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"And that's how we met," Keith said and looked down at me with mock affection. "A minor disaster that turned out to be one of the best days of my life so far."
He laughed, and my father did as well, but I could tell by my father's expression that he was assessing Keith carefully. Keith got off on his floor and before the doors closed, he turned before they did. "Nice to meet you. I'd offer to take you all out for a drink, but I've got late deliveries so maybe another time."
"Nice to meet you, Keith," my mother said and gave him a huge smile.
Finally, the elevator doors closed and my parents both turned to me.
"He seems like a nice young man," my mother said.
"Good manners," my father added.
"He's very nice."
We arrived on our floor a few moments later and I was never so glad to get off the elevator. After introducing them to everyone we passed in the hallway, I took them to my office. My father was suitably impressed.
"Good view," he said, peering down at the back alley far below my window.
"You can see for miles," I said and pointed out the Manhattan skyline.
"It's beautiful, dear," my mother said. "We're so proud of you, aren't we?"
She nudged my father with her elbow -- a move that wasn't lost on me.
"Oh, yes, of course we are," my father said. "I'm glad I met Keith. He wasn't dressed like a bicycle courier. You never told us he wanted to work in publishing."
"The company has an apartment and so he changes his clothes in it before he goes on a delivery run," I said, ad-libbing, hoping they didn't push to have dinner with him. I waved my hand. "Besides, we're just casually dating. Nothing serious."
My mother raised her eyebrows at that, and of course, I knew what she was thinking -- she was thinking my father would take that to mean 'casual sex', which was not at all what I meant.
"At least, we're not serious yet. We're both busy with work and going to be going to school next year, hopefully."
I smiled, hoping my father didn't push.
"I don't know if--" My father started to speak but my mother elbowed him, and he stopped. He actually turned to her and frowned, but she smiled at me like nothing happened.
"We'll spend time with him when you want us to, dear," she said. "We won't poke our noses into your private life."
"Thanks for understanding," I said. "We just started to see each other and so nothing's settled."
I didn't like to lie, but I also didn't want my father to know I was dating Josh. The very last thing I wanted was for Josh to feel like my father was going to judge him because of Joshua Sr's Actions decades ago. While I felt weak-kneed about Josh and knew I wanted to be with him, I had no idea what our future entailed.
I took them in to meet Sharon, and they were pleased when Sharon told them how happy she was to have me working for her.
"Ella saved my life," she said, her hand over her heart. "I'm serious. I had no editorial assistant for two weeks and the manuscripts were piling up. I was afraid I'd have nothing to show for our big editorial meeting, but Ella came through and found us some really promising books."
Sharon turned to me and smiled, and it made me really happy that I was actually appreciated. I didn't mind the long hours when she was so positive about my performance.
"Maybe you could pay her one of these days," my father said, rather gruffly. He was smiling, but his tone was disapproving.
Sharon didn't bite at my father's bait. "Absolutely. I hope she'll stay on part-time when her internship is over and work for us as a permanent employee once she's done her Master's."
"I don't know why she wants to do her Master's degree," my father said. "Seems she could do the job without it."
"Daddy," I said, gently chiding him. "I want to get an MFA so I can teach one day if I want to. I want to write. You know that."
"I do, but it seems you're doing a good job as an editorial assistant. You could be an editor one day. Do you need an MA for that?" he asked Sharon.
She shook her head. "No, she doesn't, but it wouldn't hurt. I'm sure you can understand that credentials help when we're picking employees. If she has an MA, especially if she has editing experience, I expect she could get a job working for any publishing house."
