Down to Business (Business Series) (28 page)

“Is she still modeling?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s going to Boston for a week next month to do a runway fashion show for Neiman Marcus.”

I watched one of her twig legs bend, clad in skinny white jeans, as she leaned into the passenger seat of Dad’s old navy blue Chevy Silverado.

“She’s not coming when you drive me home, right?”

“No, there would be enough tension to kill us,” he said tugging at the sides of his open jacket. “When are you thinking of heading back, Auti?”

“Today.”  As soon as possible.

“Why don’t you and Dad have dinner and he can drive you back after?” Mom suggested.

I looked between the two of them and frowned. “I was hoping to go like…soon.”

“Oh come on, we won’t see you until Thanksgiving. You can spend the day with us and have dinner here one more time. Vinny will be waiting for you when you get back.”

“It’s not that. I have a research paper due that I haven’t even started on.” I sighed.

Smelling cigarette smoke, I glanced over to see Mindy leaning on the hood of my father’s truck, puffing on a cigarette while looking down at her phone.

“She’s not coming to dinner either, right?”

He drew a deep breath and exhaled. “Not if you don’t want her to.”

“She doesn’t eat anyway.”

I stepped between my parents and headed back into the hospital.

Dad drove Mindy home then came back to the hospital, and my brother showed up a short time later. We all sat with Grandma, keeping her company between her bouts of sleep, and alerting the nurse when her machines made beeping noises.

Being at the hospital put my parents in to reminisce mode,  and I had to listen to the story of my birth where my mother’s water broke six weeks early while she was cooking dinner and Dad had to rush home from work and drive her to the hospital.

Then they had to point out that I had the cutest tuft of orange hair on my head that they used to comb straight up and call me their little treasure troll. Once they brought me home, they fattened me up and Dad said I looked like the marshmallow man with red hair. My parents were all about building my self-esteem.

Before long, my mother’s boyfriend Greg showed up to visit. He was still wearing his work clothes that were stained with dirt and random smudges. He owned his own excavation and landscaping company where he liked to claim all his building materials were eco-friendly. He met my mother when he came over to give us an estimate on removing a tree from our back yard and then somehow they decided to go on a date. He was the one who turned Mom into a vegetarian so that was the first strike against him, and he always needed a shower, but at least he wasn’t as bad as Mindy.

Dad never seemed bothered by Greg, and when I asked him if he felt weird seeing Mom with another man, he said, “Yeah kind of, but I’m glad she is happy.” So, I decided to take on his perspective about Greg, but I’d never accept Mindy.

Greg asked Mom to go out to dinner, so after they left Dad, Josh, and I went to dinner at the Village Inn. It served up home cooked meals, mostly pot roasts, and anything else you could smother in gravy. Dad got a hot roast beef dip, Josh ordered fish and chips, and I had the chicken potpie. We sat at our favorite table near the open fireplace where we enjoyed the old colonial atmosphere and caught up on each other’s lives. Josh didn’t have much to add to the conversation, but I learned that Dad was getting an in-ground pool put in. That would give me a reason to visit him more often.

After dinner, Dad drove Josh home and then it was just the two of us.  The sun was just beginning to set as we pulled onto the highway, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had spent time alone with my father. I glanced over at him as he drove with one hand perched on top of the wheel, his opposite elbow resting on the doorframe.

He reached over and turned the radio onto the classic rock station I grew up on. “Brown Eyed Girl”
by Van Morrison came on and he immediately turned it up. We smiled at one another because we both knew it was a song that he always sang to my mother when I was little. After it was over, he turned down the volume and looked over at me.

“So Mom told me you are living with Lindy. That must be a dream come true for you girls.”

“Yeah,” I replied, trying my best to look amused.

“What is she studying again?”

“Nursing.”

“That’s right. Her mother is a nurse.”

I nodded.

“Does Lindy have a sort-of boyfriend too?”

No, she had a permanently annoying one.

“No, she’s dating someone though.”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “So, are you really serious about this Vinny guy? He strikes me as the type that messes around on girls.”

I looked over at him and frowned. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I know guys.”

“Well, you don’t know him. He isn’t like that.”

“Why do you think he can’t decide if he wants to be with you or not? Sounds fishy. Don’t you think if he didn’t mess around he’d commit to being only with you?”

“He is only with me!”

He smirked at me. “Then why don’t you call him your boyfriend?”

“Because it’s complicated. He is in the middle of a business deal with his ex and if she knows about me, it might fall through, so we are keeping it on the down low until it’s over.”

“The down low huh?” he laughed.

“You know what I mean, Dad.”

“What kind of business deal is he working out with her?”

“It has to do with the restaurant his family owns, the one I work at, Mazzolas. He’s going to be taking it over in the next year.”

“A business man huh? Those are never any fun. He did strike me as the boring all business type. Don’t you want someone that is fun, like me?”

“Dad…” I said, glaring over at him. “You spent most of the eighties drunk and high at rock concerts.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s not wrong with that?”

“Hey, if I wasn’t so crazy back then, your Mom never would have fallen in love with me and you’d never be here.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah yeah…”

He chuckled and reached over, draping his arm around my shoulders. “I’m just giving you a hard time because you’re my little girl. I’ll tell you what…I’m going to give this Vinny guy a chance, but if he hurts you, I get to be the first one in line to set him straight. Deal?”

“Deal.” I agreed, reluctantly.

Dad smiled and kissed the top of my head. I turned my attention back on the road, hoping that he wasn’t going to be right.

I decided to send him a text. I wrote:

I MISS YOU

and only a moment later he returned:

MISS YOU TOO AUTI

Afterwards, I texted Lindy to warn her about my Dad dropping me off and to make sure Tyler wasn’t there. She replied that he wouldn’t be home because he was with the Alpha Tau guys.

Once the sun finally set, I closed my eyes and leaned my head on my father’s shoulder, dozing off to the soft crooning of the Eagles singing “Hotel California”
.

When I woke up again, Dad had just turned off the highway, and needed directions to the apartment. Once we arrived, he parked and turned off the ignition.

“Should I come up?”

“No, Lindy is asleep. She’s not feeling well.”

“Alright, well, , there’s something I want to talk to you about before you go.”

I sighed, dreading another conversation about Vinny. “What?”

“Your mom and I were talking this morning before you got there and…we are thinking about buying you your own car.”

I stared at him, speechless. “But…Mom doesn’t have any money.”

“I’ll be buying it. I got a raise so I have a little extra spending money. You’ve earned it Autumn, I know you were supposed to be here at Adelphi two years ago, but you didn’t want to leave your Mom hanging and God knows you need your own transportation.”

I smiled. “So I’m getting a car?”

“That’s the plan. I figure when you come home for Thanksgiving, we can buy you one and you can drive it back.”

I squealed and bounced on the seat before leaning over and throwing my arms around his neck. “I love you, Daddy.”

He laughed squeezing me tight. “I hope you still love me even if I wasn’t getting you a car.”

“I do. I love you for both reasons.”

“Good,” he said pulling away. “Did you need me to walk you to the door?”

“No, I’ll be fine. Thanks for the ride, Dad.” I reached for the door handle.

“Anytime, Pumpkin. I’ve really missed you. We need to see each other more often. This summer when you come home on break we need to have some father-daughter time.”

I nodded. “I know, we will. I love you. See you at Thanksgiving.”

“Love you too. Call me sometime would ya?” he shouted as I slid out of the truck.

“I will!” I called back, closing the heavy door and heading for the apartment.

I stepped into a dark living room to find Lindy sleeping on the sofa. She was curled up with a blanket in front of the TV. I touched her shoulder to alert her that I was home. She sat straight up, looking shocked.

“Oh my God, you scared the crap out of me. How is your Gram?”

“She is good. Back to her crazy old self, she just needs more recovery time.”

“What about Vinny?”

“What about Vinny?” Heat immediately rushed to my face, and I was glad she couldn’t tell since it was dark.

“You’re hiding something. I can see it on your face.”

So much for hiding it.

She yanked me down next to her.  “Spill.”

I flopped down onto the sofa next to her. “We had fun.”

“What kind of
fun
?”

I smiled and laughed. “What do you mean?”

She grabbed my arm. “Oh my god. What did you do?”

“Calm down!” I said, laughing more.

“Tell me! Did you two hook up?”

I laughed. “Maybe.”

She gasped. “Did you have sex?”

“Maybe.”

She screamed and shook me by my shoulders.

I yelled out and laughed. “Lindy, my ears! Geez!”

“You had sex! Oh my God! Why didn’t you call me?”

“I don’t know! It’s personal! I wasn’t sure if I should.”

“Personal? Fuck that!” She looked offended for a second then immediately looked happy again. She squealed and clapped her hands. “I can’t believe this. I want every detail of every second.” She leaned in and stared at me with intense blue eyes.

“I’ll give you details but you can’t say anything, especially not to Tyler.”

“I won’t. I promise,” she said, crossing her heart.

I took a deep breath and my heart pounded hard as I told her ever detail I could remember. I started from the beginning, telling her about the dorm room experience and then all the drama at the party that she missed. After that, I jumped to the talk Vinny and I had at Malones
,
and finally the hot pool table sex and the morning quickie. By the time I was done, I was flushed from head to toe and smiling like an idiot. She was thoroughly enthralled, barely blinking with a devious smile on her face.

She hugged me. “I’m so happy for you! I wish I could just call Vinny right now and thank him.”

“Thank him?” I asked and laughed. “For what?”

“For making you so happy. I don’t think you have been this happy since you found out you got accepted to Adelphi.”

“Don’t say anything to anyone about this Lindy, like I said, I don’t want to screw anything up.”

“I won’t say anything, I promise. But I really am happy for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, leaning back against the sofa. “I’m happy for me too. My father also said that he is buying me a car over the Thanksgiving break.”

“Oh my God, you lucky bitch.”

“I know. I can’t wait. We won’t have to bum rides ever again.”

“Guess what else?”

“What?”

“Tyler might get accepted into Alpha Tau tonight! They are doing his initiation right now.”

“Yes!” I yelled throwing my arms up. I figured I probably looked a little too excited, so I turned it down. “I mean, that’s great, I hope he gets in.”

I hoped they were making him put a boa constrictor down his pants and it bit his dick. Or even better, strangled his ass. If Tyler got accepted and moved out, it would be the best weekend ever.