Invisible(15)

Lara laughed. “So do I. I studied architecture, dropped out when it got too mathematical for me, and went into real estate instead. You never know what you’ll wind up working at in the end. You just have to keep an open mind and see what you like doing when you know more about it.”

“I think law school would be okay with my dad too, but I don’t want to be a lawyer. I know I want to write. I get good grades in it in school.”

    “I’d love to read one of your stories sometime,” Lara said carefully. She didn’t want to rush her or crowd her, but she suspected that Antonia was starving for attention and affection. Brandon had been nice to her so far, but he was not a warm person. His marriage to Fabienne had left him unwilling to let anyone in, including his own child. He had admitted it to Lara several times, and didn’t plan to change.

They had gotten back to the apartment by then, and Brandon was waiting to take Lara out. He noticed how expansive Antonia seemed as they chatted when they walked into the apartment, but Antonia fell silent as soon as she saw him. He and Lara left a few minutes later. Antonia thanked Lara again for the movie and the treats.

“We’ll do it again whenever you want,” she said before they left. Antonia was still smiling and looked wistful to see her leave, which touched Lara’s heart.

Lara talked to Brandon about it in the cab on the way to her place. She had invited some friends over for drinks, and he helped her get ready for them. He did more at her apartment than he did at his. She had a beautiful apartment downtown, with a river view, and it was handsomely decorated with things she had collected on her travels. He felt warm and comfortable there.

“She’s a lovely girl, Brandon. I had a really nice time with her.”

“She never gives me any trouble,” he commented, “and she does very well in school.” He sounded proud of her, although he never admitted it to Antonia. He was old school that way.

    “She needs more than that, I think. Being a good student and staying out of trouble is not enough. She has dreams for the future, and I think she needs someone to talk to.”

“That’s a mother’s job at her age. It’s not my strong suit,” he admitted. Lara liked his honesty, and when he relaxed and let her in, she liked how smart he was.

“You have to wear both hats in your case. You have no other choice.” He didn’t answer. The choice he had made years before was not to engage with Antonia, because she was Fabienne’s daughter, but she was his too. He forgot that at times.

“She seemed very chatty with you,” he commented finally. “She never is with me.”

“Maybe you could spend a little more time with her,” she suggested gently. “I don’t mind if you’d ever like to bring her along with us.” But that wasn’t something he wanted to do. He compartmentalized his life, and it was already a big step that he had brought Lara home, let her spend the night there, and introduced her to Antonia. He didn’t want to get in any deeper than that. And if the relationship didn’t last, there was no point letting Antonia get attached to her. That wouldn’t be fair to her either. Lara could guess that those were his thoughts.

They had a nice time with her guests that night. They were mostly her friends that he had come to like and a few of his. All of his friends were still married, he was the only divorced man in their group. Most of her friends were married too, with a few who were holdouts like her, who had never married. It was a congenial group.

He spent that night at Lara’s, after the guests left, and he knew Antonia would be fine by herself. She sat alone at dinner that night, thinking about Lara. She had enjoyed going to the movies with her, and was interested in what she’d said. Her home life seemed pretty sad as a kid, with her brother dying and her parents getting divorced and her father moving away. But she seemed like a happy person. She wondered if her father was serious about her. It didn’t seem likely. She hoped she’d see her again.

    She wrote a story that night about someone like Lara. The story was sad because of her brother dying, but in her story, the father came back at the end, which made it happier. And the parents got back together. She liked the story a lot, and put it in a folder to take to school. She might show it to Lara one day, when she saw her again.



* * *



—

Lara went to the movies with her several times after that. They talked about the movies afterward and Lara was impressed by how sophisticated Antonia was about the nuances of every film. She said something about it to Brandon, and he looked irritated the moment she did.

“I don’t want her going into the movies as a career. Her mother was a wannabe actress, with no talent I might add. That was bad enough. Her ambition and obsession about it ruined our lives.”

“Writing screenplays is not the same thing. And what if she has talent? You can’t force her in a direction she doesn’t want.”

“If you open that door, it can lead to something else, like acting. I won’t let her do that.” He was adamant, unreasonably so, in Lara’s eyes.

“She’s not her mother, Brandon. She’s an entirely different person. And she’s part you. You can’t punish her for what her mother was.”

    “Yes, I can,” he said stubbornly. “I don’t want anything related to acting or movies anywhere near my home.” He had never recovered from his marriage to Fabienne, and refused to discuss it further. But he did allow Lara to spend time with Antonia occasionally, and he was always surprised to see how well they got along. They had a relationship that he had never had with her. Whenever Lara was at the house, Antonia seemed much less inclined to disappear, and stuck around to chat with her.