Page 72 of Trust Again

“I don’t know what happened. She just…” I heard Everly say to Dad.

Before I knew it, Dad had crawled under the table on all fours. Wide-eyed, I stared at him. Everything looked blurry and my head was throbbing like crazy.

“Dawny.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Should we go home?”

I managed to nod. With Dad’s help I crawled out from under the table and paid no attention to what was around me, concentrating only on my footsteps, Dad’s arm on my shoulder, and the quick-witted Everly and Maureen, who’d gathered my stuff and followed us out.

All I could do after that was lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling. It was just after 8 p. m. when we returned from our catastrophic dinner out. I had excused myself from Everly and Maureen and then hid in my room, where for the last 15 minutes I’d been staring at my cell phone display. Spencer’s name cast a glow, and my finger hovered over the “call” button. On one hand I didn’t want to talk, but on the other hand I wanted to feel like myself again. My friends, and Spencer in particular, always made me feel better.

After taking a deep breath, I put my finger on the screen. His number rang for a while, and I was about to hang up when he answered.

“Hey,” he said breathless.

“Am I interrupting?” I asked immediately.

“No, I’m just out on a run. What’s up?”

Closing my eyes, I listened to his footsteps on the sidewalk.

“Nothing,” I said after a pause.

Now his steps stopped. “What’s wrong?” he asked gently.

“My dad introduced me to his new girlfriend today.”

“Ah… And?”

“She’s great. The funny thing is, her daughter, Everly is in the writing workshop with me.”

“What a coincidence!”

I took a deep breath. “I totally embarrassed myself today, Spence.”

He waited patiently for me to go on. It was something I really liked about him: He didn’t push. He gave me time. He always gave me time.

“We went out to dinner and… Rebecca and Nate were at the restaurant.”

He breathed in between his teeth. “Fuck.”

“Exactly. I freaked out and crawled under the table.”

Spencer cursed again.

“I totally embarrassed Dad,” I mumbled and stared at my other hand.

“I doubt that. Your father knows you, Dawn. He knows how hard the breakup was for you, even though you pretended everything was fine.” Spencer paused. “Can I tell you my honest opinion?”

“You should always be honest with me,” I encouraged him.

“Good. I think you should tell your dad the truth about what happened. It’s totally fucked up. You and your dad are so close. If you never tell him what has been bothering you so much this past year, this secret will be in your way, forever. And it doesn’t matter how it impacts his relationship to the Dursleys.”

“Duffys,” I corrected him after a pause.

“Whatever that motherfucker’s parents are called.”

Now I had to smile. “For some reason it’s kind of cute when you curse.”

“If that makes me even more irresistible to you, I’ll start doing it more often. How would you like it if I yelled out ‘asshole’ right now?”