"You never reported it?"
I paused at that question, and Laurie scuffed lightly at herself.
"Of course not. We'll talk about it more. Do you want me to just grab take away and go to your place?"
"I feel like I'm going to throw up." My stomach roiled at my admission, and I pushed my way into the open air to gasp for breath. "I can't believe this is happening— Laurie, the fuck am I supposed to do?"
"We'll figure it out, Carl, okay. So, just... calm down. Sit somewhere and breathe. I'll stay on the phone with you." Leaning against the front of the building where the glass walls gave way to brick, I dropped my briefcase to run both hands through my hair. I could just feel that bitch watching me— sitting in her car, all happy at the fact that she's got a good shot at ruining my life. Sliding down to sit, I tucked my head and fisted my hair as my panic rose.Chapter 9MelissaMy thumbs hovered over my phone screen, and my brain pounded from the effort of trying to find the right words. The backlight lowered, and I tapped the text box absently to keep my phone from locking. Beyond the edges of the tea cabana, the rain was heavy but not sheeting— just the perfect fall to keep my allergies at bay.
"I just have to do it." Hyping myself up, I forced my thumbs to tap the screen, gradually making out the words I wanted to say. "Just type it— Dad, I—"
Just then, my phone started to ring, and I dragged down the notifications bar only to pause. The blood drained from my face, my shoulders slumping as defeat beat me down. My dad's name flashed in white on green, and I closed my eyes briefly before answering the call.
"Yeah, Dad?" Instantly, I was tired and a little queasy from the knowledge that I wouldn't even get a 'hi, how are ya?'. True to form, my dad took a breath to begin talking at me, and I propped both my elbows on the table to hold my forehead against my palm.
"I met a woman, and you'll never guess how loaded she is. She makes your mother look poor."
I put my phone down, but I could still hear my dad spewing out sewage about this woman. My stomach flopped dangerously, my mind focused on those six, awful words no dad should say about his daughter's dead mother. Terry is right.
In a daze, I put the call on speaker, but nothing much my dad said managed to process in my head. "Pretty soon, I'll be able to retire for good. Sell the auto shop, finally. I'll admit, I'm gonna miss working on cars, but with her kind of money, I can always just buy a fixer upper and do whatever I want, no matter how expensive it is. It'll be so great not to pinch pennies anymore!"
"... You're a horrible person, you know that, Dad?"
My dad blubbered a little in shock at my soft, almost wispy declaration. It almost felt like the words weren't coming from my mouth even as they slithered into my ears.
"I really don't understand why you sound so proud. You have nothing to be proud about. You literally triggered me to have a really bad asthma attack, and then you didn't want to own up to almost, intentionally, putting me in the hospital, so you don't call me for days. Then, when you finally work up the courage to call me, you're talking about scamming some poor woman? Do you honestly think I care? Do you think it makes me anything but ashamed that you're my dad? The only time you call me is to tell me how you screwed someone out of thousands of dollars for auto parts when you really just pocketed it. But 'they're unfathomable rich. It's not like they'll miss a few thousand dollars' as if that gives you an excuse to be a terrible, ugly human being.
"You know, Dad... now that I'm thinking about it, I don't remember the last time you said, 'I just want to see how you're doing'. You never call me unless you want to brag about something shady you did, or something you just bought, and it's always about you. You never ask me about my cat. You never ask me about my day. If you didn't have to breathe, you'd never stop talking about yourself. So... stop calling me. I don't care, and you obviously don't either." And I hung up on him. This time, I wasn't going to let him talk over me. I wasn't going to let my dad dismiss me. If he ever contacted me again, it better be to say he was sorry and he'd be better. And then, if he didn't live up to that, I wouldn't give him a second chance.