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home that night and was greeted by a most unpleasant surprise, considering my inebriated state. My father was sitting in my living room, waiting for me to come home.
    Oh, crap. He was the last person that I wanted to see right at that moment. He had his arms crossed. He obviously wasn’t pleased with me.
    “Dad,” I said. He was blurry, not in focus. My stomach started rumbling, and I, once again, had to stop myself from vomiting.
    “Dalilah,” he said, his voice stern. “You need to have a seat.”
    It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps there was something wrong. Maybe something had happened to my mom. But, no, it wasn’t that, because my mom soon appeared in the living room as well. She, too, looked like she wanted to kick my ass.
    “Mom,” I said, my heart sinking. This wasn’t looking good. “How are you?”
    “Dalilah Rose Gallagher,” she said, and I knew I was in serious trouble. Whenever mom used all three of my names, it meant that shit was about to go down. “You-“
    My dad made a motion to her to be quiet. Then he turned to lo ok at me. “Dalilah,” he said. “We’ve been hearing disturbing reports about your lifestyle out here.”
    “Reports?” I said, feeling a bit panicked. “From who?”
    “Nick,” he said.
    “Nick. How the hell does he know anything about my lifestyle? I haven’t been living with him for two years now.”
    He was quiet. Then it occurred to me that Nick probably had some kind of plant in the bar that I frequented. It would be just like my dad and Nick to be sneaky like that. God knew that they both were involved in any number of sneaky things over the years. Not to mention the fact that my father was a serious drug addict when he was my age. As far as I was concerned, he, especially, had zero moral authority to tell me anything. Nick, too. Before he met Scotty, he slept around way more than I could have ever dreamed of doing.
    Finally, he spoke. “Listen. Your mom and I agreed to let you come out here because we both wanted you to be immersed in the art culture. Art is your passion, and it always has been. That was the main reason why we agreed not to push you to go to college. Well, that and the fact that nobody has ever been able to push you into anything that you don’t want to do. Which is besides the point. But Nick has gotten a report that you have been spotted getting drunk at a bar here in town several times, and that you have left with a stranger each of those times.”
    “Oh my god. And what are you going to do? I’m a legal adult. You can’t very well force me to come home with you while I straighten out and learn to fly right.”
    “No,” he agreed. “I can’t. But Dalilah, I want you to know that your mom and I have decided that we need to be closer to you. So, I just purchased a house in the Montauk. That will be our new home base.”
    Montauk? Of course, my dad would choose to live in the Hamptons. God forbid he would live among the unwashed. “Montauk. And what about Dalilah’s Friends ? What about your foundation?”
    “ Dalilah’s Friends is in excellent hands. I’m going to do something similar here. I’m going to start a new sanctuary just outside of town. Which is why I am choosing to live in Montauk. That will be closer to where my new sanctuary will be. As for the foundation, I’m much closer to power brokers in New York City than in Kansas City.”
    In my drunken state, my feelings were a bit dulled, but the horror was there, all the same. Suddenly, I had to deal with my parents being a little over two hours away. “Okay, so you’re virtually moving into this city. And this will change my life how?”
    Finally, my mother spoke. “Dalilah. We would like for you to have dinner with us at l east once a month. I feel like we’ve been shut out of your life. You never answer the phone when we call. God forbid you would ever call us back. You don’t even answer the phone when Nick calls. I don’t approve of you doing what