Page 50 of Be My Valentine

The father waved a hand in the air.

“Who cares! You seem rather taken with her.”

Mark did not reply.

“I wonder how anyone can really be such an idiot! How could she think that erasing a piece of her life would benefit her resume? People will make up anything to increase the list of skills they don’t possess. What about her? She gets her cover letters torn up from two, I mean two Columbia professors! How stupid do you have to be?”

The father sighed after that tirade.

“We’re lawyers, we’re taught to distrust even our own shadow, it’s an attitude that gets in our DNA. Kate is a scholar, she has spent years with the nose between books, it’s probably the first time she has bitten into real life. Don’t be too harsh. She was naive, she trusted the wrong person and we know how manipulative Annie Carson is.”

Mark closed his eyes thinking back to that damn night.

“You should have seen her when she insinuated, she had a history of being a prostitute. I had to call Emma to calm down.”

“Your sister didn’t let herself be fooled, I guess, and you shouldn’t have either,” he scolded him, “You’re excused, given your condition.”

“I didn’t let her fool me it was just a little uncertainty… wait… what condition?”

Phil laughed and Mark remembered that he was there with them. He looked at them both and it was his brother-in-law who spoke.

“You’re in love, Mark, it’s not a disgrace.”

“I’m not…” he froze “not entirely, I guess. I’ve known her for too short a time.”

“You look exactly like your sister,” Phil grumbled “I knew right away she was the one,” he said without embarrassment in front of his wife’s father and brother “I could feel it, I was sure, but she kept saying exactly what you said: it’s too soon. I asked her to marry me four times before she said yes, or five, I don’t know, I lost count!”

“Five times?” Mark exclaimed.

“Every two months, give or take. And I know what you’re going to ask me and the answer is no, I never thought about giving up. It was her. I was only going to leave her alone if she said she didn’t love me. She kept rejecting my proposal but couldn’t bring herself to say: I don’t love you. It was bloody exhausting though, I admit.”

The father laughed.

“She would come back furious, I remember that.”

“Great, as usual, I didn’t know anything about it. I wonder if I’m part of this family!” Said Mark piqued.

“You’ve never been much for romance…” Paul Arrow threw the final punch “so far.”

The tension was palpable, the air thickening stiflingly in the car as the SUV sped toward Queens.

“We can’t call it a good night; I wish it could have gone differently.” Said Mark.

“It wasn’t that bad; I got a dress.” The chill of those words went straight to his chest. Kate’s eyes were fixed on the road, stiff as if the seat was made of wood.

“My reaction was over the top.” Admitting fault was a good start.

“I was going to tell you about college, I didn’t want to hide anything from you, I was looking for the right moment.”

He believed her. Kate didn’t lie, she couldn’t; she could keep it all inside, but not lie because she was an open book, at least to him. He recognized when she was uncomfortable, caught the amused look, noticed the silences if she didn’t wish to go any further. She was silent, but she wasn’t lying.

“You told me you weren’t in the habit of running after secretaries.”

Mark looked at her, she hadn’t moved a single muscle.

“And I stand by that. I’m no saint, I’ve had a few relationships in the past, but never with anyone who worked for me.”

“But you took me to that little couch… did you do that because you knew I would be up for it? That’s actually how it went down, isn’t it? I answered your doubts, I acted just like I was…”