“Thanks baby.” She had that glow going which is all I was after.
Chapter 18
As I pulled out of the driveway an hour later I thought I saw a familiar car pulling ahead and zooming off down the street, but then I thought, ‘no way, you’re imagining things’. At this time of night that’s just nuts, but I knew better. I was hoping Vanessa hadn’t seen what I saw and was satisfied that she hadn’t since she was busy rummaging through my glove compartment for who knows what.
“What’re you looking for buddy?”
“Oh just evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“I don’t know yet, but this is your truck, I’m hardly ever in it because you like the convertible and I’m thinking you might say to yourself, ‘hey the little woman isn’t in the truck that often, this would be a good place to hide those panties my new little girlfriend gave me as a keepsake the last time I boffed her.”
“You have a sick twisted mind you know that?”
“Hey it makes the day go by faster.”
I grinned and took her hand in mine as I drove. Tonight would be the first in a long time that we’d gone out like this. One, because we genuinely preferred to be at home alone together, and two, because I wasn’t ready to run into any of my relatives just yet.
We got to the restaurant and were seated. Vanessa had picked the place because she liked the ambience she said, and the food wasn’t too bad either. It was an upscale Italian eatery and she claimed she had the need for grease since I’ve curtailed her meals to include only sawdust. Her words not mine. “You okay baby, you want me to ask them to turn the heat up a little?”
“Damien seriously, the rest of the world does not revolve around me and pin. Leave those people alone.”
“If you’re sure.”
I perused the menu to see if there was anything remotely healthy that she could have that wouldn’t give her heartburn. She was always bitching about wanting to eat shit, then we’d be up all night with her shit.
We ordered a porterhouse for me and she got the rosemary chicken dry. There was a little tussle over that one but I put my foot down. The woman is a menace.
“Well hi kids, fancy seeing you two here.”
You have got to be kidding me.
“Damien I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call today, I was otherwise occupied so it’s good that I ran into you now.”
I took Vanessa’s hand under the table and squeezed. In that one touch I was trying to convey a world of things and hoped she got it.
“Hi mom, dad, why don’t you sit?”
She gave my wife a smirk as she took her seat and it made my gorge rise. I kissed Vanessa’s cheek because she had turned into a block of ice next to me. “I had thought to do this in a more private setting but as usual mom you pushed the envelope. First, if someone called you today it wasn’t me. I was too busy painting my kid’s room so I wouldn’t have had the time.” I turned to look at my dad, a man I’d had respect for my whole life and had stressed over what my actions would do to him at this stage in his life.
“Dad, when I first started this it was all about mom, but now I see that you’re as much to blame. You had every opportunity to step in and put a stop to this, but for whatever reason you didn’t.” I held my hand up as he made as if to interject. “Let me finish. I don’t know how long she’s had your balls in her purse, but obviously it’s given the women in our family the impression that she rules supreme, since you as the head of the family just sat back and let her run buck wild. I guess that’s why my own wife thought I too was a weak livered ass, because she saw it in you. In about thirty years or so when my kid comes to me with his choice of a wife, I hope to fuck that I’m nothing like either of you. Sit down mom I’m not done, and you might want to hear all that I have to say. You have three days to get out of my house. You won’t take anything but your clothes because everything else that’s in there belongs to me.”
“What? Damien are you insane, that’s my home, my father…”