Page 40 of Don't Love Me
“I borrowed a buddy’s car, which apparently has a faulty gas gauge, because even though it said the tank was half full, the car ran out of gas. My phone, I realized, was also out of juice. I was smack in the middle of nowhere on that stretch of 295 just before you get to town, so I figured my chances were better waiting for a cop to spot my hazards rather than trying to walk. It worked, except I only had my license, and no registration for the car. The cop was a dick…”
“You’ve got to fix that attitude when it comes to police officers.”
George knew how I felt about the police in general. “Anyway, I started barking at him a little. Then he got hot and said he was going to arrest me for car theft. At which point I told him to go to hell and I might have pushed him off me.”
“Holy shit, Marc. That’s…”
“I know,” I said bitterly. “Resisting arrest. I spent the night in the cage while they got ahold of my friend who confirmed he’d lent me the car. Now I have a court date in a couple months to deal with the resisting arrest charge. The other cop at the station, who wasn’t quite as dickish, said it would most likely be a fine and some community service. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Silence descended then. In the history of excuses for a why a guy stood up his prom date, that one had to go down in the top ten. I didn’t want to ask. I didn’t want to feel any worse than I already did. But I couldn’t stop myself.
“Have you seen her?”
He glanced over at me quickly, then went back to watching the road. “No. She called over to the carriage house a few times to see if you’d gotten home. That stopped around eight. She must have assumed by that time you weren’t coming.”
I put my hands over my face. “Fuck! She’s going to be so pissed.”
“She’s not and you know it. She was hurt last night. Today she’ll listen to what happened, and she’ll forgive you. It’s what she does.”
I looked at him then. “You sound like you disapprove.”
“You ruined something significantly important to her.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” I shouted. “The cop was a total asshole!”
“Maybe. Or maybe you could have thought about her instead. Knowing you were dealing with a hotheaded cop. Playing it that much cooler as a result, instead of getting into it with him. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. The night is over, and she’ll forgive you.”
A ball of something, probably guilt, twisted in my gut.
“Things…haven’t been exactly normal at the house,” George added. “Maybe you should know that, too.”
“Describe not normal,” I said.
“Mr. Landen’s behavior has changed over the past year. He’s more absent than present at the house. He always makes sure the privacy panel is up whenever I drive him. There are times he’s called me to pick him up from wherever he’s been, and he’s almost always drunk.”
“Landen is a drunk?” I asked, stunned. “The dude who never has a shirt untucked, a hair out of place? Who still makes Ash wear dresses to dinner? That guy is suddenly boozing it?”
George sighed. “I know. It’s very out of character.”
“Hell yeah, it is. You don’t become a multi-million-dollar hedge fund manager drinking your way to the top. If he’s boozing it up now, it’s because something is bothering him. You think it’s Ash? Maybe it’s messing with his head she’s leaving for school next year. Some empty-nest shit.”
George frowned. “I’m not certain he’s going to let her go to school.”
“What?” I asked shocked. “You can’t be serious. She was accepted to his precious alma mater and now he won’t let her go? She’s eighteen. It’s not like he can stop her.”
“He can decide not to pay for it,” George pointed out. “It’s not like she’s in a place to get the financial assistance you had.”
“Why would he do that?” It didn’t make any sense. I got it to some degree. After his wife died, Ash was his only family. But he couldn’t lock her up in the castle forever. She wasn’t fucking Rapunzel.
“I don’t know. He’s made comments here and there about her not being ready for college. His fault for sheltering her, of course. But he thinks she needs a year or two of maturing before he would feel comfortable letting her go to school. It’s like he’s preparing me for the eventuality.”
“Does Ash know this?”
George shook his head, his face even more grim. “I don’t think she does. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’ve talked. But I don’t think so. She would be fighting him harder.”
Well, I was going to find out. After she called me every name in the book, after she got done shouting at me for ruining her prom night. After the dust settled and she did exactly what George said she would do, which was forgive me. Then I would talk to her about her choices.
Daddy didn’t want to let her go? Then she’d have to either convince him or find a way to get the money to pay for school. Surely, she’d been gifted with enough jewelry over the years she could fund at least a semester. Show the old man she was ready for anything.
