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Not to regret what they did.
To talk to him.
But, nope. She acted like her damn mother and hated herself for that once again.
“Good advice to have,” she said.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Elise leaned back in her chair. She could go talk to her brother, but she didn’t want to bother him with her problems. He wasn’t here and she was tired.
Royce had a family to go home to each night and take care of.
Her brother seemed to have figured life out and she was still the fish on the floor floundering around as it was dropped out of the net.
“Am I like Mom?” she asked.
“At times,” her father said.
She didn’t want to hear those words that she feared but knew her father would be honest with her.
“I don’t want to be.”
“Then don’t be,” her father said. “There are parts of you I’d never change. And if you are happy with the way you are, then don’t change. When I say you are like your mother at times, it’s more about the fact that you’ve got a temper. That you can be cool and standoffish with people. That you can write someone off without listening to them completely.”
“Wow,” she said. “Thanks for making me feel better.”
“If you wanted to feel better you wouldn’t have asked me if you were like her. The difference is, you are aware. And becauseI pointed this out to you, you’re going to beat yourself up over something. Whatever put you in a mood, you’re going to think and think and pick it apart like I would.”
“Then like you said I’ll beat myself up over it like you did with Mom.”
“Guess you’ve got bad traits from both of us.”
“It seems it.”
“When you figure out what you did wrong, you apologize, Elise. That takes maturity. That takes a strong person to realize when they are wrong and swallow their pride. That is where you’re different than your mother.”
“Because she doesn’t think she does anything wrong,” she said.
“That’s right. What did you do wrong? Should I even ask?”
“It’s nothing,” she said. “Just a reflection on life. Sometimes it sucks.”
“You’re young enough to make changes,” her father said. “No one says you have to stay the way you are. But if you are happy, that is up to you.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“Anything I can do to help you?”
“Just talking to you is help enough,” she said. “Thanks, Dad. You’ve always been there for me. I know I can count on you.”
“I wish I knew what was going through your mind,” her father said.
“Trust me, you don’t.”
She didn’t want her father to think poorly of her actions years ago with Gabe and she sure the hell didn’t want it now either.
When her father was back in his office, she pulled up her email to look for resumes for the position she posted. Maybe it’d take her mind off of things.
