What's Your Name?

Chapter 12: "I Was Drunk..."

Pimmit's POV

Dexter got to choose where we wanted to go for summer vacation. And being the introvert he was, he secretly asked me. And me, just wanting to stay home, asked my girls. I mean, I wanted to truly capture the youth's mindset. The mindset of the future.

What's better than a bunch of high school girls?

"Where should we all go for summer vacation?" I ask rather loudly and awkwardly as they began to warm up.

"We all going?" Marilyn mused. She was my favorite so far, and of course, she's black. I'm starting to believe I have a type away from home. "Or just your family?"

"I'm broke, so just the family. Me, my wifey, and Dexter. We told Dexter to choose, but he secretly asked me and—"

"Now you're asking us? Yeah, that seems like you."

"Italy."

"Backpacking through Europe."

"Australia."

"New York."

Needless to say. They didn't know either. So I decided to just kinda let it come to me. I thought about all the places my wife used to talk about and realized I was out of luck there as well: we had already been to everywhere she wanted to go. Of course, women want to go to a different place every day, so I could always drop hints, right?

"One of my girls is going on vacation too, this summer. I think that's—"

"Rudy, I'm not picking where we're going. You and Dexter have this and next week to figure it out."

Oh, come on!

"I was just simply mentioning it. I have an idea of where I wanna go."

"Oh yeah, Rudy? And where might you want to go?"

"Switzerland."

"Why?"

I looked Marie in her eyes and I instantly forgot what I was supposed to be proving. How does she do that?

"Besides, Rudy, I need Dex to choose. Not you. It's an exercise for him to open up. To make a big decision without feeling guilty or changing his mind."

I turned from my chair to see her in her psychiatrist pose.

"Are you turning our adopted son into a project? When you agreed to adopt him, I specifically asked you not to do that."

"Who is it harming, though? The boy gets to choose one last family field trip before going off to uni, and you want to make a big deal out of me making this a project. Seriously?"

"So you admit, that you are making him into a project. Is he gonna be on the whiteboard in your office? Are you gonna throw in a couple of the heartbreaking secrets he probably opened up to you about? Are you going to exploit him too?"

Marie stood up from her spot at the table and cocked her head. She set her glasses down with a calm assurance and stared into my eyes the entire time. I closed my computer and raised an eyebrow.

"Let me ask you again," I looked away from her, and I could feel the red begin to flush to my face. My emotions presented themself as a bad poker face, and my cards were on the table. "Are you going to exploit Dexter as well as you did me?"

"It was college for heaven's sake! I-I needed a final research project. You know, you know you agre—"

"I was drunk! How serious do you think I took you? Our whole marriage started off as a research project!"