Bernie had seen it happen and been able to stop right behind her immediately. After thanking him for all his help, we got to talking and he invited us over to his cabin for some barbecue that night. We didn’t really want to spend the evening with strangers, but I felt a bit obligated since he’d stopped to help Libby.
And so far it had been a fun evening. Bernie and his wife Sheila seemed like very nice people. They were newlyweds, having been married just two years. Bernie was a fellow entrepreneur. I suspected he was a great salesman. He had that spark of personality, that gift of gab that car salesman and game show hosts have. People have told me that I act the same when I get into that sales groove.
I have never really watched myself that much doing my sales thing though. I hate the sound of my recorded voice. It is amazing how it never sounds the way that we hear ourselves in our heads, right?
“So, I feel like I’m talking too much about me,” Bernie said. “What about you two? What’s your story? What do you do?”
I took a deep breath trying to deal with the bombardment of questions from Bernie. The guy never seemed to stop talking. He was the kind of kid who probably was diagnosed as ADHD when he really just had a lot of energy and an assortment of new ideas. Those were valuable traits to have as an adult.
“Well, there isn’t a lot to tell,” I said. “I have a few businesses here and there. Nothing of note, but I do alright.”
“Oh, ok. That sounds great,” he said. “Must give you way more time for family, right?” Bernie asked.
“Yeah, that it does.”
“So, how long you two been together?” Sheila asked looking at Libby.
Libby’s eyes caught mine and we exchanged a moment of knowing. She was aware that we needed to keep up our ruses and not let anyone we didn’t really know get too close. Libby was good at this level of deception, better than I was. She was proving herself to be a very adept and creative liar.
“We’ve been together about six months,” Libby lied. “We met through a mutual friend of ours.”
“Oh, that is so sweet. You see that type of stuff in like made for TV romance movies and stuff,” Bernie said. “That’s cute.”
I wasn’t sure if Bernie was being sarcastic or if he really thought that. I didn’t care; as long as he believed it and didn’t give it a second thought. That was fine by me.
“How about you?” I asked, turning the focus away from us and keeping the conversation going.
“Well, we’ve been married just two years, but we’ve actually been together for five,” Sheila said.
Bernie nodded and took a big gulp of his beer. “Yeah, I used to work for her father, briefly before I branched out into my own thing. I guess he took a shine to me and allowed me to meet his baby girl.”
Sheila snorted. “I hate being called ‘baby girl’.”
“Yeah, but that is what he always calls you,” Bernie added.
“It’s true, but I still hate hearing it,” Sheila said.
“You melt every time he calls you that,” Bernie said laughing. He hit me on the shoulder playfully. “I’ve never seen a woman who melts in front of her father the way she does.”
“Hey, now a girl’s best friend is her father,” Libby said.
“Thank you,” Sheila replied. “See, some people get it. I bet you feel the same way about your son, don’t you, Libby?”
I glanced back at Toby. He was still playing off in the back oblivious to the conversation taking place.
Libby smiled and continued the ruse. “I sure do.”
“You know, Toby there doesn’t look much like the two of you,” Bernie replied. “Who does he favor in your family?”
I thought quickly. Truthfully, my son was the spitting image of Gina. He always had been. And he looked nothing like me or Libby.
“He takes after my father,” Libby said. “It’s true; they look like they could be twins when you compare pictures of them at the same age.”
Bernie laughed. “That is cool. Isn’t it funny how that sort of thing can just skip around? Like you can have kids who are redheads and their parents both have black hair. I know, it’s kind of a random thing to throw out there, but things like that just pop into my head from time to time and I like to have a bit of fun exploring them. Know what I mean?”
Libby and I shared another quick glance. Bernie’s topic of conversation and random hopping around from subject to subject was a bit disconcerting.
“Um, yeah,” I said. “Those kinds of things are pretty interesting.”
I took a big drink of my beer and hoped that the topic of conversation would switch to something else quickly.