Page 18 of Unwrapping His Gift
“She didnotsay that!”
“She did!” I insist. “She’s got a thing for me. I’m telling you.”
Daisy smiles, but it’s not her usual smile. There’s something lackluster about it. For a second, I think it might be me and the fact that I just dropped by unannounced and maybe that made her uncomfortable, but then I take a deeper look and see that’s not it. There’s something bothering her.
“Daisy, what’s wrong?”
My question seems to startle her. She forces a smile and shakes her head. “What? Nothing.”
“Come on, Daisy. I know you. I may not have seen you in a while, but I could always tell when something was eating at you, and I can still tell. Something’s bugging you. So tell me what it is.”
Daisy sighs. “So you’re still a mind-reader?”
I grin and put an index finger on each temple and squint. “Let’s see…you’re thinking about just how handsome I am and how you want to tell me what’s wrong so I can help you with it.”
This pulls a struggling laugh out from Daisy’s lips, but at least it gets her there. She practically rips her coat off as she kicks her shoes across the room and crashes down on the couch. I step out of mine, much more gently, and follow her and take a seat beside her.
“It’s my mom,” she groans. “She’s completely out of control, and I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.”
“Out of control?” I ask after giving her a second to take a few deep breaths.
“Her drinking has gotten worse, she won’t listen to me about anything, she’s spending exorbitant amounts of money on the heat because she leaves it cranked all the time.” She lets out another deep sigh and drops her palm over her forehead then brings her eyes to mine. “Remember my back rent that you so nicely paid for me? Wanna guess where that money was going when itshouldhave been going to your fan-lady down the hall?”
“Sending it to your mom, huh?”
She nods and groans. “It’s likeI’mthe parent. Only I’m the parent she won’t listen to. So what good am I, Craig?”
“Well, kids often don’t listen to their parents,” I chuckle. “So there’s probably a lot of parents out there who know exactly how you feel.”
“Yeah, with teenagers for children. Not fifty-three-year-olds.”
“You’ve got a point there,” I reply, sliding closer. Despite the fact that we slept together last night, I’m still feeling a little hesitant getting physical with her right now. Maybe it has to do with how she left my place this morning. “So what do you think you’ll do about it?”
“God, I don’t know. I need to get her some help, but I don’t see her agreeing to that.”
“Well I could help you with that.”
Daisy turns and looks at me. I don’t think she was expecting to hear those words come out of my mouth.
“Help me? Wh-what do you mean?”
“Get your mom into a program.” I smile. “I actually have experience with that sort of thing.”
That gets her attention. She props herself up on her elbows, brushes her hair out of her face, and looks at me intently. “What do you meanexperience?”
“Well, back in college, there was this guy, Max.” I can’t help but smile when I think back. “He was a great guy, everyone loved him, especially when he was drunk and acting crazy. So what did he do? He started getting drunkwaytoo much and all the time.”
Daisy nods. “I see.”
“Pretty soon, it became clear he couldn’t control it any longer. He started failing classes he should have been passing easily, and he was on the verge of flunking out of school.”
“That’s awful!” I smile. Daisy was always so sweet and so concerned about other people. That was one of the things I loved about her so much, and it’s so nice to see that quality hasn’t gone anywhere in the last five years.
“He and I were always close, so I was able to talk to him about it,” I continue. “It took some convincing, of course, and a lot of work, but I finally was able to get him into a program, and last time we spoke, he was two and a half years sober.”
I can see my story settling into her thoughts and the gears of her mind starting to crank and whir as she ponders my proposition. She always did look adorable when she was thinking about things, and that hasn’t changed either.
“You’d do that for me, Craig?” she asks. “You’d help me with my mom?”