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I can’t help but chuckle a little at that.
“I am walking through the kitchen, and I am approaching the living room. I repeat, I am approaching the living room.”
I roll my eyes. She is such a drama queen. She definitely gets that from her mother. “Shut up and get in here.” I say in an airy tone so that she knows I’m only teasing. She walks into the room with her hands covering her eyes.
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Oh my God, who raised you like this?”
“I ask myself that question all the time.” She laughs before taking a seat on the couch next to me.
“You want something to drink?”
“A beer would be nice.” We both head into the kitchen, and I fetch her drink before we sit down at the kitchen table. I flinch when I see the copy ofPersuasionI bought Violet, still sitting there looking as dejected as I feel.
I take another sip of my beer and wait for Bianca to begin. I know she has things she wants to say, and it’s best to just let her get them out.
“So, Violet, huh?”
“Yup,” I answer, draining the last of my beer from the bottle and grabbing another one.
“I spoke to her last night, you know.”
“You did?” I stop myself short of asking how she’s doing. If she’s fine, I don’t want to hear about it. If she’s upset, I don’t know if there would be anything I could do to fix it anyway.
“Yeah. I asked her if you took advantage of her.”
“What?” I practically shout. How could Bianca think such a thing of me? “I would never take advantage of Violet or anyone else.”
“Yeah, that’s what she said too.” She doesn’t look at me and instead starts picking at the label of her beer bottle. “But you’ve got to admit, an older man, a younger woman, that’s how a lot of people are going to see it. Especially her parents.”
“I know. That’s one reason I didn’t want to go public at first.”
“Well, that’s stupid,” she says, surprising me. “You can’t live your life based on what other people are going to think or say about you.”
“Even what you would think?”
“If you’d bothered to ask me instead of having me walk in on it, I might’ve told you that I didn’t mind as long as you were both happy.”
What? That can’t possibly be true. “But what about your mom?”
She lets out a long sigh, like she’s explaining something to somebody that’s on the low end of the IQ scale. Maybe she is. “How many times do I have to tell you I just want you to be happy? I don’t want to see you alone. That’s the only reason I was pushing you two together. Well, that and Mom seemed pretty gung-ho about it. But if you’d just told me you were seeing someone, I would’ve left it alone.”
I guess her assessment of my IQ was correct. I was an idiot for not trusting in my daughter. She’s smarter and more caring than I’ll ever be. “Well, it doesn’t matter now.” I reach to the middle of the table and grab another of these brownie things that Violet made yesterday. The plate’s sitting there half-empty now after I stress ate them most of the night. “You want one?” I ask.
“Sure.” She grabs one off the plate and takes a big bite. She chews it for just a second before a look of disgust comes over her face and she rushes to the trash can to spit it out. What’s her problem?
“Where did those come from?” she asks suspiciously.
“Violet made them yesterday before, well, you know.”
“And you’re actually eating them?”
“Why not? They’re good. I mean, they’re not traditional brownies, but I like them. I’ve practically eaten the whole batch already.”
Several looks cross Bianca’s face all at once, ranging from disgust, to surprise, to joy. “Holy fuck, you love her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’m not ready to admit my feelings out loud for Violet right now. It’ll hurt too much.
