I should’ve left the second Anne showed up at our table. Back when I first moved out here to live with my dad, he’d been dating Anne…on the side, apparently. They broke up after a few months when she found him in our apartment parking lot with another woman on the back of his bike.
And I’d liked Anne. More than my dad actually. Which should’ve been the first red flag of many, but I’d been too blind to see them at the time.
“It’s fine, Anne.” I was shellshocked, honestly. I never would’ve thought Anne would throw down for me. I hadn’t seen her in months. The last time my dad had brought me here and she was working, we’d left after she’d showered him in syrup and angry words. It’d been embarrassing…and kinda awesome.
“What did you do, Dylan? She better not be pregnant. Indy here is smarter and more talented than her asshole father. She doesn’t need another useless asshole in her life, so leave the kid alone.” After slapping the bill down on the table in front of Dylan—only one, not split like I’d asked—she sent another dirty glare at Dylan.
“I was just on the way to finding that out on my own. I just met—Indy, was it?—tonight. But it’s nice to know what you really think of me, Anne. And here I thought you liked me.”
“Anyone who gets my girl crying at 3AM isn’t worth a damn in my book. No matter how much you tip. Seriously, Indy, are you okay? What’s going on?”
Apparently no matter how hard you wished, the ground wouldn’t actually open up and swallow you whole. And I knew I wasn’t going to be able to dodge two busy-bodies poking into all my sore spots, so I laid it all out. Oralmostall out.
“The landlord locked me out tonight while I was out. And since my car got repossessed last month, it looks like I’m homeless.”
“Oh Indy,” Anne breathed, her features blurred with my tears, but I knew I wasn’t imagining the sympathetic expression on her face.
I felt naked. Like all my wounds and inadequacies were laid out in front of both of them. Seriously, when was that escape hatch going to open?
“And your dad?” Dylan asked. “Where’s he?”
Anne’s eyes widened, and I knew without asking she was up to date on the current court docket.
I shook my head slightly. “He, uh, he took off over a month ago. And I’m just finding out now that he’d let a few things slide in the months leading up to his sudden disappearance. He stopped paying my car note, rent, and most of the utilities apparently. And since my name isn’t on any of the bills, there’s not much I can do about it.”
“Oh honey.” The bench jostled as Anne sat next to me and put her arms around me. “You have got the world’s worst luck, kiddo.”
My laugh was more of a sob as I fought against the wave of pain threatening to swamp me. I wasn’t going to give in because I knew once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop crying.
Just then my stomach rumbled.
Anne patted my shoulder then pulled away. “A value plate is not going to cut it tonight. How about some stuffed French toast?”
I couldn’t even look his way. “This is plenty. It’s 3AM.”
“And I’m getting you some stuffed French toast. You deserve it. Just…don’t do anything rash, okay, kiddo? Me and you will sit down and hash out your options. We’ll figure something out. At the very least, I have a couch you can sleep on. And you’re not alone, okay?”
I nodded tightly, but it didn’t feel that way. I might’ve been sitting with two supportive people, but I felt so alone.
Always alone.
Anne patted my shoulder again then stood up. “I’ll be back with your stuffed French toast.”
As she walked away, I picked up my fork and dug into my scrambled eggs. I didn’t even have a chance to lift my fork before the salt and pepper shakers slid across the table to me. Suddenly it was hard to swallow my own saliva, let alone the rubbery eggs on my fork.
“I know a little something about shitty fathers.” That was all he said before he dug into his own breakfast plate.
I let out a shaky breath. “That’s the thing. He wasn’t a shitty father at first. Technically first he was absent. But then my grandma died—she raised me, I don’t even remember my mom. But he stepped up. I was three months from graduation, and he showed up and stayed. Lived in Ohio with me until I graduated and then we moved back here. And that’s when it all went to hell.”
I couldn’t say any more about it. I didn’t want to delve into all the ways our histories crossed. The part Dylan played in my dad going away. I wanted to throw it in his face, but it was so hard to do when he was being all kind and understanding.
Or maybe I’d just been drowning and now was thankful for the life ring he’d tossed my way.
I was so confused.
“Grief will do that to you.”
I jolted at Dylan’s quiet words. After blinking a few times, I found him staring sympathetically at me, his choconana pancakes no doubt cold by now. “Did I say that out loud? I must be more tired than I thought.”
