Breaking the Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough Page B

girl?”
    â€œDad, I am too old to be called your little filly,” she mock-scolded when he set her down again.
    â€œYou are? How did that happen? No one told me.”
    â€œCome on, you know how old I am.” She was beaming. God, how she was beaming.
    â€œOf course I do. Let’s see—ten years, nine months, six days, three hours, and, let’s see, about twenty minutes.”
    â€œSee? Too old to be your filly.”
    â€œBut not too old to be my cream puff, my cupcake, my wishing star. Not too old for that.” He tousled her short hair and swooped down to kiss the top of her head. “Hey,” he said, like he had just noticed. “I like the cut. Very chic.”

    Mia watched all this from the sidelines, like the wallflower at the high school prom. Lloyd had always been this way with Eden, and Eden had always loved it. Loved
him.
Mia used to love it, too. Now she didn’t know. Of course she wanted Eden to have her father’s affection, but at the sight of them together, her heart felt bitten, chewed, and spat back out again. She was relieved when Eden put on her new, blue soft-as-butter coat and they were ready to leave.
    â€œNice coat.” Lloyd caressed the sleeve. “Where did that come from? Uncle Moneybags—uh, excuse me, Uncle Stuart?”
    â€œNo, it’s from Barneys,” Eden said. “Mom took me there.”
    â€œOh, did she?” Lloyd looked over at Mia, who quickly looked away.
    â€œYes, and the salesladies remembered me, Dad!”
    â€œEveryone will remember you, Eden. You wait.” He smiled. “Now how about we hit the road, okay?”
    â€œNot too late, okay?” Mia told Lloyd, uselessly, she knew.
    â€œOh, come on,” he said. “What’s late when you’re out with your best girl?”
    Mia resisted the impulse to argue; she would lose anyway, so what was the point? Instead, she watched while the coat was buttoned and the door slammed. They were gone. She was alone in the apartment, which was cleaner than it had been since she moved in. She even went after places toward which in the past she would have adopted a don’t-look-don’t-tell policy, like the tops of the kitchen cabinets and the fridge, under the kitchen sink, behind the love seat. And what for? All so she could prove something to Lloyd, something that he wouldn’t even notice or care about if he did.
    Mia first met Lloyd when she was a junior at Oberlin. He was actually a student at Princeton, visiting someone in her dorm for the weekend. The someone threw a party, Mia was invited, and there, in the middle of the room, holding court, was Lloyd. He was a tall, good-looking boy holding a large rabbit. Mia had been charmed. Shehad never met a guy who came to a party with a rabbit. A dog, sure. A snake even. But a rabbit?
    â€œAre you a magician?” Mia had asked.
    â€œWould it help get a date with you?”
    â€œMaybe,” she said. He was fun, she decided. Fun to look at, fun to flirt with.
    â€œThen I’m a magician,” he said. “Want me to make this rabbit vanish?”
    Mia shook her head. “I like rabbits.”
    â€œSmart girl,” he had said. He offered her the rabbit, and Mia took the creature in her arms. She was surprised at the feel of him—something in his body seemed to vibrate, even when he was still, and she could sense the subtle, animate movements of his ears. Holding him close to her chest was both a privilege and a comfort.
    He had not even been Lloyd back then; he’d been Tim. It was only later that he decided that the ordinary name of Tim Prescott was incompatible with all his grand ambitions and started going by his middle name, Lloyd.
    Oh, they had had fun back then, hadn’t they? Lloyd had given the rabbit to Mia as a going-away gift. Mia called her Lucy. She was a tidy creature who ate her food neatly and, even when allowed the run of Mia’s dorm room, confined