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“What’s that look for?” I questioned.
"Nothing, Daddy. I'm just so excited that we can have dinner as a family."
"We have dinner as a family all the time, Gracie," I muttered, pulling my keys from the ignition, wondering what the hell she meant by that.
She shook her head. "No, it's been a while, Daddy."
I shook my head and climbed out of the car and made my way around to the back passenger’s side, wondering what on earth Gracie was mumbling about. I was about to open the door when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"It's about time you got here. I've been waiting for over twenty minutes."
I was certain the blood drained from my face as I whipped around to see Valerie standing there. How had I been wrangled into some weird web of deception by my eleven-year-old daughter to have dinner with her mother?
"What are you doing here?" I muttered.
“Having dinner, as a family.”
Before she could continue, I held up my hand and shook my head. "Never mind. I don't want to hear it."
* * *
I returned to the table and sat down in the far corner of the booth opposite Valerie. Grace sat beside her mother, looking at the menu with her, nodding away as Valerie spoke to her and pointed things out.
I had nothing to say to her at all. I’d already decided that Grace was going to be grounded before we got home, and that the cell phone was going in the garbage. Glancing down at the menu, trying to diffuse my anger at the situation, I ran my fingers through my hair and looked at the menu, finally settling on wings and fries.
Grace was chatting away when I put the menu down and noticed Valerie was staring at me. I frowned and mouthed, "What?" but she just sat there, still giving me a dirty look.
Was this because I hadn't yet agreed to give her the money? If it was, she'd be giving me that look for a long while yet, because there was no way in hell I was going to buckle. If anything, Valerie owed me the money for the last year and a half of supporting Gracie. Not that I'd ever ask, because I didn’t need it, and it gave me pleasure to pay for all the things she needed. If only I'd known what I was getting myself into with Valerie when I’d met her, I never would have ever gotten involved. However, I wouldn’t have Grace then either.
I'd never have denied her money either, except for when she went for a younger version of me. It all went downhill for her after that. She soon lost her job and hadn't been able to keep one since. What money she earned and had saved went to partying with her friends and lavish trips, along with the same expensive clothes I used to provide her with. It wasn't my problem. She was broke and there was no way in hell she was going to make me believe it was my problem so that I’d fix it.
When it came time to order, I could barely get a word in edgewise. Instead, Valerie ordered for all of us. I frowned as I watched her decide, choosing dishes I knew Grace would never touch. As she continued, I looked down at the menu, adding up every item she'd asked for. Yep, just like her, I thought to myself as the bill was easily hitting the one-hundred-dollar mark.
Just like I thought, neither Grace nor I touched dinner once it arrived. Valerie ordered nothing we liked, and she questioned me about it as the server was clearing the table.
“The food was good. I don’t know why neither of you ate.”
“Because, Mom, it looked all slimy, especially the green stuff,” Grace said, looking over at me with a disgusted expression on her face.
“That was creamed spinach, Grace. It’s so good for you. Much better than some of the stuff you’ve been eating lately.”
Valerie loved to make a scene and would do anything for an audience. I knew Grace was starving, so I asked the server to bring over an ice cream sundae and watched with a smile as Grace dug her spoon into the chocolaty mess.
"Grace shouldn't have all that sugar, Zach. Is that what you feed her, because she barely touched any of her dinner," Valerie said, digging in her purse and pulling out a gold-plated compact and blotted her nose with powder.
"Yeah, well, she certainly would not touch the creamed spinach, and as for the rest of the items you chose, they left much to be desired. Plus, you know she’s a picky eater, and I will not force her to eat something she doesn’t like," I said, my jaw tight as I picked up the bill from the table and looked at the total.
"Oh, so you feed her nothing but sugar. It’s not a wonder why she flies around all the time like she's on some sort of sugar high," Valerie said, taking the spoon from Grace’s hand and placing it down on the table.
Grace looked at me, clearly upset at the fact that Valerie had ripped the spoon away from her.
"God, Valerie, I don't," I said through clenched teeth. "If you would have let me just order, she'd have eaten her damn dinner," I said, slamming the bill down harder on the table than I'd intended.
Grace jumped and looked at me and then at her mother. As soon as Valerie took her eyes off Grace, she picked up the spoon and dug it back into the ice cream.
"Zach, really, you need to work on your temper," Valerie said, leaning toward me so she could keep her voice low.She then turned back to Grace and took the spoon from her hand again, this time setting it on the opposite side of her.
“No more sugar. Dammit, Grace, you should have just eaten your dinner,” Valerie said, roughly wiping the mixture of ice-cream and chocolate off her face.
