AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dad, please. Leslie needs a roommate and I’m not going to get a dorm assignment. And neither of us can afford to live like this. I hate living so far from campus. I’m left out of everything.” Julia leans on the bar attached to the kitchen island pleading her case for the hundredth time.
“I’m sorry, Julia. The answer’s still no.”
She comes around the counter. Standing next to me while I take our dinner out of the take-out bags from the cafe across the street. “Just give him a chance. Talk to him. Get to know him a little. That’s your problem, after all, isn’t it?”
Leveling my gaze at her, I explain again, “It’s not that I don’t know him, Jules. It’s that I do and you don’t. He may seem like a decent enough guy now but that’s only because he hasn’t gotten what he wants from you yet.”
“Oh. My. God.” Showing me her palms with her hands up, she backs away. “I’mnothaving this conversation with you.”
“Fine.” I hand her the box with her sandwich inside.
I’m sure her mother covered the birds and the bees but I’m also sure her mother didn’t bother preparing her for how aggressive the bees can be or manipulative the birds.
“I can take care of myself, dad,” she says sitting across the table from me picking at her food. “And I’ve been alone with Leslie enough, if he had less than honorable intentions, he’s had chances to make them known.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel better or worse.”
“Better. Please.” The pleading in her eyes breaks my heart.
“You have to understand where I’m coming from, Jules. Even if the boy has the most honorable of intentions, he’s still a boy. And I’m not too old to have forgotten how easy it is to put those intentions aside for a pretty girl. Or how much easier it would be if I lived with her.”
Julia turns a dozen shades of red before she buries her face in her hands. “I have homework,” she says slipping off her chair careful not to make eye contact with me again.
“You know it’s because I love you, Jules.”
She stops at the entrance to the hallway. Looking halfway over her shoulder, she says, “I know, dad. I love you too.”
∞∞∞
“Jules.” I knock on her bedroom door. She doesn’t answer. I’m not surprised but it still feels like a knife in my chest. “I’m heading down to the studio for a while.”
“Okay.” She pulls the knife out a bit sounding more cheerful than she did at dinner.
I quit while I’m ahead and leave it there.
Over the last month, since my last encounter with Riley, I’ve filled every shelf with a variety of clay creations. Trying to keep my mind off of her. When I tuck a tea cup on the last open spot on my curing shelf, I finally have to admit, nothing I do will clear Riley from my thoughts.
I hang my apron on the hook beside the light switch, kill the lights, and lock the door that separates the studio from the shop. After double-checking the shop door is locked, I head up the interior stairs at the back of the store to my apartment above.
“I’m home,” I call out. Most nights I’ve come up to Julia sprawled out on the couch binging crime dramas. Apparently, our encounter earlier still hasn’t blown over enough for her to want to come out of her room.
After kicking off my shoes, I grab a glass and pour a finger of whiskey. When I turn to put the bottle back on the shelf I find a piece of notebook paper with “Dad” printed near the folded edge.
My chest knots forcing me to gulp air to get the swallow of whiskey down.
With a shaky hand, I set my glass and the bottle on the counter then pick up the note.
Other than tonight, I thought things had been going pretty well. Or maybe it only seemed that way because I spent so much time in the studio.
Shit.
Holding my breath, I unfold the note and read.
Dad,
First of all, I love you. But it sucks having to be so far away from campus. It’s hard to make friends and get involved not being right there. And you know me, I hate missing out on things.
I know we agreed to wait for a dorm to open up but I can’t. And since Leslie hasn’t found a new roommate, I’m making good on my promise and picking up my half of the rent.
