His question surprised me. He hadn’t been all that happy with me when he heard what I had done. I really didn’t think he liked Erik, but by the way he was watching the television, maybe I had been wrong.
“No, I haven’t talked to him.”
“Why not? Didn’t he give you his number?”
“Yes, Dad.” I laughed. “But it’s not that simple. I’m not just going to call him and be some silly girl. He also has my number, and he never called me.”
“Well, look at him, he’s really busy. You should just call him,” my father urged.
I laughed at how eager he was for me to connect with Erik. I certainly hadn’t expected that.
“It’s been months, Dad. I can’t just call him up now.”
“Why not?” my mother added.
“Because it’s been months. Don’t you think it would be a little weird if I suddenly called him out of the blue now?”
My parents were old – they didn’t understand the rules of dating now and how weird it would be if I called him after months of not calling him.
It would have been different if I had called right away after he left. Even if I had called a month later. But now we were going on six months since he had left Aspen. He hadn’t called me and I hadn’t called him. There was no way I could be the person to break down and call the guy now.
“I still think it would be nice of you to call and congratulate him on his success. You two are friends now, right?” my mother said.
“Sure, we are friends. But I wouldn’t know what to say. I can’t call.”
“Where’s his number? I’ll call,” my father offered.
“Dad! You can’t call him; that would be even weirder than me calling.”
My father seemed to think it was funny how I was so worried about him calling. He jumped up from the couch and went to my room. He quickly found the number I had pinned on the bulletin board and started to dial it.
“I’m just going to give him a quick call and tell him he’s invited over for the Fourth of July picnic,” my dad teased me.
“Dad, he’s not going to come help with your ski resort summer picnic. Put the phone down.”
I knew he was bluffing. Ever since I had first started to date in high school, my father had always made sure to try and embarrass me as much as humanly possible with the boys I dated. He did it out of love, and I knew it. I was lucky to have a father who cared so much about me and took an interest in the boys I had in my life. But he certainly wasn’t going to call Erik and invite him to our resort Fourth of July event. That would be totally crazy.
“Hello,” my father said into the phone as someone appeared to answer.
“Hang up!” I yelled at him.
“This is Bob Conrad, you spent Christmas at my house,” my father said into the phone.
I was mortified. Did my father really just call Erik? Did Erik answered? Oh, how I wanted to just shrivel up and hide in the corner somewhere. There was no getting out of this if Erik was on the phone.
“Yeah, yeah,” my father replied to whoever he was on the phone with. “I wanted to invite you to our big Aspen Fourth of July picnic. There’s going to be fireworks and music… Oh, yeah, I understand. I just wanted to make sure you got invited.”
There was another pause, and I fell onto my bed and pulled the covers up over my head. Erik must have been talking to my father as my father was quiet and listening on the phone. I opened my eyes to see what was going on.
“Sure, here she is,” my father said as he handed me the phone.
“No,” I whispered and refused to take it.
“Well, he knows you’re here now. You can’t say no.”
My father put the phone into my hand and then walked out of the room. I held it up to my ear but didn’t say anything at first. I desperately hoped my father had been playing some sort of cruel joke on me.
r /> “Cassidy?” the voice said.