“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I lost my patience with you in there. I was being a jerk. Not the person you needed me to be. Not the dad I wanted to be for you.”
“I keep trying to tell you that I’m not a little kid. You don’t need to act like I’m going to fall apart all the time.”
“One day, when you’re older. When you’re old, that is . . . I’m going to remind you of what you said.” He half-smiled. “Maybe then you’ll understand how I feel right now. Anyway, for what it’s worth . . . I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
He nodded. “Okay then.” He reached over to the kitchen counter, grabbed a pair of plates and some silverware that were sitting out, and placed them on the table. “Grab something to eat and we’ll talk.”
Jeremy took two pieces of pizza and put a handful of the salad on his plate. Then, while Gunnar was doing the same, he drank about half the glass of milk. That was his peace offering.
Gunnar didn’t say anything, but his lips twitched.
Finally it was time to just put it out there. “Bethany called me this afternoon. She backed out of the dance.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She said that she just got the rehearsal schedule for The Nutcracker thing and the first big all cast rehearsal was the night of the dance. Her teacher said she couldn’t miss it.”
“Shannon said that? Huh.”
“Is that her teacher? Wait, do you know her?”
“She is and yes, I do. We grew up together in West Virginia.”
Relief flared in him. “So you can fix it, right?”
Gunnar had just taken a bite of pizza and he looked thoughtful while he chewed. “Um, I don’t think so.”
“You don’t want to try either?”
“What do you mean by either?”
“Bethany said that she wouldn’t even talk to her teacher about it. She said it wouldn’t be right.” When Gunnar looked like he was going to say something, Jeremy spoke faster. “But you know, that doesn’t make sense. I mean, I bet Shannon doesn’t even know about the dance. And if she did, she’d let Bethany go. Then everything would be good. Unless—” He stopped himself before he shared his fear.
But of course Gunnar didn’t let him off that easy. “Unless, what?”
“Unless . . . she was just looking for an excuse to not go with me.”
“You acted like the two of you had a good thing going. Why would she want to back out?”
“Because maybe she doesn’t want to be seen with me or something . . .”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
He glared. “Do you think I’d be telling you all this if I was kidding?”
“Hey, now. Settle down.”
“No, just forget about it.” He scooted back in his chair.
“Oh, no. You’re not going anywhere, and I’m not going to forget anything. Furthermore, I’m trying to talk to you so, let me tell you a couple of things. You eat your pizza and just listen for a sec. First, and most importantly, you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. You are a nice guy. A good guy. Plus, you’re cool.”
Jeez. “Gunnar—”
“No, listen to me. The way I see it, God put a whole lot of people on this earth who are all different. Some guys are destined for all kinds of great things but maybe they’re not exactly the coolest cats in high school, you know?”
“Coolest cats?”
“Shut up. Okay, I admit that sounds lame, but you know what I mean. Anyway, that’s all good, but that’s not you. You made friends right away. You kept those friends. They like you and want to be your friend. Okay?”
“Okay. Fine.”
“Good. Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s talk about girls.”
He could only imagine where this tangent was going, and it wasn’t going to be good. “Um, let’s not.”
“Oh stop. I’m not talking about sex. Listen, Jeremy.”
“I am.”
“Here’s what I know about dating. Girls like Bethany? Girls who are sweet and pretty and have a lot going for them like she does? Well, she can pretty much pick whoever she wants to see. She wouldn’t have said yes to you if she didn’t want to.”
“But”
“You said you told her about you and me. You did, right?”
Jeremy nodded.
“Then she’s not all of a sudden going to change her mind. If you coming from a couple of crappy parents bothered her, she would have never said yes to the dance.”
“You think?”
“No. I know. Girls like her are pretty special and pretty much every guy is going to think that. I have a feeling she could have had her pick of dates, but she wanted to go with you. Do you hear what I’m saying?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“Good.” Still looking like he was stewing, Gunnar drummed his fingers on the table. “Now, let’s move onto Bethany’s dance rehearsal. Just for a second, pretend that you were playing football and the dance was the night before the biggest game. Like for the state title or something.”
“Okay . . .”
“Now, say you had a prime position. You were the running back. Quarterback. Coach wants to go through one more set of plays. Are you going to tell him that you can’t make it because you’ve got a date to a dance?”
Gunnar made a good point. “No.”
“Sure?” He raised an eyebrow. “Well, how about this? Want to have your dad or better yet, your girl’s dad go talk to the coach so he’ll understand?”
“No way. I’d be a laughingstock.”
“Then why do you think things are different for her?”
“They’re not.”
Gunnar’s expression softened. “Say again?”
“They’re not. Bethany can’t skip the practice and expect everyone to be fine with it.”
“No, buddy. She sure can’t. She likes you. She’s upset, but she doesn’t have a choice.”
What he did then hit him like a bag of bricks. “I pretty much hung up on her.”
“Ouch. Hmm. Well, it sounds to me like you’re going to have to call her back and apologize.”