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Aimee is a good girl.
She’s been a good girl her entire life, because there’s nothing else she’s been taught to be.
Her father left her when she was three, because her mother caught him sleeping with another woman. When Aimee was fifteen and her mother was crying on the back porch with a Long Island iced tea, she learned her father wasn’t doing it because he loved the woman or because he wanted sex. He was doing it for cocaine.
That hurt Aimee worse. Clearly, it hurt her mother pretty badly too.
Aimee’s mother is named Georgia, but she goes by Georgie. She’s a good girl too, she’s always been a good girl. She was younger than Aimee’s father when they met, but they’d fallen in love instantly. Georgie had ignored Daniel’s failed marriage and previous kid and married him.
They’d divorced in four years, and Georgie had made the rules clear: Daniel had to stay the fuck out of Aimee’s life.
Aimee considers herself the daughter of a single mother most of the time. Georgie raised her. Georgie took her to the doctor when she got mono. Georgie worked long hours to send Aimee to private school. Georgie sewed her prom dress for her. Georgie gave her away when she married Henry.
What did Daniel do? Send money, and cards. Take Aimee when Georgie needed someone to look after her for a few days, and even then only when Georgie knew he was sober. Introduce her to Kate, which was probably the best thing to come out of her relationship to Daniel.
Aimee learned at five that she was expected to be the good girl. She liked pink and watching Disney movies, and Georgie was always tired so she was always helping her. So Aimee learned that she was the sort of girl who helped people and wasn’t an inconvenience.
At fourteen she got her first period and decided she was a woman now. She started straightening her hair, blonde like her mother’s but curly like her father’s. She wore makeup and clothes that didn’t look like a little girl playing dress up. She got a job helping at a plant shop. Georgie could use the money help.
At fifteen she got her first boyfriend. At fifteen and a half he called her a slut in front of the whole school and she had to walk through the halls every day to looks and jeers. But Aimee is a good girl and she’s not a slut, so she kept her head high.
Aimee watched her mother. She watched her mother work hard, so Aimee worked hard. She watched her mother break down whenever Daniel Molloy wrote an article she read. So she broke down when she saw anything relating to her exes. Her mother tells her not to get caught up in anything bad, so Aimee doesn’t get caught up in anything bad.
She turned eighteen and went to UC Santa Cruz. That’s when she started getting in contact with her sister.
Kate is eight years older than her, and the sort of person Aimee never would have talked to in school. She keeps her hair short, even though it used to be long and natural when Aimee met her. They met up every other weekend for coffee even though Kate’s already got a functioning career in government.
There wasn’t much keeping Aimee and Kate connected at first, just the invisible thread of the same blood. But they got to know each other, and soon Kate was who Aimee went to with each new thing in her life.
Aimee met Henry at twenty. They got married when she was twenty-two. Georgie told them that she believed Aimee would have a better marriage than them. Kate organized everything, and everyone ignored that she downed free drinks at every chance in return.
Daniel came to the wedding. He sat in the back, because no one had actually expected him to come. He gave her a necklace that came from one of his interview subjects and enough money to pay for her and Henry’s house in Maryland. So she moved away from California happily.
After the wedding, she made it clear to Henry she didn’t want children. She held his hands across from the kitchen table and explained, in detail, her father. He had known this before the marriage, but she told him why. She’d been raised by a single mother, and it had almost killed Georgie. Her father was never there, and it had hurt. It had hurt even worse when she watched Kate and realized that him being there wasn’t much better.
Henry agreed, because Henry was what was best for Aimee.
And Aimee was happy, until her period didn’t come. Immediately, Henry was searching up abortion clinics and assuring her that he would stand by her and support her when she decided to terminate the pregnancy. He said that he understood, and even though he had once wanted children, he loved Aimee more than the idea of fatherhood.
And it was the way he said, “I think Planned Parenthood is probably our best bet,” that made Aimee decide to keep the baby.
Or babies, as she found out when they go to the doctor. And then, in nine months, she held Reagan and Colton.
She swore, secretly, away from Henry and Georgie, that she would never make Reagan be a good girl.
And Aimee was happy. Henry was good, nothing like her father. Away from her, Kate was clearly having issues. She was almost always drunk or drinking when she called Aimee. But Aimee helped where she could, and she was happy.
She tried not to think about her father, and then the damn memoir came out.
Aimee will never read the memoir, since she doesn’t want to see herself through his eyes. He barely knows her. She let Henry read it, but forbade the mention. But that didn’t stop anyone else from mentioning it to her. Sometimes, it was about her. Sometimes, it was about her sister. Mostly it was about her father.
She learned more about her father through random strangers than she ever learned from him.
Sometimes she thinks they have it backwards. It’s supposed to be the first child from the first marriage that never saw their father. But Daniel kept crawling back to Kate and Alice. Almost every problem Kate has, Aimee can see the reflection of in their father. It’s supposed to be the second kid from the second marriage that he sticks around. But Georgie put her foot down. So Kate got what Aimee avoided.
Sometimes, and she hates it, she’s jealous. She grew up with a mom she almost never got to see. And Kate at least got their father some of the time. She knows it’s wrong, because clearly it fucked Kate up. Clearly Kate is doing worse than her. But Aimee still dreams of having a father.
She learned to live with it, though. So she lived with it. She ignored the memoir. She ignored everything. She mourned when her father got Parkinson’s, but he’s barely her father.
And then he published vampire erotica. And then Kate sends her a TikTok of her father with a much much younger man.
Aimee is sitting at her desk, working on a client’s taxes for him. Henry has the kids out at the park, so she can get some peace and quiet. She stares at the TikTok. Her father and his arm around the boy’s waist loops over and over.
WTF????? She texts Kate. He can’t be more than 25. Jesus.
Aimee opens Safari and starts Googling. ‘Daniel Molloy’ mainly brings up things about the book and ‘Daniel Molloy partner’ mainly brings up things about her mom and Kate’s mom, but ‘Daniel Molloy boyfriend’ hits the jackpot almost immediately. She scrolls through articles and X posts, eyebrows furrowing deeper with each sentence.
OK so they’ve been spotted together a lot? There’s speculation they’re living together, she texts Kate. And then, He took the boy to some fancy publishing party + he’s been seen in the dressing rooms for a few interviews.
She scrolls a little bit more until she opens a video. She’s expecting something like the TikTok, some small display of public affection. Instead, shot straight through a car window, she’s treated to the sight of her dad necking with the boy. The way too young boy.
She sends it to Kate so her sister can suffer the same way she did.
She knows what Kate’s going to suggest, which is calling Dad and asking to meet up. They’ve both been worried since he published a fiction book. So she doesn’t even ask Kate.
She opens her text thread with Daniel. It’s sparse. He texts her on her birthday and the twins. She texts him on his birthday and Father’s Day. It feels weird to break this routine. But she still types out, Hey, we should meet up. Us and Kate. Since she has that big bill she’s working on, do you think you’d be able to fly out to California? You’re on a book tour anyways, right?
He doesn’t respond, but she smiles when after a few minutes Kate asks her if they should do that. I already texted him and proposed a meeting between the three of us. I know you’re in Cali and he’s in NYC and I’m in Maryland, but we can fly there.
God, I wish we grew up together, Kate responds.
Aimee snorts. God no. She would be a horrible sister. I’m glad we didn’t. I’d be much worse as a sister than a friend
Her phone buzzes. She looks down, expecting a witty response from Kate. Instead, there’s a little dot next to her father’s initials. Sounds good… I can buy plane tickets. Can you and Kate do this Thursday?
She texts Kate to ask and explains he’s paying. She agrees, so Aimee texts Daniel and tells him that they can meet up. He sends her a thumbs up gif.
Jesus.
There’s still time before Henry brings Reagan and Cole home, so she finishes the clients taxes. Math is easy for her, so she lets herself think as she works with the numbers. She’s only got a few days before she flies to Sacramento. She’ll have to make sure the kids are fine. Henry’s a good father, present and a parent, but she hates leaving Reagan and Cole alone.
And Henry has work, so Reagan and Cole won’t have someone here most of the time…
She casts that aside. Leaving her children for the weekend because she’s checking in on her father who has a chronic illness isn’t the same as why she never saw her father. She’ll come back. They’ll be fine.
When they get home, she pulls Henry into their bedroom.
“I’m flying to Sacramento on Thursday.”
“That’s going to be an expensive flight,” he comments. Not telling her not to, just saying.
“Dad’s paying.”
Henry looks concerned. He sits on the edge of their bed and she sits next to him. He takes her hands. “Are you alright? I know you don’t like talking to him.”
“I’m fine.” Aimee smiles at him, trying to look as loving as she feels.
“Is he alright?”
“He’s a seventy year old man with Parkinson’s, I’d be surprised if he was. But between the book and the illness and the fact he’s dating this boy, Kate and I think we should talk to him. So we’re flying out to meet him. Confront him? Put him in care? I don’t really know.”
Henry pulls her into a hug. “Okay. I’ll always be a phone call away, okay?”
Aimee buries her head into his shoulder. He smells like his cologne and the flowers in the park and a little bit like sweat. He smells like home. “I know.” His hand rubs her back. “How do I tell the kids?”
“I’ve gone away for work trips before, and they get it. Babe, we agreed that I was their parent, not their babysitter. They can handle having just their dad for a weekend.” And then, because Henry gets her, “you aren’t your dad because you’re off being a good person.”
Good person always sounds a lot better than good girl.
She spends the days before she goes packing and helping her kids. Henry reminds her, each time, that he’s their parent too. Aimee isn’t Georgie. Reagan and Cole won’t be alone. Henry is here, he’s good, he loves her.
And she loves him so much.
Since Kate is going to pick both her and her father up, she forgoes dressing super comfortably for the plane. She knows she should, but she hasn’t seen Daniel in years. She wants to look good. She wants to let him know he hasn’t affected her at all. She wants him to see her as an accomplished woman. So she tucks in her pink blouse to light blue jeans and chooses her nicest looking comfortable shoes.
“That’s not a plane outfit,” Henry says when she emerges.
“I know, but it’s a meeting my father outfit.” She self consciously adjusts the collar. “Kate and I are meeting him straight at the airport, I won't have time to change.” Plus, she still hasn't booked a hotel room. She figures she'll either stay at Kate's or make her father pay for one.
“Well, you look nice.” He kisses her cheek and calls for the kids. Reagan and Cole are fourteen, so they drag their feet coming into the living room. Still, when they hug her goodbye, their hugs are tight and mournful. She kisses Reagan’s blonde curls and Cole’s floppy black hair.
“Tell Aunt Kate hi for me,” Reagan says, “And ask her if she can help me with Model UN and debate.”
“Of course, sweetie.”
Aimee boards the plane. She’s in an aisle seat, next to a teenager flying alone for the first time. They're a bundle of nerves, thumb anxiously running over their sleeve. She considers introducing herself to them until she notices the book they're reading. Red highlight marking up the pages, the top of each even page says Interview With The Vampire and every odd page says Daniel Molloy.
She knows that she's Aimee Tyler now, and that even before she was Aimee Tyler she introduced herself as Aimee Kirby, her mother's name. But there's something lingering there. Aimee Tyler is in her father’s memoir, after all.
So Aimee spends the flight sipping at Coke Zero and reading Project Hail Mary while the kid makes little annotations in her father's book. The pretzels are underwhelming. If her father was going to shell out for a too soon flight, couldn't he at least have got her first class.
When she lands in Sacramento she couldn't be more grateful.
Kate waits by the baggage carousels. Aimee jumps in excitement when she sees her, running over and throwing the arm not holding a bag over Kate's shoulder. Kate laughs and hugs her back.
“Hey, Aimee.”
Aimee pulls away from her with a smile. “I’ve gotta wait for my checked bags. Are we just gonna wait for Dad?”
Kate pulls up her sleeve to check her Apple Watch. She's also dressed well. Like Aimee, meeting Dad is something that can't be done in day to day clothes. She's got a jade blazer on with patching pants. White zig-zags over black on her button up. “Yeah, I figured we would. I can wait for your bag if you want to run to the restroom.”
Aimee went on the plane, but it's a kind offer. Plus, she wants to fix her blouse. She knows it's wrinkled and her hair must just be starting to mess.
“Thanks. It’s hot pink with a green ribbon tied on the handle, which is stupid, but it’s easier to find on the carousel. Uhh, I think it’s carousel six.” Aimee looks around the wide room and nods in the direction of the carousel.
“Got it,” Kate says, and they part ways. Aimee enters the bathroom, forgoing the stalls for standing in front of the sinks and mirror. She tugs at her blouse until the wrinkles lessen, wetting the fabric a little to work them out. She pats down frizzing hair with water. She even blotts away the oil shining on her face. When she's satisfied she looks the best someone can after a flight, she goes to find Kate.
Kate stands to the side with her bag. She smiles when she sees Aimee. Aimee approaches her. The first thing that Kate asks her after passing the bag over is about her kids. That's an easy topic of conversation. Aimee loves her kids, and loves talking about them.
She tells Kate about how Reagan is getting into politics. Her freshman daughter is already looking at Ivies and wondering if her aunt can help her get a leg up in the political world. She talks about how Cole is getting into theatre. Reagan's come out a lesbian, and Cole is hanging around one boy from his school a lot.
“The queerness only missed you,” Kate laughs. She looks happier than before, before she admitted she was going to AA and getting sober. She doesn't even smell like smoke anymore.
“Are you still smoking?”
“No.” Kate fails to surreptitiously sniff her blazer. “Does this jacket smell of smoke?”
“No, that's why I was asking.” Aimee’s leg jitters. “Have you read his new book?” She asks, thinking about the teenager next to her on the plane. She hadn't read it before, but she'd glimpsed a few quotes over the teen’s shoulder. Sex, violence, abuse, fatherhood.
What did Daniel have to say about fatherhood?
Hopefully his main character, that Louis, was a bad father too.
“I've never read any of Dad's books. I don't know. I just don't care? I especially won't read his memoir. I don't need to see myself from his perspective.”
Fuck, Aimee understands. She can't stomach the thought. “Yeah, I get it. Same. I've seen the quotes from it.”
“Do people send you snippets about you? Because people send me snippets about me all the time, and I'm so sick of it.”
“Oh my God, yeah! How do people think that's, like, okay?” Aimee remembers reading a snippet about what he found sexy about her mother that someone sent her unbidden. She remembers reading a snippet about how, as much as he wished he got to see her, he thinks she was better off without him in her life. She doesn't know what's worse, that he's right or that she doesn't agree.
“People are fucking freaks man,” Kate says before freezing. “Oh god, I hope no one heard me say that. Can't say shit without risking my career.” Kate's a lot like their father. Career driven, worried the most about that. But she always looks like she hates it.
Aimee doesn't know how she misses her father's voice. It's recognizable enough. Even without him there in her childhood, she watches him on TV. He's got this dry bitter turn to his voice that other people don't have. But she doesn't realize that the man having a quiet public argument is Daniel until Kate elbows her and indicates them.
Her father walks along the linoleum floors with the boy he's been seeing right next to him. The two of them fight in hushed voices, like that conceals that they're fighting at all.
The gist of the fight seems to be this: the boy booked the same flight as her father and followed him to Sacramento without Daniel knowing. Daniel doesn't want him here, doesn't want the threat to his relationship with his daughters. The boy doesn't want to be left alone. He also doesn't want Daniel going on a plane (which, what?). Daniel doesn't like the boy acting like a keeper, probably because her dad doesn't like to acknowledge he's sick. Also probably because no one wants to think about the age difference. And the boy blames Daniel for getting kicked out of his house.
Aimee hopes to god that the house he was locked out of wasn't his parents’ house. Looking at the boy, she's not so sure.
Aimee doesn't want to hear any more of this, so she coughs conspicuously. That doesn't work, so she raises her hand and calls out, “Dad!”
Daniel turns around and grins. He heads over, the boy following at his heels. His bags are set on the floor and Aimee feels herself being pulled into a hug. She can't remember the last time Daniel hugged her, if at all. She doesn't move. Neither does Kate.
When he pulls away, he rests a hand on each of their shoulders. “Katie, Aimes, it's good to see you. I've missed you girls.”
The boy nudges Daniel's bags closer with feet and stands next to their father. His hand enters Daniels back pocket. Ew. Gross.
“Hello Governor Molloy, Mrs. Tyler. It's wonderful to meet you.”
Even though they were just fighting, even though the boy doesn't smile, Daniel wraps an arm around his waist. He even smiles at the boy how he never smiled at their mothers. “I wasn't hoping to do introductions this soon, but this is Armand.”
That's… Aimee swears she saw the name Armand over the shoulder of that teen, highlighted in red ink. But what does she know?
“I'm his assistant,” Armand says, which is possibly the most boldfaced lie Aimee has ever heard. And she has children.
Luckily, Daniel doesn't entertain this. “He's my partner. Armand. Armand, I know you googled them, but these are my daughters. Kate, my eldest, and Aimee, the youngest.”
“Pleasure,” Armand says, like he's not some sort of child. He speaks like he's a century removed. Even his accent sounds old.
“Nice to meet you,” Aimee says with a smile. She's good at being civil. She's part of the PTA. You learn it there.
“Yeah, great to meet you.” Kate shakes Armand's hand while Aimee looks at him. He’s dressed to the nines, all expensive tailored clothing. And he's wearing sunglasses. So is her dad.
Who wears sunglasses inside?
Armand pulls a phone out of his pocket. It's the latest iPhone, and he taps at it for a second before saying, “the sun has set.” Aimee looks at Kate, who meets her eye with a matching baffled look.
“I found a good restaurant we can go to?” Kate offers, tentative. Which is fair, because with the way Daniel's been acting, he could be on keto and they wouldn't know.
Armand frowns. “Not your apartment?”
“You guys have hotel rooms, right?” Kate asks, which is a fair question. Her apartment might be a mess, but there's also the pressing fact that no one wants to share an apartment with their dad and his too-young boyfriend. What if they decide to have sex? That might scar the both of them.
Armand gives Daniel a salacious look. “We certainly have a hotel room,” he says, voice leeching with innuendo.
“Stop acting like a pervert,” Daniel scolds him.
Like Armand is the pervert here. Armand could be begging Daniel to fuck him in public and tie him up and he would be incapable of being the pervert. Their father is the pervert.
“No one here thinks I'm the pervert, Daniel.”
Aimee feels a tension headache building. She'd take Cole trying to wear a mesh top to the hell that this is. “Can we leave?” She asks so that she can at least be in this hell somewhere without fluorescent lighting and people everywhere. “I hate airports.” To seem more nonchalant, she messes with her nails. They match her blouse and are impeccable.
Kate nods and starts walking so they can't be drawn into staying longer. Aimee walks beside, hauling her suitcase. She knows that someone should probably help Daniel. But the boy can do that. If Daniel is going to date a young man while having Parkinson's, the young man can help him.
They end up at Kate's Subaru, and Aimee gets the front. Aimee recognizes the playlist that Kate's playing. It's the Spotify blend they made when Kate was staying in Maryland. The genre is inconsistent, and she doesn't really enjoy Kate's songs. But the fact Kate chose this for them… that makes her happy.
She tells Daniel about Reagan and government. She tells him about Cole and theatre. She talks about how Henry's new job is treating him. Kate offers her a thankful smile when the conversation is kept away from her.
The restaurant is nice. Not super fancy, but fancy enough that Kate and Aimee fit in and Daniel sticks out. There's a booth set away from everyone else, where no one will watch them or hear their conversation. Kate and Aimee sit next to each other, Daniel and Armand on the other side.
Kate orders a mocktail. Even though Aimee could use a stiff drink, she orders one too. She's not a bitch. She knows how you act around alcoholics. Daniel goes to order alcohol, but Armand stops him. He looks towards Kate.
There's no way he should know Kate is in recovery, so Aimee assumes he just doesn't want Daniel drinking at his age. Or at all? How does her father get when he drinks?
Her drink arrives quickly. She doesn't drink yet. She just fiddles with the little pink bendy straw. Armand and Daniel hold hands across from her. “So, Dad, how did you and Armand meet?”
There are a lot of other questions she wants to ask, but she sticks with that one. It's like when she meets with Andi’s stepdad who is way too old and Andi's mom who is really too young for him. She doesn't say Jesus Christ. She asks nice questions.
“I was interviewing his…” Daniel stops himself and looks at Armand like he's looking for permission.
“He was interviewing my husband,” Armand explains, like it's the most romantic way to meet. Aimee's just shocked this kid is old enough that there's a marriage to wreck.
“Jesus Christ,” Kate says from next to her, dragging her hands over her face. “Dad, did you homewreck Armand's marriage?”
“I did not homewreck anything, it would have ended anyways.”
Armand scoffs. “No it wouldn't have. It would have stayed perfectly alright.”
“And loveless, and built on a lie, and full of secrets,” Daniel lists, giving Armand a bored look.
“Two of which he never would have found out without you.”
Aimee blinks. She knows she didn't miss what that means. Without looking down, she pulls her phone out of her bag and opens a note app. As inconspicuously as she can she types out, Dad's dating the shitty husband?, and turns it to show Kate.
Kate carefully removes the phone from her hand and types out a response: I'm going to blow my fucking brains out. And maybe his.
Fair response to all of this.
Aimee takes her phone back, hoping none of that was obvious, and smiles a fake smile. “How old are you, Armand?” Calling her dad a cradle robber might be the politest she can be right now.
“I am twenty-seven.”
It's simultaneously better and worse than Aimee had thought. She'd hoped not under twenty-five. But twenty-seven is still over forty years younger than her father.
There's a dull thud as Kate's head hits the table. “Twenty-seven? Dad, you'd already divorced my mother when he was born! Aimee was alive!”
A look comes onto Daniel's face that Aimee's never seen before when it comes to him. Soft, guilty. “I'm sorry, Kate.”
Kate scoffs. “You've literally never said that to me before.”
Daniel nods, considers it. Then: “I owe you girls the truth.”
The way Armand moves doesn't feel human. He moves fast, eyes looking nigh murderous under his shades. “Daniel, think very carefully about this,” he says. His voice reminds Aimee of an old god, about to dispense wrath.
“I know I shouldn't,” Daniel tells them but mostly Armand, “but I've lied to you girls enough.”
Armand's lip curls. “Like they will believe you.”
Daniel’s fingers curl on Armand's bicep. His nails dig into his sleeve. “Armand, I've ruined one of your marriages, don't make me ruin this one.”
Is that what he's trying to tell them? Aimee fails to keep her voice down when she asks, “you're married?” Kate rests a calm hand on her forearm and shushes her kindly.
“No,” her dad and his boyfriend say, just a beat off unison.
“He's just so clingy that calling him my boyfriend would make him have a panic attack and assume I was going to leave him,” Daniel explains. Armand shrugs in admission. “Okay, girls, did you read my new book?”
Aimee looks at Kate's disbelieving face. “No,” they both say.
Before Daniel can express dismay, Armand’s hand comes down on the table with a crack. “Stop,” he says, voice low. He sounds like he could kill them all, with very little guilt. “If Daniel insists on having this foolish conversation, then I must be the one to insist we have it in private, not in the bar of some little restaurant because Kate is ashamed of her apartment.”
Kate makes a noise of protest, but Daniel just rolls his eyes. “Fine,” he says, putting a twenty dollar bill on the table to cover the drinks. Aimee drinks the rest of her drink. Kate just swigs some of hers. Then they're leaving the restaurant, Daniel informing the waiter that they left money on the table.
Daniel and Armand lead the way, so Aimee walks next to Kate. “Dad's boyfriend…”
“Yeah. He's…” They watch the two of them walking in front of them, arguing so low that Aimee can't hear a word.
“Scary?” Aimee offers.
“I was going to say inhuman.”
“That works too.”
They ride in the car in silence. They enter the apartment building in silence. They walk up to Kate's apartment in silence.
No one says anything until Kate's car jumps at her and she catches him. Cradling him to her chest, she scratches his head and murmurs, “hello, Louis.” The cat purrs contently.
“Your cat…” Armand says, staring at Louis as if the cat is a personal offense to him, “his name is Louis?”
“Yeah, after Louis Armstrong, I think?” Louis hisses at Daniel and Armand. “The old woman who gave him to me said something about that.”
“Can we talk now?”
Kate puts Louis down and he runs away from Daniel and Armand into Kate's bedroom. She nods and the four of them head to the couch. It's one of those trendy L-shaped ones. Kate and Aimee sit on one side, across from their dad and his boyfriend. They stare at each other for half a minute.
“So, you didn't read my book,” Daniel finally said.
“I've never read any of your books,” Kate says, voice derisive. “Aimee, have you?”
Kate knows the answer, but she offers the next shot at their father gracefully. Aimee takes it with, “Uh, one of them. One of the non-fiction, non-memoir ones. Not the vampire erotica.”
Daniel sighs. “It's not erotica. It isn't my fault Louis wouldn't shut up about his damn sex life.”
“Yes it is. He thought you were hot.” Armand continues as he runs his fingers over Daniel’s face. “He wanted to see how receptive you were.” Bile churns in Aimee's stomach.
Daniel scoffs, eyes rolling. “Yeah, maybe he thought I was hot in the seventies. Not now.”
“Hmm,” Armand hums, a simple refusal. “He and I agreed. You've only got better with age.” The way they look at each other feels dirty to watch, like Aimee is watching them make out.
She's thankful when Kate shouts “What the fuck!” and leaps to her feet. Everyone watches as she starts pacing.
And then she starts ranting and Aimee can't help but grin.
Aimee is a good girl. Aimee doesn't yell at her father. But watching Kate yell is like having someone say everything she's frustrated at. And Aimee doesn't have to suffer for it. And it's nice to see the catharsis Kate is clearly reaching.
And she's addressing every single thing Aimee wants to address. Like why can't he tell them the truth in public? Why is he acting like these vampires are real? What did the seventies comment mean? Does their father have honest to God dementia? Why is he letting his career swirl down the drain?
And she's saying everything she deserves to say. About her career, about how Daniel defines her, about how she is Kate. Everything she's drunkenly confessed to Kate.
“And you're wearing fucking stupid glasses and fucking a man a third your age and your hands aren't even shaking anymore!” Kate finishes which, yeah. She's right. He has looked better, moved better, seemed so much more healthy than before.
An absurd thought enters Aimee's head: what if their father is actually a vampire? What if Armand is a vampire? It's so silly that she almost casts it aside. Almost.
Because Daniel is healthier. And he is talking about this book like it's real. And there was a character named Armand, and he's dating this Armand. And for every flaw their father has, dating a child has never seemed to be a big one.
Her father and Armand have a quick argument about a her, who Armand apparently killed? Either her father is in love with a psychopath or the vampire theory is real.
Armand glances over and catches her eye behind those red designer shades. He smiles dangerously.
“And what's this shit?” Kate continues. “Acting like you and Mr. Twink over here are actually damn vampires?”
Armand's dangerous smile turns from Aimee to Kate. Daniel sighs and takes off those hideous Ray Bans. He looks from her to Kate. Aimee stares at his eyes. They're supposed to be brown.
They're supposed to be brown, right?
But they aren't! They're orange now, with an almost red ring around them. Those aren't human eyes. Those are the eyes of a predator. A fucking…
“Fuck me,” Aimee says, because her dad is actually a fucking vampire. “You…”
“I am a vampire,” Daniel says, opening his jaw and letting fangs slide out along his canines. Sharp, made to rip open throats. “So is Armand.” Daniel hides them. “So the age gap you need to worry about is the other way around, actually.”
Armand folds his arms and pouts. “I am not a cradle robber, Daniel, I resent the accusation.”
“Four hundred and forty years would argue differently.” Daniel leans forwards, forearms resting on his thighs, like he's teaching them. “Anyways, girls, I went to Dubai to interview Louis de Pointe du Lac, who is a vampire. Armand was his husband, also a vampire. Shit happened, shit you’d know if you read my book, and it ended with me needing to be turned into a vampire to save my life. Armand turned me.”
“I also wanted his immortal company,” Armand says, which is almost romantic.
“That too.” Daniel and Armand's hands lace together. “You should probably read the book.”
Aimee has so many questions. Like what, how, why? Vampirism is real, yeah, okay. She wants to know exactly how it works. Please. But Kate is storming out of the room and towards the balcony. The glass door slams behind her.
Daniel looks at where she was, then towards the balcony. “Should I–” he makes to stand “I'm going to–”
“Fuck no,” Aimee says, “you're the last person she wants to check in on her regularly, especially now. This is fucking crazy, she doesn't need you making it worse. I can go.”
“No, no,” Armand says. “Stay and talk to your father, Aimee. I will go check on Kate.” He stands, moving with complete control of his body. Smooth as water. “Good work on figuring it out,” he tells her, and then he's gone to talk to Kate.
“Can vampires read minds?” She asks Daniel, leaning forwards eagerly.
“You're taking this well.”
“Got in a little bit before, plus, if I freak out then I'll never get answers.”
“You know you can't tell Henry or the twins about this,” Daniel says slowly, like she's an idiot. She's well aware. If people went around telling their loved ones that vampires existed, either people would know vampires existed or mental hospitals would be a lot fuller. She gives him a look she hopes conveys all this. “Yes, vampires can read minds,” he concedes.
“Have you been reading our minds?”
“No, I wouldn't. Privacy and… well, I don't want to know what you think of me. Armand has, though. I can't communicate with him – part of being maker and fledgling – but he doesn't have that respect.”
Well that explains a lot.
“Is your sister alright?”
“This is a lot. I mean, you've really impacted Kate. You've hurt her a lot. She's not gonna like this. This is… I mean, vampires? And you getting to live forever? Dad, have you seen Kate?”
“I thought the fact I really haven't was part of the problem,” Daniel deadpans. “And what about you?”
Aimee hates being honest, but she's been going to therapy every Tuesday for a reason. “You hurt me. You weren't there for me, and I resent that a little. It was hard being raised by a single mom with both of us having to work. But we all know that that was probably best for me.”
Daniel reached out, taking Aimee's hand and squeezing it. “I'm sorry.”
“You should come meet your grandkids sometime. Properly.”
“I can't go in the sunlight.”
“They're teenagers, they'll love the excuse to stay up late.”
Daniel smiles. “Yeah, alright, I will.”