This is the last story in the Waste of Timelessness and Other Early Stories collection. In it, a woman named Anita who seems to represent Anais Nin is a Spanish dancer: "she wanted a fantastic destiny instead of a wise one, brilliance instead of harmony, endless voyages, the perpetually shifting ground of stage life, rather than security."
Anita's mother in the story seems to represent her father in real life: "I had a Mother I have never known who never denied herself of any whim, however much it hurt others. She left home on account of one of them. I just got it into my head I would be as unlike my Mother as possible." Anita's mother is an actress and always uses this as an excuse for her behavior.
After a few months of performances, a woman appears in Anita's dressing room after the show. It is her mother, who goes by her stage name of Vivien and who approves of Anita because of her profession; Vivien feels she and Anita have a bond. Her mother invites Anita to her home for supper. Then, she invites Anita to live in her home. Before long, Anita meets Norman, her mother's lover.
Vivien has affairs with other men but always goes back to Norman. He is about ready to leave her for good and is intrigued by Anita. Before long, Anita is posing for Norman who is an artist. They talk and spend time together and develop feelings for each other.
Anita wants to find out how alike or different she and her mother are. She approaches her mother and tells her there is a man who loves her, but he is with another woman; she asks for advice. Her mother tells her not to think of the other woman, not to let anything get in the way of love.
But Anita doesn't want to be like her mother; she wants to resist the temptation of taking another woman's man. She leaves her mother's home. Vivien believes that Anita has been cruel but can't see the cruelty of her own actions. Norman is hurt by Anita's leaving and tells Vivien he is leaving her to find Anita. Vivien is left alone.
There's A Slippery Floor out there. Take care of the feelings of others or you'll fall down as Vivien did.
