~Chapter 20~
I've only been to Washington D.C. a few times and I could really count them on my fingers. One of them was during my high school senior year trip and the other times when my dad had invited me over to visit him at his workplace or other occasions like Thanksgiving. Let's just say that being introduced to too many political terms played with my head.
Politics is not one of my strong subjects or forte and almost everything I know about it could be credited to my dad and his vast knowledge for the field.
Thanksgiving had finally arrived and here I was standing on my dad's front porch. I've always loved his humble abode of two storeys. Even the neighborhood gave me the pleasant and homey vibes.
Ringing the doorbell, I waited. No matter how comfortable everything was around me, this time I just wasn't feeling invested in any festivities. Not after what I'd seen and came to know from Shivaay two days ago. If it were in my hands, I'd have skipped it but I couldn't lose the opportunity to meet my dad. He's just too important to me.
The door opened to reveal my dad grinning from ear to ear. His salt and pepper hair was matted down on one side. He looked cutely comical in his PJs and a pen tucked above his ear. Typical him. I rolled my eyes with a small smile.
"Val, my baby!" He pulled me in for a hug and I slumped in his arms, taking in all the comfort he was giving me.
I patted his back softly and mumbled in his chest, "Dad."
We stood like that for a few minutes, neither of us wanting to break the hug, especially me. It reminded me of the days when we used to still live together. Before throwing off my dainty problems in front of him, I'd first go in for a hug to relax my tense muscles. Even today, as a grown up, I could rely on him with no embarrassment. Pulling away, he slung an arm around my shoulders.
"How's life without me?" I smirked and placed my hand on his wrist which was on my shoulder.
"Oh." He pretended to think, leading me toward the kitchen. "Just fun." He winked.
"Urgh, of course," I told him, gagging. "Now that you have Angela."
He started rumbling with laughter and I smiled widely. "You're right, my dear."
I sat down on a stool while my dad rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.
"You up for brunch?" He asked me, still looking through the ingredients.
"I am always up for food. No questions asked," I said, swiping my hands across and beaming.
"Sure you are." He lifted up my skinny arms limply. I glared at him with a loud huff. With that said, he started making pancakes that I hadn't eaten in ages. My dad loves to call himself a gourmet chef because of how otherworldly his cooking skills are. I've acquired quite a few tricks from him but they're all basics.
"So you were busy before I came?" I asked him, pointing at the laptop on the counter.
He gave me a quick glance and nodded excitedly. "Yes. One of my old friends, Joey, has opened a small planet toy shop."
"Wow," I whispered, mesmerized. "That's so cool!"
He nodded again. "I know, right? So, he asked for my help, the advertising help." He wriggled his free hand to prove the point. "And, I agreed. We've been working on it for weeks now. Since it's nothing huge, he's just hired me and my expertise."
I laughed softly. He sounded so passionate that I almost felt a pang of longing for my own job. I wasn't sensitive regarding my dad talking about his job. In fact, quite on the contrary. I've learned a lot of things from him, including his inspiration for the unique talks. So when he said that, I knew that I could easily freelance for small businesses as well. A feeling of exaltation bubbled up in my chest.
"Ah, and you know that I just do the election campaign stuff but considering he's my favorite, long time buddy, I just had to do it. So before you came, I was hammering my brain to write the lyrics for the jingle. It'll just be a radio ad along with the posters, billboards and stuff," he explained.
I sat back with a proud smile on my face. "That's right. I am sure his business will start flooding as soon as they see your brilliant ideas," I chirped.
He turned around to me fully, pausing his cooking and I saw a sad look crossing his eyes. "We could both do this for him? Like we'll brainstorm and stuff together-"
"Dad." I showed him my palm, not losing my smiling face. "Dad, I am fine and I know what you're doing there but I'd love to figure this out on my own. In fact, this gave me a really good idea."
As soon as he heard that, he audibly sighed in relief and I chortled seeing him all uneasy. "What's the idea?" He questioned, going back to his work.
"I can start freelancing instead of just relying on big companies. I mean it's useless. They won't accept me anyway." I lifted up a shoulder in a weak shrug. "So I can go for small business people who can't afford much," I said emotionlessly, avoiding his eye contact at all costs while playing with my fingers.
"Valerie." My dad sighed and sat opposite me, handing over a plate of pancakes to me. I took it eagerly before squirting some maple syrup on it.
"Say it. I know you want to," I finally uttered after a long moment of him staring at me.
"Say what?" He furrowed his brows, looking genuinely puzzled.
I exhaled a deep breath with a wry smile. "I failed, didn't I?" It was barely above a whisper. I softly stabbed my pancakes, not diving in to eat them already.
My dad slid his half eaten plate aside and looked me in the eyes as if berating me with his expression. "Val, I need you to tell me the whole story first, your point of view. Judgements are always for the later part." His gentle, caressing voice brought me tons of comfort.
It didn't change that even though he was being calm, it might fade away once he would hear what I had to say. There was no disappointment in his voice on the phone call because he was unaware of my situation but right after he would listen to my story, I knew that he'd not be too happy.
I stalled by playing with a loose thread of my sweater sleeve. It gave me a moment to think about how I'd tell him. He didn't push me to start talking and stared at me patiently, waiting.
"I like Skye. Like a... lot," I started slowly, pulling myself together. "My boss, the department head, Ms. Maxwell, had warned me. She'd told me that she was receiving pictures, pictures of Skye and I seen together. I considered her words but when I saw Skye again, my resolve just... fell down. I know that I should have been more careful and taken her warning more seriously instead of just tossing it off like some trash."
I took a pause and cleared my throat. My gaze continued lingering on my hands pressed tightly on the table. "Foolish move on my end, I know. And the next thing I come to know is that... those damn pictures are all over every media outlet you can name. Then... I was fired." I scoffed and muttered the last word.
"And?" My dad raised an eyebrow, giving me a knowing look.
Grunting, I scowled at him. "I fought with him," I grumbled angrily.
"Yeah, well..." He smacked his lips with a noncommittal shrug. "I saw it." Was his simple reply.
"Of course, you did. Everybody did," I muttered bitterly, slapping my knees with force. I was grateful for one thing though that nobody was able to hear our whispered exchange because of all the rowdy ruckus plus it was just meant only for us but I wasn't so lucky about the words he'd exclaimed.
"Now, I don't know what you want to hear but sweetie... I am not gonna look down on you. I could never be disappointed in you." He smiled with so much warmth that I had to push back my tears that were threatening to spill.
"I... I didn't expect that. I mean, I know you. I know that you would have given me some words of wisdom that I should never be careless when it comes to work. So what changed?" I inquired, taken aback by his words.
A wistful look crossed his face and his lips curved upwards, lighting up his face. "You're a grown up woman now and you make your own decisions, own mistakes. And love changed me, as cheesy as that sounds. This single, powerful emotion can teach you all the life lessons that not even a book might give you. I was more than stunned when I was first introduced to this beautiful feeling. It's uplifting and optimistic. It teaches you to be a good person and be your own person.
I expected his cheeks to redden, to feel embarrassed for openly talking about love but nothing of such sort happened. "Yeah?" I asked him teasingly.
"Yeah," he affirmed, raising his eyebrows.
"You know, I am glad that you met Angela. She's a good influence on you, I can tell," I said and reached across the table to pat his arm.
"Well I wouldn't give her all the credits because it's not just her," he replied with a soft gleam in his blue eyes.
"Please don't tell me that you're talking about mom." I didn't try to hide my evident judgemental look.
He guffawed and started shaking his head. "No! I was talking about you. Before Angela, you made me such a better person for her, honey," he explained.
"Aww," I said shyly.
"Love makes you do things that you were never willing to sacrifice. Something like what happened to you, Val."
As soon as those words left his mouth, my back stiffened and I gave him a crazed look. "Wh-what? Do you mean to say that I am in love?" I almost spat. My eyes then fell on my plate of pancakes. Pulling it to me, I began eating the pancakes without thinking twice.
He gave me an amused look. "That's not what I meant."
"Then what'd you mean?!" I all but exclaimed and continued eating.
"Okay so a lot of time, a lot of people when working, forgets about other things around them. All they're ever passionate about is how they earn money and because of what they earn money. This creates an emotionless air around the person. However when you have feelings even when it's as small as an attraction, you could say you're more driven by emotions than without them. And trust me when I say this that it's better to be humane than not." He concluded by pointing a finger to his chest.
"Oh." I pursed my lips in mortification. I could feel my cheeks burning and I glanced down at my now empty plate. "That's... I mean, you're right."
I could feel Ms. Maxwell's stone cold words about thinking with head and not heart ringing in my head. My dad and her, although professionally so forward and dedicated, still have different thoughts about things unrelated to work. They're similar yet so different from each other. Which reminded me what a blabbering traitor she was but I refrained from telling my dad about her true nature.
"And trust me when I say this that the guy didn't mean a single thing he said," he added after a long pause.
"Yeah, right." I snorted, annoyed. "What makes you say that?"
"I just do."
We both went silent after that. He ate his half finished pancakes while I stared into space, a means to process what my dad told me. My mind wandered back to Skye and that beautiful kiss we had shared. Every day after that, it was even harder to get him out of my thoughts but with it came back my anger toward him in full force. I was snapped out of my torrent of emotions when my dad spoke again.
"Oh, and before I forget, I wanna tell you something really important. Angie and I have decided on our marriage date," he informed me excitedly.
"Whoa..." My eyes widened and I grinned instantly. "When?!"
"On November 20th. About a month later. I know that it's early but she wanted a winter wedding besides we've been planning on it for weeks now," he told me, almost seeming nervous.
Releasing a short laugh, I gave him an assuring smile. "That's alright, dad. Honestly speaking? I'm looking forward to it!"
"Oh, thank God." He sighed, his facial muscles relaxing. "I'll send you a proper invitation in a few days. And, um, you don't have to worry much 'cause we'll be marrying in New York itself. She's always loved NYC air plus, it'll be more convenient for you."
"Aww, that's so sweet of you but I would have come here t-"
"Nah, we're trying to find a reason to get out of the capital," he reasoned and we both laughed.
After that, we talked more about how Angela and my dad were coping up with all the marriage vibes while washing our dishes. Our talks didn't end there because as we were lounging in the living room, our topic shifted to some light and casual stuff, purposely steering off from the serious conversations that my life suddenly decided to drop on me like a bomb.
"All right, what is the time now?" He mused loudly, his eyes bouncing on the wall clock. "Jeez, it's afternoon already."
Following his gaze, I saw that it indeed was close to 2 o'clock. "Because we were having a good time." I grinned like a donkey and he nodded his head in agreement.
"I have this meeting with Joey in about thirty minutes. We're going to discuss the ad project over. Wanna come with me?" He asked me, enthused.
Wrapping my arm around his shoulder, I laid my head against the other. "Sounds fun," I deadpanned. He hit my head with his knuckles softly. "Coming, coming!" I raised my arms in surrender with a chuckle.
"Good. So c'mon because Angie's gonna be here as soon as the sun sets with a freshly cooked Thanksgiving dinner along with her infamous turkey."
"Whoa, I'm hungry already." We both fell into another short laughter at that.
Everything with my dad seemed happy and I felt light and calm. It's like he's a problem, sadness, bad energy repeller and I wouldn't change that for anything. I wouldn't change him for anything.