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He threatened not to pay for college.
I wished she hadn’t told me that. Because, like it or not, it changed a lot.
It changed everything.
I did have questions though.
“Even then, you were reluctant to mention your dad. It was only after I cajoled you into it that you brought your dad into the conversation. And now, even still, you defend him. Why?”
It’s what had bothered me most about the breakup, how dependent her decisions were on her parents. The idea was foreign to me for obvious reasons.
“He is my dad.”
“And a controlling motherfucker too.”
She didn’t deny it. “He wants what’s best for me.”
“As long as it aligns with his vision of your life.”
She was getting visibly frustrated. “Why so many questions about my father?”
Charlee was cute when she got worked up like this. I’d forgotten how cute.
“It seems pretty relevant to a discussion about the breakup, don’t you think?”
“Sure.” She took a sip of her rapidly dwindling wine. “But I get the distinct impression you think ten years have passed and I’m still the same girl who would let her father pressure her to break up with someone she—” Charlee stopped short.
Would she say it?
We’d exchanged the words plenty back then. But I’d questioned many times if they were sincere, given the circumstances.
“Loved.”
Our eyes met. So much I could say to that, but none of it would serve to do much besides start an argument.
“You work for him,” I said instead.
“I do. Not sure what that matters? My father happens to own a string of resorts, and I have a degree in business and hotel management. Seems like a logical fit to me.”
“If you say so.”
“Jesus, Lucas. Why are you so maddening? What happened in the last ten years to make you so skeptical?”
“Have a few hours?”
“In fact, I do.”
This woman would be the death of me.
“You really think his concern was purely you not having a serious relationship at that age? That he’s not that guy? Or better yet, you’re not that same girl?”
She hesitated. Probably for good reason. Then, finally, “I wouldn’t let him talk me out of dating someone I. . . loved. Not now. I was a kid back then, and he held a pretty big hammer over my head.”
“So you’d call his bluff?”
She nodded. “I would.”
I didn’t believe her. Which was the reason, the sole reason, I was going to propose something so outlandish. Maybe it was just what I needed to get Charlee Donovan out of my system once and for all. Prove to myself and maybe her, too, that she was as firmly in her father’s pocket as she’d been back then.
