Never Met a Stranger

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Whatever actual insight Macy hopes to gain on her paper while they eat is quickly foreshadowed by Evie, who’s used to being the center of her father’s attention. Every time Macy asks Gavin a question, Evie jumps in before he can answer, with a “Watch this!” and a “Look, Daddy! Look!” When that stops working, she falls back on her old standard—the temper tantrum.

First her fork clatters to the table and she knocks it to the floor with the back of her hand, which means he has to go get her a new one. Then she upends her drink, but fortunately the lid keeps it from spilling all over the place. Then she starts tugging on his arm, begging, “Can I call Mommy now? Please? You said I could. You said.”

Actually, Gavin said nothing of the sort, but he hands over his iPhone willingly if only to shut her up. Instead of dialing Marian, she settles for playing Angry Birds, laughing out loud with every level she passes. It takes all the concentration Gavin has left to focus on what it is Macy’s asking, but seriously, how hard is it to write a personal essay? The topic’s wide open—she can write about anything she wants, as long as it’s double spaced and a full five pages in length. He hates it when students waste half the first page with their name and the class, date and time, then a title centered in the middle, as if he doesn’t know the only reason for doing that is to make the paper look long enough.

“Look, just write about whatever you want, okay?” he tells her with what he hopes looks like an encouraging smile. “Five pages isn’t that long. Double spaced it’s what, thirteen hundred words? About the length of the front page story in the newspaper.”

She frowns at him. “Thirteen hundred words? You’re kidding! That’s like War and Peace!”

Closing his eyes, Gavin pinches the bridge of his nose and counts down slowly from five to try to calm his nerves. Just how bad a father will he be if he opts out of this movie they have scheduled altogether? You know Evie will never let you forget it if you do.

“I don’t want War and Peace,” he says, proud at how calm he sounds.

Beside him, Evie slaps the iPhone on the table in frustration and he hears a small splash where it hits the drink she spilled earlier. Did he remember to put it in the waterproof case? At this point, does it matter? Covering the phone with his hand, he tries to take it away without causing a scene, but Evie won’t let go. “I’m playing with it!” she cries.

“Fine.” To Macy, Gavin suggests, “Why not write about why you chose Richmond State?”

“Because I live in Richmond,” she says with a shrug.

Gavin sighs. “Then why you picked your major.”

“I’m still undecided.” Macy’s gaze darts to Evie. “Should she be doing that?”

Gavin turns in time to see Evie dribbling soda from her straw into her half-eaten bowl of mac and cheese. The iPhone is pinned between her arm and the table; one wrong move and it’ll clatter to the floor. He reaches for it again, but at the last minute she pulls it out of reach. “Can we go yet?” she whines.

“Daddy’s busy,” he tells her. “Are you finished eating?”

She stabs the noodles with her straw, then tries to raise one to her mouth to eat. “Watch this!”

He’s had enough. Taking the straw away from her, he scoots out of the booth and pulls her out, too. “Young lady,” he says, his voice stern.

It’s enough to set her off—she knows what’s coming, and before he even tells her he’s mad, she starts crying. Stamping her feet, she shrieks, “I want to go! Can we, Daddy? Can we go now?”

“Listen!” He squats down to her level and waits for the tears to dry—it doesn’t take long because they aren’t real. She hiccups as she watches him, waiting. He lowers his voice and says, “I have to finish up here, all right? If you keep acting this way, I’m not going to take you to the movies, you hear me? We’ll go back home instead and you can take a nap—“

“Noooo!” she wails. “I don’t want a n-n-n-nap!”

“Then you need to quiet down.” Gavin gives her the hard stare he thinks of as his ‘serious’ face. After a moment, the hiccups subside and she wipes one sticky hand across her cheek. “Now go in the bathroom and get cleaned up, okay? Can you do that?”

She nods, her lip caught between her teeth. “But Daddy…”

Straightening the collar of her dress, Gavin asks, “But Daddy what?”

She pats the side of his face, then his shoulder, which is her silent way of apologizing for acting so horrible. “I still want to see the movie. Can we?”

“When I’m done here,” he promises. “Go wash up and come right back.”

With a nod, she rushes away, weaving through the tables to the restrooms. Gavin watches until she disappears into the women’s room, then sits back down and starts to clean up the mess she’s left behind. “I’m real sorry about this,” he says again. “I have office hours Monday if you want to stop in then.”

Macy gives him a sympathetic smile. “Oh, it’s okay. I totally understand. I have a little brother who’s like, five, and he acts the same way.”

Yeah, but she’s seven, Gavin thinks, though he keeps the words to himself. He wonders how much his not living with Marian and helping raise Evie on a daily basis has affected her behavior. Is he to blame for the way she acts? Or does she simply know how to play him to get what she wants?

Gavin doesn’t know, and he’s never seen Evie be so disrespectful before. Then again, his focus throughout their lunch has been on Macy and not on his daughter. Evie isn’t one to settle for coming in second.

With a sigh, he glances over at the restrooms, but the door to the women’s room is still shut. “Let’s just see if we can wrap things up here, okay?” he asks. “Then if you still need advice, stop by my office during the week. But I really think once you start writing, you’ll find five pages really aren’t all that hard.”

Macy tucks a strand of honey blond hair over one ear and leans over the table. “You make it sound so easy. But how can I start writing when I don’t even know what it is I want to write about?”

I’m not going to write the damn thing for you, Gavin thinks, but he starts listing common essay topics while he keeps an eye out for his daughter’s return.