“Boxer.” Wendy slung her purse forward and opened the top flap. “Here’s a picture.”
“Awwww!” Of course he was adorable. “What a darling little puppy!”
“He’s going to be dead little puppy if we leave him much longer.” Carrie snapped her fingers. “Let’s go!”
“She’s the one who insisted we stop,” Wendy said to me, rolling her eyes. “Now she’s in a big hurry.”
“Oh, there’s my dad.” It still felt a little strange referring to Ben as “my dad.” I called him Ben when we were together—if I called him anything. I tried not to let it come up.
“That’s your dad?” Carrie raised her pierced eyebrow. The pink streaks were back in her hair again. “Niiiiice. If I swung the other way…”
“Oh shut up.” Wendy put her croissant down, gulping the rest of her coffee. “Let’s give Sara and her dad some privacy.”
“About time!” Carrie waggled her fingers at me and I waved back as they left, passing Ben on the way.
“Friends of yours?” he asked, sliding into the seat across from me. He was wearing a suit, ready for work.
“Yes.” I watched them walk past the front window and disappear around the corner. “From high school.”
“Whoa, what happened to your eye?” Ben frowned, reaching over to touch my cheek. I winced—it hurt. He looked at his thumb where he’d touched the bruise. “Makeup?”
“Oh.” I covered my cheek. I’d forgotten. “I… stupid, I was on a stool in the kitchen and I slipped. Hit it on the edge of a cupboard.”
“Hm.” He nodded, still frowning.
How many times had I heard my mother give excuses like that? I’d learned from the master.
“So how is the new place?” I asked, changing the subject. His company had moved him up from Florida—they even packed it all!—but his house hadn’t been ready so they set him up in an apartment temporarily. Now he was finally moving into his permanent house.
“Great,” he replied, finally smiling. “You’ll have to come by and see for yourself. Bring the boyfriend.”
“I’d like that.” It had been weeks and it still seemed surreal. Sometimes I forgot that the man sitting across from me was my biological father. Dale was still wary, but he knew I was talking to Ben, that we met for coffee at least once a week. Ben knew Dale was suspicious and he had gone, without any prompting, and had a DNA blood test done. It was very expensive, but he hadn’t asked for a dime.
When I triumphantly told Dale that, he said, “I hope he isn’t going to try to show you fake test results. Maybe we should do another one?”
When Ben agreed to have his blood drawn again for a separate test, Dale said, “I hope he’s not long gone before these results come back.”
I could never win!
And I knew Dale was avoiding spending any time with Ben, refusing to get to know him. I was ready to lock them both in a room until they stopped the nonsense. Well, until Dale did. Ben had gone out of his way to be friendly and inclusive. It just made Dale look even more ridiculous.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” I tore off the triangle at end of my scone, dunking it into my hot chocolate before putting it into my mouth.
“I have a proposition for you.” He cleared his throat, reaching under the table for his briefcase. I watched as he opened it, taking out a manila folder. He set it on the table and slid it over toward me.
“What’s that?” I asked, even though I didn’t want to. I’d swallowed my scone but it felt like it was still stuck in my throat. A little voice in my head whispered, “Dale was right all along,” but I tried to ignore it.
“Do you know much about the computers? The internet?”
“The what?” I shook my head, still looking at the folder on the table.
“Well, there’s this new thing… I guess it’s not really a thing and it’s not actually that new. It’s like a place, except it isn’t real.” Ben laughed nervously. “I’m not explaining it well. Listen, I build computers. That’s what I do. You can do a lot of things with computers and some day they’re going to be an integral part of our lives. They’re going to be like TVs. Everyone will have one.”
“You think so?” I frowned. Just this year the library had put computers in. They had card catalogs still, but you could also look books up on their computers. I hadn’t used them much. It felt too science fiction to me.
“One of the things people can do with computers is talk to each other.”