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The Gate House :: Demille Nelson
Страница: 421 из 490He banished the image of Susan and Frank together and said to me, “I think, perhaps, you areboth deluding yourselves, and trying to rewrite some history.” He informed me, “You, John, if I may be blunt, have always had a wandering eye.”
Well, fuck you, William. True, I flirt – or did – and yes, I like to look at the ladies, but I’d never once had an affair (only that fling with Jenny Alvarez) during my twenty-year marriage. But that was none of his business, so I said, to concede the point and move on, “We’ve both grown up a lot, and learned not to play with fire.”
I thought, perhaps, this had gone over his pointy head, but he understood, and this apparently gave him another thought about how to break up this engagement. He said, “I’m sure you understand that Susan has had a number of suitors over the years.”
This was an upper-class, older-generational way of telling me that Susan screwed a bunch of guys. I mean, really, William. Are you going to now make your daughter out to be a slut who I wouldn’t want to marry?
Well, yes. He said, “I’m not sure you would accept the fact that Susan has been with a number of men. That would rear its ugly head – it might come up in conversation, or she might get a letter or a phone call from a previous gentleman friend – and that would likely lead to arguments, and eventually… well, more unhappiness. For both of you.”
I was fairly certain that most fathers didn’t advise their prospective son-in-law to reconsider the marriage because their daughter had a sexual history that would fill a small library. But William saw this as a quick and sure way to dampen my ardor for his daughter. Then we could get back to money.
I said to him, “I appreciate your concern and your candor. But you need to understand that Susan and I know that neither of us has been a saint for the last ten years. In fact, William, I did have a woman in every port, and even a few inland. Not to mention on board. But my past and her past are totally irrelevant to our future.” Unless one of those assholes in Hilton Head called her. “So, we don’t need to pursue that.” I did add, “I’m frankly surprised that you would raise the subject of your daughter’s sex life with me.”
That made his face flush, and his eye twitched. He cleared his throat yet again – strep? – and said, “Well, I’m just trying to get you to take off your rose-colored glasses.”
William’s clichés were old when he was a kid. I replied, “I always look before I leap.”
“I hope you do. But, I sense that you are planning to go ahead with this marriage, despite my and Charlotte’s objections.
Well, fuck you, William. True, I flirt – or did – and yes, I like to look at the ladies, but I’d never once had an affair (only that fling with Jenny Alvarez) during my twenty-year marriage. But that was none of his business, so I said, to concede the point and move on, “We’ve both grown up a lot, and learned not to play with fire.”
I thought, perhaps, this had gone over his pointy head, but he understood, and this apparently gave him another thought about how to break up this engagement. He said, “I’m sure you understand that Susan has had a number of suitors over the years.”
This was an upper-class, older-generational way of telling me that Susan screwed a bunch of guys. I mean, really, William. Are you going to now make your daughter out to be a slut who I wouldn’t want to marry?
Well, yes. He said, “I’m not sure you would accept the fact that Susan has been with a number of men. That would rear its ugly head – it might come up in conversation, or she might get a letter or a phone call from a previous gentleman friend – and that would likely lead to arguments, and eventually… well, more unhappiness. For both of you.”
I was fairly certain that most fathers didn’t advise their prospective son-in-law to reconsider the marriage because their daughter had a sexual history that would fill a small library. But William saw this as a quick and sure way to dampen my ardor for his daughter. Then we could get back to money.
I said to him, “I appreciate your concern and your candor. But you need to understand that Susan and I know that neither of us has been a saint for the last ten years. In fact, William, I did have a woman in every port, and even a few inland. Not to mention on board. But my past and her past are totally irrelevant to our future.” Unless one of those assholes in Hilton Head called her. “So, we don’t need to pursue that.” I did add, “I’m frankly surprised that you would raise the subject of your daughter’s sex life with me.”
That made his face flush, and his eye twitched. He cleared his throat yet again – strep? – and said, “Well, I’m just trying to get you to take off your rose-colored glasses.”
William’s clichés were old when he was a kid. I replied, “I always look before I leap.”
“I hope you do. But, I sense that you are planning to go ahead with this marriage, despite my and Charlotte’s objections.