“Your brother has also been making headlines, I see.” She hands over her phone with a headline that saysTeddy Bear’sPicnic Turns Into Teddy Bear’s Orgy, with a photo of Teddy and three women entering a hotel room.Jesus Christ.
“You have got to stop reading the news. If there are any emergencies, I will phone you immediately, but for the love of God, woman, please stop reading this garbage.”
“How else would I learn about your love lives?”
“I’m not sure this counts as alovelife.” I point to her phone and the aforementioned headline, starkly raising my eyebrows.
“Maybe he’s in a polyamorous relationship.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“So you’re strictly monogamous then?” Her eyes sparkle with a lightness that is new to her. I’ve rarely seen this side of her personality and despite how uncomfortable I am, I’m pleased she’s happy.
“Mom, please.”
I deflect rather than outright lie, something I’m making somewhat of a habit of. My father lied enough to her. Making empty promises that only led to her being sad and alone during the prime of her life. But what am I meant to say? We’re stalking my patients together, so now it looks like we’re dating? My father might be the one with the power to keep me sectioned, but my mother would be the first to put me there if she found out what I’d been up to. And Mia? She’d lose her career before it even started. Best to keep this under wraps until it all blows over. I’ll stay as far away as possible from the woman who works fifteen feet from my desk and act like the professional psychologist I know I am.
“It wouldn’t hurt for you to get out there, darling. I worry about you.”
“Why? Everything is going perfectly.”
“No…work is going perfectly. There is room for everything.”
“Mom, dad was never home. You were basically a single parent because of the stress of his job. He was never around, and I can’t put someone through that.”
“Alfie Adams, you are not using your father as an excuse to not date, are you?”
I shrug, finishing the dregs of my tea.
“Alfie…your father made his choices, but they don't have to be yours.”
“Mom, please don’t. I’m not going to make someone miserable like he made you.” Her head recoils like I’ve slapped her, and my chest feels like someone’s driven over me.
“I made my choices too,” she whispers. “And I regret letting him treat us all that way for all that time. But you’re not your father, Alfie. You can make different choices.”
She has no idea what she’s talking about, because she doesn’t know that I did make different choices before. She doesn’t know that my father helped keep the scandal of one of my patients trying to kill themselves right after our session a secret. A session where I had been so distracted because my girlfriend at the time and I had been fighting that I didn’t pick up on the call for help. I was so focused on my own life, my own problems, my patient nearly died.
My father had helped me then, but he chooses to remind me of it every time I see him now. So I avoid him as much as possible, promising myself and my patients that I will never risk their lives ever again.
???
Sometimes when you speak of the devil, you summon him. And talking of my father this afternoon led me to find himleaning against his 1978 Jaguar outside of my house. His thick white hair is coiffed, his bushy eyebrows trimmed, and he’s clean shaven. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with so much as a five o’clock shadow.
He’s styled as if he’s visiting The Hamptons, a crisp white shirt under a merino zip neck woolen beige sweater with slacks. This is as casual as my father comes.
“Father.”
“Alfie. Where have you been? I’ve been waiting.”
He says it with a tone like I’m late, when really he didn’t let me know he was coming, so I say what I know will annoy him most—the truth.
“I was visiting Mom.” I stalk past him, the crunch of gravel under my feet as I head straight for my house. As I walk through the entryway, I leave the door open for him, knowing I have no choice about whether he’s going to come in. That’s the thing about Arnold Adams. He demands an audience, and he’ll be a nuisance until you give in. Might as well get it over with. At least I have Dinner Club tonight, and the prospect of getting shit-faced really does make this minor speed bump worth it.
“And how is your mother?” His voice was laced with a hint of resentment.
“Very happy. A budding social life all whilst trying to gather details about mine and Teddy’s love lives.”
“If she reads the papers, she’ll find out everything she needs to know.” His mustache bristles, the deep lines between his brows making an appearance.
