“I know,” he smiles. “I’m just trying not to scare you.”
“I trust you, Marc,” I say, cupping his face.
“I’m glad,” he says with a smile. “You should get back to Sable. I’ll come by later on so we can talk some more.”
“Why do I feel like there won’t be much talking happening?” I ask.
“Depends how much of an attitude you get,” he shrugs, and I laugh and shake my head at him. “No, just talking. I’d like for us to spend time doing more than that, believe it or not.
“Awe. Are you secretly a softly, Marc?” I ask sweetly as I open the stall door. I immediately slam it shut when I see Sable. “Fuck.”
“I’ve already seen you now. No sense in hiding,” Sable says.
I shake my head and back away from the door, trying desperately not to cry. “Hey, hey, hey. You’re okay. Come here,” Marc says as he grabs me and pulls me close. I hear him unlock the stall so Sable can get to us but that only makes me try to pull away again. “Take a deep breath. You’re okay.”
“Let me,” Sable says. Marc lets go of me and backs up a half step so she can hug me.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” I whisper. She pulls away and cups my face, wiping my tears.
“Raven. I’m not mad at you,” she says softly. “I never thought I’d be in this position but, I can live with it. I also know that you’ll do whatever you want regardless of what I have to say, but that’s why I love you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I say as I pull back and wipe my face.
“Well, I will say that shock does not even begin to cover what I felt when I realized it was him that I heard railing you, but at least you are getting laid now,” she says, and I laugh. “How long has this been going on?”
“Not long,” I say.
“Dad?” she asks.
“Since yesterday,” he says honestly.
“How?”
“He saw me at the grocery store. It just led to him finding out that I was basically one misstep away from being homeless and starving. He didn’t want me walking home so he drove me. That led to him seeing where I lived. I’ll spare you the rest,” I say.
“I appreciate that, but at this point, I’ve heard more than I ever thought I would from my father, so I guess it doesn’t matter,” she says.
“That is a very vague way to describe that,” Marc says.
“What do you mean?” Sable asks him.
“I mean... she was trying to buy a week's worth of groceries with twenty dollars and still came up short. She hadn’t eaten in two days. She wasn't using heat or lights because it uses power and I’m assuming she couldn’t afford that either. She had no food in the apartment other than what I put away from the store. When I ordered us dinner, she ate like she was starved to death. Let’s not forget that Billy said rats would bite him when he sat in the hallways to look after her,” Marc says.
“Jesus,” Sable says. “Well, I guess that makes sense on why you moved her so quickly then.”
“The rats weren’t bad as long as you didn’t make eye contact with them,” I joke. Sable and Marc both glare at me and I laugh. “Can we get out of the bathroom, please?”
“Yeah. It smells like sex in here, which normally doesn’t bother me, but right now it does because I know too much.”
“You’re the one who stayed to be nosy,” Marc says.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was making sure my bestie wasn’t being raped and forced to tell me it was consensual. How was I supposed to know that my dad was fucking my best friend in public,” Sable says bluntly before looping her arm with mine. “Let’s go outside so I can threaten your life a little.”
“Okay,” Marc laughs.
We leave the bathroom and go outside. We walk about a half block before the noise dies down and we can talk.
“Alright,” Sable says, turning to Marc. “I love you and you are my father. I would do anything for you, and I hope you know that.”