Here's where the story ends

 

"Why me?" Oliver practically yelped.

Brick would have to call at the most unexpected time, Oliver was trying to get the Sharpie tattoo off Carrie, and it wasn't as easy as they said on YouTube.

"Well..."

He'd let Brick think on this while he was trying to find nail polish remover, but he didn't have any. His head was stuck to his cell. He couldn't talk, but he felt he had to listen.

"Why did you have to do it all over your belly?" He squinted while Carrie squirmed.

"It's a butterfly!"

"Well, it doesn't look like one to me," Oliver tensed.

"Well, what?" He got back to Brick.

"I've always looked up to you, I always thought you'd know what to do?"

"Does it look like I would know anything with my track record?"

"But, but you liked Gabby when you were in high school," Brick recalled. Of course, Brick liked Lily when she was nine or so.

"Oh, I don't know."

Oliver sighed, thinking he should know what he was doing with Carrie, but he didn't. He dressed her in pajamas and told her she'd have to be stuck with that tattoo.

"Maybe you'll never do it again," but he had a feeling she would always love tattoos. "Where did you get an idea like this, anyway?" Oliver asked before she went off to play with something in her toybox.

"Gabby has a tattoo."

Oliver thought he might fall back on the bedroom floor and pass out, if he could, but not a chance. "Of course, she does."

He closed his eyes, he couldn't even imagine where it might be.

"I am just trying to be a good Dad right now," he finally said into the phone. "I don't think Gabby needs a dad."

"I just wish, I was what Lily really wanted," Brick yelped back.

"Well, you are a way ahead of me," Oliver told him. If anyone needed to be on antidepressants, it was probably him (Oliver) but then he was afraid he couldn't keep up with Carrie. He was certain his name was somewhere on a list under WORST FATHER OF THE YEAR.