“Your dad. You live with your mom and a stepdad, right? You’ve never mentioned your father. What happened to him?” I don’t like that question. It’s unreasonable to be annoyed by such a common inquiry, but I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to pin my fears about him on an absent, disappointing father—and I have an absent, disappointing father, so if I tell him that, he’ll be able to. “I don’t have daddy issues,” I say instead.
