May

Thirty-Three

"Can I come in?" He walks inside as I point towards the couch.

"So what do you need?" He sits opposite me, in a similar manner to the first time we had a talk in his office.

"I can't go back to my house and a hotel is off limits so I need a place to stay for about a week."

"You know that one day you will have to tell me what you are running away from."

"You will also have to tell me what is in Russia, can I stay here?"

"Yeah, now to my favor, I need your house, I don't know for how long." He is trying to figure things out in his head but too many pieces are missing.

"It's your house anyway, so do whatever you want with it."

"Thank you,-" Amari comes walking in, I go to pick her up because she is walking on tiles and it is kind of cold. "Look who is visiting, Ami." She holds her hands out to Josh.

"Hey babygirl, how is daddy's little princess?"

"I miss you dada." He looks at me with astonished look.

"We have been reading." My mom and I both love reading with her.

"Dada, mama loves reading wif me, uhm, mama, wha book is my favourite?"

"The princess and the frog or Curious George?"

"Princess Tiana!" She has a lot of energy with people she knows, this is something I have noticed, she will be loud around my mother, Dylan, Ryan, Kate, Noah, Josh and I but not around anyone else.

"Yes, Princess Tiana." I can not help but laugh around Amari.

"Mama, can dada watch it wif us today?"

"Ask Dada, if he wants to watch Princess Tiana with us?"

"Dada, please watch Princess Tiana wif us, please?" She wraps her arms around his neck, it is always the little things with her, she is hypersensitive to a lot, music, movies, people, places and she forms bonds with places and things better than with people but when she does, she just does not stop giving.

"Of course, I will." She kisses his cheek and slides down him and goes to her room. "-Where is she going?"

"She is going to her room either to fetch a toy or play alone, she does that, she once chased me out, she was like 'Mama, Candice and I want to play together so you can go play in the kitchen.' She can play alone for hours and especially since she got an imaginary friend, she does not pay me that much attention."

"She has an imaginary friend?"

"Yeah, Candice. She had a seat on the table and she wants to go everywhere with her. Candice is basically like my second daughter at this point."

"When did she start calling you 'mama'?"

"Awhile back, while Lani was still alive, she said that Lani said she should call me 'mama'. We just go with it, it was weir-" my phone rings and it is my dad. "-Hey Dad."

"Alyone, we need to talk and soon."

"Today or tomorrow?"

"In an hour or two?"

"Okay, uhm, I will come to you.-" he hangs up "-I have to go so, uhm, can you keep an eye on Amari, while I am gone"

"Sure, where are you going?"

"I am going to talk to my dad."

"I never knew you had a dad."

"There is a lot we do not know about each other but if we are going to fight about it like we are still together, I think we would need to re-categorize as something else." I can smell his minty breath and the space between us is definitely too small.