Answered prayers

21

BY THE END OF APRIL, TWO WEEKS AFTER BRAD HAD GOTten home, Alex invited Zoe out to dinner when she came home from Brown for the weekend. She was staying with her mother, as she always did, and she didn't want to go out with him. But Faith told her that she thought she should.
“What's the point, Mom?” Zoe looked annoyed as she hung up the phone. She really wanted to go out with her friends. “He's just going to talk shit about you.”
“He's still your father. You haven't had dinner with him in a while. Maybe he's trying to bridge the gap with you.” As always, Faith was far more fair about him than he was about her. He was still continuing to poison Eloise against her mother, and Faith wanted to go over to visit her, as soon as she finished school. Their semester end was only a few weeks away. And Zoe would be home in mid-May. Faith had invited her to come, if she went to London to see Eloise.
In the end, Zoe agreed to have dinner with Alex, at a little French restaurant he had always liked. He was obviously trying to make an effort with her. She went in a dress she had borrowed from her mother, and she had worn her hair in a French braid. She looked pretty and fresh and young. She had just turned nineteen a few weeks before, and she was getting more beautiful every day. But Zoe was startled when she saw that her father wasn't alone, when she approached the table. There was a woman sitting with him. He introduced them to each other with a broad, happy smile. And Zoe thought her father looked ridiculous. The girl sitting beside him on the banquette was nearly half his age.
“Leslie, I'd like you to meet my daughter Zoe … and this is Leslie James.” Zoe guessed her to be in her early twenties, although she was slightly older than that. She was wearing a low-cut, tight-fitting dress, and she had long black hair. And although Faith wouldn't have done so, she could have told Zoe what kind of underwear she wore, if she'd been there.
They chatted awkwardly for a few minutes, and Zoe looked uncomfortable, as her father ordered wine. She realized after a few minutes that Leslie worked at his firm. But Zoe thought it was in bad taste to include his daughter on a date.
“Have you worked there for long?” Zoe asked, trying to be polite, and wishing she weren't there.
“About fourteen months. I moved here from Atlanta right before that, with my little girl.” Zoe realized then that she had a faint southern accent, and she asked how old her little girl was, for lack of anything better to say.
She hated being there at all. “She's five,” Leslie said, smiling and looking very young, as her father looked proudly at his friend. It was as though he wanted Zoe to admire her too, which had been the wrong thing to do. She felt disloyal to her mother just being with them.
“She's a beautiful little girl,” Alex added proudly, as Zoe cringed inwardly. “She's adorable.” It was obvious that her father had established a relationship with both of them.
“She's learning French. She goes to a French kindergarten. Your father thought that would be good for her.” Zoe raised an eyebrow and then controlled herself instantly. She couldn't remember her father ever being that interested in where she went to school.
“That's nice for her,” Zoe said, and took a sip of wine. Leslie had asked for champagne. And then Zoe nearly choked at what Leslie said next.
“This is kind of a special night for us,” Leslie said with a coy smile at Alex, and he looked mildly uncomfortable. But the idea of taking Zoe out to dinner with them had been his. He wanted his daughters to meet her. “It's our anniversary,” Leslie said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder as Zoe looked at her.
“Really? What kind of anniversary?” Zoe asked. It had to be a month or two, which seemed pathetic to her.
“We've been dating for a year. We had our first date a year ago tonight.” Alex looked paralyzed for an instant, and then pretended he hadn't heard. There was nothing else he could do, as Zoe stared at them both.
“You've been dating for a year?” Zoe's voice was suddenly a high-pitched squeak.
“Not really,” Alex interjected then. “I think Leslie means we've known each other for a year. We met shortly after she came to work.”
“That's not true. Tonight is the anniversary of our first date.” She looked hurt that he either hadn't remembered or didn't want to admit it, and Zoe's face went pale.
“That's interesting, since my father left my mom two months ago. I guess you guys were going out for quite a while before that.”
“Yes, we were,” Leslie smiled, and with that, Zoe stood up and accidentally overturned her wine, and it spilled across the table, as Leslie moved back to avoid getting splashed.
“I think that's disgusting, Dad,” Zoe said, looking at him. “How could you bring me here to celebrate with you? After all the things you've said about Mom, and about it being her fault, you make me sick. Why don't you have the guts to tell Eloise the truth, instead of poisoning her against Mom? Why don't you just tell her you were screwing around, and had a girlfriend for nearly a year before you walked out on her? It would be honest at least.”
Alex's eyes were blazing. He hadn't expected Leslie to give him away. She was obviously not too bright. He was totally infatuated with her, and he had had no clue that she'd do that. “Why don't you sit down and we'll talk about it,” he said quietly, while his daughter looked at him with contempt. But he was trapped behind the table on the banquette, and couldn't move.
“No, thanks. I've got other plans,” Zoe said, turned on her heel with remarkable aplomb given how shaken she felt, and walked out of the restaurant. As soon as she got out on the sidewalk, she started to run, hailed a cab, and went home. She was crying when she walked in the front door, and Faith was on the phone with Brad. He was talking about a case he was worried about, and she had told him Zoe was going out to dinner with her father. She was startled when she heard the front door slam, and Zoe ran into her study in tears.
“What happened?” Faith stopped talking to Brad to look at her. Her eye makeup had run down her face, and she looked like a little girl who'd been beaten up in school.
“He's a total son of a bitch, Mom. Why didn't you tell me about that girl? Did you know about her?”
“What girl?” Faith looked shocked. “Wait a minute … Brad, I'll call you back.” He could hear a crisis brewing, and hung up immediately. “What happened? What are you talking about?”
“Dad had a woman with him. Some fourteen-year-old tart named Leslie. She had long black hair and big boobs, and she had the nerve to tell me it was their first anniversary, and they were celebrating it with me. What a f*cking disgusting thing to do. Did you know about her, Mom?”
“Sit down,” Faith said quietly, and handed her a tissue. “Wipe your face … calm down … yes, I know about her,” her mother said calmly, without volunteering more. He had finally done it to himself. It had been an incredibly stupid thing to do.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because it was none of your business. It was up to your father to tell you, if he wanted to, and I didn't think he would.” She didn't offer Zoe any of the details, nor would she.
“Is that why he left you?”
“I guess so. Maybe that, and some other things. He said he wanted a life, and was bored with me. She's a lot younger than I am, that's for sure. And probably a lot more fun.”
“She's a total moron with tits. What is he doing with her? And how could he leave you for her? How could he take me to dinner with her?” It had been the most humiliating moment in her life. Zoe had felt cheated and betrayed and used, and what little respect she'd had for her father to begin with utterly disappeared.
“Maybe he's serious about her,” Faith said, looking depressed. She felt it as another slap in the face, after many, but this time he had slapped Zoe too. And she hated him for that. His children didn't belong in his affairs. Unless this was more than that, and he was sharing that with them. If so, Zoe would have to adjust and accept Leslie for who she was to him. But it was a little early, to say the least, to be flaunting her.
“If he marries her, I'll kill myself, or him.”
“He's not marrying anyone, yet. He's still married to me.” But in five more months, he wouldn't be. She just couldn't imagine him introducing that girl to his daughters so soon.
It took her an hour to calm Zoe down, and then before Faith could stop her, she picked up the phone. She dialed Ellie in London. It was three in the morning for her. Faith tried to convince her to wait until she'd calmed down, but Zoe only waved her away. And Eloise must have picked up the phone in her sleep.
“Wake up,” Zoe said bluntly, “it's me … No, I won't call you back … listen to me. Do you know what our shithead father did tonight… he just took me to dinner with his girlfriend, who looks about fourteen, to celebrate their one-year anniversary with them. One year! Do you hear me! He's been dating her for a year. And that's why he left Mom! Now what do you think of your hero? After all the shit you gave Mom, you owe her a humongous apology.” There was a long silence then on Ellie's end, and Zoe just kept confirming what she'd heard and seen. They argued for a long time, and Faith left the room. She went down to the kitchen and called Brad on the other line. He was still in the office, and she explained what had happened. He whistled at his end of the phone.
“That must have been quite a scene. What an incredibly dumb thing to do. What was he thinking?”
“I guess he's naive, and he thought he could sell it to her. She's on the phone with Ellie now. I suspect the shit is about to hit the fan.”
“I'd say it already did,” he laughed. “I don't envy him. Hell hath no fury like girls when they meet their fathers' girlfriends. I think you're about to be avenged. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.” Brad sounded both amused and pleased.
“Yeah, I was thinking that too,” Faith said soberly. They went back to talking about his case for a few minutes, and then she got off the phone again. It was only a minute later when Zoe walked into the kitchen with a superior look. “What did Ellie have to say?” Faith asked, intrigued. She was hopeful that Zoe had just provided adequate evidence to turn Eloise around. She didn't expect her to turn on her father, but maybe she'd forgive her mother now, or at least try to understand.
“She's coming home this weekend to see you, Mom. She said to send you her love.” Faith smiled. There was hope. At last.
Eloise came home, as promised, that weekend, and she spent two days crying in her mother's arms. She apologized, she sobbed, she begged for forgiveness. She couldn't believe what her father had done. And she and Zoe had a major confrontation with him. Faith never knew exactly what transpired, but both girls stayed with her that weekend, and when Alex called, neither of the girls would talk to him. He was in major disgrace with them, all of which he deserved, as far as Faith was concerned.
“Do you think he's going to marry her?” Eloise asked, looking panicked, and sitting close to her mom. In the past few days, Eloise's love for her mother had not only deepened, but she had a new respect for her she'd never had before. She had finally discovered and fully understood the decency that was at Faith's very core.
“I have no idea,” Faith said honestly. “You have to ask him.” But neither of them was anxious to know, and they didn't want to call to ask him.
“Mom,” Eloise said finally, in a quiet moment alone, when Zoe had left the room. “I don't think I can ever tell you how sorry I am for all the things I said to you. I didn't understand. Dad always told me I was just like him, and I think I wanted to prove to him that I was, to get his approval and win his love. He never openly said bad things about you, but he somehow implied that he was always right and you were wrong. I learned a lot about myself in the past couple of months, about trust, and belief, and manipulation. I let myself believe that he was telling the truth, and you weren't. I never understood or wanted to accept that you were telling the truth. I was a complete shit to you, I don't know how you can still love me after all the things I said.” Tears rolled relentlessly down her cheeks as she spoke to Faith, and her mother was crying too. “I never really knew what a good person you are … and how rotten he is. I feel as though I've lost my father now. I'll never be able to trust him again.” But Faith hoped she would one day. He was their father and, more than likely, they would eventually forgive him. Or at least Faith thought they should, but that was how she viewed everything and everyone, as worthy of forgiveness, except sometimes herself. The one person she was always hardest on was herself. And what she was hearing from Eloise healed the wounds in her heart.
“I love you, Ellie. I'm sorry this happened to all of us. I don't know why your father did what he did, but he has to live with it now, and work it out for himself.” She knew she would never feel the same way about him again, but she hoped that the girls would, for their sakes. It was hard enough to watch their parents' marriage disintegrate, she didn't want them to lose Alex too. They needed him, however imperfect he was.
The two of them left the room arm in arm, and once the furor settled down, the three of them had a nice time. They went out for hamburgers, and to Serendipity for banana splits, and she told them about going there with Brad.
“So what's with that?” Ellie asked, back in the fold again. She held hands with her mother, and Faith was enormously relieved. She had both her girls back. She didn't wish Alex any harm, but she was grateful that Ellie had come around, and had come all the way from London for the weekend. She told her mother she had broken up with Geoff, but she had two new suitors both of whom she seemed to like a lot. But just like Zoe, she wanted to know more about Brad. Faith talked about him a lot, and seemed to think the world of him, but she always insisted that they were just friends.
“I told you, we're friends. He was like my big brother growing up. He was Uncle Jack's best buddy when we were all kids. He's married. And we're never going to be more than friends.” She said it so firmly that it always made Zoe suspicious of her.
“I still think he's in love with you, Mom. He has to be. No guy spends that much time calling and sending e-mails.”
“He just likes to talk, I guess. But that's it.” She sounded sure.
“And what about you?” Ellie asked thoughtfully. “Are you in love with him?”
“Nope. I don't fall in love with married men.” She only wished it were the truth, but it was going to be. She had said a thousand prayers, and told herself a million times that no matter how wonderful he was, she could not be in love with him. And one day either the prayers, or what she told herself, would work. It had to. She had no other choice. And fortunately, as far as she knew anyway, he was not in love with her.
“Don't you have feelings for him?” Ellie pursued.
“Purely platonic ones.” Faith was emphatic, and inscrutable, to say the least.
“Are you dating anyone?”
“No. And I don't want to.” That much was true. She hadn't caught her breath from the agony of her marriage breaking up, and didn't know if she ever would. She doubted it. She couldn't bear the thought of getting her heart broken again. She was happier alone, talking to Brad, and spending time with her kids. “I don't ever want to get married again.”
“You don't have to get married,” Zoe intervened. “You can just go out, like on a date.”
“Why? I'm perfectly happy with the two of you.” But they both agreed later on, when they were alone in Zoe's room, that it wasn't a healthy life for her. In the end, they decided that it was probably too soon for her. Unlike their father, who had clearly jumped the gun, sharing his “anniversary dinner” with Zoe. They were both still horrified to have learned that he had cheated on their mother for nearly an entire year, if not longer, while blaming Faith going back to school for the breakup of their marriage. School had nothing to do with it, it was only the excuse.
But in any case, by the time Ellie flew back to London on Sunday night, she had reestablished her relationship with her mother. And when Brad called Faith late that night, after both girls had left, he had never heard her sound happier. At least part of the nightmare was over for her. She had her daughter back at least.