A Room With A View

Chapter Forty-Three - David

November 16, Thursday

The blinking line stared at David, mocking him.

He'd had so much time on his hands, and apparently he was driving Tanya a bit stir crazy, so when they had gone to Elena's Halloween party, he'd pulled Brian Cooper aside to ask him about writing a book. David had never written anything before, but Brian made it seem like you could just put pen to paper and let divine inspiration take over.

Divine inspiration had not yet taken over.

David had tried everything, from Googling story starters, to looking up YouTube videos. He'd even sent himself into a Wikipedia spiral from which he'd learned much more about Ferdinand de Saussure than he needed to know. It had all wasted a good amount of time, but David was still staring at a blank computer screen at three in the afternoon with nothing to show for his herculean efforts.

Perhaps the life of a former hedge fund manager was just not exciting enough novel fodder. Grisham had managed the shift from being a lawyer to writing about law, but there was something more inherently interesting about court cases than excel spreadsheets full of numbers.

"Unless those numbers are a secret code," David mused aloud. He picked up a small foam ball from his desk and tossed it up in the air.

"A secret code that, when deciphered, points to a—"

"Map on the back of the Declaration of Independence?" Tanya asked from the door.

David spun around in his chair. "I didn't hear you come in."

"You were lost in conversation with your Muse. Here, your daughter's on the phone." Tanya held the receiver out to David. He dropped the foam ball and leaned forward to take the phone, but Tanya didn't let it go.

"Just...just hear her out, before you say anything," Tanya said. She relinquished her hold, and disappeared back into the hallway.

David stared after her. There was no positive conversation that began with "just hear her out". He swallowed.

"Hey Alice," he said, pressing the phone close to his ear.

"Hiya, Dad!" Alice said. She had that false sense of sincerity to her voice that made David nervous. Whenever Alice wanted something she wasn't sure how to ask for, her voice always rose an octave and became much more rhythmically bouncy.

"I'm coming back for Thanksgiving," she continued.

David's eyes darted to the calendar pinned to the wall. That was next Thursday.

"Great," he said. "I'm looking forward to seeing you. When are you getting in?"

"We're coming in on Tuesday." Alice paused.

"'We'?" David asked, his ear getting hung up on the word.

Alice giggled nervously. "Yes, we. I, uh, I want to bring someone home, if that's alright."

David leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. He hung his head. Alice had never been one to date. Sure she'd had boys come by to take her to the movies, but there had never been anyone she was earnestly interested in. If this guy was someone she wanted to bring home, then it must be serious.

David wasn't ready for this.

"Who is this 'we'," David asked cautiously.

Alice sucked in a breath. "My boyfriend, Dad," she said.

And there it was.

David rubbed the space between his eyes. "Okay. How-how long have you two been...an item?"