I swiped my screen. “Hey Nat, what’s up?”
“I just wanted to see if you were free for dinner this week?”
“Um…Yeah, I’d love to.” I could order food to Harrington no problem, but I loved Natalie’s home cooked meals.
“Great! I’ve invited dad too. We’re having lasagne. Do you want to bring dessert?”
“I can bring dessert. Do you want to back up to the detail about our father you just tried to sneak past me?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want it to be a big deal.”
I bit back a retort. He’d been gone for more than twenty years, him being back was a big deal. “You invited him to the house?”
“Yeah of course, where else?”
“Maybe a restaurant would be better? That’s still my house, my mother’s home and my gran’s. I don’t want him there, eating at my family's table after how he abandoned us and screwed us over. He doesn’t have the right.”
“It’s my house too…” she said softly.
“I don’t care. I’m sorry but I don't. Having him there is disrespectful to my mum’s memory, I don’t like it. I support you having a relationship with him, I’m considering it myself but I don’t want him at my family's table, on our couches, or in her garden. No.”
I wanted to pull the it’s-not-your-house-on-paper card but I didn’t. I knew I was probably being unreasonable but this was too far. It was still my home, I wanted it respected.
“Okay, a restaurant then. Do you want to come?”
Was I ready to see my father again? To sit down in a restaurant and make polite conversation? “I’ll think about it.” I didn’t say that I wanted to talk to Alfie first.
“Alright. On a brighter note, I think we’ve found a church for the wedding. In Dublin, of course. My mother doesn’t want to travel. They’re booked up until next year but we’re hoping for a cancellation so we can get married in the next few months.”
“The next few months? Why the rush?”
“Oh…well, we’ve just been waiting long enough to be a real family. I don’t want to put it off.” She let out a nervous laugh and I decided not to push it. I knew that becoming a single mother without the father of her child anywhere in sight had been a dark time in her life. Her family and friends in Ireland hadn’t exactly been gracious about it, hence her move to England.
“Maybe Riley can grease some palms?”
She laughed. “I don’t think Riley is a grease-some-palms kind of guy.” No he wasn’t, but I knew someone who was. We talked for a minute longer and then hung up. The blissful good mood I’d woken in had dissipated and all I was left with was a sore bottom.
I looked up to see a pair of grey eyes on me. “Jesus, Alfie. Wear a bell next time!” I hadn’t heard him come out of the bathroom.
“I’d have thought you’d had enough of bells for one weekend.” I rolled my eyes at him and he chuckled. “You’re seeing your father again?”
“Maybe. It’s not like I’ve got so much family that I can be picky.”
“That’s not true.” He came to sit next to me again. “You deserve the best people around you. Anyone who would abandon you, doesn’t deserve you.”
“You don’t want me to see him.”
“I don’t trust relatives that show up after twenty years when money is suddenly on the table. I get this is new to you but I've been wealthy my whole life, not everyone has good intentions. He’s already hurt you enough.”
“You’ve hurt me too and you want me to forgive you, right? Why not him?”
Alfie toyed with a lock of my hair, twirling the auburn strands around his fingers. “It’s not the forgiveness for his abandonment that's the problem, it’s his motivation for being here now that I don’t trust. I don’t think you’re seeing the full picture because of your emotional involvement.”
I scowled. “Don’t patronise me.”
“Hey, I’m not your enemy.” He cupped my face, brushing a thumb over my angry pout.
“I know. I don’t know what to do. I’ve wanted a father my whole life but I’m so fucking angry.”
