Chapter Two #2
A muscle twitched in my jaw. She didn’t deserve to hear the story of my horrible beginning in life. She hadn’t earned that from me. “So, Alana. How old are you?” I tried to distract her. I was betting she was the kind of girl who liked to talk about herself.
Kalani perked up in her chair, giving her full attention to her yoga acquaintance.
“I’m twenty-three,” Alana said easily. “I’m a Scorpio, but a Sagittarius rising!”
Alana continued rambling, but I shot Kalani a shit-eating grin.
Kalani’s left eyebrow ticked with frustration as she looked away from me, pretending to focus on an invisible speck of lint on her shirt. She would never hear the end of this from me. She had set me up with someone ten years younger than me.
“Oh, wow! You are a nurse already at such a young age?” My mother cut in.
Her familiar voice had a sweet, calming tone with a light native accent. It was the same voice that used to soothe me back to sleep. I locked eyes with Mom, pleading with her not to egg this situation on.
She smiled innocently and ignored me. “You must be a very hard worker. Our Kelly is also a hard worker.”
“It sounds like he is!” Alana said far too enthusiastically as she stared up at me from under her heavy, fake-lashed eyes. She looked like she was trying to seduce me with giant black moths attached to her eyelids.
“He got his bachelor’s from the University of Hawaii in just three years! And then became a vet at Oregon State. Did you know he owns a clinic here?” Mom continued.
I was thirty-three years old and ran my own veterinary practice, yet my family acted like I was an old maid whose clock was ticking. I had dated in high school and college, just never seriously.
I had worked in my parents’ diner and played football during my high school years.
In my undergrad, I was too busy being a full-time student, playing college football, and working two jobs to bother with romance.
Unlike a lot of the students there, I couldn’t afford to waste my time drinking and going to parties.
I didn’t go to college to find a wife; I was there to secure a stable future for my family and me.
After veterinary school, my family was vocally disappointed when I still wasn't seriously dating anyone. I sure as hell had never brought a girl over for Sunday dinners. It took a lot of work and dedication to grow a successful business from the ground up. I wasn’t in that stage of my life where I was ready to settle down and have kids.
I wanted to be fully present for them when the time came.
I’ve never done anything halfway, and I wouldn't start now.
“I didn’t know that, Auntie.” Alana’s smile was saccharine.
“Oi, Kai. How is soccer going this season?” I tried to take the attention off myself.
Kai straightened in his spot next to Tutu. “It’s fine,” my nephew mumbled as he pushed some peas around his plate. “It would be better if Dad could have come to my game yesterday.”
“My husband, Jeremy, is a firefighter,” Kalani cut in quickly. “He’s in the middle of one of his forty-eight-hour shifts.”
“I loved watching you play.” Tutu nudged him lovingly.
“Thanks, Tutu.” Kai smiled slightly. A tenderness in my heart swelled as I thought about all the times Tutu had shown up for me.
Tutu had watched us plenty over the years when Mom and Dad were busy running the family diner. I knew it was special that at eighty-five, she could still show up for her family.
“Who is this guy?” Alana reached under the table and started petting Ted’s head. “What’s your name, buddy?” She said in a baby voice that felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“That’s Ted,” Emma, one of Kalani’s twins, sang.
“Does Ted want something yummy to eat?” Alana picked up some grapes, bringing them closer to his eager face.
Without even thinking, I reached out and plucked the grapes from her hands, as I would with a toddler. “No!” I said a little more forcefully than I meant to.
Her eyes widened with shock at the roughness of my voice. “I’m...I’m so sorry...”
My outburst even silenced the kids. “I’m sorry,” I said quickly, heat spreading all the way up to my ears. “Grapes are toxic to dogs,” I tried to explain.
“I didn’t know,” Her cheeks reddened as she looked over to Kalani for support.
“I learned that when I killed his last dog with grapes!” Tutu laughed easily at her own joke, erasing some of the tension that had built up.
“She’s kidding!” Dad interjected.
Mom shook her head at me disapprovingly, and suddenly I felt like a keiki again. Out of the four of us, I had always been the most easygoing. But I didn’t feel easygoing tonight. I felt frustrated that my family wouldn’t butt out of my business.
Kalani changed the subject swiftly. “Alana, tell us about your recent trip to Spain.”
Alana eagerly started to rattle on about all the great wines and eateries she had visited in Barcelona last month. Her stories consumed the room as this disaster of a meal started to come to an end. I figured she had lost interest in me, as she didn’t look my way the rest of the meal.
As people finished and Kalani’s kids yawned, I quickly gathered the plates and headed to the sink to start the dishes.
We never had a dishwasher growing up. The one that came with the house broke early on, and my parents never had extra money to replace it.
When I started making a profit from my clinic, I tried to get one for them, but my parents refused.
They said they were fully capable of cleaning their own dishes.
Mom joined me shortly after I started scrubbing. “Alana seems nice,” she whispered to me.
I peeked over my shoulder and at the bleached blonde at the table. She seemed to be laughing and smiling, as if everything my family said was so funny. “Does she? Alana seems to like talking a lot. Mostly about herself,” I whispered back.
“One day, you’re going to have to lower your high standards and realize there are good women all around you.
You have had plenty of opportunities to marry a good one,” she said this softly, but anyone who knew my mom would be able to hear the disappointment in her voice.
“You weren’t even paying attention to what she had to say. ”
“That’s because I don’t need to hear what she has to say. She’s not the one.”
“Then who is the one?”
“I don’t know.” I stopped scrubbing. “But I’ll know when I meet her. I’m not going to settle. I’d rather be alone than marry the wrong person.”
“But what about having a family of your own?” She grabbed my arm tenderly.
“If I am meant to have a family, to be a dad, then it will happen when it’s right. You shouldn’t have to force anything. Did you have to fake it with Dad?”
She smiled dreamily to herself. We all knew the story of how Mom and Dad met. They met the love of their life when they were six. That didn’t happen to many people.
“I just want you to be happy.” She dried her hands on a towel, looking away from me. I could tell she was trying not to cry.
“I am happy.” And I meant it.
“I'd better get going!” Alana called from the table as she stood. Thank goodness.
“Kelly,” Kalani had mischief in her eyes once again, “I told Alana you would drive her home.” So that’s how she was going to act in the wake of defeat. Unbelievable. “She lives over in Pearl City, so I figured you could drop her off on your way home.”
“I took an Uber here, but Kalani said you wouldn’t mind taking me back.” Alana batted her moth-lashes at me again. Why did women feel the need to wear those things? They were born with eyelashes.
I was about to protest when Mom elbowed me in the side. Retirement had brought out a violent side in her. “Of course I can take you home,” I said through clenched teeth.
We said goodbye to my family as I loaded Ted into the back of my 2001 Toyota Tacoma. Alana settled into the passenger side as if she had done this a million times before.
Mom reached up for my neck and pulled me down until she could press her forehead against mine.
“Give her a chance...for me,” she whispered.
I groaned in agreement and then jumped into the driver’s side. I threw the car in first gear and eased my way out of my parents’ neighborhood.
We drove in silence for the first few minutes until Alana started messing with the stations on my radio. She found some upbeat pop music and began to sing along. She didn’t try to make small talk as we drove, and I found myself relaxing the closer we got to her place.
Guilt started to rush through me at my mother’s words. Was I being too cold to her? It wasn’t her fault that my family pushed her on me. Maybe she was a nice girl, and I wasn’t giving her a fair chance.
With only a few instructions from her, I pulled up outside her apartment complex just as the sun was setting. I shifted my truck into neutral, engaged the parking brake, and turned to apologize when a pair of sticky lips met mine.
Alana was kissing me so forcefully that I could feel her trembling a bit at the effort. The lipstick I saw her smooth on earlier was spreading all over me. I broke away from the kiss, and she looked up at me with heated eyes.
“Ala—-”
She interrupted me as she pushed herself up, locking her arms around my neck and pressing our lips together again. If I were fifteen, this would’ve been the most incredible experience of my life. But I wasn’t. I was thirty-three and tired of all the bullshit.
She tried to snake her tongue into my mouth as I pulled her off as calmly as I could. “Alana, are you crazy?”
Her lips were swollen from her powerful and controlling kisses. She was practically panting as she said, “What? I know you find me attractive.”
This time, she lunged across the console separating us and straddled my lap. She grabbed the sides of my face with both of her petite hands and brought my face down until it met the breasts peeking out through her thin sundress.
Ted was now barking from the back of the truck bed.
I grabbed her around the waist, and she moaned at my touch. With one swift move, and because she undoubtedly only weighed ninety pounds, I tossed her back to her side of the cab with a ‘thunk.’
“At what point in the night did you get the impression that I wanted you?” I spat at her, wiping the taste of her from my mouth. Ted was still barking, concerned about what the hell was going on.
“Grow up, Kelly. Even if you don’t want to date me, you know you want to fuck me,” she said this with a smug grin.
“And today is your lucky day because even though you have the personality of a door, you might be one of the hottest guys I’ve seen in a long time.
I’m going to let you fuck me,” she said this last part like she was usually very selective.
“Oh wow, thanks. That is so nice of you, but I’m going to pass.” I wiped more scarlet red lipstick from my face.
Her jaw almost hit the ground in response.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re not going to do any better than me.
I’m gorgeous, educated, and I fuck like a porn star.
Your sister told me you are sad and lonely.
I was shocked to see that you’re hot, though.
So, do you really want to be alone again tonight? ”
I reached across her and felt her nipples tighten against my arm. I tried to hold back the shiver of disgust that pulsed through me as I opened her door. “You can leave. We’re done here.”
She looked at me for a second longer before she slid out of the truck. She moved slowly, probably hoping I would change my mind. Ted jumped out of the bed and bumped right into her on his way into the passenger seat, causing her to lose her balance for a second.
“I don’t even like dogs!” she screamed out as she stomped towards her building.
I closed the door as Ted leaned over, licking my cheek, and trying to erase the last few minutes. “Yeah, buddy. I would much rather be alone than deal with shit like that.”
I drove off, but her words stayed with me. My own sister thought I was lonely. For the first time in a long time, I realized my sister was right.