Most of the people in my AA group were local, so surely they wouldn’t need to stay the night with me. I hadn’t exactly figured that part of the lie out yet. I hoped it would come to me as I went home.
I tried to seem nonchalant about what I was about to ask my parents. Lying to them had never been my thing. I actually hated to have to lie to them, but I knew if I told them the truth, my father would totally freak out. He didn’t like that I was an addict, and he would be very disappointed if I brought a boy home who was also an addict.
It was only because he loved me and wanted the best for me, I knew that. My mother wouldn’t be happy, either, but at least she would try to be happy if she knew it was important to me. My father, on the other hand, was stubborn and wouldn’t bend very easily to the idea.
“Mom, I’ve got a friend coming over from AA tonight. He didn’t have a place to go.”
“Where’s he from?”
The dreaded question that I knew was coming up. She was such a smart woman. There really was no getting things past her at all.
“He’s been living in New York and his cousin is vacationing here. He didn’t want to intrude in their small hotel room for the holiday.”
“And he’s your friend?”
Damn, my mother and her logic. Surely, I could have friends from other parts of the country, it was the twenty-first century. But I had to think of a reasonable expectation of how we could be friends.
“Yes, Mom. People meet online and know each other now. It’s weird, I know,” I said as I dramatically rolled my eyes. “He had posted in a forum I’m in and said he was going to be in town and needed the AA times. When he showed up a couple of days ago, we got to know each other.”
“Okay, honey, he can come over. He’ll have to sleep on the couch, though. Your father started painting the spare bedroom.”
“All right. Thanks, Mom.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as my mother bought into the story. If she liked Erik, then it would be all over. She wouldn’t ask another question about how we met and we would be in the clear. But if she didn’t like him, if my mother thought something strange was going on, then she would grill Erik throughout our meal until he eventually caved in and admitted who he was. My relief would only last as long as dinner that evening.
Once my mom was well enough informed, I hustled to my room to take a shower and get ready before Erik arrived. I didn’t want to be wearing my scrubs and looking like a hot mess when he showed up at the house. I actually wanted to look pretty.
Working at the rehab center, I had never really cared what I looked like. I often kept my hair in a ponytail and didn’t do my makeup. The required scrubs kept me from worrying too much about what I wore and I liked it like that.
Actually, the fact that Erik was flirting with me at all was pretty remarkable considering I didn’t have any of the usual ways a woman impressed her man. No makeup, no cute clothes, and he was still flirting with me. I knew that should have given me a little more confidence, but it actually made me wonder more about him. Why was he flirting with me?
For a second, I let my mind think the worst. Maybe he was just flirting with me as a way of passing the time. He might not have any intention of actually getting to know me or anything like that when he was out of the facility. The thought sickened me.
He didn’t seem like that kind of guy. Erik certainly didn’t seem like a guy who would just want sex and then move on, especially now that he was sober. Maybe he had been like that in the past, but he wasn’t like that now.
The two of us had talked and gotten to know each other a little, but there were still a lot of things about Erik that I wanted to know more about. I wanted to know about his business and what it was and how he made money. It was clear to me that he hadn’t inherited his money like I had originally thought, but what else was there to the story?
The doorbell rang just as I was pulling on my dress. I had labored over which one to choose for nearly twenty minutes before finally sliding into a little, emerald green dress. My hair was pulled up and I had put on a touch of makeup to cover my dark circles from going dancing with Kaitlin the night before.
I slowly descended the stairs just as Erik was welcomed into our house by my mother and father. I hoped he hadn’t been standing there too long, alone with them. I hadn’t agonized over my outfit as much as I wanted to, but it had been a difficult decision to pick something that I wouldn’t feel totally useless in.
As his eyes looked up at me, I felt like I had made the right decision. He smiled and gazed at me like I was the last woman on earth. It made me feel amazing.
Chapter Fourteen
Erik
Every cliché about meeting a girl’s parents ran through my head as I got in the taxi to head to Cassidy’s house. I even imagined her father with a shotgun sitting on the front porch. So, when I arrived and there was no shotgun and Cassidy’s mother greeted me with a friendly smile, I was very much relieved.
“Hello, I’m Erik. Cassidy invited me over.”
“It’s nice to meet you. Bob!” she hollered into the other room. “Cassidy’s friend is here.”
“Does he look like an asshole?” the man asked loudly from the other room.
“Bob, he’s in the house. He can hear you.”
I had to laugh at the way the two of them interacted. Before that moment, I had never really thought about what it would be like to grow old with someone. I hadn’t had an example of that sort of relationship in my house, so it had been difficult to imagine.