Page 15 of Suddenly Single
He looked at the half of the giant bear claw in her lap.
“Don’t judge me,” she said, and took a bite.“So anyway, after that, I was a nanny for the Oosterhausens, and when they moved back to Holland, I figured I’d be good at teaching little kids.So I got a job as an art teacher at a private school.”
“You’re an artist?” he asked curiously.
“Well, no,” Jenny said.“But Ifeelartistic.Anyway, I don’t have that job anymore.” She took another bite. “Budget cuts,” she said through a mouth full of pastry.
Edan was silent. He was probably thinking that her liberal arts degree was perfect for someone who never had the right goals. Or goals that were so vague they required a catchall degree.
“Look, here’s the deal—it’s about my dad.He’s a brilliant scientist,” Jenny said, deciding to come clean. She added, “Really,” at his skeptical look.“He invented some thing-a-ma-jig for telescopes that NASA bought and it made him insanely rich.But he’s also a hoarder, and he’s terribly absentminded, which means he does things like leaves the stove on or forgets to take his medicine.All he has is me, and I could never venture too far away from him.I mean, I’ve traveled some, and I went to college away from him.But he needed me too much, so I’ve sort of floated around Santa Monica.” And then, after several years of being attended almost daily by his devoted daughter and only child, he had inexplicably come up with a girlfriend.
“You’re no’ there now,” Edan said.
“Well, no, because out of the blue, Dad got a girlfriend off Hoarder Tinder. All I know is that my dad, who is a little nutty, and has Parkinson’s, and is a hoarder, has better luck than I do when it comes to dating.”
Jenny had learned about Cathy at the same time she’d been laid off of her job teaching art to first graders because of budget cuts.Her father had told her not to worry, that he hadplentyof money.
“Where’s your mum?” Edan asked.
“Dead,” she said matter-of-factly.“She couldn’t take the hoarding.” Jenny’s mother had once told her the trouble between her and Jenny’s father had begun when he got so rich he could buy whatever he wanted. He did.And then he’d filled the house with it. “When I was ten, she took off with a guy on a motorcycle.A few weeks later, he crashed his motorcycle and killed them both.”
“Good God,” Edan said softly.
Jenny didn’t offer that Bethany’s opinion was that her mom’s death was the reason Jenny never dated the right guy.She’d explained it all a few weeks ago when she’d come out to California for work and they’d met for drinks.“Think about it. You’re afraid to commit to anything.A job, a guy...get it?”
“No,” Jenny had scoffed, but privately, she wondered it that was true.
“Look. Your mom abandoned you and then she died.Your grandmother died shortly after that. Your dad constantly let you down and then didn’t tell you about finding Madge—”
“Her name is Cathy.”
“Whatever. Anyway, he was the one person you trusted. Oh, and you had that boyfriend when we were college freshmen who cheated on you, remember?”
“Vividly.”
“You have never really found a profession you love, and you don’t have to because you’re filthy rich and have this father to take care of—”
“I’m not rich. My dad is,” Jenny had said, blushing.It was no secret that her dad showered her with money, slipping big sums into her bank account even when she asked him not to.
“Anyway, it’s easy to see why you don’t want to commit to anything,” Bethany had said with a shrug, then had wrapped her lipsticked lips around a straw to sip her cocktail.
Jenny glanced at Edan, who had, predictably, remained silent.But he kept casting strange looks in her direction.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked. “Are you worried about my bill?” She flicked her wrist.“Don’t worry—I have rivers of money.”
“I think you’re a wee bit mad,” he said, and sounded, Jenny thought, a little too concerned.
“No! It’s just that sometimes, life is so lovely it’s hard to know where to start, right? It’s not like I don’t understand that I have a bad work history.But I haven’t figured out what I want from life yet. I thought I’d be taking care of my dad forever, but he...well, he clearly doesn’t need me quite like I thought.”
Edan glanced out the driver window and added, “Sorry about that.”
His sudden spurt of empathy surprised her. “Thankyou.” Her friends never said sorry about her dad—they thought Jenny ought to be glad he had a girlfriend.She was, but there was more to it than that.She was sad about it.Inexplicably sad. “Life goes on, right?”
“Aye.That it does,” he said with a sigh.
That’s what her father had said.“Life goes on, Jenny.You have to live your life now.”
“I am going to get a job, you know,” she said.“I haven’t exactly landed on what it is just yet, but I’m thinking—” Jenny was startled by the ring of her phone.“Oh, that’s mine.” She dug it out of her pocket and looked at the number.God, it was Bethany.She punched it silent.
