Her Boyfriend's Father

Grant

On big days like this,even after years of being an attorney, it generally takes me about a half an hour to get my mind fully set for the day and what’s ahead of me. However, today, I wake up feeling ready to face the world and maybe actually take it over. And I know exactly why.

Nikki.

The girl has lit a fire inside me so strong and so hot that as I march into the office, I feel absolutely unstoppable. Everyone else can see it in me too. I can tell by the looks in their eyes as I walk past. Even the secretaries and interns let their gaze linger on me an extra few seconds beyond what they normally would. There must be an extra “pep in my step” today, as they say.

I meet Tom, one of my senior associates, at the door to my office. I can see he’s got a lot to go over with me today, but as I approach, he cocks his head slightly and gives me a look.

“Have a nice day off?”

“You could say that,” I reply. “You might even say I’d prefer to have had another one instead of coming back in here today, so give me something good.”

“Well,” he says as we step into my office, “a lot came up in discovery. I had the junior associates look into those compounds you mentioned, and as it turned out, the ones used on the walls on sites 241 through 248 had been marked hazardous eight months prior to the start of construction and that the contractors hired out knew about it before they started the job.”

“We have that in writing?”

“We have the e-mails as well as some texts. Copies are being made as we speak.”

I give Tom the nod-finger-gun combo he loves and watch as his face brightens.

“That’s big. We can move on that.”

“Great hunch, sir. That will really pay off.”

The buzzer on my desk blinks, and I press it. Barbara, my secretary’s voice comes through. “Mr. Whitney. I have Elaine, your ex-wife, on the line.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Tom says as he excuses himself.

With a deep sigh, I glance down at the phone on my desk. I can already guess what this is going to be about. Reed’s gone crying to Mommy, and now I have to hear about it. I almost don’t want to take the call, but I know she’ll just keep pestering me and possibly even show up at the office if I don’t, so I thumb the buzzer and tell Barbara to put her through, then pick up the receiver.

“Hello, Elaine.”

“I thought we talked about this.” Her voice is shrill and annoyed. She sounds like she’s already had six cups of coffee or maybe something stronger.

“I remember you doing a lot of talking and me listening—”

“Don’t be a jerk, Grant,” she snips. “Reed told me you’re going back on our agreement.”

“Did he also tell you about how he’s been treating women lately?”

Pause. “Excuse me?”

“Why don’t you ask your son about his little virginity chart and how it’s coming,” I say, wishing I could see her face right now. “Ask him if he’s even capable of looking at women as anything other than something to conquer.”

Another long pause. I wonder if Reed’s actually there with her right now. That would be something special.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, Grant, but we agreed you’d get him this car, so can you just get him the car like you said you would?”

“A college boy does not need a Porsche, Elaine,” I say firmly. “And maybe…maybe if Reed was humble and knew how to ask nicely for things, I might consider it. But we all know you haven’t bothered to teach him any of that. I mean, you don’t know how yourself, so it’s no surprise.”

This conversation is torture. I’ve had enough. I’d rather be in court with the most hostile witness on the stand than talk to Elaine any longer or deal with her nightmare of a son.

“So this is the kind of man you are? The kind who goes back on his word?”

“I’m the kind of man who will not continue to contribute to the chauvinistic degeneracy of a young man who treats women like pieces of meat. If you have an issue with that, Elaine, frankly I don’t give a damn.”

And with that, I hang up.

Ah, that felt good. Although I do wish I could be there to see Reed’s face when he gets the call from his mother that going to her and acting like a spoiled brat didn’t end up getting him what he wanted.

What a strange world we live in. One where boys like Reed, who have been handed everything they could ever want on a platter, are so ungrateful, yet incredible girls like Nikki, who work hard and never ask for anything, can’t even get an up-to-date laptop to write on until a guy like me comes along and decides to step in.

I want to spoil her. I want to give her everything she could ever want in life, including every chance to do the things she wants to do. I know she could be a successful writer if she would just believe in herself. If she could just get her work out there in front of the right people’s eyes.

Suddenly, it’s like the entire Earth shifts beneath my feet. This case I’m working on today is enormous. Monumental, one of the biggest of my career surely. But as I think about Nikki and all the things I could do for her, all the things we could do together, it feels less important than it did a few days ago.

I’ve been building this life for myself, this career, this firm, but now all I can think about is building a family with her.

Is this what love feels like?

I wouldn’t know. I’ve never felt it before. I’ve said it before to other women, trying to convince myself that I was actually experiencing it, but I think I knew deep down in my heart that I was just pretending.

Maybe that’s why those relationships never worked out. Maybe I was just waiting for the universe to lead me to Nikki. Because now there’s a feeling deep down in my core, a feeling more powerful than anything I could ever hope to describe, a feeling that I know is going to change everything.