Little ship-ness, dedicated to Amsterdam :)
Amita
I was kind of scared to meet him at first.
Charlie and I had been working together for a few months now, and one day he had invited me to come over to his house. We would just be working on some work for my thesis, so there was nothing scary about that. But going to his house would mean meeting his father.
Usually I wasn't nervous at all about meeting new people, but this was different. This was Charlie's father. And from what I heard this man meant a great deal to him. So whatever his father might think of me, that would mean a great deal too.
It felt like I was going to meet my father-in-law.
The moment I thought that, I quickly dismissed it. Of course this would be different. Charlie was my thesis advisor, nothing else. I would just be meeting the father of my thesis advisor, and there was nothing to worry about.
It was not like Charlie was my boyfriend.
I kept telling myself that, but although I knew that he was only my thesis advisor and friend at the moment I could not help but imagine a future where Charlie could be more than that. And in that sense, I was about to meet my father-in-law.
I got out of my car and walked to the door. With clammy hands I rang the bell.
Charlie opened the door and led me in. He immediately started talking about my thesis and how he was intrigued by some of the techniques I had used, but I couldn't really concentrate to hear what he was saying. I followed him to the living room where a man was reading the paper.
The moment he noticed me walking in he laid down the paper, got up from his chair and with a big smile he extended his hand.
'Hi Amita. I'm Alan. So you're the one who's occupying such a large part of my son's head lately?'
From the corner of my eye I saw Charlie turning red and realized I might not be the only one who had visions about the future. This man was way ahead of me, and I knew I had nothing to worry about.
