Poppy were both in their rooms. It sounded like Willow as watching YouTube videos. Poppy had been reading when I had looked in on her. It was almost eleven and I was wide awake and avoiding the disaster of my room. The bed was put together and that was about it.
“You have a doorman,” Felicia said. “And a front door on the apartment. I think you’re safe from intruders.”
“True. And unless you’re Spiderman you’re not getting in here by climbing onto the terrace. We’re on the fortieth floor.” I picked up the remote and stared at it. I didn’t even know what I was looking at, it was so complicated. I had already wasted ten minutes trying to figure out how to turn all the lights on. It turned out you just touched the panel. There was no switch.
“The view must be amazing.”
“It is. And there’s a smart toilet. It has a warm water feature. I feel bougie as hell.”
Felicia laughed. “You’ll never be bougie, I hate to break it to you.”
“That’s just rude. Hey, let me let you go. I need the kids to show me how to use the TV. I think this means I’m officially old. I’m going to need dentures and bladder control protection next.”
“Wait until you have a baby. Your bladder will never be the same.”
“That’s information you can keep to yourself, thanks.”
We said our goodbyes, then I went to get Willow. I knocked on her door. “Hey, sorry to interrupt but can you show me how this TV works?”
A few seconds later she cracked her door open very slightly. “You just tell it what you want. It’s voice command.”
I forgot all about the TV. Wow. Someone was experimenting with makeup and not particularly well. Willow’s natural skin had been hidden under seven layers of contouring. She looked comical. Terrifying. “You should have told me it’s makeup night. I would have joined you. Anything to avoid that mess in my room.”
She hesitated. “I’m following a video and I don’t think I’m doing it right.”
“Want to do it together? I can’t be alone in this apartment anymore anyway. It’s too big. I feel like I’m on a set for a TV show, not in real life.”
Willow giggled. “I don’t like to be alone either. Not when Dad is gone. I kind of hate it when he’s gone.”
Me too. “Let’s put some music on, then, and do this in the bathroom where the lighting is better.”
“Cool.” She opened the door further and brought her tablet and her brushes and makeup across the hall.
I dug through my boxes and found my goodies. I brought my curling iron too. Might as well do some sexy beach waves to stay in on a Saturday night with two girls.
“We should start with a clean face,” I said, trying to gently steer her in the direction of getting that mess removed.
“I think that’s a good idea.” She started playing music.
I sang along to the lyrics as we both washed our faces. There were two acrylic stools in front of the mirrors, so we looked like we were in a Broadway dressing room with the amount of product we had splayed out.
“You know this song?”
I nodded as I dried my face with a washcloth. I turned to her. The washcloth she’d used was now covered in contouring. I wasn’t sure all the bleach in the world would get that out. “I was in one of Lil’ Sneak’s videos.”
“What?” Willow gasped. “Which one?”
“That Thing.” I swiped through my phone and pulled it up. “That’s me in the background, wearing that mesh bodysuit. That thing was so uncomfortable. It was like being caught in a fishing net.”
“Whoa. That is so cool, Dakota.”
“It was fun.” My throat tightened a little, but I ignored it. No point in crying over a fading career. Or faded.
Willow put on the tutorial and we followed the instructions, me giving her subtle encouragement and suggestions. This version was significantly better.
“We look fine,” I told her.
She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled slightly, clearly pleased.
“Want me to curl your hair?” I asked.
“Really?”
“Sure.” I touched the curling iron to see if it was hot enough.
“None of our other nannies did stuff like this,” she said, then looked away, like she’d said too much. Then she gave me a sneer in the mirror. “They were bitches.”
She was obviously testing me.
“I’m not a bitch,” I said. “I promise. Unless you’re a bitch to me, then I can be a biotch, trust me. But