“Pride or not, I still think it was shitty of him. So, if it’s really true, and you’re going to consider giving him another chance, maybe he does deserve to suffer a little longer like he made you.”
Valerie didn’t like the idea of playing games, but it made sense to be cautious. She’d been burnt too many times, even if some of those burns weren’t necessarily what she had initially thought they were. It still hurt, and Alex had known it all along.
CHAPTER 13
The next morning, Valerie met her dad for breakfast.
She usually met both her dad and Norma, but Norma had her final dress fitting for the wedding that morning, so she passed. Valerie was glad, though she had nothing against Norma. She’d actually been glad when her dad met her and fell in love.
It had always been just the two of them since her mom died of cancer when Valerie was six. She’d hardly known her mom, but her dad did his best to keep her memory alive. The pictures of her stayed up for years.
She remembered staring at the pictures of her mom when the memory of what she looked like began to fade.
As she got older and began to attend sleep overs with friends and summer camp, she worried about her dad being lonely. She encouraged him to go out, but he was a hopeless homebody.
Then when she was eleven, there was an accident. Her dad had left to run some errands, and Valerie insisted on staying home. She hated the Home Depot. She made herself a grilled cheese and accidentally set a dishrag on fire. She tried to put it out but it only got bigger.
Panicked, she ran to the neighbors who called 911. By the time it was all over, the kitchen was a flooded mess and she was at the police station. They fined her dad for child endangerment, and she was doomed to spend every visit to the Home Depot with her dad for the next few years.
The following week they sent a social worker to the house to interview her and her father and to inspect the living conditions. That social worker was Norma. Even as nervous as her dad had been before she got there, she saw the twinkle in his eye when he spoke with her. She was thrilled when he told her weeks later that he had a date with the social worker.
“Everything happens for a reason, pumpkin.” She remembered him saying even back then.
After so many incidents in her life proving his theory right, she believed it. For some reason, she couldn’t talk to him about Alex in front of Norma. She didn’t think Norma judged him or anything. Certain things she felt better about talking to her daddy alone and this was one of them.
In the beginning, her dad hadn’t liked Alex. Of course, Valerie was in high school then and still his baby girl. Here was this big “muscle head” picking her up and then making her cry. Her dad said Alex was one of those guys that was just full of himself and would never get his fill of women since there were probably so many throwing themselves at him.
Although a few times he’d surprised her saying he’d seen something in Alex’s eyes when he looked at her. He said it was something so genuine only another man could understand. Then there would be heartache again, and he’d be pissed as ever that Alex had broken his little girl’s heart. Again.
They met at the Pancake House by the mall. Her dad was having coffee and reading the paper when she got there. It didn’t surprise her that he’d already ordered for them. More than anyone else, he knew her appetite well. She made sure he hadn’t ordered anything bad for himself. After grudgingly filling her in on what he had ordered, she was satisfied.
As usual, her mood hadn’t gone unnoticed by her dad. She’d barely taken her first sip of juice when he asked, “You wanna talk about it?”
Valerie smiled weakly. “Alex is back.”
He nodded and set the paper aside. “I figured as much, what with the wedding and all.”
“No, it’s not just that, Daddy. Remember all those times I thought he was out with other women?”
Her dad frowned taking a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, I remember.”
Valerie eyed his cup. “That’s decaf right?”
He responded with an annoyed nod.
“Well,” she continued, “he showed up at my office last night. He’s never done that. He said he wanted to talk to me, so, I agreed.”
Her dad was already up to date about the tutor and all the other occurrences, so, she filled him in on everything else. From Alex kissing her at the shower and her lying about being involved with someone else, she even told him about her nightmare evening with Luke. Then she told him what Alex admitted to the night before. Her dad listened, sniggering and at times shaking his head, as he ate.
“So, what do you think? Isabel says I should keep up with the boyfriend thing for at least a while longer. Until I know for sure he’s not just saying all this because of my make-believe boyfriend.”
Her dad stopped and pondered her question for a few moments. “That’s a tough one, Pumpkin. We men are idiots when it comes to women. But I believe wholeheartedly that that boy did all he did because of his foolish pride. It all makes sense to me now. I never understood how a guy who could look at you the way he did could turn around and do half the crap he did to break your heart.”
Valerie’s heart swelled. She hated getting her hopes up like she had so many times in the past, but her dad always saw things she didn’t catch.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said, pointing his fork at her, “there’s one thing I’ve always liked about that boy. As much as I hate his body language screaming that he owns you, with him next to you ain’t no one gonna mess with my little girl. It may as well be written on his chest in neon lights.” He shrugged, sprinkling some raisins into his oatmeal. “I like knowing you’re in good hands.”