Anyway, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. I don't know how much I'll be able to write while I'm gone. Most of my files are stored on the internet, but I'll try to get some writing on this done. Promise. Hope you enjoy this.
Dating and Planning
"I would actually really appreciate it if you told us where we are heading," Katie said as two Stolls and two Gardners all walked down a road together.
"North," Travis said almost automatically. A smirk crawled onto his face as he realized that he hadn't even meant to be a little sarcastic.
"Thank you, Travis, but that much I had discerned," Katie said. "I meant where is our destination."
"We're almost there," Izzy assured her parents.
"But, we thought that... well, neither of us can remember a time before this afternoon's pool incident when the four of us were together," Addy said. "And since this is our only night in the same town since forever, and we don't know when the next time will be, well, we thought it would be a good idea for at least one family dinner."
"You hate family dinner night," Travis said to his daughter.
"With you and Uncle Connor, yes," Addy said. "But with my sister and mother, now that's a different story. As you always tell me, never knock something until you've tried it."
"We did try it," Katie reminded her daughter as kindly as she could. "You two were too young to remember. It just wasn't meant to be."
"Well, with two screaming babies, I can understand why you two were stressed," Addy said.
"Circumstances have changed," Izzy said. "You're both successful, more mature, and we're no longer babies. We're practically young adults ourselves."
"Yeah, and I'm engaged to another woman," Travis said. "Or did you two forget that?"
"I've been trying to," Addy said. She frowned and walked ahead a few steps. "I still cannot believe that you got engaged and didn't tell me!"
"Well, I thought I was telling you," Travis reminded her. "You would have found out from me if you two hadn't pulled the little scam you two cooked up."
"Like father like daughters, Travis," Katie said. "You are a son of Hermes."
"Hey, I did not teach her how to scam people, as much as you may not believe," Travis said. "I know that your opinion of me probably isn't very high, but I think that I've done a good job raising our daughter to your standards. Name one thing you've seen in Addison that makes you believe otherwise."
"The fact that I'm in Oregon," Katie said without missing a beat.
"She kind of got you there, Dad," Addy said, while Izzy had to hold back some snickers.
"But, we're here," Izzy said, calming her snickering a moment later.
The two looked at the restaurant. Katie wasn't familiar with the majority of the restaurants in Portland, but the outside definitely resembled a nice restaurant, the kind that two twelve-year-olds pooling their limited resources could not afford. The windows were tinted, there was a doorman that opened the door for them, candles and perfectly blooming roses at each of the tables, silk table clothes, a dress code and reservations were required.
"Girls, are you sure this the right place?" Katie asked.
"Yep," Addy said.
"Gardner party for two," Izzy said to the hostess.
The young woman looked at the four of them, before her eyes begun to scan down the reservation list.
"Party of two?" Travis asked.
"Oh, yeah, about that," Addy said. "This isn't the kind of place I really like to eat."
"But there's no good reason for the reservation to go to waste," Izzy said. "We'll be around the corner at the burger joint in our price range."
"And don't worry about ordering, we've already put in the orders for you," Addy said. "And it's paid for, so you really have to stay or all that money will go to waste." With that, the two young girls walked out.
The woman nodded. "Just this way, please." She began leading them further into the restaurant, past a dance floor. "Interesting daughters you have. Is it your anniversary?"
"We're divorced," Katie said flatly. She didn't know why she hadn't insisted that Izzy spend one final night with her father instead of following through with the girls' plan.
"Really, I never would have guessed," the hostess said. "Now, as they said, your meals have been ordered and paid for. However, they did forget to provide us with what salads and soups you would like. Today's soups are cream of mushroom, tomato bisque, and French onion. The salads we offer are the house salad, the all greens salad, and the tomato salad."
"I'll have a basic house salad," Katie said. "And cream of mushroom soup."
"French onion soup and tomato salad for me," Travis said.
The woman nodded and was off.
Within a few moments, a man came out with an ice bucket and two champagne flutes. He opened the bottle and poured them each a glass, putting the bottle into the bucket. "My name is Joseph and I will be your server today," the man said. "I hope you enjoy your champagne. Would either of you like water as well?"
"No, thank you," Travis said. "I'm good." He turned to Katie.
"I'll be fine, but thank you," Katie said.
Joseph nodded. "Your salads should be out in about ten minutes. Would you like some breadsticks in the mean time?"
"Actually, I think we'll use the wait time to dance," Travis said.
Katie's eyes widened, but Joseph was already walking off. "Dance?" she asked, her green eyes on Travis as he stood and offered her a hand. "You dance?"
"A bit," Travis said. There were a few couples on the floor and the string quartet was playing some classical waltzes. "May I have this dance?"
Katie thought a moment, then took Travis's hand. He led her to the dance floor, and Katie was quite pleasantly surprised that Travis actually did know how to properly waltz. As she only knew a few basic steps, she allowed him to completely lead. He kept it simple at first, but soon couldn't help but spin her, and lead her into a quick foxtrot when the music changed.
They talked a bit as they danced. Simple things. How Katie got her business started. How Travis got into the business of being a corporate spy. Why Connor still had a bit of a limp and a bruise on his chin.
"How did you meet Linda, anyway?" Katie asked.
"Oh, well, I was actually hired by a fashion magazine in the area to do some spying, pick up some tips, and Linda was the guide to the fashion world that the magazine hired so I wouldn't be entirely lost when it came to talking with the fashion pros. It was coincidence that she herself is a demigod."
"Seems it must have been the work of the Fates, then," Katie said. "I mean, how many other demigods can live in Oregon?"
"As far as I know, Connor, Linda and I are the only ones," Travis said. "Which is good, because it's rare that monsters wander up here. That is actually one of the reasons that I moved out here. I figured that living with two demigods, Addy herself would be in danger of monster attacks. The less demigods in an area, the less monsters tend to show up. Addy herself has only ever seen two or three monsters her whole life."
Katie smiled a bit at that. Izzy had seen quite a few more monsters, living in a popular destination for demigods. And not all of them were easy to defeat.
"You know, this is nicer than any restaurant you ever took me to," Katie said after another moment.
"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly have much money when we were together," Travis said. "In the end there, it was hard enough to feed ourselves and the girls, not to mention go to nice restaurants." The look in Travis's eyes made Katie suspect that he blamed the money problems they had on their break-up all those years ago.
"There were other problems too, Travis," Katie said, looking down. "We were still kids ourselves. We didn't give our relationship enough time to grow and mature. We got married on a whim."
"Even so, I don't know that I would have changed anything about it," Travis said. "At the time, I felt that I was only complete when you were near me."
Katie turned her head away for a few moments before turning back to him, spotting his blue eyes. They were looking at her the way they used to.
"Overall," Katie quickly said, looking away again, "the best thing that came from us were the twins." She felt a little rushed saying it, as if justifying their break-up... that nothing mattered anymore but their daughters.
When Travis didn't respond, she knew that her words had cut him pretty deep, as if opening an old wound. However, whether or not they had broken up, she would feel the same, but it was they way she said it. It had sounded as if, maybe, she would have changed her fate if she could do it over.
"It looks like Joseph is returning with our salads," Travis said suddenly, letting her go and stepping back from her.
Katie looked at Travis for a moment, but his eyes were looking away, so she followed him to their table just as Joseph arrived.
-0-0-0-
"Do you think it's going well?" Izzy asked as she and Addy were finishing up their five dollar meals.
"I'm sure it's going wonderfully," Addy said. She took a big bite of her burger, and only half finished chewing before she was speaking again. Izzy could see why Connor had managed to figure out that she wasn't Addy. "We know that, deep down, they still love one another. I mean, just think about the way they look at one another."
"But, what if it's not enough?" Izzy asked. "It only takes one slip of the tongue to ruin it, you know, them being divorced and Father being engaged to the DOA."
Addy frowned a bit, taking in Izzy's words. She knew their plan would have worked flawlessly if not for the Daughter of Aphrodite, or DOA as she and Izzy had taken to referring to her as.
"If she was true to her mother, she'd be on our side," Addy said.
"Unless she actually does love Father and we just don't see it," Izzy said.
"No, she likes his money and his sword skills," Addy said. "We have to keep that mentality, or we'll lose."
Izzy frowned. "Addy, this isn't a game you can win or lose, this is our lives, and our parents." She looked down. "We're only twelve... maybe this is something we just don't understand."
Addy huffed. "Well, with that attitude the DOA is definitely going to win Dad. And we lose one another except for holidays." She crumbled up her napkin. "I can't live without Mom in my life now that I know her. And I would get the short end of the stick. I'd be stuck with Linda as my live-in step-mother. You'd hardly ever see her, and the best bet for me would be if I got shipped off to boarding school."
Izzy looked down. "I hadn't really thought of that," she said softly. "But, if this date isn't enough, we will need a back-up plan."
"Maybe we can consult Connor when we get back to the hotel," Addy said. "He's as against Linda as we are."
"The camping trip," Izzy suddenly said.
"What about it?" Addy asked.
"We go," Izzy said.
"Okay, I'm not following you," Addy said.
"Maybe one date isn't long enough," Izzy said. "But a weekend long trip in the wilderness as a family... it'll be like heaven. If nothing else, Father will realize that there is no way Linda would ever want to go on that kind of trip."
"And we'll have a real family vacation," Addy said.
"Plus, the way Father and Uncle Connor were describing it... it made me really want to go," Izzy said. "We don't really get to go camping because Mother's always so busy with work. And it's more of a father thing, really."
"But we need to make sure that they can't force you home," Addy said. "Because, if they try to take you to the airport, you're not likely to go kicking and screaming the way I would. So, first a few ground rules. We call Mom 'Mother' and Dad 'Dad.' That way they both get called what they're used to hearing. As well, that would otherwise be one big indicator."
"Okay, and we don't eat food that is too spicy," Izzy added.
"But we do eat full meals," Addy said.
"But we don't ask for seconds," Izzy said. "However, we look longingly at food."
"Once we're on the trip and at the campsite, food rules are off," Addy put in. "Because, once we're there, we have to stay the night, not enough time to turn around and make it back home that day. And after a night, I'm sure that they'll both want to stay at least one more, if not two more nights."
"And we both respond to both names," Izzy said.
Addy smiled brightly. "We are geniuses!"
"Well, we should head back and create our outfits for tomorrow," Izzy said.
"Why?" Addy asked.
"Because we don't want our clothes to be a dead give-away as to which of us is which," Izzy said. "We want to be as close to matching as possible."
-0-0-0-
Izzy and Addy were both in Addy's room, watching as their parents returned. They had both hoped that the two would be happy and relaxed, but Travis seemed a bit awkward and Katie seemed stiff. They sighed.
"It was nice talking to you," Travis said. "Maybe, now that they know about each other, we could get together once in a while, like a family, like they had suggested."
"I don't think that would be a good idea," Katie said. "We can work out some plan, so we can both see them enough, but I'd rather we kept it to just them."
Travis nodded. "You're probably right... you usually are. I'll see you tomorrow morning then, give my good-byes to Izzy. I guess I better return to Linda before she starts to worry." With that, he turned around and made his way toward the elevator to get to his and Linda's room.
Katie sighed. "You can come out, girls," she said once he was gone.
They both stuck their head out. "You knew we were listening?" Izzy questioned.
Katie turned to her daughters, and she could see dashed hope in both of their blue-green eyes. "You know you shouldn't have done that," she said.
"How was your dinner?" Addy asked. "What did you and Dad talk about?" Izzy's eyes were asking the same questions.
Katie put her hands on her hips and frowned at her two daughters. "Your father is getting married to a lovely woman, and I expect you two to respect that. And respect that your father and I broke up for a reason, and twelve years doesn't make a difference to change that. Some things... time can't fix. We've moved on, and now your father has a chance at happiness again with someone and if you keep trying to get us back together..." there were tears in her eyes.
"Mother," Izzy said, biting her lip. "I'm sorry... we didn't mean to hurt you."
"No, it's not you," Katie said. "But, could you leave the issue alone... please?"
Izzy and Addy looked at one another. "We will," they said in unison, both of them crossing their fingers behind their back.
-0-0-0-
Travis and Katie stood in the lobby, having checked out of their respective hotel rooms, waiting for the girls to come down so they could say their good-byes.
"They were brushing their teeth when I came down here so they shouldn't be long," Katie said to Travis when he looked over at her.
The elevator door opened and the two girls walked out. Their brown locks styled exactly alike to the hair. One wore a pair of ripped up jeans (clearly belonging to Addy) and a cute button-up top (clearly belonging to Izzy). The other in a black pleated skirt and an oversized tee. Each had one Converse sneaker and one black flat on.
"Girls..." Travis said, frowning at them, though also slightly impressed. "What is this?"
"What does it look like, Dad?" one asked.
"Izzy, you can't get on a plane wearing those jeans," Katie said. She looked between the two, and then said to the other, "Or that shirt."
"Oh, you'd be surprised what they will let you wear on a plane these days, Mother," the second one said.
"This is ridiculous, girls," Travis said. "Get dressed properly, will you?"
"No deal," one said.
"We have a camping trip to go on," the other said.
"Izzy," Katie said.
They both turned to her. "Yes, mother?" the questioned in unison.
"Addy," Travis said.
"Dad," they said together.
"We have a very simple proposition, Dad," Izzy said.
"We all go on the camping trip," Addy said. "And, when it's over, we will tell you, truthfully, which of us is which."
"Because it would be such a shame if Mother took the wrong one of us home," Izzy said. She and Addy added, together, "Again."
Katie turned her green eyes to Travis. "You know, they get this from you."
