Page 45 of Ten Years and Then…
“I had no idea, Nora.”
“But did you know about this thing your father was working on for you?”
Daniel reached over and took her hands. “He mentioned it right before I came back to school after Thanksgiving. But all he said was that his boss’ brother might have a job for me. I didn’t think it would amount to anything.” He chuckled. “And anyway, I assumed it would be in the area. I had no idea this guy was in Pittsburgh.” He took a deep breath before he went on. “I would hate to not see you for the summer. But this is huge. With that much money, I could pay for next year’s tuition, whatever the scholarship doesn’t cover. So my parents wouldn’t have to pay it. Mom’s been wanting to redo the kitchen for years, but they’ve been paying tuition for Lisa, and now me, and if I could pay for myself … Mom deserves her new kitchen. And it would pay for books for next year. And a halfway decent used car. And I could buy you …”
He trailed off, but she could guess what his next words would have been. He’d use some of that money to buy her an expensive gift. Real jewelry, probably. Real gold, not just gold plated. With a real gemstone.
Maybe even a ring? Was he—could he be thinking about that already?
She’d been ready to scream at him, curse at him, call him every awful name she’d ever heard her mother call her father. And he’d been thinking about what kind of fancy jewelry he could buy for her.
She tried to force a smile, and to clear all the ugly, ridiculous, unfair thoughts out of her head. She was pretty sure she didn’t manage it.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Daniel, later that morning
“Bee, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Daniel didn’t understand anything that had happened after his father called. Nora had freaked out, she’d been angry—really angry. It was the first time he’d seen her like that.
She stayed for another half hour afterwards, and they talked and joked like usual. Except something was still off with her, even when she’d kissed him, and he’d kissed her back, right before she left. It felt—he didn’t even know how to describe it.
So he’d called Bianca, and told her everything that had happened this morning. He didn’t know what else to do.
“This is still new to you. And to her too, I think. Five months isn’t that long, but it’s long enough to think that the other person must know what you’re thinking even if you never said it. And then get pissed off when it turns out you’re not psychic after all.”
That made sense. A lot of sense. “She acted like I should have known she was going to try and get a job in New York for the summer.” Should he have known? Should he have assumed she’d want to be closer to him during the summer?
Even if he had, he’d told her the truth. He hadn’t thought his father’s talk about a lucrative job would work out, and he’d had no idea it wouldn’t be in New York anyway.
“Yeah. But I guess—I could have told Dad I needed to think about it, and then talked it over with Nora.”
Bianca sighed. “Give yourself a break, Daniel. You were surprised. Uncle Tony told you you’d be making thirteen grand this summer, all in cash. Who would say no to that?”
She made it sound so reasonable. And as much as he hated to see Nora upset, it was reasonable, wasn’t it? And while his girlfriend had been angry at him, he’d been thinking about how nice a gift he could buy her with $1,500 or even $2,000. It wasn’t fair—it wasn’t right for her to be angry at him. “Exactly, Bee! But I—now I’m getting angry and she isn’t even here.” Getting angry at her when she wasn’t there to speak up for herself wasn’t fair or right either, was it? “I don’t want to be mad at her. I love her.”
Bianca laughed, but he didn’t hear much humor there. “Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. You think Uncle Tony and Aunt Marie never get angry at each other? Or my parents? Like I said, you’re new at this. It’s just—it’s something you have to learn as you go. And there isn’t anything I can tell you to make it easier to figure out, Danny.”
And isn’t that what his father had tried to tell him the day after Christmas? That love wasn’t easy?
“I’m getting that idea.”
“You always were a quick learner.” Bianca was silent for a moment. “You know what, maybe there is one thing I can tell you that might help. You can not like something she did, but still love her. And I bet she’ll figure that out, too.”
“I hope so, Bee. Thanks for listening to me.”
“Always, Danny. You know that.”
That all made sense, right? It was just one misunderstanding. Compared to everything they had, it was nothing—wasn’t it?
Chapter 14
Final weeks of the spring semester—Albion College
Nora, April 4
Nora was in the middle of rereading—for the third or fourth time—this week’s assignment for Mass Media & Society. It wasn’t getting any clearer, and she was starting to wonder if the problem was with her rather than the material.
She was interrupted by the phone. Why was it ringing at two o’clock? It was weird. Nobody ever called her—or Kim, for that matter—in the middle of the afternoon.
