Break of Dawn

17 | crisis communication

HER PHONE RANG in the slot between her Advanced Stat Interference and Crisis Communication classes.

Rory was sitting on a bench on the lawn at the COM building, finishing up the reading for her next class. She fished the phone from her bag, and when she saw her dad's name lighting up the screen, she braced herself for what was to come.

Cosimo called her once a week, always on weekends - usually on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, sometimes on Friday nights - but never, ever, in the middle of the morning on a Tuesday.

Damien, that chiacchierone, it had took him long enough.

"Hey papá" She greeted in her most pleasant tone.

"Ciao topolina" He answered, using the nickname he'd called her since she was two - little mouse - because apparently, she was a child obsessed with cheese "Come va?"

"I'm good, how are you?"

"In italiano, Aurora, per favore."

"Posso ancora parlare italiano, papà, non ti preoccupare" She reassured him, he'd always been obsessed with the idea that she and Alex should be fluent in Italian, that they should keep the heritage alive, and that was the reason why he had taught them both the language and also why he'd send them away to Tuscany during summer to spend a few weeks with the famiglia. "Va tutto bene qui, e tu come stai?"

He answered; everything was fine and he missed her, and it was already starting to get kind of cold back in Rochester, and he was glad he was going to Los Angeles for an away game on Sunday. She missed him too and she was surprised that Lochlan was still warm enough that most of the time she didn't need layers, and he should go to this restaurant in LA that Alex had went to and hadn't stopped blabbering about. They volleyed back and forth in an overly casual tone and Rory felt like she was threading shallow waters, but soon enough she'd hit the deep end.

He asked her about school. Everything was fine, and she had fewer classes that semester, and yeah, she was still dedicated to keep a good GPA. The moment he asked her about Lacrosse season was the shift in the conversation. He was starting to mix Italian and English in a way Rory knew she would never be able to do, but that she also knew meant he was getting ready to bring the real matter to the table.

He never picked a fight in his mother tongue.

"Lacrosse is during spring, dad." You know that, she wanted to add, but didn't.

"Off-season then, things must be quite dead around there."

"I wouldn't know, I quit" She offered in a small tone "Got a new job, started last week actually"

"Oh yeah? You didn't tell me about it" He was fishing, that much was clear, seeing how far she would go before breaking down to the truth.

"Must've slipped my mind" They both knew it hadn't, but neither would say that "I'm working with the football team now."

Rory heard a door shutting and then complete silence. For around two minutes it was like the line went dead and it made her blood run cold. Cosimo Scavo wasn't the holding back type - if anything, he was actually too damn expansive -, and the fact that he was taking his sweet time to start lecturing her told her she was in big trouble.

"You're working with a football team, even after I told you I didn't want you involved in it?" He enunciated each word slowly, stressing even the small pauses.

"It would appear so, yes."

"That's very interesting" He retorted, sounding anything but amused "Because you might not understand it, but when I tell you not to do something, it's me looking after you" He said sternly "So when I tell you don't work with football, I mean I don't want you near all these men twenty-four-seven"

"Well Dad, you should've thought about that before raising me around all these men, don't you think?"

The words were out of her mouth before she had time to think them through. It was a low blow, Rory knew that. She knew he had raised her practically inside football because, being a single dad, that was the only way he could do it. He had raised her inside football because he had to be a dad, and a mom, and a coach, and a million other things.

"I've been in this industry longer than you've been alive, Aurora, I know it's not the place for a girl."

"I can handle myself"

"But you shouldn't have to handle yourself, that's what I'm trying to say" He exasperated "You could be anything."

"Anything but the one thing I want to be, right? Does that sound okay to you?" She retorted.

"It does, yes, because this industry is ruthless, even worse so to women, and it is not a place for a girl like you. There's gender discrimination and men that will second guess you at every turn. So yeah, it does sound okay to me because I do not want you to go through life having a harder time than you need to, I won't accept you setting yourself for failure,"

"You understand that by trying to stop from getting into it, you're basically perpetrating the discrimination, right?"

"Don't play smarty with me, Aurora"

"I'm not" She cried out "Change has to start somewhere, dad, there are women who are coaching now and..."

"Well, none of them are my kid, so I don't really care" He snapped, interrupting her mid sentence.

"Dad..."

"I don't want to discuss this with you, anymore" He added, resolutely "I'm very disappointed at you, Aurora"

She didn't have time to answer him before he hung up, words hanging in the air, haunting her.

Rory knew he didn't approve of her career choice, never had and probably never would, but hearing him say he was disappointed at her still felt like a punch to the gut. It hurt that he didn't even care to ask what she was doing, or if she was any good at it. It hurt that no matter how hard she tried, she would never make him proud, unless she chose to do something else with her life.

The truth was there was no winning for her in that situation; no matter how satisfied and happy she was at doing the one thing she loved, she would always have to deal with the fact that her own father didn't approve of her decisions.