The video cuts out and I have to wipe the tears from my eyes. “Gosh, Dad. That was the smallest of the gifts?”
“Time wise, probably not,” he replies. “You wouldn’t believe how long it me took me to figure out how to get a video from a cassette to my phone. Lots of hours spent scouring the Internet.”
I shake my head. “Gosh that was…. How do you top that?”
Dad nods toward the nickel and quarter. “Pick one and find out.”
My eyes slide to the quarter. But I pick the nickel.
Dad tilts head back and laughs loudly. “You’re really gonna play this straight aren’t you? But very well, we’ll save the best for last.” He takes away the nickel and pushes a box across the table.
I stare at it for a moment. “Jewelry?”
Dad shrugs. “Open it and see.”
I do, and feel my jaw drop. A diamond pendant sparkles in the box. “This can’t be for me.”
“Only the best for my princess. May I?”
He stands and moves around the table to where I’m sitting. I pull my hair to one side and he clasps it around my neck. The pendant feels cool against my skin.
Dad kisses my cheek and retakes his seat on the other side of the table. “Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful,” I say.
“One more to go,” he grins.
“Oh come on,” I say. “What could possibly….”
Dad takes up the quarter and slides an even bigger box across the table. I feel my face flush. I open it, and there’s a sparkly piece of costume jewelry inside. Grinning I pick up, “And how exactly is plastic jewelry a better than real jewelry.” It’s so gaudy I glance around me to see who else sees.
And that’s when I see him. My heart skips it’s next beat.
Sebastian looks determined, his dark eyes fixed on me. He comes right up to our table and grabs hold of my hand. It shivers inside of his.
“What the hell are you doing here?” my father shouts.
“Bastian…” I say.
“I won’t wait a second longer,” Sebastian tells me. “If you’re gonna leave with me, it’s gotta be right now.”
“The hell she is!” Dad stands up from the table, balling his fists.
Sebastian sees him and drops my hand. “Stay out of this,” he warns.
I get out of my seat, knowing full well what's coming. I do my best to put myself between them, but Sebastian uses his powerful arms to slide me out of the way. Dad gives him a hard shove and I see something inside Sebastian snap. He slams his fist into my father’s face, snapping his head backwards, sending him to the floor.
I scream and run around the table to where my father lays bleeding from his nose. Dad blinks a few times, his eyes wide and darting, until he sees me and reaches out. I takes his hands into mine. "It's okay," I tell him.
“You know he deserved that,” Sebastian says to me. “Please, leave with me. This is the last time I’ll ask.”
I freeze, unsure what to do. Can I really leave my father here, bleeding on the floor?
I have to.
Because Sebastian is right. I drop my father’s hand and stand back up. I back away from my Dad. I find my voice, even though it hurts me to say what I must. “You did deserve that,” I say. “For what you did to his mother. I’m sorry, but I’m leaving with him. Tell Brian I need some time to get my thoughts together.”
Am I doing the right thing? You can’t abandon Sebastian again, I tell myself.
The manager comes up to us. "I've called the police." He says this to Sebastian. Not to my father who made things physical. It's only now that I remember there are other people in the restaurant. All eyes are on us.
“Look in the box,” Dad says, holding his jaw. “Beneath the padding.”
Hearing Dad's voice pulls me back in. “I don’t care what other gift you brought me,” I say. “I never should’ve let them cloud my judgment in the first place. I should’ve told you this the moment we sat down.”
“Just look,” my father insists. “It’s a gift from Brian.”
“Brian?” I look to the table.
“Let’s just go,” Sebastian pleads. “Don’t give him the chance to mess with your head some more.”
I step closer to the table and reach into the box. I remove the padding. It’s a photograph: Brian and the grandmother I’ve never met, that I only know from pictures and the stories my mother tells me, side by side on a plane. But that’s not possible. My Mom's mother is from a dirt-poor town in Germany. She doesn’t have the proper paperwork to leave the country. I smile at Brian’s dorky thumbs up. “What is this?” I ask.
Dad sits up. “Brian never went to any bachelor party at a strip club. When he found out that your grandmother wasn’t going to be at the wedding, he hopped on his father’s private jet and went to get her. He snuck her out of the country so you have your whole family at the wedding. He loves you, Aspen.”
I have to sit down. “Then why would he tell me he went to a strip club?”
My father sighs. “After he got back, he called me all out of sorts because he heard you’d kissed some guy at a bar. And I told him you probably just had cold feet. I told him if he really loved you he should cut you some slack. So he came up with the whole bachelor party thing to give you an out. So you wouldn’t have to feel guilty.”
“He loves me,” I say.
“Aspen,” says Sebastian, more desperate.
“You should go before the police get here,” I say.
Sebastian gives me a look that breaks my heart. “You’re staying?”
My voice trembles when I speak. “He loves me,” I say. “I can't hurt him.”
Chills spill down my back as Sebastian turns and walks away.
My god, I can’t even breathe.
Sebastian
Lexi is parked just where I left her. She leans her head out of the car and I watch her eyes search the sidewalk for Aspen. I see her tense when she realizes what Aspen’s answer must have been.
I get into the passenger seat. “She loves him,” I say.
“Give her another chance”
“Can you take me back to my truck?” I ask.
She stares at me for a few seconds, then nods.
We don’t make it two blocks before I’m bawling my eyes out.
Chapter Five
Start from the beginning
