Chapter Twenty-Six: Truths, Lies, and Affairs Part One
The next day, Haley began to work at Karen's Café. Karen had her waiting tables and working the cash register. Lucas worked at the café as well so he was cleaning up the dirty dishes in the back and washing off the filthy tables. Karen spent most of her time behind the counter greeting the customers and answering the phone for take-out orders.
"Welcome to Karen's Café!" Haley said to the incoming customer, "would you like a table or a chair at the counter?"
"I'll take a table please, miss" The man said sweetly. She showed him to his table and then began to turn around. She stopped when she heard him mumble something under his breath. She turned back around and gave him a curious look.
"Pardon?"
"I said so you're the girl my son seems to be crushing over."
"You're Nathan's father?"
"The one and only! My son told me about you two last night when I came home from the airport."
Flashback "Nathan! So glad you finally came home!" "I
should be using that same line towards you, Dad!" Nathan snarled as
he began to walk out of the den. "Not so fast, Nate! We
need to talk and you know it so come in here and sit down."
Nathan turned around but decided not to sit down. Instead, he
walked over to the window, which was behind Dan's desk. He looked
down at the bookshelf that was placed right under the windowsill. It
contained several pictures of him when he was playing basketball. The
other frames held pictures of their immediate family from previous
family gatherings. At the end of all the pictures was a frame that
had a picture of Deb. He picked it up and admired it. Instead of
turning around, he stood there looking out the window while gently
placing the picture frame back to its slightly dusty home. "Why
are you doing this to her?" Nathan said calmly, still not facing
his father. "Who?" "You know all to well who I
am talking about, Dad. Why are you all of a sudden treating mom like
she's a piece of garbage?" "Because! She is a piece of
trash if you ask me. Before you start judging me son, you better have
your mother tell you her secrets. I guarantee you that you will be
siding with me after you talk to her!" Dan said angrily.
Unbeknownst to either of them, Deb was listening to what they
were saying from the top of the stairs. Once she heard Dan blaming
everything on her, she decided she would go downstairs and give him a
run for his money. "Well, before you hear my big bad secret
Nate, why don't you ask your father what I caught him doing several
years ago!" Deb shot back at Dan, while giving him evil glares.
"What the hell is going on here?" Nathan yelled.
"Nathan, a couple of years ago, your father was at the
beach house and I caught him with another woman. I walked in on them
making out on the patio. He blamed it on me because that was the year
I had more business trips than expected." "And that's
all that happened, Deb! She came over for some steaks and wine. After
dinner, we went on the patio. She made a move on me and that's when
you came in," Dan said as he turned to look at Nathan. "Once your
mom left, she left too. There was never an affair. If your mom hadn't
had stopped us, I would have. This family is too important to me."
"I can't believe I am hearing this!" Nathan said as he
stood at the window, completely shocked. "Oh but there's
more to this story! Guess who I caught having an affair two years ago
after she found out that I was having one. You know all of those
extra business trips she was taking, Nathan? Those weren't all for
business…most of them were for play!" Dan shot back at Deb, evil
filled in his eyes. "Nathan…I didn't realize what I was
doing at the time. Once I came to my senses, I called the whole thing
off. All I was thinking about was myself. Once I realized that I had
a chance of losing you, I came back home. You are the most important
person in my life and I can't imagine my life without you."
Nathan's face turned as pale as a ghost while his eyes
filled with fire. He walked to the doorway and turned around. "You
know, I always thought Dad was a complete jackass but now, you seem
to be filling his same shoes, Mom. I can't even deal with this
right now! In my book, you're both pretty crappy parents! I'm
leaving to go talk to Haley…don't wait up!" "Who is
Haley?" Dan snapped back at his son. "My girlfriend and
if you were home, you would know that!" With that, Nathan
slammed the door and didn't come home until the next morning.
Dan
Scott entered the front door to his house only to find his wife
comfortably asleep in their bedroom and their son nowhere to be
found. He grabbed a bottle of scotch from the kitchen and made
himself a scotch on the rocks with a twist. He sat down on the couch
in the den, knowing Nathan would see him when he came home. He heard
the front door open and close. Nathan turned on the hallway light and
locked the wooden front door. He began to walk towards the stairs
when he noticed the light was on in the den. He went to go turn off
the switch but instead had a surprise he wasn't quite ready for.