The air left her lungs as she watched him walk away from the table. So much for hoping.
"You all set?" Billy pulled the covers up just under her arms as he softly kissed her forehead. "You talked to Mommy, you brushed your teeth, you had your story….what's left?"
"Prayers," Aly said quietly, her eyes beaming up at him.
"Right," Billy whispered, as he took a seat beside her on her bed. "You ready?" Aly nodded.
"Five little angels around my bed. One at the foot and one at the head. One to sing, and one to pray, and one to take my fears away." Billy smiled as he said he words with his daughter.
"Dear God, please bless Mommy and Daddy and Heather and Johnny and Katie and Summer and Daniel and Grandma Jill and Grandpa Colin and Mark and the man at the place who gave me the toy, and my teacher at school, and all my friends and everybody….I think that's all..Amen."
Billy sat quietly for a moment. "Aly—sweetie, who's Mark?"
Aly yawned, turning over on her side and hugging her unicorn close. "He's Mommy's friend," she said simply. "Night Night, Daddy."
Billy stood up, leaning down to kiss her head before reaching over and turning off the lamp that sat on the table beside her bed. As he gently pulled the door to a close, he tried to process the words she said. "Mommy's friend."
Heather turned as she heard his footsteps on the stairs.
"She asleep?" she asked as she saw the confused look on his face.
"Yeah, she is."
"What's the matter? You look weird." She patted a spot beside her on the couch and Billy slowly walked towards her and took a seat.
"I don't know…maybe nothing," he said quietly. "It's just…when Aly was saying her prayers she was naming all these people."
"She always does that, right? She names half of Genoa City," Heather smiled.
"Yeah, I know, but tonight she named a Mark."
Heather stopped for a moment. "Maybe it's someone from her school or maybe it's a character from a tv show or a name in a book. Who knows with kids…"
"No, she told me who it was…" His face grew serious as he looked at Heather, suddenly wondering if she was the person he should be talking to. "She said Mark was Mommy's friend."
Heather leaned forward, refilling her glass with wine and pouring a glass for Billy. "So, Phyllis has a friend, what's the big deal about that?"
"It's not just a friend, Heather. It's a male friend."
"Right…and you have a wife…"
Billy sighed. "That's not what I mean. I'm not upset because I'm jealous or anything. I just feel like it's something she should have mentioned to me. We have a child together. Aly spends half her time living with Phyllis which means if there's a man in Phyllis' life, there's a new man in Aly's life and I have a right to know what's going on in my daughter's life."
"I suppose that's true, but are you sure this man really isn't just a friend. Maybe he's someone she works with and Aly happened to meet him. Maybe he really is Mommy's friend."
"Maybe." He took a drink of wine. "Damn it."
"What?"
"The ad mock ups. I left them at the office. I need them for that meeting tomorrow." Billy leaned back against the couch, his fingers running through his hair.
"Can't you leave early enough in the morning to go by the office and pick them up?"
"I could, but I promised Aly I'd take her to school and I hate to drop her off that early." He paused. "Tell you what…I'll run out and get them. I'll be there and back in half an hour."
Heather sighed. "Alright, but hurry back. It's not often we both have a free night and a sleeping kid." She flashed a smile at him.
"You've got my word." Billy rushed out of the house, pulling the door closed quickly behind him. As he shut the door of the car, he looked in the back seat, the ad mock ups sitting in the portfolio right where he'd left them. He had something important to tend to, but it didn't have anything to do with work.
"Just a second." Phyllis pulled her robe tight around her body as she flipped on the porch light. Her heart pounded as her eyes fell on Billy. Quickly she jerked the door open. "Is Aly alright?"
Billy winced. He hadn't considered how showing up late at night, unannounced might look. "Yeah," he said softly, touching her arm, to steady her already trembling body. "She's fine. I'm sorry. I should have called. I didn't mean to scare you."
He could see her shoulders fall, the air leaving her body in a sigh of utter and complete relief. "Thank God," she breathed. "What in the hell are you doing here, Billy? You scared me to death." She stepped aside, allowing him to walk inside before closing the door.
"I need to ask you something."
"And this something was so important that it couldn't wait until the sun came up?"
"In retrospect, yes it could have waited, but I needed to know…" He looked at her, the weight of her eyes on him suddenly making him question why he was really here. "Who's Mark?"
"What?"
"Mark? Who is he?"
"How do you know about Mark?"
"Our daughter mentioned him in her prayers tonight. She said he's your friend and I was just wondering if you intend to make it a habit to introduce men to our daughter without telling me anything about them."
The look in her eyes was response enough.
"Wait," he said quickly, "I'm sorry that came out wrong."
"Oh, I think it came out exactly the way you intended it to come out and I don't think I like it one bit. For your information…Mark is a friend and, not that I owe you any explanation, he and I have gone out a few times. I had no intention of introducing him to Aly, but he happened to come by the office when she was there after school the other day. He took us both out for pizza and a movie and then out for ice cream. Aly really liked him. That's it. That's my huge crime."
"Phyllis…" He hung his head. Slapping him across the face would have been less painful. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…I shouldn't have."
"No, you shouldn't have. Now, if you're done berating me, it's late and I'd like to get some sleep."
Billy nodded, walking back towards the door. He stood in the doorway, looking back at her once more. "I really am sorry, Phyllis."
"Fine." She nodded, watching in silence as he took a few steps towards his car. "Oh, and Billy,"
He turned back towards her, his eyes hopeful.
"You don't need to worry. When I get serious with anyone, I'll let you know. For now, I'm taking things slow. I'm certainly not looking to rush into marriage or anything."
He watched as the door slammed shut and the porch light shut off.
"That went well," he muttered as he climbed back into his car.