Ava sat silently for a moment after she had pulled the car into a parking space and turned off the engine. I was hoping she’d had a change of mind, that there was a complication she had not thought about until now. But she wasn’t worrying about anything; she was planning details.
“All right. Here’s how we’ll do this. You’ll arrange for him to meet your father this Saturday night. You can go out on your last date with him wherever you like and then bring him home. You’ll tell him your father is returning at ten o’clock from a trip but is looking forward to meeting him, and if he wants to continue to see you, he had better do this. Do you understand?”
“What if I promise never to mention his name again? I’ll tell him good-bye forever, Ava. I won’t obsess over him like you think. I’ll look forward to moving away and—”
“Stop it, Lorelei.” She turned completely around to look at me, her face taking on the all-too-well-known look of distrust. “You know, I’ve always had my doubts about you, and despite how loving and kind Daddy’s been to you, he’s had his doubts as well. When I took you out to see how you would do with men, I was happy to see that you enjoyed the flirting, the seduction, and I did tell Daddy that I thought it was encouraging. But you are very different from me and from Marla. There are times I think you’ll bolt out of the house and never come back. We all have the funds and charge cards Daddy has set up in our names, but I told him often that in your case, that might be a mistake.” She paused and then continued in a reasonable, even sisterly tone. “Now, look at this as a wonderful opportunity to prove yourself. Once Daddy finds out what you’ve done and what you will do now, he’ll have complete confidence in you. He’ll forgive your stupid high school affair and write it off as the exuberance of youth or something, and you’ll go on to fulfill your destiny.”
“What is my destiny?”
“You’re getting closer to finding out,” she said. “Okay, I know what class he is supposed to be in right now.” She looked at her watch. “I know where he goes next. You’ll just be there waiting and catch his eye. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble doing that, do you?”
“No, but—”
“Take him somewhere to talk. Make it seem as though everything is fine, and you will be able to keep seeing him once he meets your father. I’ll watch from a safe distance to be sure it all goes well.”
“But what if he wants to go somewhere now to spend the rest of the day with me? What do I say?”
“Simple, Lorelei. I don’t know why these lies don’t come naturally to you. You say you took advantage of an opportunity to come here with me. I had to do something that would take an hour, and then you have to return home with me. You’ll see him Saturday night. The more he waits, the more excited he’ll be about your date, and the more vulnerable he’ll be.”
I nodded slightly and started to lower my head.
“Damn it, Lorelei,” she snapped. “Stop looking like you’re about to lose your best friend. Grin and bear it, and become Daddy’s true daughter. If Buddy Gilroy looks at your face with that expression on it, you’ll spook him and lose him, and then we’ll both have to deal with bigger problems, problems you caused.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t yell at me,” I said.
“Let’s go,” she said, and got out of the car.
She started walking away quickly, her annoyance with me palpable. I practically had to run to catch up to her, but when I did, she didn’t slow down or speak. I followed her across the campus to the place where she wanted me to wait.
“All right. You stay here. It will only be minutes now.”
“Should I just stay here in this place with him the whole time?”
“No, of course not. Do I have to plan every little second of this for you? Go to that coffee shop nearby, but keep looking at your watch so he understands you can’t be with him long right now. I’m confident you can pull this off if you half try, Lorelei. Don’t mess it up. The consequences will be bad for both of us but worse for you,” she warned, and walked away.
I leaned against a wall. Ironically, I wasn’t afraid of her as much as I was of Buddy. There was something special between us, and because of that, I was expecting he would surely see through me, see my deceit. What would I do then?
I saw the students begin filing out of their classes, but I didn’t see him at all and had a fleeting hope that he had not gone to this class, that he had cut all of his classes again because he was too upset about not speaking to me or seeing me. Maybe he was back at his uncle’s house. If I could postpone this now, maybe I could postpone it forever. Moments later, when I was about to give up, however, he appeared, and when he saw me, his face brightened.
“Lorelei, what are you doing here?” he asked, hurrying up to kiss me. “Not that I’m upset or anything like that. This is wonderful.”
“Ava had to come here to do something she said would take about an hour. I realized it was an opportunity to see you and came along with her.”
“Terrific.”
“You have another class?”
“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters much when I put it up against seeing you,” he said.
I looked at my watch. “I have about forty-five minutes.”
“What’s the rush? I could take you home.”
“No,” I said quickly. “Not yet. I’ll tell you about that, about my plans for us.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s go somewhere where we can talk.”
“How about that coffee place just off campus?”