Chapter 27: The Better Man

"Oh, I just felt her kick," Jacklyn says.

"You're still sure it's a girl?" Nico answers, keeping his eyes on the pancakes. He's getting a lot better at this cooking thing.

"It's just a feeling I have," Jacklyn admits, "But the ultrasound today will tell us for sure."

"I wish I could go with you," Nico says. He's missing out on a lot of things with the schedule Bill's been keeping him on.

"I told Bill today was my ultrasound. I swear that man doesn't listen to anything I say."

"I don't think he listens to anyone," Nico says, "I met this model last night, she asked me to bring her your autograph. She's going to be at the shoot today."

"Bill has you going out with models?" Jacklyn asks, the jealousy obvious in her voice.

"Jacklyn, you know you have nothing to worry about. You're everything to me," Nico assures her. 

At first Nico doesn't recognize Debbie when they meet up at the photo studio.

"It's the hair," she explains, "Stylists keep changing it."

Debbie is thrilled to get the CD Jacklyn signed for her. While they chat, Bill and Herb discuss their visions for the shoot.

"Herb, darling," Marilyn makes a grand entrance, and the room falls silent.

"You're at least two hours early," Herb says, smiling deviously, "I have your shoot scheduled for noon."

Marilyn sighs dramatically, "My idiot assistant can't get anything right. I suppose I'll just have to wait. I'll go up to the dressing rooms. At least I'll have plenty of time to prepare," she says, casting a significant glance at Nico as she heads up the stairs.

The conversation is overdone and obviously staged, Nico thinks. As hard as it is to imagine that she planned this out with the photographer ahead of time, it seems like the only answer.

When he's sent off to his own dressing room, Nico finds Marilyn waiting for him. Past the point of trying to tell himself that he's not going to do this, Nico needs no convincing, no seducing, to get up on the dressing table with her.

"Sssh, not so loud," he begs her in a hoarse whisper, "Someone will hear."

"Say it in Italian," she answers.

During the shoot, the previously spirited Debbie seems more guarded and aloof. Maybe it's the job, Nico thinks, but his own guilt makes him wonder if she heard what was going on his dressing room. If he's going to keep this up, he thinks, he going to have to take control of it, to keep it from coming back to Jacklyn.

When he gets home, he finds Jacklyn in the office space she's turned into a nursery.

"I was right," she says, smiling, "It's a girl. Now we need to start thinking about names."

"Trillare," Nico answers immediately.

"It's pretty. What does it mean?" Jacklyn asks.

"She sings with trills."

Jacklyn laughs, "What if she doesn't?"

"Her mother does."

"We don't all do what our parents do," Jacklyn says, thinking about her father, his drinking, his rages. She's not going to do that, she thinks, she's going to be a better parent.

Nico has no answer, thinking about his father, his infidelities. He never wanted to follow his father's path, yet here he is, lying to the woman he loves, not even trying to be the better man.