“So I will just come right out and say it… Chuck, you have to do the right thing!”
I smirk affectionately. “Boss, I think I know exactly what you’re saying.”
“It’s a man’s duty!” he continues, now that he is on a roll. “And maybe sometimes that choice seems difficult… But now that you are in the family way, you know what you have to do.”
My smile turns to concrete. Joanna goes frozen and stops trying to tug her hand away. What seemed like discomfort at my father’s confused state of mine is starting to quickly seem like something else.
“Chuck, you and Maude can make this work,” my dad insists. “A baby is a gift from God!”
Joanna gasps, turning her head away.
He’s not inventing this. This is not a drill. This is happening.
“Great to see you!” she blurts out, finally snatching her hand back and stumbling backward. White as a ghost, she opens her mouth to say something and then clamps it closed, pivoting on her heel and darting through the front door.
“You’re not just going to let her run away?!” my dad blusters.
Slowly I lean forward and pick up her handbag off the chair. I hold it up for him to see and shrug.
“Don’t worry, Boss, she won’t get far,” I reply. “I think I have her car keys. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Great work, son!” he bellows as I rise and leave the reception area.
I find her by her father’s truck, leaning on the driver's-side window on her folded arms. She raises her head as I approach, her cheeks streaked with moisture.
“Were you going to tell me?” I ask in a low voice, aware that my tone is not professionally neutral.
“I thought you were in Costa Rica,” she sniffs pathetically. “Can I have my keys?”
“No, you cannot,” I reply sharply. “And yes, I was in Costa Rica. I’m back.
“I can see that,” she answers.
I want to resist, but I can’t. I look her up and down, trying to see the signs. She’s lovely. She’s lovelier than before. I can’t pick out any one thing that stands out, but yes, there’s something about her.
“Why would you tell my father and not tell me?” I growl.
She blinks several times, gasping. “Tell him?” she repeats incredulously “I didn’t tell him! He doesn’t even know who I am!”
“But that didn’t stop him from knowing you’re…”
She squares off to face me, sticking her chin out defiantly and putting her hands on her hips.
“Are you going to say it?” she challenges me.
I pause, taken aback. Is this a dare?
“Don’t worry,” she continues acidly. “You don’t have to do the right thing. You don’t have to do anything. I didn’t even know you were here. I just came here to see Didi and—”
“You should marry me,” I blurt out.
She rocks forward then sways back, like a piece of coral in the tide.
“That’s insane,” she hisses.
She doesn’t even know. She can’t even see it. She doesn’t know how lovely she is. She certainly doesn’t know how beautiful life can be, how beautiful I can make it for her.
“People do it all the time,” I answer reasonably. “It’s just the circle of life.”