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bastard and the minute all those lady friends realize it, they’re off.”
    “I don’t think he has any lady friends right now. I think that’s the problem. He’s never been great at friendships, has he? And now he’s sixty-nine and on his own, and I’m just worried about him.”
    “So what should we do? Go up and see him?”
    “That would be a start. Or maybe you could invite him to stay in New York with you. He loves the theater and the opera and he probably wouldn’t even be at the apartment much.”
    “Callie? Have you been to this apartment? Dad would hate it here. And he totally wouldn’t understand Rob’s hours. It would drive him nuts that Rob stays up all night and sleeps all day. He’d probably shove him out of bed at six a.m. and force him to go for a run or something. Why don’t you have him stay with you?”
    “In Bedford? What’s he going to do here ? He’d have a much better time in the city.”
    “So suggest he come in and stay in a hotel. I’d take him out. I just don’t think I can have him at the apartment. But anyway, it doesn’t solve the larger problem. If he’s lonely, what can we do?”
    “I suggested online dating services but he freaked out, which I guess is still the aftermath of Hiromi. Then he just said he’s not the slightest bit interested in dating anyone. I even joked that he didn’t have to date them, he could just sleep with them.”
    “Ew. Gross. Do you have to bring that up?”
    “Sorry. I was kidding.” Callie laughs.
    “You know what I wish?” Steffi says. “I wish that he and Mom would somehow find a way to be friends.”
    “No you don’t,” Callie counters. “You wish that he and Mom got back together.”
    “Not really. I mean, there’s a part of me that always wanted that when we were growing up, but now I just think they’re both on their own, neither of them is exactly a spring chicken, and it would be so nice if they became, I don’t know, friends. Wouldn’t it be great?”
    “Except you’re forgetting that Dad’s a starched right-wing, rigid, grumpy bastard who likes everything done his way, and Mom’s a laid-back, left-wing, scatty free spirit who floats through life like a fairy.”
    “She’s on Planet Mom.” Steffi laughs.
    “Yup. Still.” Callie sighs. “All these years later and she still lives on Planet Mom. Or Planet Honor, as Dad calls it. She still loves her Chinese medicine and natural supplements. She’d drive him nuts. It’s never going to happen.”
    “Does he still hate her as much as ever?”
    “Put it like this: when he talks about her, he still refers to her as ‘your mother,’ with a sneer in his voice.”
    “God, you’d think that two marriages and one longtime relationship later he’d get over it.” Steffi shakes her head.
    “I know. I think he still loves her.”
    “And if by love you mean hates her passionately—absolutely.”
    “I’m still amazed they didn’t screw us up more.”
    “Speak for yourself. I’m the younger one and, according to Dad, I’m a total mess.”
    “He doesn’t think you’re a total mess. He just thinks you’re completely irresponsible and still a child.”
    “Thanks for the support.”
    “I didn’t say that’s what I think,” Callie protests. “That’s what Dad thinks.”
    “So what do you think?”
    There’s a pause. “Pretty much the same,” Callie says, and they both burst out laughing.
    “So maybe Reece and I will treat Dad to a stay in a hotel in New York for his birthday, then,” Callie continues. “You’re right about the apartment. Dad would think Rob was a disaster and it would put him in a permanent bad mood. Let me talk to Reece and see if he could get some time off work so we could all go out and do stuff together.”
    “Time off work? Your husband?”
    “I know, I know, but a girl can dream.”
    “I’ve got to go,” Steffi says. “Love you, Callie.”
    “Love you too, baby.”
    They put down their respective phones, each with a