Surprised? by Nick Day

Author:Nick Day
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABDO
Published: 2018-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

A FIRM KNOCK ON THE DOOR RIPPED ME FROM A dream the next morning. I tried to grab onto the strands of the dream before it slipped away. There was a raging thunderstorm, and Pete and I were trapped somewhere together . . . but then it was gone.

“Come in,” I said, and Dad immediately entered, clad in plaid pajama pants and a ratty Princeton Crew T-shirt, carrying two mugs of coffee.

“You’re up?” he asked quietly.

“I am now,” I said, smiling.

“Figured I better start totaling up some dad points,” he said, indicating the coffee mugs. “I took a wild guess . . . black?”

I smiled, charmed by how hard he was working. I usually put a dash of skim milk and a spoonful of sugar in my coffee, but he didn’t have to know that.

“Perfect,” I said. “That’s nice of you.” I sat up and took the mug from him, and he took a seat at the foot of the bed.

“Plus ten dad points!” he said, beaming.

“Is Pete up?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Dad said. “He was up before I was. He insisted on making breakfast. Who am I to turn him down, huh? Seems like a really great guy.”

I had a momentary impulse to quickly shut down any idea he had that Pete and I were a couple . . . but it passed. I realized, looking at Dad, that he and I had a lot of ground still to cover. He’s still basically a stranger to you, Sara, I reminded myself.

I took a sip of the piping hot coffee to fill the silence. It was some kind of expensive, trendy roast, both bitter and sour. I smiled through it.

Dad leaned forward and put his hand on my foot. “I just wanted to say how grateful I am for our conversation last night. I had no idea what you’d be like, or what you might want to know, or what you wouldn’t want to know. You’re a very empathetic person, Sara. I don’t know where you got it from, but I am very impressed with you.”

“Thank you,” I said tentatively.

“My pleasure,” Dad said. “I want us to be as honest with each other as possible.”

“Breakfast!” came a forceful call from downstairs.

“Ooh, let’s go see what he made, huh? I bet you’re starved.” He leapt off the bed and offered me a hand.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see what Pete had created in the kitchen. He was a confident cook and had made all kinds of gourmet meals for our friends over the last year. Of course my dad, like anyone who doesn’t know Pete well, was amazed. “Holy crow!” he exclaimed, looking at the spread.

“Well, you haven’t tasted any of it yet,” Pete said bashfully. He was already dressed for the day, in a handsome navy-blue polo and rust-brown khakis. Where’s the Northwestern gear? I wondered. Who’s he trying to impress? He wasn’t helping to clarify Dad’s confusion about my relationship with Pete. This was just Pete being Pete, not being my boyfriend .

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