As promised Tricia is back. Please bear with me, my dang pc has been acting up. I will try to upload again soon, but that will depend on the cooperation of my laptop.
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Chapter 4
Driving to Tricia's house, more nervous than I had ever been in my entire life. Slamming my hand on the steering wheel, in anger. Why in the hell does everything always work out as shit for me? My dad takes off leaving me to take care of the mess he made, then I have the accident wrecking my beloved car and now I have a kid that I never knew about. Seriously, could things get any worse? I already knew the answer to that. If Tricia leaves me I don't know how I will survive. Pulling in her drive way, her father met me on the porch looking very intimidating with his arms crossed over his massive chest.
"We already talked, but I just thought I would refresh your memory. This is my baby girl, do you have any idea what that means? No, of course you don't. In order to know what I am giving you, you would need to be a parent to a little baby girl, watch her grow only to hand her over to someone. Someone that has no idea how much you could possibly love that person and what you are handing over to their care," he said. I have never seen her dad this way before. He always seemed scarier than hell but never emotional but I guess I do sort of get what he means. That baby at home with my eyes has already stolen my heart and I have only known her a few hours. I cannot imagine how awful it would be to know her for years and have to give her up to some punk kid.
"I promise you sir if that sweet woman you call daughter will have me I will do everything in my power not to hurt her. Things may get complicated from time to time but she holds my heart in the palm of her hand, believe me it is more likely that she would hurt me, because I cannot imagine that she could possibly love me nearly as much as I love her," I tell him. He nodded and led me in the house.
Tricia came around the corner of the hallway looking delicious. She was wearing skin tight blue jeans with a frilly top that made me want to rip it off of her. Calming myself, I have to remember that we have a long, painful talk to have. She noticed right away something was off, I could tell by the look she gave me, but she didn't verbalize her concerns in front of her parents. Instead she grabbed my arm and began pulling me to the door telling her parents were running late.
Once we made it to the car, I held her door open but she didn't enter the car. I looked up into her eyes sure that pure sadness was shining through mine.
"What is going on Daniel?" she asked with no patience in her tone.
"Let's get in the car and then we will talk," I tell her. She gave me a wary look but entered the car. Taking a deep breath and quickly made my way to my side of the car.
As I started the car I could feel her stare from her blue eyes piercing me like a sword.
"Out with it before I decide to walk back home," she said with the jilted tone of anger clear in her voice.
"Will you please just give me until we get to the restaurant?" I pleaded with her. Knowing my little fireball the way I do I didn't think that would fly. Holding my breath it didn't take long for her to respond.
"Stop this damn car right now. If you want to dump me I don't need some fancy ass dinner beforehand. Stop the car Daniel," she said as her hand lingered on the door handle.
Slamming on the brakes and pulling to the side of the road I grabbed her hand that was hovering over the door handle. As several expletives left my mouth, she looked at me with confused hurt that angered me even more.
"I'm not dumping you dammit! Just give me until the restaurant, please," lowering my voice near the end as I ran an exasperated hand through my hair. She looked taken aback by my outburst, since I am usually very calm and go with the flow kind of guy most of the time. The rest of the ride was an uncomfortable silence. Once we had arrived at the restaurant, I noticed that she didn't bother to wait for me to open her car door, probably because she was now suspicious of me. Instead she was quickly making her way to the entrance of the restaurant, I was left to try to catch up with her and due to my limp from the accident it wasn't easy.
We were shown to a small table near a window. The clear veneered tables had scenes that one would envision of Old Mexico. The tables had fresh flowers and candles in the center of them. It created a romantic glow throughout the eatery. Pulling out her chair she sat down still looking at me like I was a madman.
The waiter came over right away, but she stopped him before he started speaking. She held her hand up at him clearly not going to eat with me until she heard what I had to say.
"We need a few minutes," she said smiling politely at the waiter. The waiter bowed a little and went to another table after setting some tortilla chips and salsa on our table.
"Well?" she asked looking at me expectantly.
"First, I want to say that I had different plans for tonight, but something came up. Something that I have to discuss with you, something that could change our lives. Today, this girl from California came by to see me. We had classes together and well...," I didn't know how to finish telling her. Her blue eyes seemed to have caught fire when I finally looked her in the eye.
"I knew it was something like this! You know I thought after everything we have been through that you had changed, really changed. But you are still the man whore you have always been. Well, guess what go have dinner with your California girl. But know this, I don't ever want to see or hear from you again. Forget my name," she said standing from the table. I stood as well grabbing both of her wrists in an iron grasp with the table still separating us.
"That's not what happened. Sit your ass down and let me finish," I told her. Regretting my harsh words immediately as soon as I saw the stubborn set of her chin. Thinking she would run away I let loose of her hands and fell back into my chair. To my surprise she sat down.
"You have one minute and then I am gone," she said.
"This girl came to tell me that I have a daughter with her," I said rushed. I watched all the blood drain from her face as she nodded and left the table leaving me alone in the little café. Knowing I had lost the best shot at a future I left a $20.00 tip on the table for the waiter and made my way to try to catch her.
She was standing at the curb on her phone. I heard her curse as she put her phone back in her purse. I stood beside her as she saw me she stiffened.
"Please allow me to drive you home," I suggested. Turning in her direction, I saw the tears streaking her face and falling off her chin. No longer able to keep the distance I wrapped my arms around her as she cried into my chest.
"P-please just take me home, no talking please," she sniffled out. Not able to do anything but what she asked I walked her to my car. As promised, I didn't breathe a word to her all the way to her home. Turning the car off, I reached for my door handle suddenly her small, frigid fingers grasped my other arm. My head snapped to her face hoping beyond hope she would give me another chance. She pulled my arm until our faces were a breath apart, then she smashed her lips to mine. No sooner than it started she pulled away leaving me in shock as she said, "Goodbye Daniel, I will never forget you."
Still in shock I watched as she ran up the sidewalk and slammed the door to her house. Noticing her parents were gone I left the car and ran/limped up the sidewalk after her. I cannot let her go. I knocked and rang the doorbell, but she refused to answer, so I began banging my fist against the door and yelling her name all to no avail she still refused to answer. Finally, I gave up and trudged back to my car. The empty unsettling feeling I had was one of loss that I have never felt not even when my dad left us.
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Could he have screwed that up worse?
