"Hello daddy, can I come stay with you a while?"
"Well, sure honey, what's up?"
"I'm sorry I promised myself I would cry, it's just, it's just I've left Michael and I don't want to stay with mom, she always takes his side."
"Sure, baby you can stay with me as long as you like."
April must have been packed before she called as she was at my place within an hour.
It was strange having my daughter staying with me, when her mother and I divorced she sided with my ex and I thought she hated me. Still it was nice to have a woman around the house and we talked as she cooked us dinner.
"I hope this will be OK, Michael did most of the cooking so I'm kind of out of practice. To be honest he did most of the housework too and the laundry."
That made me realize what my ex saw in him, he was everything I wasn't but of course, I didn't say anything.
After dinner, while April cleaned up I took a shower. When I came back, she was dressed in a pair of baby doll pajamas just as she did when she was a teenager. The TV was on but she wasn't paying attention then I saw she was on the phone. She smiled at me as I turned off the TV, then she sat the phone on the couch and reached over to get a glass of wine she had sitting on the table. She whispered to me she was talking to Michael and then she put the phone back to her ear and uttered a unah as if she had been listening. I laughed at her and she gave me a mock-exasperated look. This only worked to egg me on and I started to do a goofy dance I use to do when she was little. This made her burst out in laughter,
"I'm sorry I'm not laughing at you it was something else. I know you're crying but it's just I'm tired; yes, I know you love me, good god how many time do you have to tell me. I don't know if I can say it back, listen I have to go I'll call you tomorrow, maybe."
I got a beer and sat down on the couch she looked at me as if trying to decide just how much to tell me. I put my hand on her knee,
"April I won't judge, you don't have to tell me anything but if you want to talk I'm here for you."
"You know he's a wonderful husband, he's caring and helpful, it's just he's such a girl. He's on the phone begging me to come back, if he was a man he would just order me home and you know I'd probably go. Oh Daddy it's just the sex, he pleases me but he doesn't satisfy me"
She leaned her head on my shoulder and sighed,
"It's all mothers' fault she kept telling me to marry a gentleman not a brute like..."
She stopped talking to look at me,
"She told me not to marry someone like you."
"That's pretty good advice I don't make a very good husband."