Chapter 3
I grabbed two portions of milk and bread for breakfast, then headed home with Lily.
My phone buzzed again.
Alex Green: [Ryan, everyone's talking about you. Someone screenshotted your Instagram post and dropped it in the company gossip group.]
I dropped my bread.
Alex: [Mr. King saw it.]
Alex: [He said you're a responsible guy, and next week you'll get a new position.]
Alex: [It's a promotion.]
I sat at the dining table, watching Lily across from me as she carefully tore apart her bread.
She ate so quietly, taking her time with every bite. Whenever a crumb fell onto the table, she'd scoop it up with her tiny hands and place it back on her plate.
No way David could've taught her that. He ate like a pig rooting for food.
I grabbed my phone and fired off ten messages to David in a row.
He read them, but he didn't reply.
I tried to call him, but his phone was off.
I stared at "The subscriber you dialed is power off" for a couple of seconds.
I swore that if David was secretly laughing now, I would make his next business trip a one-way trip.
*****
At ten in the morning, I took Lily to the supermarket to buy groceries.
Because the brutal reality was, my fridge only had three beers, half a cucumber, and a pack of expired ham sausage.
Trying to feed a four-year-old girl with food like that would probably land me on the evening news.
Lily skipped along, holding my hand.
Her teddy bear was so big that I had to carry it for her.
So there I was, a twenty-seven-year-old single guy, carrying a giant teddy bear in one hand and holding hands with an adorable little girl in the other.
We looked exactly like a father and daughter.
I picked up my pace.
At the supermarket entrance, I bumped into Henry James, who ran the fruit stand downstairs.
Henry glanced at me, then at Lily, then at the teddy bear.
"Ryan? Is this your daughter?" he asked.
"No, she's a friend's kid," I replied.
"Wow, she's adorable." Henry crouched down to play with Lily. "Hey, sweetie, who is this guy to you?"
Lily tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "He's my dad's friend."
Henry stood up, patted my shoulder, and said, "Ryan, guess you were already a legend back in high school."
"You heard her. I'm her dad's friend. I'm not her dad," I protested.
Henry laughed and waved as he walked off.
I took three deep breaths.
The supermarket was pretty chill.
I pushed the cart, with Lily sitting in the child seat, her little legs swinging back and forth.
"Uncle Ryan, I want strawberries," she said.
"Sure," I replied.
"And I want bear cookies."
"Alright."
"And I want—"
"Just tell me everything you want at once."
Lily counted on her fingers, her face serious. "Strawberries, bear cookies, yogurt, pudding, and that pink lollipop."
I glanced at the half-full cart of snacks, then at her innocent little face.
One thousand dollars. Three days. I could survive this.
At checkout, the cashier lady scanned the barcodes, grinning. "Is she your kid?"
I opened my mouth, then shut up.
"Uh-huh," I finally said, knowing that no one would believe my explanation.
Just as I was heading home, my phone buzzed.
Vera Baker was calling.
My finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds.
Vera was my ex. The reason we broke up? "You weren't ambitious enough." That was three years ago.
We pretty much went our own ways after that. So why was she ringing me up now?
I picked up.
"Ryan," Vera said.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Is that kid on your Instagram your daughter?"
"No, she's my friend's—"
"She's four?"
"Yeah, but—"
"We broke up three years ago." Vera's tone was unreadable, but every word drilled into my skull.
"Wait, what are you getting at?"
"What am I getting at? What did you do? Back when we were together, you—"
"Are you nuts? That's David's daughter."
"Does David have a wife?"
"Yes."
"But I've never even seen his wife."
"You don't know him that well. Why would you have met his wife?"
"You know what, Ryan? That little girl on your Instagram have your eyebrows."
"What are you talking about? Her last name is Johnson. Her name is Lily Johnson."
"So she took her mother's last name?"
"That's her dad's last name."
She was silent for a few seconds, then she sneered. After that, the line went dead.
I stood at the entrance of the apartment complex, holding four bags of snacks, my head pounding.
Lily looked up at me. "Uncle Ryan, why are you sweating?"
"I'm surviving a disaster," I muttered.