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"Charlie!" Don hissed. "You shouldn't be snooping around in Dad's car!"
Inside the box was a book, I picked it up. It was titled 'Cohabiting after 55'. We looked at each other and cringed at the thought of Dad getting romantic advice from a book. Looks like he was thinking of moving in with her. Things were progressing between them. Quickly, I opened it to the table of contents.
"Natalie's gonna wonder why we are taking so long!" Don warned.
"Look at this!" I pointed to the table of contents. "Chapter 7: How to do deal if your kids don't like your significant other."
Don roughly grabbed the book, and put it back in the box.
"She could decide to get out of the car!" he gave me an impatient look, and with a sulk, I went into it.
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Eventually, I dropped the boys off at Charlie's house, and then went home. Alan got up the minute he saw me come in the door. Apparently, he had been doing crosswords. I could tell by the fact that he had on his glasses and a folded newspaper in his hand.
We kissed and he asked me, "How did it go?"
"Wonderful, we ate, biked, and did a little shopping" I told him. "I got you a couple of things" I handed him the bag.
"Thanks!" Alan smiled.
Early the next morning, he woke me up.
"Alan!" I protested. "It's Sunday! Damn it!"
"We need to go car shopping!" he insisted.
"It's eight in the morning!" I groaned. "Besides, the car will be fine once it's fixed!"
"What if it strands you again?" he demanded, while sitting on a corner of the bed nearest to me, already dressed of course. He added worriedly. "You could be the target of some violent psychopath, while you wait for the tow truck!"
"Don needs to stop discussing his cases with you!" I remarked. "Look, I'll get up at nine." With that, I turned around facing away from him. I needed my sleep.
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With a sigh, I straightened the blankets and let her sleep. At nine, I woke her up again.
"Alan!" she groaned and put the blanket over her head.
"I've got coffee ready." I handed her the mug.
"I'm not getting a new car!" she said crankily after taking a gulp.
"But you need it!" I argued.
"It's not your decision!" she retorted.
"I know..., but I was hoping you'd listen to logic!" I said. My protective side wasn't going to give in.
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"Alan, I appreciate your concern, but my car is pretty reliable!" I tried to reason with him. "Besides, I don't want to spend my day off dealing with salesman. Maybe later, we can go out to eat and see a movie?"
"Fine..." he agreed reluctantly, though I knew that he'd bring it up later.
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I gave Amita her gift on Monday, when we had lunch at my office.
"It's beautiful!" she said with that wonderful smile of hers. "Where did you get it?"
"Don and I went to Santa Barbara with my dad's girlfriend" I told her.
"Oh yeah...Larry told me." Amita nodded, and then her face grew pensive. "How did it go?"
"It was lousy" I sighed.
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Two months later, Dad told Charlie and me that he was moving in with Natalie.
"That's...great dad!" I told me with my best fake smile. While I hoped that living with her would bring him to his senses, the thought of having to put up with Natalie to spend time with Dad irked me.
"Con..grats!" Charlie said lamely but Dad, in his happiness fell for it.
"Honestly, I'm nervous about this." Dad admitted.
"Are you guys looking for a place?" I asked.
"At the moment, I'm just moving in to her place." He told us. "Could you two help me move my stuff?" Dad looked at us expectantly. We both agreed.
A week passed, and Natalie came to the house to help us with the moving. Charlie sulked throughout the whole thing.
"You okay buddy?" I asked him.
"It's weird, having Dad move out." he said.
"I know it's a big change, buddy, but live goes on" I advised him. It was gonna be odd not seeing Dad at the house when I came to visit.
"How long do you think this arrangement will last?" He asked.
"Not too long" I reassured him.
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After moving a bunch of stuff, Dad decided to give me and Dona tour of 'their' place. The first thing I noticed was that Natalie had pictures of her pets, a dog and a cat displayed in the living room in the same way Dad had pictures of Don and me. She also had photos of pets, which apparently were dead.
Her cat was wary, but the dog sniffed us, and was quite friendly. The kitchen was smaller than the one at the house, but I could tell that Dad put it to good use.
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When we were done moving the boxes, it hit me; I was starting a new phase in my life. I had moved out of a home I had lived in for more than three and a half decades, to live with a wonderful person.
After giving the boys a tour, we went out to dinner. When, they left, I started to put things away.
"I emptied half the drawers in the dresser, and I made room in the bedroom closet" Natalie said.
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"Need help putting your stuff away?" I offered.
"Nah.." He said. I noticed that he was rather fastidious in how he organized his half of the closet. There was one section for suits, and another for casual wear. White shirts went at the end. Then, he put up the tie hanger. Layla started to sniff at the ties, which he had laying on the bed.
"What? You haven't seen ties before?" he teased her.
The next morning, I got up to find that Alan was rearranging the kitchen. He had taken out a lot of dishes, glasses, cans, and other things from the cupboards.
"What are you doing?" I asked. It's the last thing one expects to see on a Sunday morning.
"It's a little disorganized" he said, while emptying the cupboard where I put the plates.
"It didn't bother you before!" I argued.
"I was a guest before" he said as started to put stuff back, but differently than how I had it.
"You don't have OCD do you?" I asked as a joke.
"If by OCD you mean organized, then yes." he deadpanned.
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Sometime later, the phone rang. Nat answered it.
After a second, she told me" It's Don" I got the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Dad! I just wanted to see how you were settling in."
"Wonderfully! I've been unpacking and organizing." I said, and then asked impulsively. "Why don't you and Charlie come to dinner?" Truth be told, I was getting homesick, and wanted to spend time with the boys.
"Sure! We'll be there."
We eventually said our goodbyes and hung up. I noticed that Nat seemed a little annoyed as she poured herself some coffee.
"Is there a problem?"
"No... no I was just thinking about what we needed for dinner" she insisted. "So I could go to the store.
"Why don't we both go? Just let me finish organizing the kitchen" I suggested.
"Okay."
At the store, she insisted that we make our first stop at the pet section to get some toys and treats for her pets. Then, Nat got the most expensive brand of frozen dinners for lunch at work.
"Stouffers is cheaper" I pointed out. "And I've got coupons for it" It bothered me as we now shared the costs of the groceries. Raising two boys, one of whom needed tutors, books and other supplies had made me cautious about money over the years.
"Look, I want to have decent frozen food!" she argued, and put more in our cart.
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Why was Alan so hung up on the price of the frozen food? We both make good money, and it's not like we've got a mortgage to pay or young children to support. Geeze.
At the meat section, he took forever to pick the rib eye steaks, having the need to examine every one closely.
"That one's fine!" I told him at one point as he looked at a steak. "Trust me on this, I'm a vet!"
"It has to be just right!" he insisted.
I was a bit annoyed about the impromptu dinner. I'm not really a social person, and mostly preferred the company of animals to people. Plus, I liked to have at least a day or two of notice before going to a social event, or having guests, unless that guest is Alan, a good friend, or a family member. But what was I gonna tell him? You need to give me advance notice to have your kids visit?
TBC