Lex and Lu(64)

Lu couldn’t help it; she laughed.

“What’s so funny?” he said, a grin threatening to dawn on his face.

“You. Pulling out the Dr. J. parenting philosophies.”

Shrugging, he pulled away from the wall. “It worked,” he said, defending himself.

“Yeah, I guess you turned out OK,” she teased, her anger with him dissipating again. Why couldn’t she hold on to it, she thought. “Look, Lex, I want her to come home with me. I think she needs it right now. And I want her to get to go on her trip with you. I think she needs that too. So we need an alternative. She’s been hoarding her money for an iPad 2. She saved all of her birthday money. I think it would hurt her to have to part with it.” Shaking her head, she said, “Trust me, I’m not some helicopter parent who thinks their kid can do no wrong. I yell and I make all sorts of mistakes. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”

“You’ve never been unsure of anything,” Lex said.

“You don’t know me anymore, Lex. Just like I don’t know you.” It was a simple statement, not made in anger or retaliation. But it seemed to hang in the air between them—a picture drawn with words that described who they were in that moment. And it hurt. Lu felt empty. All of the anger of the morning and the day had drained away, leaving this picture of reality that she really didn’t like.

Lex broke the silence. “OK,” he said.

“OK, what?”

“If you think that giving her iPad savings to a charity would be effective, let’s do it. But she still needs to give the money back to the students she ‘fleeced,’” he said, with air quotes around “fleeced” and the perfect Mr. Seddon English accent.

“All right,” she agreed. “I think we should tell her together. Don’t you?”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Lex concurred. Lu started to turn toward Nina’s room when Lex stopped her. “Lu, I’ve been trying to keep her out of the press. I just thought it would be better for her. Do you want me to have Caroline release a statement about her?” he asked.

She was touched by his thoughtfulness. “I don’t know, Lex. She seemed pretty upset that no one knew about her, but I don’t think she really knows what that entails. If your first instinct was to protect her, I think that we continue to do that.” She paused, then seemed to think of something. “You know, having her on this trip with you is going to pose questions and probably unearth her paternity anyway.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I just don’t want her to think I’m ashamed of her.”

“Lex …,” she began, then stopped. “Forget it.”

He laughed. “I know she was playing me, Lu. I got that.”

“Yes,” she smiled, “which is why I didn’t feel I needed to point it out to you.” Winking at him, she made her way to get Nina so they could hand down the verdict.



Lex went back to his post on the wall, waiting for these two new women in his life to emerge. Vaguely he wondered what would have happened if Lu had answered the phone earlier today. Would she have included him? He needed to ask her. Not to be a dickhead, although that did come quite naturally to him, but just to appease his curiosity. He assumed that she wouldn’t have, but he felt he at least needed to give her a chance to explain herself. Damn, this was going to be painful. He knew it was hard enough when the parents were together. How would they do this apart? And what happened if one of them met someone and there was a third or fourth person in the mix?

Hearing the clatter of feet coming down the hall, Lex pushed himself away from the wall once more. Let’s just get through this so I can get out of here, he thought. He needed to get away so he could think.

Nina sat back on the couch, and Lu took up the space next to her. Finding the chair again, Lex sat. Leaning forward, forearms on legs, he looked to Lu to start. Rolling her eyes, she began.

“Your father and I have discussed this and have come up with a reasonable punishment.”

Nina didn’t say anything, merely continued to look at her mother since she was talking.

“After you return the money to the students who you sold stuff to, you will take your iPad savings and donate it to an appropriate charity.”

“What?” Nina cried, tears immediately filling her eyes. “That’s not fair. I’ve been saving all my money this year.”

“Yes, you have. But since it’s not fair for either your father or me to give up our time with you, we felt this was more than fair.”

As the tears continued to flow down her cheeks, she wiped furiously at them. “It’s not fair.”