’ ‘Well!’ she started, ‘I drove her back to her mother’s place, this afternoon, she is going to stay there for the next couple of weeks, unt...l we go back Cardiff. We are hoping that by then she will be able to cope with the stairs up to our flat.’ She hugged my arm and added in a pleading voice, ‘Will you go over and visit her, she can’t really get out and I know she is dying to see you again. I brought her down in Dad’s car as it’s uncomfortable for her in the Mini for long distances, even. But the fact is it came to thepoint where I hardly ever saw her anymore. Maybe we'd get together once ortwice a month. Maybe we'd spend an hour or so together at some restaurant.The other 95% of the time, I was by myself, living a false life, pretendingto be someone I wasn't. For who? It would have been hard enough if I weredoing it for Phoebe's benefit. But was she really getting that much out ofthat ninety minutes a month that it warranted me sacrificing my whole life?Parents make sacrifices. It felt natural.On Tuesday, I worked at the shop, doing 8 clients. LaKeisha said that Iwould be Tyrone's maid every Monday from now on. I seemingly had nochoice in the matter.LaKeisha continued to keep me as her assistant, even though I was ready togo out on my own. She liked having me to boss around.I was still having financial problems. As an assistant, I did not makevery much money. I could barely pay my rent. I got a lucky break whenLaKeisha decided to move in with Tyrone. They. Just because we did it didn't mean I used him. It just happened, she thought, we both got pleasure out of it, and that's that.She pushed away any guilty feelings, telling herself that people had casual sex all the time, so why shouldn't she? Why should she have to deal with love all the time? Sex was a natural thing, and humans were animals, and animals did each other all the time without dealing with love.She could fuck Kasey of course, that would be okay. She felt so free; now that she was.