Chapter 23 - No Luck

Chance continues his awful babysitting skills by sleeping in Marie's new bed in her new room before even SHE can.

Marie always finds a way to laugh at him rather than get offended, at least.

Megan's birthday comes far too fast, and Tiara can only hope she raised the toddler to the best of her ability.

She throws another dinner party. Surprisingly, when she issues Zac an invitation he decides to come.

Things don't...go quite as well as they did last time.

When it comes down to it, people have fled the hairball-covered house before the candles can even be blown out. Hell, even her twin sister is dancing away instead of celebrating the aging of her niece.

But Zac, surprisingly, really gets into the whole birthday celebration thing. Tiara begins to wonder if she read him wrong before, that maybe he DID want to be a part of Megan's life. Maybe he just...was too scared.

Megan grows up, healthy and true.

Believe it or not, two additional birthdays happen the next day, so many that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all!

Melissa is first. Tiara can't help but snort every time she looks at her. Melissa, like Megan, is every inch her father's child in the face and hair, except it isn't quite as flattering on her toddler's face as it is on Gussie's.

Well, whatever. Tiara's made a vow to love and adore all of her children regardless of how they look. Besides, she fancies, she'll probably grow up to look absolutely adorable, like her older sister Glynnis with her pig nose.

Marie is next!

If she didn't love pink before, then she sure as hell adores it NOW.

With all of her babies growing up, Tiara is ecstatic. Her life is going wonderfully! She's got a crop of girls that she loves and that love her in return, she's done well enough to give Marie and Megan their own bedroom to share...what else could be missing?

Oh, wait. Still as horny as a hounddog. Right.

She starts to wonder if it could possibly be genetic. For a while, it felt as if Rhi was coming home with a different man every night, so...why not?

With Marie old enough to watch the kids and with an immensely huge itch to scratch, Tiara goes out on the town for a bit.

But there's no one at the Watering Hole.

No one's at the gym.

Watcher, she even tries the museum, but all there is is this attractive statue.

A journey to the pool just gets her heckled and followed around by some kid.

What is it? Is it because she's getting older? Is she getting ugly? Is it because she'd spent her golden years of young adulthood pursuing her career enough to become a Background Vocalist?

Whatever it is, Tiara spends half the evening awake in her bed, listening to Melissa's soft snores and trying not to cry. Something is wrong with her. That's all she can figure.

She eventually sighs and rolls over, curling into a small, warm, comfortable ball before she falls asleep, burning as she is.