I really didn’t want to talk to him, but things had calmed down between us a little, and I knew I would have to speak to him eventually.
I stared at the display for a long moment before my resigning myself to the inevitable and swiping on the green button. “Hey, Dad.”
“Gabrielle, honey. How are you?” His voice was brisk, and I could hear horns blaring in the background. From some corner of my mind, I remembered some of his meetings this week were out of town. If the information from the dusty corner was correct, he was in New York today.
I toyed with my hair. Then, I flat out lied. “I’m good, Dad. Just really busy, I guess.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that.” Big surprise. “I want you to come see me when I get back.”
“I don’t know, Dad. I don’t know if I’m ready for—” He cut me off.
“If you agree to come and discuss this with me sometime at the end of the week, I’ll open your line of credit back up.” His voice held an edge of finality. I had been expecting something like that, so I’d already opened up my own bank account.
“I don’t know, Dad. I just, I think I need some time.” Both of us already knew that I’d be in his office as soon as he scheduled an appointment for me, but I had to put up a fight, at least.
He sighed as if he was tired of dealing with his petulant child. “I’m not asking you, Gabrielle. I’m telling you to agree to come and see me, and I’ll reopen up your line of credit.”
I breathed a frustrated sigh of my own. “Fine, Dad. I’ll come see you. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m not taking the bar.”
“We’ll see, Gabbi. I’ll see you Thursday or Friday. I’ll have Olivia call you.” The line went dead.
Fabulous.
****
“You look like you’re in need of sustenance.” Heather held out a coffee cup to me, and I accepted it with a grateful smile.
Heather and I exchanged a quick hug and sank onto the bench where we always met when we went shopping.
“Rough morning?” Heather blew into the plastic cover on her cup.
I chewed on my lower lip. Then got irritated when I realized that I was doing it. “Yeah, you could say so. My father called.”
Heather winced. “He’s still giving you a hard time, then?”
“It’s nothing that I wasn’t expecting; I just thought I was ready for it.” The confession tore me open a little. I hated showing vulnerability. Heather was just about the only person I opened up to like that.
“You’re stronger than you think, Gabbi. He was never going to make this easy on you, but you can get through it. If you’re still sure that you don’t want to take the bar, that is.” There was a glimmer of hope in her tone.
“I am. I don’t want to do it just because it’s what my dad wants. I want to want it. The way he’s acting isn’t making it any easier. In the meantime, I’m stuck. On the bright side, I’ve ruled out photography, social work, and veterinary sciences.”
Her eyes widened. “Veterinary sciences? You hate blood.”
She knew me too well. “I know. It popped up as an ad on the website I was browsing. Since I’m trying to keep an open mind, I clicked on the link. Closed it almost as soon as it opened.” At least the link didn’t have a virus. I knew better than to click on pop-ups.
Heather smiled. “It’s a good thing you’re keeping an open mind, but I don’t think it needs to be quite that open.”
“You might be right about that.” I pushed away the wave of gloominess that plagued me since my father’s call. “I thought we were shopping, not moping.”
Heather’s eyes brightened. “That we are. I seriously need a distraction. I think I’m about to turn into a textbook.”
I laughed. “Good thing you’re not Professor McGonagall, huh? Otherwise, you really could turn into a textbook. Although, that might be useful during the exam itself.”
“You’re such a dork.” Heather punched my shoulder lightly and chuckled as we walked. “For the record, it would’ve been pretty useful to be able to transfigure myself during the exam.”
“And I’m the dork?” Heather and I had watched the entire Harry Potter series one weekend when we were supposed to study for midterms. Then we’d watched it again before finals. Pretty soon, the series had become our favorite escape.
“Always. It was your idea to watch it in the first place. I hadn’t even read the books.” She flipped her hair and tugged on my elbow, leading me into a boutique clothing store where neither of us could afford to buy anything. Not without my father’s credit card, anyway.