“If you need anything,” I said to Ariana as I led her to the spare bedroom, “my bedroom is the one at the very end of the hall. I made sure the back door is locked. There’s no way anyone can get in the house now.”
“Okay,” she said, trailing behind me.
“You have your own bathroom in there,” I added. “It should have everything you need. Hopefully, you’ll just feel like you’re staying in a hotel for the night, and not in the home of a guy who lends his guesthouse to his psycho dad. I promise I’ll try to make sure nothing stressful happens to you. I know you came here to avoid that in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, looking around the room. “I feel relaxed already. Is that a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “I had my mom pick out some soaps and stuff for when I have visitors. I haven’t had a lot of people stay over yet. Feel free to use whatever is in there.”
“Thanks,” she smiled. “I really do appreciate it.”
I hovered in the doorway, not knowing what to do. She looked at me expectantly, as if she were waiting to react to my actions. I wanted to give her a goodnight hug, but I had already made things too weird for her. I just wanted to go to bed and pretend like I had never embarrassed myself in front of her.
“Uh, goodnight, I guess. I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight,” she said, slightly frowning.
I exited the room and shut her door. Then, I walked down the hall and grabbed one of my pillows from my bed. I buried my face in it, wanting to scream, but not wanting to disturb anyone. I exhaled hot air onto my pillow until my lungs were empty. Then, I came up for air.
I checked the clock. I needed to go to bed so I could get up in the morning for work, but I knew I would never sleep if I didn’t attend to some business first. I slipped on my shoes and made my way into the backyard.
Before my dad had moved into my guesthouse, I really liked spending time out there. I had a fair amount of land, and I had plans to eventually put in a pool. I envisioned my yard as a place to eventually hold backyard barbeques, not hide parents away so they didn’t embarrass me in front of girls I liked.
I knocked on the door once, but didn’t hear an answer. I gave up on trying again. It was my house, and he didn’t respect my privacy. I turned the handle and unsurprisingly, it opened.
“Who said you could come in here?” my dad slurred.
“This is my house!” I fired back. “You’ve completely trashed the place.”
I hadn’t been in the guesthouse since my dad moved in weeks ago. It smelled like unwashed laundry and stale beer. Cans littered the floor and the new carpet was stained. Dishes piled up in the sink and trash was stacked on top of the trashcan. In fact, it looked like any effort he made to throw something away was done with a careless toss in the general direction of the kitchen. It looked like he had made no effort to clean up in the past two weeks.
“I’ll clean it up when I leave,” he groaned.
“When’s that going to be?”
He turned the volume on the TV down. “You sound like your mom, did you know that?”
I took that as a point of pride. I now understood what my mother had gone through, dealing with him for the last few years of their marriage. It made me appreciate her that much more.
“Why did you have to do that?” I asked. “I’m willing to bet that you saw a woman in the house and couldn’t help yourself. She’s one of my patients and she was in trouble. I was just giving her a safe place to stay for a few days. Even if there was more going on there, why is it any of your business?”
He squinted his crinkled eyes at me. “You think you know so much, but you’re still so young. It’s a father’s job to set their sons straight.”
“I don’t want your life lessons. You’re a cautionary tale, not a source of wisdom,” I retorted.
“If you didn’t want to talk, then why did you come out here in the first place?”
He had a point. My first instinct was to give him a good punch in the face, but I couldn’t risk injuring myself. I had too many patients to see to be put in a cast.
“I don’t know what I wanted from you. I’m pissed off. You were rude to my guest and me. She’s having a hard enough time as it is. She doesn’t need you bothering her too.”
“Sit down,” my dad said, pointing to a barstool. “I need to tell you something that I should have told you a long time ago.”
I hesitantly took a seat, pushing a dirty t-shirt out of the way. I crossed my arms, preparing myself for whatever nonsense my dad was about to hurl my way.
“Your mother and I were always too soft on you. Back then, parents were told that they were supposed to tell their kids that they could be anything they wanted to be. When you said you wanted to be a doctor, we supported you. But, we never prepared you for what would happen after you got what you wanted. I never told you that you had to be realistic about life.”
“What do you mean by that? I worked really hard in school to get where I am. I paid for my classes with scholarships.”
“But look what you did after that. You built a big fancy house for only yourself. You invite gorgeous girls over on the weekends and never call them again. You’re raking in tons of money from your patients’ insurance companies. You got way too much, way too soon. Everything is going to come crashing down eventually. When it does, you’re not going to see it coming. I’m telling you—you should prepare yourself for your inevitable downfall. Everything is going to go to crap eventually. The sooner you realize it, the better.”
I tilted my head. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t believe any of that for a second. What are you really trying to say?”
“You’re a foolish man,” my dad said, cracking open another beer. “You don’t listen. Family should be your priority, and you’re in here, refusing to listen to my advice.”
“This isn’t advice,” I said, getting frustrated. “These are the ramblings of a drunk man. Besides, if you think family is so important, then why did you try to ruin Mom’s life? You were terrible to her. Plus, you can’t tell me that I don’t take care of my family when I’ve been housing you for quite some time now.”
His face turned red. He finished his beer in two gulps and crushed the can in his fist.
“Listen to me, you punk—if you don’t start treating me with a little more respect, I’m going to teach you a lesson.”
“Yeah?” I challenged. “Is this a threat?”
He smiled, showing his yellowing teeth. His appearance had tanked ever since he’d left my mom. He had once been a handsome man.
“You can’t have it all, Daniel. I’ll make sure of it. You can have the dream job and the fancy house, but you can’t have the woman you want. It’s just not possible. You can maybe choose two of those things if you’re lucky. Hell, even one of those things would be good enough for a sensible man. But, you try to have it all, and life will come crashing down around you. I guarantee it.”
“Leave Ariana out of this. We’re not dating.”
“But you like her, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do,” I blurted out. “She’s an incredible woman. But she’s off limits.”
“You’ve got that right. You’re better off finding someone on your level. You’re shooting too high with her.”
I stood up from my chair. I didn’t need to listen to him spout negativity at me. I had worked hard to get to where I was in life. I wasn’t about to let him diminish my accomplishments.
“Yeah, I’ve had enough of this for one night,” I said, walking toward the door. “If I were you, I would try to find a different place to live. If this continues, I don’t think it will work out for you to stay at my house anymore.”
“Not a problem,” he said casually. “Give me a week, and I’m sure I can make some arrangements. I don’t have to be here—I came to stay with you because you’re my son and I thought this would be best for both of us.
”
“I think it would be best if you got your own place. Goodnight.”