A Daughter I Never See

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But who am I to cast a stone
With a daughter I never see?
And honestly, this honesty is getting way too hard to sing
I'd trade it all, I would give it back
To be a decent human being

"I guess it makes sense," Phil says to Iesha as he paces around his living room.

After Dan left the tattoo shop with his daughter, Phil and Iesha finished up and went back to Phil's house. Iesha was currently sat on Phil's couch in the living room, simply watching him as he paced, thinking out loud about everything that they'd just witnessed. Finding out that Dan had a daughter came as a huge shock to Phil, but the puzzle pieces had begun to put themselves together on the way back to his house.

"I mean, if he has a daughter, then he probably has a partner too. I never saw a ring on his hand though, which we all know is something I look for in people that I flirt with because as much of an ass I can be at times, I stay away from married people," Phil continues.

"I know," Iesha says.

"But why couldn't he just have flat out said that?" Phil wonders aloud.

"He might just be a private person. It's not his obligation to tell some stranger that's flirting with him about his personal life."

Phil sighs, "Yeah..."

"Well, while him not wanting to go out with you might make a little more sense now, there's still one thing that doesn't make much sense to me," Iesha says.

"What is it?"

"Well, he said that you could come by the shop tomorrow and he'd explain things to you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, why? Why does he feel like he owes you an explanation? He doesn't know you and you don't know him; he could have just flat out said 'I have a kid so that's why I'm not dating anyone' and left it at that, but he actually wants to have a discussion with you about it, it seems. I don't understand what that's about."

"Yeah, that does seem sort of fishy..."

"I mean, you guys were sort of starting to make friends with each other, but there wasn't that huge of a connection, was there? I don't get why he feels like he owes you an explanation when his little girl walking into the shop today made things pretty clear."

Phil shakes his head to himself, "I don't know," He says before flopping onto the couch next to Iesha. 

They sit in silence a moment, then Phil speaks up again.

"Do you think he's a good parent?" Phil inquires.

Iesha sighs, "Phil..."

"There's a lot of people out there with kids that don't deserve to have them, and a lot of people that would be great with a child but don't have one."

"I know. But he seemed like he cared about her a lot, and that's probably why he's been so worried about money lately if he's got another mouth to feed."

"He did say one of the reasons why he didn't wanna go get coffee with me was because of 'priorities'."

"Then why is he so willing to talk to you all of the sudden?"

"I don't know."

There's another pause.

"He probably is good to her," Phil says, softly, "They probably have a good relationship...he's lucky."

Iesha looks to him, sadly, "Are you okay?"

Phil nods, "I will be."

x

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