Dad’s Policeman Friend by Lena Little
9
Camila
“What have you been doing in your free time since I left?” my dad asks across the 1950’s style diner table to Caden.
“It’s only been a couple of days. Just the usual stuff.”
“I know but you didn’t have your basketball buddy so you must have occupied your time some other way. I mean, you missed me so much you did come by my house. I’m not going to catch you with some of my clothes or anything, am I Mr. Stalker?”
“Come on, man,” Caden bemoans. My dad laughs and reaches across the table to gently punch him in the chest, but Caden barely moves. His muscles are rigid and his jaw clenched. There are tendons pulling tight in his neck and he’s rolled his shoulders back at least a half dozen times in an attempt to get comfortable. And apparently failed miserably each and every time.
“Did Camila tell you she’s starting college soon?” my dad asks, pointing at me with his fork.
“Yeah. Less than a week I think.”
“Right,” I confirm.
“Here today, gone tomorrow. They grow up so fast,” my dad adds.
There’s a long pause and finally, Caden adds, “Wouldn’t know. Never had kids before.”
“Because you’re too picky or because you’re married to your job?” my dad inquires.
“Little of both, but you never know. Things have a way of sneaking up on us when you least expect them.”
He glances at me slightly and I try not to crack a smile.
“You…seeing someone these days?” Dad prods.
“I wouldn’t call it seeing someone. I’m not interested in dating, only finding the right woman and making her mine without the need for thought or hesitation. Why would you need that when you know, with one hundred percent certainty, that she’s the one.”
“Wait,” my dad says, dropping his fork. “My best friend who’s been on this planet for thirty-nine years, of which I’ve been his best friend since we met when we were five, has a woman that he’s…in love with? And I haven’t heard anything about it?”
Caden stabs at his scrambled eggs with his fork, and this time it’s not because he’s hungry.
“Like I said…snuck up on me.”
“I thought you were going to say she was right under your nose all this time, seeing that aside from the multitude of people you interact with on a daily basis I’m guessing the rest of the people you come into contact day in and day out are pretty much the same.”
Caden gazes off at nothing and I can feel my hand shaking under the table. Is he going to tell him? Now, here at breakfast? In public?
“So, who is this secret lady?” my dad throws out, breaking the silence. “We go to school with her?”
“No clues because you might be able to guess.”
My dad rattles off a laundry list of names and Caden turns up his nose at each of them. “None of them?” my dad asks, leaning back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest, and trying to come to grips with the fact that his best friend has a woman in his life and that my dad can’t seem to guess who it is. The good thing is that his seeming suspicions about us have quickly cooled, now that Caden admitted to someone…just not me.
I’m not sure if I want him to just claim me in front of my dad right now or not. The emotional side of me would be thrilled right now, but the logical side says it’s suicide.
We manage to make it through breakfast with no more questions, although my dad’s eyes never seem to relax after narrowing. He’s trying to figure out who it is. Will he guess and if he does, will it be too late for Caden to save his relationship with him…forever?
