"I will not have any daughter of mine being a runaway."
I sighed to myself. "Fine," was all I said.
"How much of that outburst was from Ellie Kirkland?" he asked in a tone of disgust.
"None of it," I said. "That’s been building up for some time."
"Your mother basically doesn’t want to talk to you. You hurt her very badly last night."
"She’s incapable of being hurt," I said. Dad just looked at me. "She’s not hurt. She’s offended. She’s probably mad. She’s most likely scandalized. I’d like to hope she’s even feeling a bit guilty, but I know that’s too much to hope for. Hurt, she is not."
"One of these days you’ll have children, and you’ll see it’s not as easy as you think," he pontificated.
Ah, yes, the same old platitudes. "Well, Dad, I certainly plan to be very careful. I certainly don’t plan on having any kids by mistake that I really don’t want and will resent for the rest of their lives," I said. That was a stab in the dark, but one I had always suspected-and the look in Dad’s eyes told me I was right on.
All he said was, "That’s probably a good plan." Then he got up and started heading out of the dining room.
"You’re never going to say it, are you?" I said with a sigh.
His back to me, he stopped and said, "Maybe someday, but you’ll have to earn it."
"I didn’t think love was something that had to be earned, especially a parent to a child."
He turned to me then. "Melissa, everything in life needs to be earned. You might want to start realizing that." Then he left.
And I realized-what a sad, pathetic way to live your life.
I got out of there, and headed to David’s. I was, at least, liked there. I knocked on his door. He was happy to see me. And if you don’t think I needed that right about now! I stepped into his house, and he grabbed me and kissed me. Nothing earth-shaking, but warm and sweet and very nice.
"What happened last night?" he asked me, leading me over to the couch.
"Well, I had a little-well, it was kind of a nervous breakdown. I lost it. Even shattered one of my mother’s prized expensive vases all over the wall. It started yesterday afternoon." I told him the whole thing. By the end, he was holding me.
"Are you OK?" he asked.
"Well, I’m dealing. I’m glad you’re here, though-that makes it better."
"I’m glad," he said. "You know what? I always felt, you know, that I was missing something, because I didn’t have a Dad. But at least I have Mom. Who tells me she loves me thirty-eight times a day," he grinned.
"You’re Mom’s a sweetheart," I told him. "Where is she?"
"At the store where she works. They’re doing inventory today, she’s been there since six. She works at Veychold’s Boutique."
"I love Veychold’s," I said. "They have so much cool stuff in there. Most of it wouldn’t look good on me, but I love looking at it."
"Oh, feh. Tons of stuff in there would look great on you. Look, what do you want to do today?"
"You know what? It’s a great day for a walk. Why don’t we go downtown? We can stroll through the park, maybe get something to eat, check out the stores."
"That’s a great idea. Let’s do it," he agreed. We went into my car and drove downtown. We parked and headed towards the town park first. We just started walking, holding hands.
"I love this place," I told him.
"Yeah, I always have, too." We walked for a bit down one of the paths, and then he said, "Listen. I was wondering. Would you like to go out?"
"I think we are out, silly," I giggled, not getting it.
He stopped, and turned to me. "No, I meant, go out with me. You know, be my girlfriend."
I felt my jaw drop. I couldn’t help it. This was the last thing I expected now. "Really?" I managed to squeak out.
"Yeah, really," he grinned at me.
"YES!" I shouted, and launched myself at him, and started kissing him on the cheek. "Yes!" I said again. Then I kind of realized where we were-in the middle of the park. I also realized I was definitely overdoing it.
"I’m sorry," I said stepping away from him, "was that too enthusiastic?" I couldn’t stop grinning though.
"I didn’t mind," he grinned back.
"You just took me by surprise, is all," I told him. "I thought that maybe if we started dating, you might ask me that in, oh, a month or two."
"You’re obviously not upset I jumped the gun on you," he said, still smiling at me.
"Obviously not." I was just beaming. We started walking again.
"I had trouble sleeping last night. I got up real early. I decided to walk down to the diner near my house to get some breakfast. When I got there, I ran into Jared and Amanda. We had a nice talk."
"They got up early, too, I take it."
"Well, Amanda did. She woke up Jared. They often spend the night together, at Jared’s, especially on weekends."
"Oh. But she woke Jared up? That’s not nice."
He cracked up laughing. "I don’t think he was complaining. If I know Amanda-and I do-she woke him up with a blowjob."
"Ah," I giggled.
"Anyhow, I met them at the diner and we had a nice talk. It cleared a lot of things up in my mind. So, I figured, why wait around? I wanted to do this. It feels right."
I think I sighed a little bit. "Yeah, it feels right to me, too."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX DAVIDI couldn’t believe how happy she was!
I take that back. I could believe it. And, you know what? I was just as happy. It’s funny-I had been so worried about her that it didn’t hit me until about 15 minutes after I had asked her. I have a girlfriend! ME!
It must have shown on my face, because she looked at me and said, "What’s up?"
"It just kind of hit me," I grinned at her. "I actually had the nerve to ask a girl to go out with me."
She let out a little musical little tinkle of a laugh, and wrapped her arm around mine. "Now you know how why I reacted the way I did that I actually got asked out!"
"Oh, I thought it was because it was me that asked you out," I teased.
"It was, silly," she laughed. "But I think my disbelief was increased that it was anyone. Though if it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have said yes."
We ended up getting some lunch, then walked down the main shopping area along Westport Ave. "Hey, let’s go say hi to Mom," I said, as we approached Veychold’s.
"OK," she grinned.
We walked in and Mom was obviously counting something for inventory. So, me being the brat I am, I walked up behind her and intoned, "seven, sixteen, eighty-three, two…"
She turned around, mad, but then realized who it was. "You brat! Hi, honey. Hello, Melissa. What are you two doing?"
"Walking the town," I said. "It was a good day for it. Later, she’s cooking me dinner."
"Vat is dis? You messing your Mama’s counting up?" I looked behind me, and there was Mom’s boss, the owner of the boutique, Miriam Veychold. Miriam was a little old Jewish woman with a thick Yiddish accent-which was amusing, considering she’d lived in Westport for years. She was like the grandmother I didn’t have. I loved her to pieces.
"Hi, Miriam. Yes, I’m messing her up. Isn’t that my job?"
"You shtinker," she grinned. "Vat brings you here on such a nice day?"
"We’re out walking, stopped in to say hi. Missy, this is Miriam, she owns the shop. Miriam, this is my girlfriend, Missy."
"Ah! Zo you finally find nice girl, eh?" Miriam said. "Nice to meet you," she said to Missy.
And, yes, Mom caught it. "Girlfriend?" she said with a grin.
"As of about an hour ago," I grinned back.
"Congratulations!" We chatted for a bit, and I noticed Missy wandering around. She was looking at an outfit.
"I like that," I said.
"I like it, too, but I could never wear it."
"Sure you could," I argued. It was more revealing than the stuff she normally wore, but I thought it’d look great on her. It was a short sleeve purple shirt, drawn in at the waist, and a bit short at the hem, with a hip-hugger flared grey skirt.