“Be nice,” my father says, warning me. I scoff. Moving a little further away, I bait my hook. The guys chatter as they debate whether it's best to fish closer to the edge of the lake, or further in the middle
“It depends if you're trying to get some bottom feeders,” Ben says. “Now, this time of the day, they'll be closer to the surface, trying to find food.” They continue to argue and I groan. I'm ready to go. Just pack my shit and leave, but I know I’d never hear the end of it from my father. So I grit my teeth and cast my line out as far as I can. Toward the middle of the lake. Then place the pole in the holder.
Ben is sitting in his chair, and my father moves next to him as they laugh. My skin is crawling. I want to say something, yell at him some more. I just can't believe he could be so selfish. Every time I see him, I think of how broken Zee was that weekend. How she cried for the loss she felt and the pain that he caused her family. I get shit happens, but some things just shouldn't happen. About an hour goes by and my father continues to try to probe conversation between Ben and me, which I immediately shut down with one or two words. We catch a few more fish and as our buckets fill, the beer cans empty.
My mood is completely ruined and I'm no longer having fun. I think an hour is a good enough amount of time. So I walk over to the guys and I tell them I'm about to leave.
“Nah, man. You haven’t been here that long,” Ben says.
“We've been here longer than you,” I say.
“Oh, don't leave on my account, Jordan.”
“No, that's fine. I’m meeting my girlfriend in a couple of hours anyway,” I say.
“Girlfriend?” Ben says.
“It's not your business.”
My father looks at him, then looks at me, frowning.
“Well, maybe it is. Xia and I, we just started dating.”
“Really? You and Xia?” His eyes widen with shock.
“Yeah,” I say, walking away from him and gathering my things.
“Now, when did this happen?” At any other time, this would be a big moment for us. I don’t know how Ben feels about it, and to be honest, right now I don’t care.
“I don't want to talk about it,” I say. “Have a good time.” I make two trips to my car—one with my cooler and chair, then I come back for my fishing pole.
“You guys can keep the fish,” I say, “See you later, Dad.” I walk past them both fisting my fishing pole and head to my parking spot. Footsteps move in behind me as I make it toward my car, but I don't turn around. No matter who it is, I'm sure one of them will want to just do nothing but piss me off even more. It's either going to be my father bitching at me for leaving, or Ben, and it better not be Ben.
“Jordan,” Ben says. I groan and spin toward him.
“I don’t want to talk to you, Ben. Just walk away,” I warn.
“Listen, about the other day in my office,” he says. “I understand you're pissed off at me. Fuck, I'm pissed off at me. I never wanted to hurt my girls.”
“Yeah, well you did.” I scoff.
“I know. I made a mistake. A stupid mistake. But I love them more than anything.”
How can you say that?” I ask, tossing my fishing pole into the trunk and slamming the door down. “You brought this shit on yourself.”
“It happened a while ago and I didn't know how to come clean,” he says. “There's a lot you don't know. At some point I feared it was better to keep this a secret than tell it, because of the repercussions.” He says, looking at his feet.
“Well, that sounds selfish as fuck to me. Are you telling me your wife deserved not knowing what you were doing behind her back all that time for her own good?” He exhales running a hand across his forehead.
“You just… you just don't know, Jordan. But I'm asking you, please just stay out of it. I'm begging you to stay out of it. Let me fix my family.”
My eyes narrow as I look at him with so much anger and disgust it makes my skin crawl.
“Thank you for checking on my girls,” he says. “I’m going to make this right or kill myself trying.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Sure.” Then I turn, get in my car, and drive away.
“We're doing everything backwards, J.” Xia laughs, pulling away from me. We're sitting in the car in front of my apartment getting ready to go inside. Well, we were about fifteen minutes ago. After I left the lake and went home to catch up on some rest, I was still a little pissed off, but I felt better by the time I woke up. Xia and I planned the day together. We walked around the peer, grabbed lunch, and caught a movie. But I couldn’t tell you much about the movie. The theater was close to empty, so we sat in the back row. I pulled her into my lap and we spent the two hours risking jail for indecent exposure.
I open my eyes slowly and look at her smile. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“Think about it. We fell in love before we even had our first date. Not to mention our first night together. Everything is so upside down,” she says.
“Does it bother you?”
“No.” She shrugs. “Not really. It's just something I noticed.”
“Well,” I say. “I think we were in love before we were even allowed to date. So that's one thing.” She laughs. “And sex. There's never anything wrong with sex.” I smile.
“True,” she says.
“Do you think this is moving too fast?” I ask with a pinch in my brow.
“No,” she answers quickly. “It's just us. It really feels… I don't know, natural,” she says. “like it's supposed to be.”
“I feel the same way.”
Our lips meet again but the sound of a car door slamming captures our attention and we both turn to look out the window. My neighbor Kelly gets out of her pink car and waves before walking toward her apartment.
“So, guess who I ran into at the student union today?” Xia says, lifting her purse from the floor.
“Who?”
“Felicia." She smirks.
“Oh shit. Did she say anything to you?”
“No, she just gave me a really dirty look.” She rolls her eyes. “Has she tried to contact you?”
“No,” I say, a little surprised now that I think about it. I figured she'd at least text by now. “She just sort of bowed out silently, I guess.”
“Yeah,” Xia says, reaching for the door.
I turn the ignition key and roll up the windows. “Oh, speaking of the student union, have you talked to your dad about Della, yet?”
Xia pulls her hand from the door and looks at me. “Well… not exactly. I sat my mother down and we talked. She admitted to feeling down and agreed to see a doctor. But if things don’t get better soon, I’ll have no choice but to ask Dad for help.”
I don’t trust him and I want to tell her that. But then my thoughts move to Ben and how he pleaded with me today to stay out of his fight. My urge to protect her is causing a war in my head, so instead of saying what I’m really thinking about him, I just nod. She goes quiet for a beat and moves as if she's about to get out of the car before stopping once again and smiling.