Am I Pretty Yet?

Chapter Three

"He called today," she said. "He wanted to know if you were available on the 24th."

"What's on the 24th?"

"Helena's birthday," she replied. My throat tightened. "She's turning nine."

I started to move the pots to different shelves, where more sunlight would shed on them and help them grow. "I think I have a dance to go to that day."

"A dance?" she asked in surprise. I turned around and frowned.

"Spring formal," I answered, then panicked. This would mean that I'd actually have to go to the dance...without a date. Dateless Nina. Pathetic. "It's coming up."

She slowly shook her head. "Okay. Did you want me to give you his number so that you could let him know?"

"Can you do it?" I asked, opening the bottom cupboard to take out our smallest watering can. "I have a lot of homework."

"Nina..." she trailed off, and I felt my fingers clench together. "I thought you and your father talked things out last summer?"

I fought the urge to let out a bitter laugh. Last summer, he'd unexpectedly visited us at the flower shop to announce that he was living in Melway again and attracted the unwanted attention of nearby customers, who loudly whispered that next to him, I was my father's daughter. I didn't have a drop of my mother's looks; everything about me, from my straight brown hair sitting flatly atop my head to my mud colored eyes to my too narrow face shape screamed Todd Fabiano - Dad. It was a mystery as to how a man like my father, who had a wardrobe not too far from a homeless man's and a bowl hair cut complete with thick lens glasses, had gotten a woman like my mother. It was town gossip, even to this day.

"I just can't go, Mom," I said, sprinkling the soil with light drops of water. "These should start growing by the end of the month. You just had them in the wrong spot. They needed more light."

She sighed, walking up to me and placing her hand on top of my head, a gesture she did often. She smoothed down my baby hairs. "This shop would be a mess without you." She kissed my cheek, and I smiled. "I'll call your father for you."

"Okay," I said, my ears perking up as the bell above the glass door rang. A customer walked through and began to scan our price board for our most popularly selected flower deals. I turned to greet him but my mother placed a gentle hand on my wrist, making me stay for a moment.

"You have to talk to him sooner or later, Nina," she said firmly, then let go and continued walking around the green house. I knew that I had to talk to him sooner or later. He was my dad. But he also made the decision to not be my dad when he abandoned my then seventeen year old Beauty Pageant Teen Mom. He'd knocked her up, fled the town, made her lose her pageantry title, and didn't even give his baby girl a chance.

How could she expect me to give him a chance?

. . . .

"Did he seriously call and invite you?" Harrison asked as he leaned against my bed frame. I sat in front of him, crisscrossed and hugging my stuffed octopus.

"Apparently. I mean, my mom said he did. Why, do you think he didn't?"

"No, I just think that maybe he's trying to make it up to you."

"By inviting me to my half sister's birthday party? By wanting me to see his new family and his new house and his new life? I feel the love," I snorted, shaking my head and frowning. Harrison sat up straighter, scooting closer to me.

"Come on. You've got to at least give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Did he give me the benefit of the doubt when he left Melway? No."