"Dad!"
"Scotty." Anthony pushes his paperwork aside on his desk. It's not rare for him to have work to bring home on a Tuesday evening, but Laura takes every chance she gets to remind Anthony that he's a Cat's in the Cradle story waiting to happen if he doesn't make time for his kid, and no one wants to live inside a Harry Chapin song. But then, he doubts he's ever going to hear Scotty professing a desire to be like him, either, so the whole thing seems like a nonissue. All things considered, they're nothing alike - ironically, as the first thing everyone had to say when Scotty was born was just how much he looked like his dad. Same nose, same ears, same strangely long toes. Laura had lamented that after incubating him for nine months, it was pretty unfair that he came out looking like a carbon copy of daddy. But when Anthony looks at his son, all he sees is his wife. From his laugh to the glint in his eye that sparkles when he's about to do or say something he knows will land him in hot water, it's all Laura, and he's glad for it. She's much better at being a mom than he'll ever be at being a dad.
"You wanna go shoot some hoops? I figured out how to work the air pump on my ball, like you said, so it's good now."
Anthony's a busy man. The end of the fiscal quarter is nearing, and he doesn't have time to spare for games.
The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon... he can practically hear Laura singing under her breath.
"Yeah, we can do a few rounds."
"Hey babe, it's me. Know you're busy at work, so we called the home phone; switch the machine tape out after you listen to this because I want to keep it. Your son has something important to tell you..."
"DAD I GOT THE PART, I GOT IT!"
If he closes his eyes, Anthony can almost perfectly picture Laura laughing; he can see Scotty jumping up and down like his blood is caffeinated. He smiles. He misses them.
"Scotty, let me at least give you the phone--"
"I'M GONNA BE A TV STAR I'M GONNA BE FAMOUS," Scotty says, louder now. He probably has the phone pressed right up against his mouth. "And I'm gonna be on TV, like a regular, like every week, and... and it's gonna be so cool and Mom says we can go to Disneyland!"
"I said maybe we can go to Disneyland!" Laura calls out. "To celebrate."
"Yeah, that! So you should come to California and then we can go to Disneyland."
"Call back when you get this and we'll figure it out. I think we're going to be in California for awhile."
"Bye, Dad! Miss you!"
Anthony smiles. He switches out the machine tape.
"Your son seems to be doing really well lately. He and Laura are still spending most of their time in California, right?"
Regular sessions with an in-house counselor are mandatory at Anthony's firm; it's all part of some new Human Resources mumbo jumbo that boils down to making sure no one's about to go crazy and shoot up half the office - or, potentially worse, deflect to a rival firm and bring them all down. Their newest recruit for the cause, Rachel, is pleasant and professional. She makes all of her probing seem like small talk.
Problem is, Anthony's never been a fan of small talk. Or conversation in general, really.
"Primary filming's in Burbank. They're west coast for most of the year." The way Rachel's looking at him implies she's expecting more, so he adds "I visit at least once a month," with a shrug.
"Gives you more time for work, right?" she asks, a loaded question if there ever was one. They both know he'd be clocking the exact same hours in the office whether they were in New York or not.
"Sure. And they'll both be back here soon enough. TV shows don't run forever."