Nina was looking around immediately, braving putting her face into the wind to search for me. I raised my hand and she rushed to me, colliding with me so hard that both of us nearly went down into the snowbank. As always the feel of her body against mine, even through multiple layers of winter clothing, made me feel warm all over.
"I can't believe it!" She yelled, kissing my face and my lips. "How did you do it? What did you say?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked nonchalantly.
"You know what I'm talking about." She smiled. "I couldn't believe it. Daddy sat me down last night and told me that if I insisted on seeing you that he wouldn't stop me." Her smile faded a little. "He said he still didn't particularly care for you or trust you, but that he saw no advantage to trying to keep us apart."
"Well," I said. "It's not exactly a dowry of a kingdom just yet. But it's a start. And your Mom?"
"Mom wasn't too happy about his decision." She admitted. "In fact, I heard them arguing about it. They were actually yelling at each other when he told her. Finally they started whispering back and forth, so I couldn't hear what was being said. She didn't seem too happy this morning but she didn't tell me to stay away from you like she did yesterday."
"So I guess I won't be coming over for any family dinners in the near future?" I asked.
She smiled and kissed me again, a long, luxuriant kiss. "Not just yet." She said. "But give it time."
We started walking into the school. "So what did you say to Daddy anyway?" She asked. "He wouldn't tell me."
"I don't think your Dad would really like it if I told you what we talked about." I answered. "It was kind of personal."
"Did it have to do with the years after the war like you thought?" She asked, her curiosity plain on her face.
"Nina, I really don't think he would want you to know what he said. Sorry."
She frowned. "You must have some sort of gift Bill. How you got Dad to open up to you, how you convinced him to let us be together." She shook her head. "Will you tell me someday? Someday in a few years?"
"I'll consider it." I told her. "In the meantime, I have the night off. I was wondering if you would do me the honor of accompanying me to dinner and a movie tonight?"
She gave me another kiss, again in front of everyone on the quad. "I suppose." She said. "Unless something better comes along of course."
We decided that it would be a good idea to establish with her parents that we would in fact be seeing each other. With that in mind I agreed to pick Nina up for our date at her house; just like a normal teenager would do. It had seemed like a good idea when we discussed it but as I pulled my car up to the curb that night I felt that maybe it hadn't been such a hot plan after all. My body was tensed up with nervous tension and I hesitated before I was able to pull myself out of my Datsun and trudge up to the curb.
There was another long hesitation before I could bring myself to ring the doorbell.
My nervousness turned out to be unfounded. Nina answered the door and quickly stepped out of it onto the porch. The reason for my nervousness however, was not so unfounded. Nina, dressed in a nice pair of slacks, her hair styled attractively (the mark of Tracy and Cindy), looked a little upset.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Let's go." She replied, heading down the porch for my car.
After a brief moment I followed her.
As we drove downtown towards the restaurant where I'd made reservations she told me what had happened.
"Mom is not very keen on Dad's decision to allow us to date." She told me.
"No?" I asked, not terribly surprised after the story that Mr. Blackmore had told me. It was Mrs. Blackmore, after all, that had born the brunt of the Bob Simpson episode.
"No." She agreed. "They've been arguing and fighting pretty much since you first talked to him. When I told Dad that you and I were going out tonight he kind of grunted at me but didn't say anything. But when I told Mom," She shook her head. "Mom started in right away about how she didn't agree with Dad, about how she thought you were a lowdown slimebag, and how she didn't think I should be going out with you. She told me I would be staying home and that despite what my father had said, that I was not to see you anymore."
"Wow." I commented.
"I appealed to Dad and they had another argument, a pretty nasty one. Dad finally told me I could go out with you tonight. Mom stayed in her room and wouldn't come out."
"I'm sorry." I told her, not really sure what I was apologizing for.
"Bill, I almost didn't go tonight. Mom and Dad have NEVER fought like this. Never! The most they've ever done in front of me is have little squabbles over money or housework or something. This is tearing them apart! Do you know how that makes me feel? I almost cancelled my date with you just to keep them from fighting."
"But you didn't." I said softly.
"I couldn't Bill." She told me. "I need to be with you. I couldn't bear to call you up and tell you I wouldn't come tonight. I couldn't bear not seeing you. Oh Christ, why does all of this have to be so damn complicated? Is this going to happen every time we go out?"
I let my hand drop to her knee where I patted it. "Nina," I told her. "I don't think it's going to happen every time."
"Why not?" She asked.
"There's one thing I learned while I was talking to your Dad." I explained. "That is that your parents love each other deeply. They always have. They have the kind of love that you and I have and believe me, that kind of love is rare among married couples. This won't break them apart Nina. And I believe it's one of those things that starts off as bad as it's going to get and then gradually gets better as time goes by. Your Mom and your Dad are waiting for me to break you heart. They think that's what my purpose is due to various things in their past. Do you remember the day I came to the emergency room?
"Of course." She answered. "I remember everything about that day."
"I told you that you would be taking a gamble by returning to me, that you were gambling with the possibility that I might break your heart again. Remember?"
"Yes."
"Your parents are trying to contemplate that same gamble." I told her. "Only they don't have much to lose in it. You have the possibility of love to lose. They really don't have anything. No matter what happens, they'll still have you. They don't realize that they're gambling with your happiness of course. They just perceive that I'm an asshole and that you'd be better off without me. Now I've managed to change your Dad's views on me a little with the talk we had, but I haven't managed to change your Mom's views. As time goes on however, and when I don't break your heart, and when they see that you are happy, I think they'll come around. Just remember, this is probably as bad as it's going to get."
She nodded and put her hand on top of mine. I gave her knee another squeeze. "You do have a way of making people feel better Bill." She told me.
"I do my best." I told her. "Now let's forget about your parents for a while and go out and have a good time. That's what people in love are supposed to do, right?"
She picked up my hand and put it to her lips, kissing it briefly. "Right." She answered.
A good time we had. We went to dinner at a Black Angus restaurant, both of us having the prime rib. Afterwards we drove to the movie theater, just in time to catch a showing of "War Games". The movie had been out long enough that not too many people were in the theater. We sat in the back row, in the lover's section.
I had seen "War Games" before of course, way back when. I found it not terribly interesting since the computer technology was completely antiquated from my point of view and because it's main pretense was something I knew was never going to happen. After all, the Soviet Union was going to fall in seven more years taking with it the threat of sudden nuclear annihilation. But I enjoyed it all the same because Nina was there with me.