Episode 726: Perfect Girl

No Tansy. Justine’s smile vanished as she realized she’d gone pretty much the whole day without interacting with her daughter. Sure, she’d acknowledged Tansy’s presence in every room she saw her in, but beyond that?

Justine rushed out of the bedroom, nearly smashing into her husband in the hallway.

"Whoa, slow down," Quent said. "Where’s the fire?"

"Tansy." Justine fought the tears that threatened to fall.

"Everything’s fine," he said. "We just did the dishes together while you bathed Hero-man. Now Tans is off in her room looking for a sweater to wear to the movies since I heard it’s supposed to grow a bit chilly tonight."

"It’s not fine," Justine insisted. "At least you did the dishes with her today, and you watched that cartoon this morning when I was in the shower, right? I’ve barely said more than hello, it’s awful, it’s-"

"Perfectly fixable. Tansy isn’t leaving for the movies for a while yet, so go spend time with her. I have Hero handled. This is nothing to get down on yourself for, I promise."

"You’re right." Justine nodded as firmly as she could muster. "I just need to check in with her and I’ll feel better about it."

However, when she found Tansy frowning at her reflection in her bedroom mirror, it didn’t exactly warm Justine’s heart.

"Hey, sweetie," Justine squeezed her daughter’s shoulder. "Is everything okay? He didn’t cancel, did he?" Justine was uncomfortable with leaning so heavily on Quent’s employee, it didn’t seem fair to the guy, but he was, it turned out, a truly solid, reliable person, he was like the uncle Bas had yet to step up to be, really good to Tansy and Tans adored him. It wasn’t just the movie that mattered to her daughter; Tansy would be so hurt if-

"He’s coming and I’m fine, mom. Really." Tansy stood and gave her mom a big hug and a bigger smile, though something about that smile struck Justine as false, whether that was due to paranoia over her own mental state, or mother’s intuition, she couldn’t be sure.

Episode 727: Health And Happiness