Knowing Me, Knowing You

I've Been Waiting For You

"I am still genuinely surprised that you have a date," Henry commented as he leaned against the doorframe to Carter's bedroom. "You've never showed an interest in anyone before. At least not before Xander."

"Was I that obvious?" she questioned as she coated her eyes in glittery blue eyeshadow. Normally she would wear gray, white, purple, or navy eyeshadow, but after deciding she'd rather look more dressed up for her date, she thought it would be fun to wear brighter makeup as well. And she was happy to wear the eyeshadow again after having only worn it to the ABBA tribute concert.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "It's not a bad thing. I thought it was very cute. You looked very shy, but I could see that you cared about him a lot. You get that look from your dad."

"You know you're my dad, too, right?"

"Yeah, but in this case, it comes from Terry. He used to look at other men that way."

"Did it ever upset you when he did."

"No. What upset me more was that none of them ever looked at him that way. I didn't have feelings for him until our friends said he started to look at me that way." He sat on Carter's bed and sighed happily. "He'd come by every day after class to the shop I worked at, and he'd sit next to my tool kit and ask questions about both the cars I was fixing as well as my personal life. I was incredibly dense where when I started to have a crush on him, I thought he didn't like me back.

"I actually planned to go out on a rebound date with one of my coworker's sons," he admitted, and Carter turned to face him, not having heard this part of the story before. "I told our friends when Terry left the table that I was planning to get over him, but they all told me that your father was in love with me. I didn't believe it until I finally saw that he was looking at me the same way you look at Xander."

"Does papa know about this?"

"Of course. He followed me to work, and he overheard me talking to my coworker about the date with his son. Terry left after that, and I went on my date, and it was nice, but I still had feelings for your father. He stopped coming to our weekly lunches, and I had to go to his house to see him. He asked about my date right away, not even bothering to hide his jealousy, and I told him the truth."

"That you couldn't stop thinking about him?" Carter snickered.

"No, that it was nice, but I had feelings for him. We agreed to go on a date after that, and we were together for three years before we broke up. We had a nasty argument about moving cities and then moving on with our lives. We broke up for eight months before we talked things out more rationally and decided to get back together, because, well, I love the bastard and don't want to be with anyone but him. He may have been worth my broken heart, but it wasn't worth it to stay broken when I could easily reach out and talk to him. And he felt the same way."

"And then a year later, your sister agreed to be the surrogate for you and papa so that I would always know who my biological family was and know what health history I actually have," Carter chuckled as she rolled her eyes and applied violet lipstick. "Are you expecting things with Xander to end that way tonight?"

"You better not get pregnant," he scolded.

"No!" she cackled. "I mean the whole soulmate thing you and papa claim to have. Are you expecting Xander to be my soulmate or something?"

"No, I didn't tell you your papa and mine's love story to say you and Xander are soulmates. I told you because I really like that story," he smiled cheekily. "It's very romantic. It should be turned into a book."

"Who the hell would want to read that?"

"Lots of people, honey. Lots."

Carter stood up from her vanity and smoothed out her black skater skirt. Tucked in was a white t-shirt with blue, purple, and pink paint strokes, and she paired it with her studded leather jacket. To complete the look, she wore black fishnets, spiked combat boots, and a black, brimmed hat.