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"I don't talk to too many people at the office anyway and the people I talk to online, I'm not telling them about your personal life," I assured him.
"Thanks."
"You seem to love her."
"How can you tell?"
"When you talked the other day, you looked stressed, and that could only come from a place of love."
"I wish love was enough." Was this Ronald opening up to me? I appreciated that.
"I think love does go a long way though."
"I guess. Trust me, you can't sustain anything long-lasting with only love. Love is just the beginning. Some would say the base requirement."
"Does this have to do with your daughter?" I quickly realized I might have overstepped so I quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."
"No, it's fine," he smiled. "I asked you here on a date. Of course, I knew there'd be a possibility that we talk about personal lives." Fair enough.
"Her name is Maddy. She's my pride and joy and means a lot to me. We've been through a lot since her mother died, and when she needed me most, I spent time worrying about myself. I can never take that back."
"I'm sure you guys will work it out."
"We haven't so far."
"That doesn't mean you give up, right?" He smiled at me.
"Ever the optimist, aren't you?"
"Of course." I took a stylish bow, causing him to chuckle. "If you don't believe in yourself, who is going to believe in you?"
"There is the lyricist," Ronald mused and I giggled. I meant what I said, though.
"My parents, I'm so lucky to have them. They've been my rock and when things got tough, I could always lean on them." I opened up as well.
"They've been with me through thick and thin. I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to this music industry stuff, but even though they didn't understand the career path I chose to pursue, they supported me, never forcing me to do something else that would probably have brought dividends much sooner than my singing did." I paused to let all that sink in before carrying on.
"I don't know much about her being a parent, but I can only say as someone who is a child of two great parents, I guess it's all about supporting and believing in your kids even when they or you are messing up. So even if things are hard between you and your daughter right now, I guess just being there would be enough to let her know that you're still around if she ever wanted to talk. I don't know the details, but I'm sure you already tried, though."
"Yeah," he confirmed. "It's not easy with teenagers. Everything is just harder, everything is heightened. You know, she even hates music, specifically pop music, because of me."
I raised an eyebrow. Their relationship was more messed up than I thought. Part of me got curious as to how things became so bad. He explained it, but obviously, he left some details out. He perhaps needed some time before revealing more. I was glad about the part he told me. Yeah, that's enough. I didn't want to be greedy and ask for more.
"Mine was the opposite."
"What do you mean?"
"My parents were fairly comfortable financially, but they argued a lot and as a kid, you hate seeing that. So, I turned to music as my coping mechanism. The rhythm gave me clarity during a time when things were very murky."
Interesting. He'd been through a lot. “A lot of people see successful people and think they've had it easy. Everyone has their problems.” I responded. That seemed to resonate with him. "And about your daughter, she'll come around eventually. Teens are pretty much assholes.”
He laughed. “Yes, yes, they are. I would know from experience when I was a teen.”
“Me too.”
“So, let's make it interesting.” He turned our attention back to the game. I had been enjoying every minute of this. My heart felt full. He was perfect as far as I could tell, and I could be myself around him. He didn't care that many people revered him in the music industry. People didn't know him very well in the general public. Well, to be fair, no one knows the record label, they only know the artist. And since I was just coming up on the national stage, no one knew me either, meaning this would be one of the few times we could both immerse ourselves in a good date without worrying about being found out. To be safe, though, Ronald got us a private area for the mini-games we played.
“What do you have in mind?”
