An Outside Observer
He had been worried about his daughter for too long, and he'd finally decided that now was the time to act, so he decided to start by simply watching her.
Liz had told him that Max was out of her life, but he wasn't simply going to take her word for it. He was her father, after all, and was determined to see it through to the end. He observed her first at home, and watched her as she went about her daily routine. The watching started on a Friday evening.
It was nearly eleven at night when the phone rang. He was comfortable in his chair in front of the television and he groaned at the thought of getting up, but then Liz yelled, "I've got it!" and he sank back gratefully into the chair that had he'd already partly risen from.
He could hear her in the hallway and listened closely to the conversation…
"Hello? Oh, hey, Michael." Long pause. "Uh, yeah, it's the unabridged version." Another long pause. "Oh, really? Well, so did I. Do you want to compare notes tomorrow after our shifts? Mr. Jones let it slip to me that there's going to be a pop quiz on it on Monday." Another pause, and then Liz let out a laugh. "Yeah, I know! So, tomorrow around four o' clock? Great. Don't forget your book." Another pause. "Uh…the balcony, I guess. That okay with you?" Pause. "Great! See you then…"
And then he heard her hang up the phone.
He called to her, feigning ignorance.
"Liz, who was it?"
"Just Michael, Dad," she called back. "We're doing a study session for AP English tomorrow after our shifts. It's okay if we study on the balcony, right?"
"Yeah, it's fine sweetheart…"
He heard her go back down the hall to her room and he wondered. Since when did she and Michael get along so well? He would have to keep an eye on them...but he wasn't too worried about it. In fact, it was probably a good sign that Max was no longer in her life. At least, he hoped it was.
She wasn't sullen any more…in fact, at time she almost seemed cheerful, like she had just now on the phone call with Michael. He still found it slightly hard to believe that she was no longer involved with the Evans boy. She still had some of the starry-eyed look in her eyes and it made him determined, more than ever, to enforce his ban of Max Evans from dating his daughter. As long as he enforced it, things might continue to look up.
The next morning he stood up at the front, setting up the cash register and getting the money ready for the rest of the day. He heard the doorbell ring and nodded as the Guerin boy walked in and headed straight for the kitchen in the back.
When he'd first hired him, he'd been very hesitant about it, knowing the young man's reputation for trouble, and it had colored his perception of him for quite a while.
But then, after only about a week of working on the job, Mr. Parker had realized that the reputation was mostly talk. Michael Guerin was surprisingly astute and a very fast learner, as well as being an excellent short-order cook. He and Liz had at first butted heads, as the both of them were stubborn and set in their ways, but eventually the two of them had developed a very good working relationship, which had apparently emerged as friendship outside of work as well.
As he counted the money, he watched Michael and Liz from the corner of his eye, and he smiled and let out a low chuckle at their interaction, so different from the night before on the phone.
"Hey, Parker," he said nicely enough.
She glared at him.
"Hey, Guerin…you forgot to finish cleaning out the fryer last night. It'll be a miracle if it even works this morning…"
He gave her a short nod and said in a truly contrite tone, "Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again. I'll clean it out now…"
It looked like the wind had been taken out of his daughter's sails, and her father smiled. He knew that his daughter always loved a good argument, as long as no real anger was involved, and it seemed that she had been deprived of one, which was probably only winding her up more.
Finally, she said, "That's it? No, 'Get over it Parker, it's not a huge deal' or 'Why don't you do it yourself, then, if it bothers you that much?'"
Michael just stared at her for a moment, but then a sly look entered his eyes as he simply shrugged and then said, "Why bother? It seems that you can carry on both sides of the conversation for yourself."
His daughter's eyes widened.
"I…you..!...Ughhh!" she finally incoherently exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air, and turning away from him, going back to the plates, cups, silverware, and napkins that she'd been stacking behind the counter earlier before he'd walked in.
He then saw a small grin on Michael's face, and he realized that the boy knew that he was pushing his daughter's buttons…but in the smile he could see something else; a glimmer in his eyes. He knew that look well, and instead of being upset or bothered by that fact that this young man was showing an interest in his daughter, he was pleased. Guerin was a good match for her.
He finished with the cash register and headed towards the back office, warily keeping an eye on the two of them, but soon saw that his worries were unfounded.
After their small skirmish, the two of them started to talk about the book that they were both reading for AP English, the one that had been mentioned on the phone the night before, he assumed, and he was pleased to hear someone talking to her on her level. That was a rarity in this small town.
After a while, as things got quiet, he got curious, so he stepped out of the office from where he'd been listening, and had one of his suspicions confirmed.
Michael was cooking something on the griddle…and Liz was watching him, the entire time pretending to read one of her textbooks, but failing miserably, and he recognized the look in his daughter's eyes. She was just as interested in Michael as he was interested in her…but they were most likely completely unaware of each other's attraction.
Yes, it seemed that Max Evans really was out of the picture.
However, he was certain that this dance between her and the Guerin boy was going to last for forever until one of them did something about it…or someone else did.
As the thought crossed his mind, he shook it off, and instead another idea came to him…and it was much more sensible.
Several hours later, after the usual Saturday morning rush in the cooling November mornings, he caught her with a hand on her arm just as she walked into the back room.
"Liz…"
She looked up, most likely thinking that he needed to talk to her about something business involved with the Crash Down.
"Yeah, Dad?"
He gave her a slightly hesitant smile, trying to figure out exactly what he was going to say. He hadn't entirely though out what his words were going to be, and now struggled to find them. He dropped his hand from her arm, and then finally seemed to find the words.
"You…you and Michael seem to be getting along pretty well, recently," he said, trying to be cautious and not make it too obvious as to what he was doing.
"Yeah, we are. He's easy to talk to," she said, a small smile appearing on her lips. "He's hard to deal with sometimes, but I can get intelligent conversation out of him most of the time," she finished, her smile turning into a wry grin.
He smiled back and then said, "I'm glad that you do…"
There was an almost awkward silence between the, but that could have simply been his point of view on the situation at hand.
Finally, he broke the silence and said, "So, he's in your AP English class with you? I heard you two talking about Tolstoy this morning…"
She gave her dad a broad smile.
"Yeah, we are. It's nice, actually. Michael's a lot smarter than anyone really gives him credit for, you know? And he's fun to talk to; especially about the books that we've been reading about in class. He's got this whole other take on War and Peace that I'd have never thought of on my own…it's really interesting…"
Her voice trailed off, and then she asked, "Why are you so curious about Michael, Dad?"
It took him a second, but he was proud of how quickly he thought of an answer.
"I've just been thinking about all of the extra work he's been putting in recently and I think that I might give him a raise…let him get the same amount, but cut back on his hours some so that he could get some more rest. He's been doing a lot of good work…"
His daughter faintly nodded.
"That's a good idea, Dad. He deserves it, that's for sure…"
And with that, she turned and headed up the stairs, her mind obviously someplace else entirely.
He stared after her, surprised that she'd taken to it so well. The one other time that he'd mentioned giving a raise to someone other than herself, she had argued with him, vehemently…but apparently not when it came to Michael.
Yes, the feelings were there.
He covered the floor for the time and served a few tables, and then watched the two of them carefully when she came back down after her break.
He watched her with a wary eye as she served the food, and was pleasantly surprised when he saw and heard her laugh out loud at something that Michael said to her, her hand landing on top of Guerin's arm and squeezing it…that was a promising sign.
He heard the bell in the front and he turned and saw Isabel and Max Evans walk in and take a seat at the counter. Mr. Parker bristled, and he felt his instinctive parental hackles rise, but then they relaxed when he realized that Liz barely noticed the Evans boy, her eyes still sparkling and locked on the short-order cook's face.
Max was glaring at the two of them…Michael noticed and glared back.
Max's eyes dropped and Isabel's lips tightened into a suppressed smile, and he saw her make eye contact with Michael and give him a small nod. She then shouldered her brother, who looked back up and gave his friend a nod as well.
Yes, he had nothing to worry about.
THE END
A.N. - I hope you enjoyed it!