Chapter 27

“So how did it go?” said Ian. “No, let me guess. He wanted to start the quarterly thing now.”

“Hah,” said Glory. “Exactly the opposite. He wants to make a change all right. He wants Tina to stay over at his place for an end of the month weekend only. Says, she is showing signs of missing her mom. I have to say, Ian, that I’ve seen the signs too, but she does love the man, but as he said, Tina is a momma’s girl.”

“Wow!” he said.

“He and I agreed to disagree and to revisit the arrangement in the future, but for the time being Tina will be here most of the time. If we have something going, she will be able to stay with him, but overall, she’ll be here until...” she threw up her hands.

“I worry about him, Ian. Sometimes, before, I caught him staring off into the sunset when Zoe was supposed to be visiting but wasn’t. His bitterness was what drove me out, not just your tall and handsome countenance,” she said.

“I see,” he said. “Well, that is a surprise. I mean him opting for less time with Tina.”

“Yes, well, I think it’s a case of him not wanting to alienate Tina the way he feels, wrongly, that he alienated Zoe. I mean I don’t really know, but it’s what I suspect,” she said. He nodded his understanding.

“You’re going to have to talk to Tina, obviously. How she reacts might tell the tale,” he said.

“Yes,” she said.

I knew she’d be talking to her new man, who wasn’t really new, just publicly new whereas he’d been a secret until more recent times. But then a big talk with our daughter. I would’ve liked to be a fly on the wall for that one; but well, I would not be. I had to wonder if I would even hear about it. I figured I would, but the when might be somewhat problematical.

It was Saturday. Sunday would be the day that Christina Wyatt would be—supposed to be—having her week long residency with her real dad. She sighed; she was about to discover that such was not to be the case.

“Tina, come down stairs; I need to talk to you,” said Glory Longstreet.

“Can’t Mom, I’m packing for the week,” said Tina.

“I need you now,” said her mother.

She heard her daughter stomping down the stairs: impatiently stomping down the stairs.

“Mom... ?” started Tina, noticing her mom’s look.

“Tina, you will not be going to your dad’s house anymore except on the weekend thing at the end of the month. At least for the foreseeable future,” said Glory.

“What? Huh? But I’m almost packed to go,” said Tina. And you’re just telling me this now!”

“Yes, and that’s my bad. I should have told you sooner, but I was kinda hoping your dad would change his mind,” said Glory.

“Change his mind?” said Tina.

“Yes, he says he’s noticed that you get bored and missed being here, with me and Ian, and decided he doesn’t want you to feel bad about being there with him. But he does still want you to visit at the end of the month,” she said.

“But, Mom, I never said I didn’t want to stay the month with him!” said Tina.

“I know, and he did not say that you did. It’s just what he’s noticed. Maybe your look or standoffishness or something,” said her mother. “Anyway, for the present, we have to respect what he is requesting. Okay?” Her daughter was nodding, dubiously nodding.

“We’re doing good, honeykins,” said Ian.

“Appears so,” said Glory.

“My folks left me two million. Now we’ve got two and a half, plus the apartment building. Not bad, huh?” he said.

“No, no, so long as you stay away from that one guy and his tax thing; I think we will be fine,” said Glory.

“I don’t know why you’re so down on him. He’s a good guy. I mean you like to pay exorbitant taxes!” said Ian.

“No, but what he was about didn’t feel right,” she said. “Nothing’s that easy that isn’t illegal. Investing and hoping for a good return, okay. But...”

“Relax, he’s not part of us,” he said.

“Good, good,” she said. “Ian, I have a request, a favor to ask. Okay?” Her hearer wrinkled his brow.

“Your ex?” he said.

“I want him to meet you. He is Tina’s dad in spite of his fears that she might shine him on at some point. I need to short shank that. I want him to see that you’re a good guy and, well, on his side same as me,” she said. “I mean when it comes to Tina’s welfare and what all.”

“Well, you know what you want you get,” he said. “So of course. When is this meet up gonna happen?”

“Tomorrow. It’s Sunday. He’ll for sure be off. Okay?” she said. The man nodded his okay.

Sunday, church day. I never went to church; maybe I should start, I thought. Maybe if I could get God on my side, I could finally score some good luck. I’d have to be thinking about that. Yes indeed! And then there was a knock on my door, on Sunday morning, at 9:35 a.m. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the angel Gabriel—but maybe?

I wheeled over and opened it, my mouth that is, wide! “Glory!” There was a man standing beside her. As I have mentioned maybe fifty times so far: I am a genius. Proof of that? I figured out who the man was a nanosecond after having seen him. He was the husband of my ex. The husband that I had assured my ex that I never wanted to meet! And yet, here he was. And he was smiling. I was not.

“Yes, Lee, can we come in?” said my ex. I nodded, slowly, and unwelcomingly. I wheeled back inside leaving it to one or the other of them to close the door. They did so, he did so.

Wheeling around to face them more readily, I backed up to my usual place at the table.

“And?” I said. She knew what I meant.

“Lee, I know what I promised. But with the change in, situation, per Tina. This meet up is necessary. You may be a genius in some areas, but I’m a woman, and I know a couple of things that even a genius, who also happens to be a male, does not know,” she said.

“Hmm,” I said.

“Lee, meet Ian Longstreet. He’s a good guy. He and I, especially me, intend to make sure that Tina continues to know you and love you and be around you—a lot. I wanted you to meet him, so that you won’t feel like, well, you felt toward the Hardys and especially Zoe.

“And you couldn’t do all that without breaking your promise?” I said, I wasn’t being exactly un-nice, but I was pushing it.

“Lee, and Ian knows this, I still have feelings for you. And what I don’t want is you and I to be strangers. I hope that if at some point, you can learn to be the man you could be, the husband you could be; well, you know what I mean,” she said.

“No woman is going to want me, no matter what I learn as you put it,” I said. “Pen left me for a doctor with two legs. You left me for a guy, also with two legs, because I couldn’t seem to get completely over Penelope.