Perfect by Design

9: Aaliyah James

Aaliyah
"Hey, dad. How were you sure that mom was the one? Like even after everything went down. How did you know she was your person?"

Dad turns to smile at me before quickly refocusing on the road. "Everything should have felt impossibly difficult with your mom. You know the whole story now, and it isn't a pretty one. She made life feel easy despite the reality swirling around us. She's my center."

"I really hope someone loves me one day the way you love mom."

He sighs and turns down the radio a little. "It pains me to say this, but I think there's already someone who wants to love you like that."

"Daddy, you have to promise to be nice to him."

"Yeah, nice. Something like that." He laughs.

"It doesn't really matter, anyway." I shrug. "I can't keep him around. Not when his parents hurt mom the way they did. She shouldn't have to deal with that."

"No. Absolutely not, baby girl. Your mom would never as you to bear that burden."

I stare out of the window, watching the passing cars. Dad drives like a grandma. I understand his overprotectiveness every time we get in cars now.

His words run through my mind. He fell in love with mom quietly, but quiet love is usually the loudest.

Trevor gets me, and not because it's just easy but because he listens when I talk, but more importantly, he listens when I don't.

He makes me feel safe with him— with myself. He's always in my head, and what was once restless dreaming is now me embracing my mind because it's powerful. It's a gift, and he made me believe that.

"I'm going to let you in on one more truth, baby girl. I told you about Corey. Well, he left because Gigi had an affair." He pauses and turns to me once more. "She had an affair with Grandpa Billy."

No more truths. Please, no more truths.

"I don't believe it. Gigi and Grandma Laura are friends. We all spent Christmas at Gigi and Papa's last year."

"Yeah, sweetie. That took a lot of hard work for us to get there, but we did it because we love you guys."

"Dad, I promise I don't need anymore truths from you guys. Please start lying again."

He laughs and shakes his head. I'm serious. My life was a lot more normal when we were lying.

"My point is, Grandma Laura looked past Gigi's betrayal because she saw how in love mom and I are. She made this blended family work, and she now loves this blended family because her daughter being happy meant more than her anger. Mom would never ask you to sacrifice your happiness."

"So you're saying one day we might all be having Christmas at the Asher residence?"

"When hell freezes over, Aaliyah. Your mom is a much better person than me. You hurt my wife, and you have an enemy out of me for life. Their son, he's innocent, and if he wants to love my daughter and he loves her the way she deserves to be loved, I'll never stand in the way of that. No matter how much it pains me." He reiterates.

I think back to last Christmas. Gigi and Grandma Laura were in the kitchen cooking, well Gigi was cooking. They drank so much wine and seemed like the best of friends.