I knock.
No answer.
I knock again.
“Who is it?” Madison asks from the other side of the door.
“It’s me,” I say. “Jonathan.”
“Jonathan who?”
This kid… she’s trying to kill me. I glance around again before saying, “Cunningham.”
The door flings open, and Madison stands there, grinning, so I hand her most of the dandelions, keeping only one of them.
“They’re my favorite!” she says, taking them.
“Figured you might like them,” I say. “They’re the same color as your dress.”
Kennedy strolls over, and I hand her the last dandelion. She takes it, trying not to laugh.
My phone chimes in my pocket—a message from the car service. “Our ride is here.”
It pulls up—a simple black town car, nothing fancy, the same one that took Madison and me to the convention—same driver and all.
We settle into the car for the drive into Albany. Nobody questions where we’re going until we arrive and the car drops us by the curb. The sun has gone down, giving us a cover of darkness, enough that I can hopefully fade into obscurity for a few hours.
“A movie,” Kennedy says. “In a park.”
“Not just any movie,” I tell her, putting my arm around her and pulling her to me. “Quite possibly the greatest super hero movie ever made.”
“Breezeo!” Madison says excitedly.
Kennedy stops short. “No.”
“Yep,” I say. “The sequel.”
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“You took us to see your own movie. Seriously?”
“Well, in my defense, I’ve never actually watched it,” I admit. “And I knew Madison would enjoy it, so I figured, you know, who better to watch it with than the two of you?”
Madison’s ecstatic, jumping around, while Kennedy looks at me like I’ve gone insane. “You never watched it?”
“Not the whole thing,” I say. “Hell, I barely remember filming it. They say it’s good, though, despite… well…”
Despite me being so fucked up through the entire process that we’re lucky it even happened.
“I’ve heard it's decent,” Kennedy says.
Decent. From her, I take that as a win.
I didn’t do a very good job at the whole planning thing. I have a blanket but have to buy hot dogs from a vendor, because what’s a picnic without food? We settle into the park away from most of the others, giving us a bit of privacy.
The theme song comes on. Yeah, we’ve got a theme song. Think Spider-Man, just with different words, way too cheery for the scenario. Madison dances around, singing along as the movie starts.
Madison’s enthralled from the very first moment. I’m sitting on the blanket, my legs stretched out, while Kennedy lays down, her head in my lap. I cringe my way through the movie, absently stroking Kennedy’s hair.
I glance down at her after a while, realizing she’s not watching the screen, her attention fixed on me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she says. “It’s just strange.”
I caress her flushed cheek. “Being here with me?”
“Yes,” she says. “Just when I was starting to doubt I’d ever see you again.”
“You didn’t think I’d keep popping up every so often?”
“Oh, sure, but that’s not you,” she says. “I knew that guy would keep coming back. I thought I’d be dealing with him for the rest of my life. Drunk, high, out of his mind… but I never thought I’d see you again, real you, yet you’re here. I thought it would always be him.”
I know what she means as she motions toward the screen. I can tell I was strung out. It’s painful.
“I’m here,” I say, “and I’m not going anywhere.”
“I want to believe that.”
“You can.”
She smiles, and I don’t know if she believes it yet, but she looks content in the moment. I brush my thumb along her lips as they part, and I want to kiss her so fucking bad right now, but I know I’ll catch hell from my daughter if I try.
“Ohhhh, Daddy!” Madison says, grabbing my attention, catching me off guard as she launches herself my way. Laughing, Kennedy sits up, moving out of the line of fire as Madison damn near tackles me, leaping on my back and trying to cover my face with her hands from behind. “You’re not supposed to do that!”
“What?” I laugh. “I didn’t do anything!”
“You’re kissing her!” she says as I pull her hands away from my mouth when she tries to cover it. I playfully pretend to bite her, making her squeal. “Stop, Daddy!”
She flings herself on me, falling into my lap, as I glance up at the screen, realizing Breezeo is kissing Maryanne. I scowl, tickling Madison. “It’s just a movie. It’s not real.”
She giggles, slapping my hands away. “You didn’t really kiss her?”
“Well, yeah, but it doesn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s Breezeo, not me.”
“It’s still yucky,” she says, making a face.
“You think kissing me is yucky?”
I tickle her again, and she struggles, laughing, trying to get away, but I’m not going to let it go that easy. Grabbing ahold of her, pinning her to me, I nuzzle against her cheek as she shoves my face. “Help, Mommy!”
“Oh, no, you’re on your own there,” Kennedy says. “You got yourself into that one.”
“Ugh, no fair!” Madison says, slapping her hands over my mouth. “No kissing ‘till the end!”
“Fine.” I let out a long, exaggerated sigh. “You win.”
She sticks her tongue out at me.
The girl seriously sticks her tongue out, gloating, as she leaps at her mother and kisses on her—planting big, sloppy kisses right on Kennedy, making sure I see it. She’s gone again then, right back to her movie now that the love scene is over.
“Unbelievable.” I shake my head. “I get no love.”
Grinning, Kennedy lays back down with her head in my lap. She stares at me, reaching up, her fingertips brushing across my lips. “You be good, and I’ll make it worth it for you later.”
I cock an eyebrow at her. “Is that right?”
“Yep,” she says. “I’ll—”
She’s cut off before she can elaborate by my cell phone ringing. Cliff. I decline the call, but he calls back again right away. I decline that call, too, but then comes another, this one from an unknown caller. After that number calls twice, I turn the phone off and put it away, turning my attention back to Kennedy. I’m not dealing with that shit tonight. “So, you were saying…?”
She gives me a sly grin, shaking her head, shifting position to face the screen.
I try to pay attention to the rest of the movie, but that’s harder than it sounds. I’m relieved when it’s over. We stand up as the credits are rolling, though I know we can’t leave until the post-credit scenes play. I grab the blanket, folding it up, and the moment Madison gives the okay, we’re walking away.
Our ride is waiting by the curb to whisk us home.
Madison jumps out when we make it back to the apartment. She’s twirling in circles, her dandelions crushed in her fist as she holds onto them, so not to lose them, as she runs ahead of us. I put my arm around Kennedy, pulling her to me, no hesitation, and kiss her—softly, sweetly at first before trying to deepen it, but she pulls back, grinning, pressing her pointer finger to my lips.
“We see one movie and suddenly you think I’m putting out?” she says. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”
“I think you’re the kind of girl that would usually put out before the movie.”
She gasps, playfully shoving me away, before grabbing my shirt and pulling me right back to her, whispering, “Maybe I’ll even let you bend me over a table.”
My footsteps stall, and I laugh at that as she walks away, pulling out her keys as she makes her way to the apartment door. I stand back, staring at her and Madison, smiling. It feels like my chest wants to fucking burst with all these feelings building up inside of me.