"Girls? We're going to bed now. Just wanted to say goodnight." Daisy, her hair in a fat braid, stuck her head in Francie and Clio's room, her hand on the knob. Pete stood just behind her, shirtless, smiling at his two eldest. He wondered how many times they'd done this exact same thing, beginning with the tiny rooftop apartment on the Upper West Side, when Francie had somehow managed to climb out of her crib and into Clio's. Now their room was decorated like two older girls lived there, complete with a panel of fairy lights in one corner.

He'd been in his twenties then, with no gray in his hair. Then they'd moved downstairs, to Granny's apartment, spreading out as they began to grow, and the girls had graduated to big girl beds, so at least he didn't have to imagine the intrepid Francie climbing over the bars of her crib to be with her big sister.

Then they'd moved to this beautiful penthouse apartment, their permanent home, where they'd brought Charlotte, Sabrina, and Finnian into the world, the three who were already asleep. Della the dog was with Finn, taking up more than her fair share of his bed, while Cina the cat took turns sleeping with Lottie or Brina, depending on her mood.

Clio, her brown hair in a braid very similar to her mother's looked up from the book she was reading, something about chemistry. She smiled back at her father, making her dimple pop, looking so much like the baby she used to be that Pete thought his heart would burst.

"Mom? Dad? Can I talk to you guys about something?" Clio asked, closing her book and setting it aside. She patted her bed in an invitation for her parents to sit.

"Really? You want both of us? I can go," Pete offered, gesturing down the hall towards the master bedroom.

"No," Clio assured him. "I mean, it is going to be one of those talks, but I want you here, if you want to stay."

Daisy and Pete entered the room and sat on Clio's bed, looking at their oldest daughter expectantly. They both took deep breaths, preparing themselves for one of those talks. On her bed, Francie, who had her laptop across her knees, looked up, listening intently.

"What is it, love?" Daisy asked, putting a hand on either side of Clio's long legs, which were under her flowered down comforter.

"Well, you know I've been seeing a lot of Archie Spencer," Clio began, dimpling again.

Pete and Daisy nodded.

"He seems like a very nice young man," Pete offered. Archie had just spent Thanksgiving with them, and the day had gone very well.

"He really is," Clio agreed. "And I really like him a lot. I'm in love with him."

"Yeah, it seems like it," Daisy agreed, reaching out to smooth some hair away from Clio's temple. "That's really nice, Clio."

Clio nodded. "So, I'm probably going to go to the health center at school and get on the pill next week, and I thought you guys should know, that's all," she said, taking a deep breath when she finished speaking.

Daisy just blinked at Clio, and Pete swallowed, his throat making an audible click as he did so. Daisy put her hand on her husband's without looking away from Clio and bit her lips together, nodding her head finally as Clio looked back and forth between her parents and the moment spun out.

"Does this mean that you won't be using condoms?" Pete finally asked.

"Yes, it does," Clio answered firmly, nodding. "He's used them for birth control and for STIs pretty much exclusively until now, and he says he's willing to continue to do that with me, but I don't want to, so he says that's okay with him if that's what I want."

Daisy opened her mouth to say something, but Pete spoke before she had a chance.

"Wait a minute, topolina, of course he will say that! No man wants to use a condom if he doesn't have to!" Pete surprised himself with the loudness of his voice, and he lowered it for his next words. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout. I'm just saying that no one likes to use a condom, they're just a necessity of being sexually active in today's world." He put his large hand on Clio's knee through the comforter, leaning forward so Clio could see his tattoo. "Please think about what you're saying. He has nothing to lose, but you have so much, so much. Some STIs take months or even years to manifest themselves."

Clio put her hand on top of Pete's. "Dad, I know that--"

"NO. Topolina, no. Late stage syphilis, I think it's called tertiary syphilis--"

"Dad!" Clio gasped with a laugh.

"Tertiary syphilis can lie dormant for twenty years or more," Pete continued, speaking over his daughter determinedly.

Francie could be heard laughing from over in her bed.

Pete sat up and crossed his arms, looking so much like Finn that even Daisy had to smile.

"Laugh if you want, all of you, I know what I'm talking about. That boy has been on the road with his brother, and I know what happens on tour. I know."

Daisy leaned over and kissed her husband's temple. "God, I love you, Pietro."

"Anch' io," Clio declared, leaning forward to hug and kiss her father. "And I thought of all that stuff, too, which is why he went and got tested for everything under the sun a few weeks ago."

"He did?" Pete asked, suspicion all over his face.

"He did," Clio assured him. "Even though it wasn't necessary, because he gets tested every year, and before every tour, just like you do. And you don't need it, either, do you? Do you, dad?" She prodded him with her leg. "Dad, have you ever cheated on mom? Has it ever even occurred to you to cheat on mom? Hm?"

Pete shook his head, taking Daisy's hand and kissing it. "Of course not. But not everyone is like me."

"God, don't I know it," Clio said. "But Archie is a good person, a nice person, and the truth is that he's really liked me since he met me at UCLA, and he hasn't looked at another girl since. That's what he says, anyway, and I believe him." She smiled at her father. "You can call me stupid if you like, but I believe him."

"For what it's worth, so do I," Francie spoke up from her bed with an emphatic nod.

"You've barely met him, mimma," Pete retorted, looking over at his beautiful, blonde-haired daughter.

"But I've spent a lot of time over here in my bed, listening to Clio FaceTime with with him over there in hers," Francie explained. "And I've spent enough time getting hit on to know a good guy when I meet one. And Archie is."

"Oh god, Francesca, you're not going to tell me that you need to get on these birth control pills as well, are you?" Pete asked, aghast.

"Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick no, Dad," Francie responded with a comfortable laugh. "I'm only fifteen."

"But you're nearly sixteen, mimma, and I've seen how boys look at you," Pete told her forlornly, letting his hand flap against his leg. "This is truly a nightmare, veramente."

"I haven't found one single guy I'm even remotely interested in, to tell you the truth," Francie said from her place on her bed. "In fact, Clio and I were wondering the other day if I might not be gay? Or at least bi?"

"What?"

Both her parents uttered this one word at the same time, causing Clio and Francie to burst out laughing, high-fiving each other from across the room.

Francie shrugged. "I don't know, sometimes, I see a girl? A woman, you know, who's, like, really beautiful, and I get kinda tingly. It could just be a conditioned response, though, from societal norms and advertising and stuff that's shoved down our throats on a regular basis. I mean, I still think Pete Buttigieg's totally hot, so who knows?"

Pete stared at his second born. "But Francesca, Mayor Pete is gay."

Francie looked at her father like he was too thick to be her dad. "But he's a dude, though, right?" She shrugged again. "Who the fuck knows? Maybe I'm asexual."

Clio laughed her beautiful laugh. "Say it ain't so, Francie. There are hearts breaking all over Manhattan tonight."

"Oddio, Daisy, these girls are going to kill me. I'm going to die, and you will be a widow soon," Pete declared.

"Not for long," Francie quipped. "Mom gets plenty of fan mail of her own, don't worry about her, she'll find someone."

"Francie, stop," Daisy gasped, staring at her daughter with tears of laughter in her eyes. She turned to her husband. "Come on, Pietro, let's get our creaky selves to bed before both of us stroke out and die, right here in their bedroom, Jesus."

She and Pete rose and kissed both girls. "I love you"s were said all around and the door was finally closed as the two older Santangelos took their bemused selves off to bed.

"Well, that wasn't as horrible as it could've been," Clio said to her younger sister in the darkness.

"No, I told you, they're cool parents," Francie answered comfortably.

"I know they are, but did you see poor dad's face?" Clio laughed.

"Yeah, that was pretty hilarious," Francie answered. "Hey, you wanna slumber party?"

"Sure, come on over."

Francie jumped out of her bed with her pillow and ran to her sister's bed, jumping in with practiced ease. The two girls giggled as they settled down for the night, tangling up their feet for warmth as they had their whole lives.

"Thanks for telling them the whole 'I might be gay thing,'" Clio said, taking Francie's hand.

"Niente," Francie answered. "It's not a secret, and it made a nice distraction, too, so that was good."

"You really think you might be bisexual?"

Francie shrugged. "I don't know. I usually fall for the person first, so it could very easily be that the person might be a woman, I suppose. I'll have to wait until I really like someone to know, I guess. Like you and Archie."

"Yeah, like me and Archie."

And Francie could tell Clio was smiling in the dark. She leaned over and kissed her sister on the cheek.

"Good night, you lucky duck. I love you."

"I love you, too, Francie Pants."