Chapter 24

I stood up and waved. Jared, Sam’s father, was a straight-backed white-haired balding man. He seemed younger, or at least stronger, than Peter and Wayne, Alex and Max’s fathers. I could see Sam in his eyes and height. She must’ve taken after her mother otherwise. He nodded. I sat down and he joined me.

“You know why I’m here,” he said.

“You’re here because if you straight up tell Sam she can’t see me, she’ll be banging on my door in five minutes,” I said. “She’s got a healthy amount of ‘Fuck you, you can’t tell me what to do’ in her.”

He studied me for a moment. The waitress came by. He ordered a whiskey sour; that sounded good, so I asked for one as well.

“She gets that from you,” I said.

“Does she?” he dared me.

“Yes. You could’ve hung up in my ear. You needed to talk to me to tell me ‘Fuck off.’”

“Fuck off,” he said. “I never back down from a fight.”

“Neither does Sam, so neither can I.”

“You’re not an idiot,” he said at last. I waited. “You’re using my daughter.”

“No, I’m not,” I said. “I’m not going to explain that other woman who kissed me. I don’t understand why she’s so intent on fucking things up for me, but she’s very good at it.”

“So you pass the buck.” He seemed unsurprised.

“Thank you,” I said to the waitress as she placed our glasses down. I took a sip before I spoke to him again. “No, I was in the wrong. I went to see her. I let her stay involved. My brother told me to take someone that toxic and leave her alone until she died on the vine. I’m the one who can’t leave well enough alone. I walked into the fire; it’s not only the arsonist who got me burned.”

The admission did little to temper the man’s opinion of me. The drink did more.

“I met Sam--”

“Yes, you did a good thing for a pretty girl,” he interrupted. “We’re both men. That’s not a surprise to anyone.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“Yes, it was,” I said. “She pursued me after that night. I told her no. I felt she was too young, too naive, and too inexperienced to seek me out as a partner and not furiously break both of our hearts.”

“She told me that too,” Jared said. “Over and over and over. I’m actually sick of that story.”

“Good. Because in the end, I said yes. I chose to let her in, and I got to be with her, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“A teenager sniffing around an older washed-out ... What do you even do?”

“I manage an office of draftsmen at an architecture and engineering consulting firm,” I said.

“Middle management?” he asked scornfully.

“I am,” I agreed. “First competent manager we’ve had. My boss’s job is mine once these results come in. I can’t sit around in the comfort of mediocrity when I have a girl like Sam expecting the best of me. I have to move up to better things.”

“So she’s just a rung on your ladder?”

“She’s rocket fuel,” I said. “Or at least her affection and regard is -- I don’t mean I’m going to use her up and leave her behind. Women have always been the prime motivator. You’re well dressed -- would you have gone that far if there wasn’t a woman to impress?”

“You’re going to use Sam’s mother as a bargaining chip now?” He put his empty glass on the table. I took a middle sip from mine.

“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know your home life. Sam hasn’t talked about you,” I answered.

“She hasn’t?”

“No, I think she was pressganged into introducing me to you last night,” I said. “When there was even the inkling we would cancel, she jumped right into the current without a word. I didn’t even know you were coming, and then I botched everything.”

“Pressganged?” He gave a wry laugh. “Finish your drink, another one’s coming.”

I didn’t like taking orders, but I let this one slide. The waitress came by and set out our refills. She was chunky and brunette. Faye wouldn’t be looking in on us. She couldn’t make it worse. I was on my own. “Will either of you be getting food? Or is it just the drinks.”

“No food,” he said. “New ones when these are empty.”

“Yes sir,” she said, and nodded. In that moment, I didn’t like him. I got that it was her job to take orders and bring us drinks, but there was something severe and cold in his treatment of her. I don’t know if it was fair. It could all just be overflow from feelings he brought to the bar against me.

“Everything you told me tonight,” he said as he put down the glass, “was honest. Thank you. But there’s more.”

“There is. We’ve only started talking,” I said.

“Continue,” he declared.

“That night, when Sam slipped and fell, she was with two of her friends,” I said. His jaw set harder. “Max is her roommate, and Alex has been Max’s best friend since at least junior high. They were heading to some party; I think they were excited to drink, so when Sam got hurt and I gave them a place to sit out the storm, they still wanted to drink.

“Sam wasn’t the only one who came for me over the next few days. Alex and Max are also interested. Hell, one would’ve been scary enough, but three? I was out of my depth.

“I really wanted them to listen to me. I thought I was helping, saving their friendships, and protecting their hearts. I was too old for them. They needed more mistakes. There were three of them. Women and women go together like oil and water. Most often.”

He growled out an understanding affirmation. He had slung back the second drink in a heartbeat. I slowly sipped mine. I wasn’t worried if he got a drink ahead of me. I’d rather have more wits than fewer.

“You and I know Sam was fighting with her girlfriend yesterday. Alex,” he said.

“I do,” I said. “I know that it’s happened before. I know that when their fight lands in front of me, they make up and push it off as if they’re embarrassed.”

Holding back on the magic was the only concession to dishonesty I would allow. Talking like a stark raving madman wasn’t the way to make a case.

“And that’s it up until last night; the rest you know. I can’t imagine that taking Sam from her own choices and friends is going well,” I said. “Even if you did it for reasons I respect.”

“You respect my reasons?” he asked. Another drink came for him.

“I do. She’s a wonderful girl. You should have impossible standards for me or any man,” I said.

“You’d be a hard man to dislike, Gene,” he told me. “Thankfully, I had a running start.”

I smiled at that line, which didn’t help things.

“I want Sam to make up with Alex. She’s had so few friends like Max, but I was right to block her from you,” he said. “However, unless I get her to transfer to a university in another city, you’ll be here for her to run to.”

“That I will.”

“You won’t do the right thing?” he asked.

“The right thing for me is a life that includes Sam,” I said. “I have to handle my shit better. I can’t let that arsonist burn it down. I want Sam in my life, and my door’s open if she comes to be in it.”

“And that’s enough?” he said.

“No, Sam wants me to rescue her. Kick down the door to the tower, defeat the evil wizard who locked her up, and ride off with her happily ever after.” I gestured to him as the wizard. “If I want her, I have to act.”

“And how will you act?” he asked.

“I have no fucking clue,” I said. He gave a genuine laugh, then looked angry at himself for a moment. He turned that anger to me. I put down my second empty glass and he his third.

“These’ll be the last, thank you,” I told the waitress.

“I can drink some more,” he told me as she left.

“Not with me, you can’t,” I said. “I came here for the fight, and I wore myself out. I won’t know if I won until I talk to Sam and see just how angry she is at you.”

“Is ‘more’ better or worse?” he scoffed wryly.

“I honestly don’t know,” I said. “Thank you, for at least sitting down across from me.”

“Of course.” He put down his glass. I waved off him taking out money for the drinks. “When some evil wizard has my daughter locked up in a tower, I have to be the one to kick down the door.”

“Yeah, you definitely set a standard,” I said. He walked out. I stewed over my third drink for a good half-hour.

I returned home to find Max encircled in Alex’s arms, apologizing nonstop but for the hitches in her breath. Alex looked overwhelmed and embarrassed. I stepped over the magic boots, and sat down across from them on the bed.

“How did it go?” Alex asked. Max raised her head.

“Hey Max, give me a hug and then you might want to run to the washroom to fix your face,” I said.

She gave me a hug. Her smile was evil under her puffy eyes. She flicked my ears.

“At your worst, you’re an 11. Go clean up and come back a 13,” I told her and slapped her butt. She frowned, took a few steps, and stopped.

“Out of what?” she asked. I threw a pillow at her.

“You’re in a good mood,” Alex said as Max walked away, clearly mulling over what her denominator was.

“It went better than I figured it would,” I said. “He’s not about to write the script on how I die, but he’ll be standing up to clap if he sees the play.”

“He better throw flowers. You deserve flowers.” Alex smiled wanly.

“I don’t get how three girls can like me like you guys do,” I said. “You know ... you’ve never said a bad word about Sam or Max when she wasn’t in the room.”

“Who would do that?” Alex seemed aghast.

“Girls do,” Max said as she returned. She smiled and hopped over the armrest and dropped down, hard, on Alex’s lap. The blonde groaned while Max and I laughed. “Like, all of them. I thought that’s why you hated high school and band?”

“I hated them because no one took anything seriously,” Alex said. “And I felt I had to slack off at some things to fit in, and then I felt bad that I was being a bad kid or disrespecting Mrs Bates.”

Max and I looked at her with pity. I spoke before Alex read into our expressions any number of things she could imagine.

“Clearly your singing and the rest, you’ve worked at. You’re lovely,” I said.

“Well, chorus and ballet and dance classes weren’t at school,” Alex said.”

“God, I hated chorus,” Max said.

“You were in chorus?” I asked with a bright smile.

“I can hit two notes humans can hear,” she said. “But yeah, whenever Alex signed up for something, or I did, we both did. For at least a year.”

“You’re not a bad singer.”

“I’m good enough for a shower in a bomb shelter after nukes have wiped out 99% of humanity,” Max claimed.

“You can handle 96%, I’m sure!” I said. Max grinned. Alex sighed. I caught her eye. “What’s wrong?”

“Sam never makes jokes about herself like this,” Alex said. “I miss her already.”

“Me too,” I said. “Tomorrow, do you guys want to meet my brother?”

The girls lit up.

“Oh my god! Yes!” Alex said. “How much family do you have?”

“Just my parents and my brother,” I said. “A couple dozen cousins across the country, I guess. I haven’t really kept in touch.”

“Wow,” Max said. “I’ve always wanted a big family.”