“You’ll come to me tomorrow? I’ll give you directions it’s not that far.”
“I might not be able to, dad might need the car.” She looked so young as she looked up at me from her place on the floor: young, innocent, and sweet. My heart constricted in my chest and I had the wayward thought that if that shit happened every time I looked at her it will be a lot of wear and tear on my old ticker.
“Fine I’ll come get you; don’t be a female, be ready when I get here I hate waiting.” I added the last to get a laugh out of her, which it did. I’d wait forever for her if I had to. Fucking sap
It was on the way home that I almost had a panic attack. I just realized I had no idea how to date a woman. I knew the basics, flowers and candy and that type of shit, but I was a boy when I started seriously dating my ex. Were the rules the same? What was I supposed to do for her? If the females in my family were anything to go by women needed a lot of fucking maintenance. Nothing I can’t handle as long as I know what the fuck I was supposed to be maintaining.
I went upstairs and dropped the envelope in a drawer, it didn’t escape my notice that I wasn’t in any hurry to read that shit. There was a whole lot that needed to be done there yes, but I also wanted to focus on her as much as on the situation. I wanted to make up for the lost years, at least that much I knew. Had she ever just gone to the movies with her friends? Or out for ice cream, the usual teenage bullshit that girls did? Somehow I didn’t think so. That would be my first order of business; I’m going to have to recruit my family to help me with this. I’d already decided I was gonna need mom’s help in a big way but it looked like it was going to be a whole family effort.
It was almost dinner time by the time I got back so there was no time to talk to Josh or dad about what I’d learned. Everyone gathered around the table and though I could sense the questions and feel the stares no one asked or said anything. I’m sure by now everyone knew what was going on because as far as I know Josh didn’t keep shit from Carrie and dad and mom shared the same damn brain so…
I watched them covertly to see if I could pick up any tricks on this dating thing, starting with Josh and his wife; felt like a fucking peeping Tom. I nixed that idea in the first three minutes, the guy is a dictator; I never noticed how much of one before. He watched what she ate piling more on her plate when she didn’t take enough to suit him. I also realized that if the girl kept rolling her eyes like that she was gonna need a new pair by the end of the damn year.
“Joshua I have enough how many times must I tell you I can’t eat all of this?”
“You need to build up your strength babe remember what the doctor said?”
“This would build up the strength of ten lumberjacks.” Everyone at the table started laughing at their bickering back and forth.
Next I checked out Nessa and the douche but nixed that too. It didn’t take long to notice that she ruled that play. He catered to her every whim, but on farther inspection she leaned on him a lot. I could maybe use bits and pieces from each of them I guess. Mom and dad were a crazy mix of both. They were still into embarrassingly whispering to each other and sharing secret smiles, holding hands under the table.
“Did you get what you need son?” dad’s voice brought me back to the present; my mind had wandered off trying to process all this new information.
“What do you mean dad?”
“You’ve been studying us like ants under a magnifying glass; trying to get pointers?” He had a stupid smirk on his face as he said it.
“It occurs to me that I might not know the first thing about dating.”
“What do you mean? You had a girlfriend for four years son if anyone knows how to do it you do.”
“Yeah but this feels somehow different, like I have to do things in a whole new way. I have the basics I guess but what is too much and what’s not enough?”
“Dude…”
“Shut up Josh. Mom I’m going to need you.”
“What do you need son?”
“She doesn’t have a mother, I mean she has one but she’s out of reach for now so I need you to be there for her like you are for Carrie and Nessa.” One of the things I’d learned in my little digging expedition is that she couldn’t really contact her mom because they were afraid that this guy had a bead on her and any contact would tip him off to where she was hiding. He didn’t know anything about her dad and that was the only reason he hadn’t found her as yet.