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They ate quietly, and she asked him about taking the babysitter's course at school. Sarita was taking the course too, and they had plans to save money together from babysitting.
"Babysitting? Wow, I guess you are old enough, huh? It would be good for you to learn all that stuff."
"Right," she nodded, sliding the permission slip across the table for him to sign. "I need twenty dollars too, though."
"No problem," he said, reaching for his wallet and handing her the form and the money.
Tina noticed that her dad appeared happier, and she knew it had to do with the woman he'd met. He had been on the occasional blind date but always came home early, and it never went anywhere. Sometimes she'd get up for a drink or to use the bathroom at night, and he'd be sat on the couch all alone, just staring at the TV. Her Uncle Harry had Ashley to cuddle in the evenings, she'd seen it countless times, but her dad had nobody, which made her sad.
"So what does she look like?" she asked.
"She's so pretty," he smiled. "She has long blonde hair and big blue eyes and when she smiles you can just see it that she's the nicest person you ever met."
Tina loved the look in his eyes; she couldn't remember ever seeing it before, except maybe a little when he spoke about her mother.
"What's the plan for tonight?" she asked.
"I texted her earlier and just suggested that we hang out in her backyard, just keep it casual. She seems a little nervous to meet you."
"I am too," Tina admitted.
There was so much riding on this meeting that she could hardly sit still. After talking about it with Sarita all day at school, Tina decided she'd be very nice and try her best to like this woman so her dad could be happy. She told Sarita that she'd only be mad if she hurt her father, and Sarita said that sounded fair.
Tina didn't want to be replaced in his heart, and she trusted him that it wouldn't happen. They were a team.
/
"You still haven't told him yet?" Octavia exclaimed.
"I'm going to tell him tonight . . . I tried to yesterday, but Ben cut his foot just as I was about to."
"So you're going to meet his daughter and give her a bullshit name?"
"Octavia, I get it! I've never had to lie about my name before, and I didn't think I'd be meeting someone like him. I was expecting to be single for a long time."
"Just tell him tonight and just hope that he's cool with it. He probably will be when you explain why you did this but he still needs to know," Octavia assured her.
"I know. I wish I could have just met him and not had this baggage. He's such a good man, and he's already been through so much, I hate dragging this mess around with me."
"Anna, if you really care about him then you'll need to let him in and trust that he'll still want to be with you."
"I hope he can still trust me after this."
"I can think of bigger and worse lies than this, Sis, but you need to tell him before any more time passes."
"I know, I just feel like such a fool."
"Bite the bullet, Hun."
/
They both got cleaned up before heading over to Cassandra's, and the moment they knocked on the door, they were met by a very nervous-looking woman.
"Hi! You must be Tina," she smiled and awkwardly hugged her.
"That's me. Nice to meet you."
Daniel was so proud of his child then; she was polite and understanding.
