Chapter 28

2014

I wasn’t exactly surprised, but for lack of a better term, I was surprised. My exes had left after our little sit down, and within four hours I’d gotten the call from Jenna. I would be meeting with her and her intended the next day, evening actually.

I’d chosen Denny’s; there was always a Denny’s around as far as my experience indicated.

I saw her enter. She was hanging on his arm. It looked like she needed the support. Well, that made the two of us, But no, I wouldn’t be hanging on my future son-in-law’s arm.

“Daddy!” she screamed breaking away from him and coming to me. Okay, round one for her.

“Hello Jenna,” I said, hugging her back. Then there was the breaking into sobs, mostly by her, but I wasn’t a too distant second.

“Daddy this is James,” she said. Her young man had hung back a yard or so waiting for what I’m sure he figured, and that rightly, would be a maudlin scene.

“Hello, Mister Carter,” he said.

“James,” I said, “nice to meet you.”

Over the next half hour or so I got both barrels from Jenna. But, I was holding my own too. I was not going to be shit on again no matter what resulted from our meet up.

“Okay, it done and over with,” I said. “It’s on the eighteenth. I’ll see about renting a tux. I haven’t had much occasion to do any of that in my life. I just hope the darn things aren’t too expensive.” I was smiling, but Jenna had a concerned look.

“Jenna?” I said.

“Daddy, they kinda are. But, I’m sure daddy Ron would pay...” she started.

“No!” I said, and I said it loudly, forcefully. “Don’t go there, Jenna. I just got done telling you. He and I and my ex would get along as far as the wedding is concerned. I mean so long as you really want me there, but beyond that...” I said.

“Daddy...” she started. “Daddy, how could there be the slightest doubt that I want you there! I mean really, daddy!” I ignored her protestation that she wanted me to be at her wedding, but I was making the point that there would be conditions, or maybe more accurately, no conditions put on me being there. I would not be sharing her with that man regardless of any feelings hurt or inconveniences to anyone. I’d been plenty inconvenienced over the past many years. Now it was my turn to get a little recognition of that blood mortal fact!

“Jenna, my relationship with that man will never allow me to accept anything from him. That’s ironclad, Jenna! Okay?”

“Okay, daddy. I understand. I mean I really don’t, but I get it sort of,” she said.

“Jenna!” I said.

“Okay, okay,” she said. “Anyway, here’s the address for the place where everybody is going to be getting their stuff.” She handed me a card: Jerome’s Tux and Gown. I nodded and took the card. I’d figure out how to pay for it all once I got the prices. I’d be talking to somebody, maybe Winifred, about what is expected of the father of the bride. I didn’t have much money, but I did have maybe a hundred dollars in my little tin box back at the B&G.

I’d just gotten done cleaning the heads. It was late, almost midnight. I headed out into the bar area to do some final straightening up. There were two customers left. LeAnn was delivering drinks to one of them, a person I recognized. I couldn’t believe it. By that I mean, that whether she was there by unbelievable accident or by design to find me, I couldn’t believe it. But here she was. I went over to her. I was still dressed in my apron and cleaning clothes, read old jeans and an ASU tee shirt.

“Marianne?” I said, still not believing even my eyes.

“David! Is that you?” she said. Apparently it was a coincidence, a fortuitous accident in the serendipitous synchronicity of the eternal cosmos.

“It is indeed, and you!” I said.

“David, what are you doing here? You’re out of that awful place?” she said. “And, yes, of course it’s me.”

“Aren’t you working...” I started.

“No, no more at Carter Automotive, not for more than a year now. Well, you know,” she said.

“Then?” I said,

“I have my own business now. I kinda owe it to your brother. He paid me enough to save up and go off on my own. I run an office temp service,” she said.

The conversation was on. The catching up was on. “So that’s my story. I’ve got a month before I give her away.

“But you?” I said.

“Had to get out too. Like I said. I kept having to deal with my ex. He’s got himself another teeny bopper a dozen years younger than him. All he’s got for me is a cold desire to mess with my life. So, I just got out. Now he can fend for himself,” she said.

“Mess with your life?” I said.

“Yes, he’s demanding half of the proceeds from the sale of the house even though the judge gave the house to me in the settlement,” she said. I nodded. “But, the real problem is the fact that the house is as yet not even paid for, and my ex has to make the payments until the house is sold.”

“I see,” I said.

“Add to that he’s even trying to horn in on my new business. I hate the bastard,” she said.

We talked for some time. I learned more about her problems both as concerned her ex and her financial situation apart from the man. She had the house, but was having trouble selling it because of the price she needed to get to make anything off of it. She was covering her living expenses with the limited alimony she was getting from her divorce, and her new business, but barely.

During a lull in the conversation, I put the question to her.

“Marianne, can I ask you a question?” I said.

“Of course,” she said.

“Like I said, I’ll be walking Jenna down the aisle next month. I have to get a tux for that and I know there’ll be other expenses along with that. How much should all of that cost me?” I said. “I mean do you have any idea. I’ve never had to do anything like this before.”

She smiled. “Hmm, yes, well it can be expensive for sure. I guess a couple of hundred for the tux and shoes, another couple for the limo if you’re going that route, and maybe five hundred for the gift: cash or kind for this last,” she said. “You’ll get off for around a grand more or less unless you’re the one paying for the venue and the minister and what all. Those can really drive the price up.”

Fuck, I thought. Well, I had maybe ten percent of the basics. That is I had it if I didn’t have to pay for the venue and the minister and the what all, as my friend indicated. Helluva start. I was going to need to get a loan at some point, but from where?

“So, I guess your daddy Ronald is going to be left out in the cold on this?” said Stacey.

“I guess so. He won’t even let me talk to him about things. I mean about you and dad.

“Anyway, I gotta go. I’ve got studying to do,” said Jenna. Her mom waved her off.

She knew that Jenna needed to pay her daddy David back for his sacrifice, but this was a different situation. Ronald had been there for her too, through thick and thin. He did not deserve to be shunted off to the gallery while his brother, well-loved though he was by all and sundry, did the big thing. She had to make things right without seeming to dump on David, her David, her ex-husband though he was.