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I cut the engine, my heart doing a little flip when I realized Matthew’s truck was parked in the driveway. My dad’s car was right beside his, which seemed a bit odd seeing as how at this hour he should have been at work.
After grabbing my bag and the few textbooks I’d thrown on the passenger seat, I headed up to the front door.
As soon as I stepped inside, I felt something was off. It was this thickness in the air, this electricity that moved over my arms. I felt my chest tighten as I set my backpack on the floor by the wall and stepped farther inside.
I looked in the living room but didn’t see my father, so I headed down the short hallway and went into the kitchen. I saw my dad and Matthew sitting at the table, my father’s head lowered as if he were upset or disappointed about something. He had his hands clasped in front of him on top of the old, scarred dining room table.
I glanced at Matthew, who was leaning back in his chair, his big body tense, something I could tell even from a distance. He glanced up at me and I felt my chest tighten even further at the look he gave me.
Something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” My father looked up then, this surprised expression on his face. He hadn’t known I’d come home, maybe didn’t want me to see him like this. “Guys, what’s going on?” I asked when they didn’t say anything and just stared at me.
“Ivy, come sit down.”
My movements were slow as I walked to the table. Matthew reached out and pulled the chair out for me and I sat down, glancing between the two of them.
“I’m just gonna cut right to it because I’ve already been keeping it from you for the past week.”
My heart jumped into my throat and I swallowed, my hands starting to shake. Every bad thought filled my head. Was he sick? Hurt?
I placed my hands on my lap, curling them together so my fingers were intertwined.
“Okay,” I said softly and tried to act like I wasn’t nervous as hell. My father took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair, staring me in the eyes.
“I lost my job last week.”
For a moment, I couldn’t process his words. I didn’t even know what they meant. Then, slowly reality set in. “Okay,” I said again and looked between him and Matthew. “What exactly does that mean? We’re okay financially, right?”
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew that him losing his job wasn’t good, but maybe he’d found a new one already?
“It just means things are going to be hard, but it’ll work out.” Matthew was the one to respond and I glanced at him. He seemed so sure, so calm.
I glanced back at my dad. “How did you lose your job? You’ve been there for as long as I can remember.” I instantly saw this discomfort surround him. He was nervous, looking away from me, not able to hold my gaze with his.
And then he looked up at Matthew, and I could see that my uncle knew what was going on, knew why my father had lost his job.
And I knew it was bad.
“Dad?” I looked back at my father. We’d always been truthful with each other, but I could see right now him being honest with me was hard.
He cleared his throat and shifted on the chair several times before finally exhaling. “I started a relationship with a coworker.” He paused for a moment and I knew he wasn’t finished. “It’s frowned upon to fraternize in the work area.”
Confusion filled me even more. “Surely something like that, they’d give you a warning instead of firing you? Losing your job seems extreme.” I didn’t understand any of this and could see on my dad’s face he was worried.
“It wasn’t just that we had a relationship and worked together, but I was seeing my employer’s daughter.” He cleared his throat and shifted on the seat over and over again, his nervousness tangible. “His twenty-year-old daughter.”
I saw the frantic look on his face, and knew that him telling me he was sleeping with a woman so young had him panicked because she was so close to my age.
But in that moment, I looked over at Matthew, my love for him growing. I was soon to be nineteen. He was in his thirties. The age gap between us was immense. But I didn’t care.
I looked over at my father again. I wasn’t going to touch on this subject, wasn’t going to ask questions or delve deeper. “So what now?” was all I said. It was all that I could utter.
“Now we figure things out.” Matthew was the one to speak. “My lease is up and I’m going to move in to help your dad out.”
