Page 20 of The Problem with Dating

Alex

Eight Years Old

The shouting filled the cramped apartment once more, rattling the thin walls. I hated their loud arguments, especially when they rumbled into the night. Dad’s booming voice was powerful enough to shake the walls of our home.

“I can’t stand you! Do you even hear yourself? Do you?” Dad’s voice thundered at Mom.

“I hear myself just fine!” Mom shouted back.

Huddling on the living room couch, I pressed my hands against my ears to block out the noise. My knees were drawn tightly to my chest while cartoons played silently on the television screen. I should’ve been in bed but didn’t want to walk past their raging storm to reach my bedroom.

“I hate you!” Mom barked. “You’re a failure who can’t provide for your own family. You have nothing to be proud of. Everything about you is embarrassing. I wish I never met you!”

My eyes clenched shut as their words stung my chest. How could they be so cruel to each other?

“I don’t want any of this anymore. I don’t want this life, and I don’t want you!” Mom declared. “I wish I never said, ‘I do’.”

In a flash, a ring sailed through the air, clattering to a halt as it met the edge of the couch. I glanced down and picked it up with shaky fingers. Mom’s wedding ring felt heavy in my hand as my stomach twisted in knots.

Did she mean that? Did she mean that she didn’t want to be with Dad anymore?

But we were a family.

Family was supposed to stick together.

“Good riddance,” Dad spat back, his voice breaking. He didn’t mean that. He couldn’t have meant that.

“I’m leaving!” Mom bellowed before storming into the living room. She froze as her eyes found me, clutching the wedding ring in my hand. Her gaze shifted from the ring to my tear-streaked face, and something inside her seemed to break.

“Alex,” she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. “I…” Her voice cracked, and she shook her head, suddenly unable to meet my gaze. “Go to bed. I’ll be back later.”

With that, she grabbed her keys, jacket, and shoes. I hurried over to her. “Take me, too,” I begged. “Please.” I didn’t want to be left with Dad. He didn’t like me the way Mom liked me. He was always grumpy. She was happy sometimes, at least with me.

“No. Stay here. I’ll be back,” she swore. Then she stormed out the front door, slamming it shut behind her, leaving an echoing silence in her wake.

My jaw trembled as I stared at the front door, waiting for her to return inside.

Dad walked into the living room with heavy footsteps. His stare was on to the front door with a look of anger. He huffed as he glanced around the space, almost as if he searched for Mom to be there so they could partake in another shouting fest. His movements were intense as if the storm continued to brew from deep inside him. His nostrils flared with each breath he sucked in. The room echoed with his rage, bouncing to and from the worn-out couches and chairs.

When he realized she was gone, his facial expression shifted. The rage in his eyes flickered out as he blinked a few times. His shoulders dropped as his grimace faded. The house felt still as Dad stood in place with Mom’s disappearance. A sudden burst of finality hit the pit of my stomach as we stood in the space that now felt unfamiliar to me. The absence of Mom’s presence was the loudest silence I’d ever experienced in my life.

He turned toward me, and I tossed my hands behind my back, hiding the ring in my hold.

His eyebrows relaxed, his mouth parted, and his brown eyes glassed over like Mom’s. He looked sad. It was a kind of sad I’d never seen before. The kind that looked as if it would last forever. Instead of the intense warrior he’d been a few moments before, he was now just…Dad. A regular person who was hurting due to love. I didn’t know love could hurt so much.

His nostrils stopped flaring as he took short breaths. The shortened inhalations shifted to longer ones as he tried to calm himself down. His trembling lips pressed together as he continued looking at me.

I stared back with a tight chest, wide-eyed with confusion. Dad almost forced a smile but was too exhausted to complete the act. The left corner of his mouth twitched up before it dropped. He didn’t frown, either, though. He stood still as all signs of emotions left his system. As his slightly drooped shoulders rose, he began rebuilding himself to a neutral position. His posture straightened, and his exterior shell hardened once more. I’d never seen Dad cry, but he seemed close to tears for a few moments before growing hard again. I wished he had let it happen, but we didn’t have that kind of family. Tears weren’t a part of our characteristics—only yelling had been. Whenever I felt like crying, I’d punch my pillow instead. I’d learned that from my parents.

Dad’s brows bent, and he shook his head slightly. “Go to bed, Alex.”

CHAPTER7

Alex

Present Day

It didn’t take long for Nathan to convince me to partner with his family’s farm. I’d taken a few trips to Honey Farms to inspect their ingredients and concluded I’d be an idiot not to use their products in my restaurant. The quality was remarkable, and the family took pride in their farmland.

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