"And here she's on the swing," Jon said. "Look at her go."
He swiped through a couple of pictures and looked up to see Masha's reaction to the pictures of his daughter. She wasn't even looking at his phone. She had turned her light blue eyes to an invisible spot on the floor while her fingers played with a strand of her long, light brown hair.
"Masha!" He said her name loudly. "You're not even looking."
She let out a loud sigh and looked at him.
"You do this everytime. You show up with 50+ new pictures of her and expect me to sit through them all," she said.
"Well, yeah," he said.
"I get it, Mox. She's your daughter and you love her. You're supposed to. But at some point you gotta understand that not everyone feels the same way about her as you do," she said.
She stood up, grabbed her vest, and put it on. She was opening the show and needed to be ready soon.
"You're supposed to care," he said.
"Not really," she said.
"How else are we supposed to date?" He asked.
He bit his tongue. The words had just flown out of his mouth before he could stop them. He didn't mean to say it like that. He was going to do things right and invite her out on a real date soon. They had been flirting for years and now that he had divorced Renee and was ready for a new relationship, Masha seemed like the right one for him.
"Date? What the fuck are you on about?" She asked.
"You know," he tried. "We always flirt."
"We used to. It was our way of having fun around each other but I stopped it the moment you became a father. It was one thing to joke around every now and then but I'm not messing with a parent. Besides, you were married so I never tried anything real. It was just our way of joking," she said.
"I'm not married anymore," he said.
"And I'm still not interested in dating you," she said. "You're so caught up in yourself that you haven't even noticed I don't respond the way I used to. You keep flirting and I just nod or shake my head. Occasionally I say okay, yes or no. I haven't flirted back with you in years, Mox."
"What?" He asked.
"Years," she repeated.
"No, that's not true," he said. "We flirt with each other. It's not just me. You... You..."
He couldn't find the words. He ran things through his head and it suddenly was clear. He was the one who continued all the flirting and he filled in the blanks in his head when he never got the response he was hoping for. He had built up an image in his head that wasn't real.
"It doesn't have to mean anything," he shook his head. "Let's start over. Let me take you out on a date."
"I'm still not interested," she said.
"Why the hell not?" He asked.
"Because you're a father," she said.
"Aren't all women supposed to love children?" He asked.
"I don't hate them but it's also a myth that we all want them. I have no interest in having children whether it's my own, someone else's or foster children. I don't want them," she said.
She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.
"You used to want me," he said.
"Keep telling yourself that," she said.
"I know you do," he said.
"We were flirting as a joke. Renee knew all about it. Her and I often got together and she said she loved it because it always made you throw her around like crazy after a show when I had pushed a few of your buttons," she said.
"And now that can be you. I'll throw you around in bed," he said.
She let out a laugh and shook her head no.
"Nothing makes me more dry than a father," she said. "I gotta go. I'm opening the show."
"No one will ever love you with that attitude!" He snarled.
"Wow, you went from butt-hurt to angry that fast," she said. "Let's forget we were ever friends. I think that's the best way to move forward from here. You better catch another ride to the airport because I don't have room in my car anymore."
She turned around and walked away. He gritted his teeth in anger but didn't say anything no matter how many hard words he wanted to shout after her in that moment. Deep inside he knew she was right. He had built up an idea in his head about them together and just assumed she wanted it too. He had just thrown a friendship out of the window because she didn't want to be with him. He waited until he was sure she was far enough away to not hear him.
"Fuck!" He shouted. "Fuck it all!"