“Sure.” I bit the inside of my lip. “Thank you.”
The old me would have been an ass and told her the cake tasted terrible, but now I was more compassionate toward people’s feelings, especially when she smiled at me like she’d just scored points. Before I could say another word, she sauntered in and gave Aria the biggest smile.
I watched her in dismay, not knowing how in the hell I was going to get rid of her, how I was going to put a stop to these visits.
She worked at the deli in town, not too far from the station, and she also lived two blocks away from us.
She liked Aria, and she was a woman who didn’t mind being with a single dad who had a teenaged daughter—all plusses, except I just wasn’t attracted to her at all.
Aria looked at her and her mouth dropped open when her eyes landed on the freaky tits.
My little girl was an angel, well-mannered in every way, a girl who would never disrespect anyone, but what I witnessed next shocked me to death.
As Mindy was about to put the cake on the table, Aria stood up and said, “No.” Then she wagged her pointer finger and made her way over to Mindy. Placing her hands on her hips, she stopped in front of the woman, straightened her back, and looked her up and down. “What did you do to yourself?” Aria asked, glowering at Mindy’s breasts.
Mindy’s face turned several shades of red and landed on crimson. “What do you mean?” she asked, trying to shrug off her embarrassment.
“The scary fake tits. Please don’t tell me you seriously got implants to impress my dad.”
My eyes turned to saucers and my ears burned. “Aria,” I snapped.
“Dad, please—not even you can talk this one down.” Aria held up her hand and stared at me. “You could have saved her the trouble of damaging her body by telling her you weren’t interested. She was fine the way she was before—ugly yes, but better than how she looks now.”
Oh my God.
“Excuse me?” Mindy looked at Aria, completely horrified.
I was so mortified I didn’t know what to say.
Aria returned her gaze to Mindy. “Look, Mindy, you seem like you could be an intelligent woman. You must have known there would be no more dates after the first date, because it would have happened already, yet you come here every weekend with cake.” Aria shook her head, giving her a pitiful look. “He’s just not into you, and so help me I will not watch him feed the poor Johnsons’ dog another cake. Dad loathes pumpkins and fruit with seeds that can get stuck in your teeth. He hates cake, full stop, so please, just go and don’t come back.”
Mortified wasn’t the right word. What I was feeling was something else entirely.
Mindy didn’t even look at me as she turned on her heel and marched out of the house, cake in hand.
I closed the door and squeezed my eyes shut, wondering what I was going to say to Aria. She’d never behaved like that before. It was clearly an attempt to get me back for last night, but what she’d done was mean and embarrassing.
When I opened my eyes and turned to face her, I saw she was still standing in the same position: hands on hips, staring at me like she was waiting for war.
“Jesus Christ, Aria, why in the fuc—” I had to hold my tongue. I didn’t swear at her or around her, and I’d almost forgotten that.
She smiled when she saw my near failure to be a good example.
“What’s that, Father? Didn’t hear you,” she cooed in a sing song voice, placing her hand to her ear.
“Aria, why did you talk to Mindy like that?”
“What, you mean tell her the truth? It was tough love, Dad, and I hope like hell she didn’t get a boob job, although I’m pretty certain she did. It’s bad enough she has a face like a rat, but she can’t help that.”
“You can’t say things like that,” I barked.
“You’re a hypocrite,” she threw back, her hands dropping to her sides.
“What makes me a hypocrite?” I was real interested to hear this.
“You freak out because I have a boyfriend yet you had me when you were eighteen. You freak out because you thought I had a tattoo, but you’re covered in tats, and now, we both know you don’t like Mindy and you were probably trying to think of a way to get rid of her but instead of thanking me for being honest with her, you’re mad at me.”
All I could do was stare. All I could do was look at her in amazement.
