I looked at Natalie, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. I turned back to Joy and said, “Well, Joy, why would you have heard of her?”
She blushed a bright red, and I continued on, “Natalie and I have only been dating for a short time; maybe about a month.”
“What do you study at school, Natalie?” my father asked her.
She cleared her throat before answering. “I'm an art major, sir, I've had a few exhibits around town, and I plan on freelancing when I finish school.”
“Well, that sounds far more feasible than the career choice your boyfriend has made.”
“Dad ...” Craig said. “Can we just lay off the fighting for one meal?”
“There's nothing wrong with what I'm saying, Craig.” Craig looked away from his father and shook his head.
“I think it's preposterous to base your whole future career option on punching someone in the face. I supported it when you both decided to go into the sport as a hobby, but to choose it as a career is foolish. I'm just glad you chose to go a different career route than Jet did.”
“Why can't you just accept what I do, and leave it at that? There are plenty of dads out there who have sons who don't pick the career they want, and they support them anyway. Why can't you do the same?”
“Because I have already laid out a future for you, one you choose to ignore in order to run around in boxers all day. When you wake up broken and jobless one day, you are going to wish that you stayed within my company.”
“Dad!” Craig said.
But Father was on a roll, and he would not be silenced. The whole table looked shell-shocked, and you could cut the tension in the room with a hatchet. But still, my dad carried on as if he had no idea that it was all going to end badly.
“Dad, I have zero interest in business, especially any business that you created. I don't want anything to do with your company. Craig can run it; you do have another son. You don't have to expect me to do it.”
Natalie tapped my leg under the table, attempting to calm me down. I took a deep breath and tried to do just that. I looked over at her, and she smiled nervously. I could tell she was alarmed by what was going on around her, and she probably felt helpless to stop it. I felt bad, and suddenly regretted bringing her, but I had thought her presence might prevent a scene like this, but apparently my dad didn’t care who was there to listen.
My dad’s voice caught my attention again and I turned to him. “I want you to be responsible for the decisions you make in your life and realize they impact others. This isn't about Craig and what you think Craig should do. This is about you and the fact that you are behaving like a child and it's about time you grow up and do something useful with your life.”
I practically shook with anger when I stood up at the table. I could hear both Natalie and Craig telling me to sit down, or calm down, or a combination of the two, but I didn't care. I leaned over the table, yelling in my father’s face, “How dare you tell me to be responsible when you have been parading your whore around as if you didn't cheat on my mother with her! How dare you bring her to dinner! I can barely stand being around you, never mind having to look across the table at a woman who helped ruin your marriage to Mom.” I heard Joy gasp, but I kept on going, well aware that the other patrons in the restaurant had turned to stare.
“You're a sorry excuse for a father, and if you think I would walk in your shoes for one minute, and take over a company that means nothing to me, then you're sadly mistaken. I suggest you get used to the joke of a career I've chosen, because I would rather die than come work for you.” I slammed a fist on the table, and stormed out of the restaurant.
I sat outside on a bench, willing my blood pressure to go down. I needed to cool my temper, because I had to go reclaim my date from a nightmare dinner. I couldn't go in there, however, the way I was feeling at that moment, or I would explode all over again. I wish I could go in immediately, though, because Natalie probably hated me just then more than she normally did. She was now stuck in there alone, not knowing anyone, trying to maintain an awkward conversation until I came back in.
I wish I hadn't invited her, although I wasn't sure how I would have survived it without her. She didn't deserve to be a part of the issues that were between my dad and me. My father didn't have enough class in him to let one conversation go long enough to have a dinner with his son. I had been avoiding these dinners for months for that reason alone. Wouldn't it have been better to not discuss issues just once in the hope that I may return for another dinner? But no, Dad just had to get his two cents in, and ruin yet another dinner.
It was Natalie who eventually came to find me, as I hadn't been able to calm myself down enough to go back in. She slowly walked out of the restaurant, clutch in hand, with her jacket over her arm and sauntered slowly toward me.
Chapter Nine
Natalie
I was fuming when I walked out of the restaurant, and I really had no idea what I should or could say to Jet at that point. Dinner had been an absolute disaster, and the least Jet could have done was warn me about the impending doom. As if dinner wasn't bad enough, he then got in a screaming match with his dad, and stormed out. He didn’t ask me to go with him?he just stormed out; leaving me with a bunch of people I didn’t know, in one of the most awkward situations I have ever been in. I had been humiliated, and had to sit through Jet's dad going on about Jet's level of respect, when all I wanted to do was tell him to shut the hell up.
Instead, I had slowly gotten up from the table, and without saying another word to any of them, I had walked out of the restaurant. There I found Jet sitting outside, looking like he was still going to explode if you dared touch him.
I sauntered over to him, trying to find the words to express what I was feeling at that moment. He looked up and me and tried to smile, but the storm clouds in his eyes just wouldn't allow it.
“I was starting to think you left without me.”
“Natalie, I would never do that. I was just trying to calm down before I went back in there, I'm sorry.”
“Jet, what the hell is going on between you and your father?”
“It's just the way it's always been. He wants to pass his company down to me, only me. It can't be Craig, and I just don't want any part of it. It's not the dream I want for my life, so ever since I said no, things have been like this. And that was long before we all found out that he was cheating on my mom. Now it's a minefield every time we are anywhere near each other.”
“Why did you tell them I was your girlfriend? Why would you go there? You brother for sure knew that it wasn't true.”