When I got to the freeway and no longer needed to shift gears, I took her hand in mine once again, doing it carefully since that was my sore hand. She gazed at me lovingly.
"No matter what happens Bill." She told me. "I'm always going to remember this night. My first date, my first kiss. Thank you for taking me."
"I'll always remember this night too." I told her.
A few more minutes passed, bringing my house and an end to this night ever closer. Finally I asked, "When can we see each other again Nina?"
"I'm not doing anything tomorrow." She told me quickly.
Sadly I shook my head. "Tracy's flying in tomorrow and I promised Mom I'd pick her up at the airport. We'll be doing all the family crap. But Sunday's free and I have lots of Christmas shopping to do."
"So do I." She said. "How about Sunday morning around nine?"
"It's a date." I answered.
"I'll come over to your house again." She said. "Remember, no phone calls just yet."
"Okay." I said doubtfully. "I take it your parents would not be too thrilled to find out you're dating me?"
"I'm sorry Bill." She said quietly. "I would just assume we keep this a little secret from them for the time being."
"They liked me before." I offered hopefully.
"That was before." She said. "Things are different now. Very different."
"What do you mean?"
There was a long pause, as if she was trying to gather her thoughts. "Bill, my parents are kind of old you know."
I nodded. "Yeah."
"My Mom was thirty-eight when she had me, my Dad was forty. They'd been told that they couldn't have children and they'd lived with that for years. They'd accepted it. And then, after all that time, my mom managed to get pregnant anyway."
I nodded, not sure what to say, not sure where this was leading.
"You see," She continued, "I'm their only child and they're kind of overprotective at times. They're also from a different generation than your parents. They're as old as your grandparents are. I've always been very close to them, probably closer than a lot of kids are because of how they've always treated me. I've always been like, well a gift from God to them. Anyway, the day that you and I had our, our fight, I went home crying. I couldn't stop crying in fact."
"Uh huh." I said, feeling more than a tinge of guilt at this admission.
"Well, my Mom was home. She found me crying and she asked me what was wrong. You have to understand that was a strange way for me to act. I learned way back in grade school when I was ugly, lisping Nina not to cry. So obviously, Mom knew something was very wrong with me. I cried and cried that day while she held me and finally I told her what was wrong. I told her everything."
"You mean…" I couldn't finish, so stunned was I. She had told her EVERYTHING?
"Everything." Nina nodded. "About how I loved you. That she already knew. But then I told her about how I'd found out that you were sleeping with every girl you could get your hands on. How you had a reputation around the school for that sort of thing. About how the girls would come up to me and ask, well, you know." She smiled crookedly. "Mom was kind of upset about that. In fact, she used a few words about you that I'd never heard her use before."
"Jesus Nina." I said quietly. She had told her EVERYTHING!
"She was more upset than I ever would have imagined. I figured she would comfort me and tell me things like 'you'll be okay without him' and 'he's not worthy of you', and stuff like that, you know?"
"Mother things." I offered.
"Right." She said, cracking a slight smile. "But that wasn't what happened at all. She was outraged, angry. I don't believe I've ever seen my Mom that angry before. Not even when I was playing in her car in the driveway when I was a kid and accidentally let off the emergency brake and crashed it into the neighbor's car across the street. She was almost insane with anger Bill."
"Wow." I said, thinking it was no wonder that I'd gotten a cold reception on the few times I'd called after our break-up. "And your Dad?"
"Mom told him that night." Nina said. "I heard them talking softly to each other when they went to bed. The next morning he told me that I was to 'never see that bastard again'. That's an exact quote, mind you. It was pretty plain that Dad was even angrier than Mom."
"Later that day Dad took me aside and had a talk with me."
"A talk?" I asked, trying to picture jovial, terminally happy Mr. Blackmore having a serious talk about anything.
She nodded. "He told me about, well, boys like you. Boys that were only after one thing. He used a lot of profanity as he talked about it and he lost his temper a few times even though he was the only one talking. He told me how they could 'fuck up my whole life' and 'destroy everything I've worked for', how they were good for nothing but destroying other people's relationships."
"It seems your parents have some rather strong feelings about this." I told her, giving the understatement of the year. What she was telling me was very unsettling. Though I would have expected some depth of anger from her parents at what she had told them, this seemed a little excessive, even for older generation people that were raised in the pre-World War II era.
"Yes." She answered. "Strong feelings would be a good way to put it. Thank God it was me who answered the phone today. I don't know what would have happened if Dad would have been the one."
"Are we going to keep seeing each other Nina?" I asked her.
She looked sharply at me. "Yes." She answered. "I want to see you as much as possible. I'm already pouting to myself because I can't see you tomorrow."
"Don't you think that your parents will find out about us pretty soon?"
She shook her head. "I don't even want to think about that." She told me. "If I keep coming over to your house and you don't call me at mine, there's no reason why they need to know anything."
I opened my mouth to protest this statement. I wanted to tell her that her reasoning was flawed, that if I'd learned one thing in the past few months it was that you could not hide your activities from the people you lived with for any length of time. But before the first word could clear my lips I slammed them shut. What purpose could such a discussion serve right now? What purpose except to spoil what had been a perfect, glorious night?
"Okay Nina." I said, giving her a smile and giving her hand another squeeze.
"We'll play it your way."
We arrived back at my house a few minutes later. I walked her to her mother's car where we exchanged one more kiss, one more hug, before she climbed inside. She started up the car and drove away. I watched her until she was out of sight.
"This is my reception?" Tracy asked with mock indignation when we finally found each other in the crowded airport. "I faithfully call and write all the time and all they can send is YOU to come pick me up?"
"You're lucky you even got me." I told her. "They were gonna have you take the bus home."
She laughed and we embraced each other warmly.
"It's good to see you Bill." She told me. "And it's good to see snow on the ground. I'm so sick of rain all the goddam time."
I stepped back from her and took in her attire. She was wearing tight jeans and a sweater covered by a light windbreaker. "I don't think you're gonna be too happy about it when you step outside. It's about twenty degrees out there. Where the hell is your heavy jacket?"
"It's in my suitcase mother." She told me, "Which is probably in the baggage carousel if it isn't on its way to Beirut or something. It never gets cold enough in the Bay Area to wear the damn thing. Every time I put it on I break out in a sweat."
"Well you'll get some use out of it this week." I told her. "C'mon, lets go get your bag."
"You seem to be in a good mood." Tracy commented as we fought our way through the terminal full of holiday travelers.