My Fake Fling

“He’s a man of a certain age. He’s been alone for a long time. You know he’s struggled to date since Mom died.”

“He doesn’t love Stacey,” I said.

“No, but that’s why she’s perfect,” he reasoned. “He doesn’t love her. He’ll never love her, but she’s a companion. And when she wants to get her hands on his credit card, she’s nice to him. She takes care of him when the lupus flares up. All she has to do is shake her ass and bring him a drink now and then.”

“Rich, we can’t let her take him to Calgary!”

“How are we going to stop it?” he asked. “I’ve tried to talk to him, but she’s always right there.”

“Why in the hell is she doing this?” I growled.

My ears were burning. I never liked to say I hated anyone, but I really, really disliked this woman. She had come into our life two years ago. At first, we thought it was a fling. Dad was sowing some wild oats with a woman younger than my brother. Then she moved in with him two weeks later. She was going shopping all the time with his money. Our father wasn’t wealthy. He had a healthy retirement account and a pension that Stacey was burning through. At the rate she was going, Dad would be broke within a few years.

“She wants him away from us. From his friends. We’ve all been turning up the heat. She can’t spend as much with us constantly following up on her.”

I shook my head with my temper rising. “We can’t let her do this. She’ll take his money and abandon him. What if he ends up in another flare that lands him in the hospital? The doctor said they might have to do a round of chemo if it gets bad. He can’t be alone. She’s not going to take care of him through that.”

“I know,” he said. “I know.”

“Rich, this is bad.”

That probably wasn’t exactly the right thing to say to lift his spirits. I couldn’t lift him when I was sinking just as fast. We’d been fighting this war for two years. Stacey was winning. Every day, she managed to get our father, our last living relative, just a little farther away from us. She was isolating him. We all saw it. His friends saw it and tried to help. We were powerless against whatever mojo that woman wielded over him.

“Thea, I know,” he said with frustration. “What do you propose we do? I’ve tried everything. Either he doesn’t see it, or he doesn’t want to. I can’t even take him to lunch or pop over for a beer anymore. How does she have time to shop without him, yet always be around him? It’s like she has some kind of radar. Anytime we get close, she knows and comes running. She doesn’t want us to talk any sense into him. She wants him sick and under her thumb.”

My lip curled with disgust. “First it was Mom’s clothes. Then it was all the family pictures in the house. Then it was all about wanting to host Christmas dinner at their house. His house. Not hers. His! She has slowly dismantled everything. The final straw was Rupert. I cannot believe she got rid of Rupert. She didn’t even tell me. I would have taken the dog. You don’t give away a dog because it drools.”

“She’s not a good person,” he said. “She’s got her hooks in Dad.”

“We should have done better,” I spoke my thoughts aloud. “I knew he was feeling lonely. I was just always too busy. Now look, he’s been caught in a trap he can’t escape from.”

“Thea, we did all we could,” he said.

“No, we didn’t, Rich.” I shook my head. “You and I both work around the clock. You’re always traveling and I’m always trying to save every critter great and small. We forgot about the one guy that needed us the most.”

“He was grieving,” Rich argued. “We were grieving. We didn’t do anything wrong. Dad was fine. This woman is a predator.”

“Do we have any legal standing here?” I asked.

“I’ve looked into it,” he said. “She’s not doing anything illegal. It’s immoral, but not illegal.”

“Okay, now what, big brother?” I asked. He was four years older than me and had always looked out for me. When our mom suddenly passed away twelve years ago, Rich had been there for me. He was my rock. Dad had been devastated and unable to function beyond daily life, and even that was hard.

“We’ve got to get him alone,” he said. “I’m supposed to be having lunch with him on Saturday. According to him, she has some spa appointment. I don’t think she knows we’re having lunch. We could do it then.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get someone to cover for me at the shelter. I’ll be there. We have to make him see reason.”

“I seriously looked into declaring him incompetent,” he said.

“No, you didn’t,” I said. When he didn’t laugh, I realized he was serious. “Wow. And?”

“And we can’t,” he said. “I talked to one of the police officers I do business with about it. He said there was nothing we could do legally. It has to be Dad. He has to kick that bitch to the curb.”

I looked around the café and leaned forward. “We could hire someone,” I whispered.

“I don’t even want to know what you are implying.”

“Just saying,” I said and leaned back again.