“I don’t know you at all, Frank.”
She paused for a moment, deciding something, and finally just asking me again what I was there for. “Just say what you’re going to say, Frank.”
“How about you start what with why all of a sudden you're acting this way?”
She blew out a breath and shook her head. “I just got in a little while ago and I am really tired. I wasn't lying about that. I don't lie like you do, Frank. I hung up the phone with you because I really wasn’t interested in continuing on with the conversation. I am still not.”
I just couldn't figure out what it was that she knew, that made her act that way. Could she know about Caroline, somehow? I had worried about telling her about Caroline because I thought that it might ruin things. Maybe it already had.
I would like to think that she would understand that it was something that I had to do. I was just confused. This didn't seem to make much sense to me, and I was the one that wanted answers now.
All I knew I could do at this point was come clean. It wasn't going to be pretty, but then maybe we could just move on. I could at least stop worrying about it. If she wasn't going to accept Caroline and the decisions that I had made, there wasn't really much I could do about it. There would be no more questions of what-ifs, it would just be what is.
“The way you're talking makes me think that you found out something about me and my home life.”
She shook her head. “Your home life? Is that when you call it? What exactly is this?”
I agreed that it was, but I couldn't see what exactly had her upset.
“Like I said, I don't know what it is that you think you know, but you should tell me so that we can talk it out.”
She looked really serious for a moment and wanted to know if she could ask me one question. One question didn't seem that bad. One question no matter what it was, I could deal with. And I told her that, of course, she could.
“Do you swear to me that you will actually answer me honestly?”
It seemed a little more important after making that promise, but I was still pretty sure that it was what I was going to do, anyway. I had nothing to lie about, after all. Nothing except Caroline, and Caroline could be easily explained. I kept hoping that it was all just going to work itself out.
“Yes, ask me whatever you want to ask me, and I will tell you the truth. I haven't lied to you yet.”
She scoffed at me and said that she knew better.
It took her several moments to formulate the perfect question in her mind. When she finally did say something, all I could think was that it was finally time to come clean. I had expected a five-part question, but that wasn’t the case at all. It was rather simple, and it was just another example of why I was so into her and her personality.
“Do you have a daughter?”
“That is not as easily answered as...”
She cut me off and said that she didn't want to hear it. I was a little surprised because she never really talked to me like that before. It was quite obvious that I had upset her in a very big way. Why was having Caroline such a horrible thing for her? Did she not like kids or something?
Shit. I never even thought of that.
“I don't want to hear the reasoning. I just want an answer. Yes or no, do you have a daughter?”
I could see how bothered she was by all this. I didn't want to answer her in that way. It just wasn’t as simple as her question implied. It didn't look like she was going to let me get much out about the reasoning of why I had her or more importantly, why I hadn’t told her. It was all not going to end well.
There was nothing else I could do but tell her the one option that I had.
“Yes, I have a daughter.”
And, apparently, that was all she needed to hear. She immediately told me to leave. She didn’t blink an eye while she was doing it, either. I was stunned at her change of attitude, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to change her mind. She really did want me to leave. She wasn’t joking like I wanted to believe she was.
“Are you not even going to give me a chance to explain?”
Amber shrugged and told me that there was no point in that.
“You have a daughter that you didn't even think to tell me about. That is all the answer that I need, now, isn’t it? I can’t trust you because of it, so that’s why I hung up on you. There is no reason for us to go forward, because now I have to wonder what else you haven’t told me about.”
I didn't agree with that assessment at all. It felt like there was a lot more that we needed to talk about. A lot more. Why was she being so stubborn?
I tried to get her to reason with me, but instead of listening to anything I had to say, she finally just asked me to leave again. It wouldn't have been hard just to throw it out there, before she kicked me out. But I think I was just surprised more than anything. She was acting so differently than I was used to. It made no sense to me. What had her so angry? Surely it wasn’t because I had helped out an old friend years before?
So, I left. What else could I do? She obviously didn't want me around her, and she was looking at me like I had killed her best friend. It
