A Rom-Com with Father

Oh crap!

As soon as I opened the door to my bedroom, the huge pile of mess on the bed stared right back at me. It was my turn to clean today and God knows why the room's always messy when it's my turn...or maybe not- maybe I realize it's in a jumble when I have to arrange it; otherwise even a tornado-struck room would seem easy to work on if it was Rachel's turn.

I felt like rushing back to the restaurant- the same place I'd been trying to run away from since the past three years; but now even the job of getting scolded for being a minute late with a dish seemed better compared to all the cleaning. Ugh!

My mind just seems to be floating around all the time. I mean it's just not steady. For instance, now that I'm cleaning up, I feel like the waitress job is much better; but when I'm at the restaurant, I feel exactly the opposite. Sometimes I feel that the reason I can't stick my mind to one particular thing is because I'm used to travelling a lot since childhood and now, my mind's been adapted to that so it can't focus on one particular thing for a long period of time.

Ok let's explain the travelling part. My father had left us when I was about a month old; so mother, being a single parent had to ensure that I got the best upbringing I could all by herself. This determination for a better life made her change jobs constantly as soon as there was a better offer at the door. As a result, we were always moving. In fact, the longest I remember staying in one place was for three years in Brooklyn where my mother had been working as a junior editor of a local newspaper. Then again one day, a dark red envelope is dropped off at our house with the appointment letter of a Senior editor job from another newspaper. And there it was- we started packing and within a week or two, we were heading for Manhattan.

All the moving sounds pretty exhausting and depressing but to be honest, I actually enjoyed it. I made a lot of new friends, visited many places, tasted different foods- it was fun to be a part of this blend.

I didn't have any memory of my father so I didn't miss him very much usually; but there were times when I saw other children riding on their fathers'backs and crying out 'faster daddy faster!' every now and then- that brought tears in my eyes; nonetheless, as soon as I saw my amazingly strong mother and her soothing smile, it all drove away.

That's why, more than anything in this world, I wanted to grow up to be like my mother- a woman with beauty and brains-and a cherry on top-her beautiful heart.

However, I grew up to be me- clumsy, jumpy, quirky- nothing even remotely near to the responsible mature adult my mother was. Despite that, I was happy with the way my life was.

It wasn't very happening- just a simple regular life where I studied, worked, hung out with my friends, ate, slept- that's it. No relationship issues, financial troubles or any great responsibilities. In fact, the only time I can remember dealing with real grief was two years ago when my mother had died. That was the sole time in my 23 years of life that I felt completely distressed and lonely; nevertheless, I managed to shake it off as Robert Frost had said, 'And miles to go before I sleep.'

That's it- my entire story in a nutshell. Regular, simple; at least it was, until a new element dropped on my palate yesterday.

It was the 14th of February- Valentine's Day. As soon as I mention this, a romantic ambience takes over the entire setting- but no; I got a much bigger surprise than just a Prince Charming waiting for me at the doorstep with a shoe.

...

I was serving the last plate of food for the day when I noticed a man looking at me through the window. Usually, I have a good habit of ignoring creepy stalkers, but something about the way this man looked at me made me stop for a second before completely disregarding him; but that's how long it was- just a second- then I went on preparing for my ride home.

When I stepped out, I noticed the man still looking at me. He did not divert his eyes when I locked eyes like any other person would normally do; instead, he seemed to be wanting to walk up to me but he couldn't. I didn't pay much attention and mounted my scooty but as soon as I started the engine, the man ran up to me. That was the first time that I had actually looked at him properly.

A tall, dark, middle-aged man in a black turtleneck and brown pants- he seemed stylish compared to the other men in their forties. His hair reminded me of ramen noodles that I had served that last customer and his cute little eyes radiated guilt and wisdom both at the same time.

Finally, after ages of silence, this thin parched lips started to move.

"Excuse me miss, are you June?"

Generally I am a very cheerful, bubbly kind of person who's spotted in a bad mood once in a blue moon. However, for some reason, this man's innocent question brought up that mood on the surface and I replied dryly,

"Umm sir, I don't usually take serious note of politeness, but still I'd like to hope that a well-dressed man of your age should know how to approach a stranger."

A tense look came down the man's face and I felt a little sorry for being so rude.

"I'm... I'm sorry. My name is Jeremy Bright. The guard outside the restaurant told me you were June?"

Jeremy Bright.

The name gave me a bit of an electric shock but I had the sense not to show it. Although I never had any superbly strong power to foresee the future, nonetheless, I could tell my life was now going to take a drastic turn. I had no idea how I'd handle it, bit for the time being, I did the best I could.

" Would you like to join me for a cup of coffee?"

...

As soon as I reached home, I took a hot shower, had dinner with Rachel and gulped down two sleeping pills and went off to bed. It was the first time I had taken sleeping pills so either because of that, or the fact that all my energy had been drained from the surprise of meeting my father after all these years- either way, I dozed off to sleep almost immediately as I rested my head on the soft, white pillow.

Today I've kept myself busy all day so I didn't have to think about yesterday; now that I'm finally home and all cleaned up, I feel like it's time that I start pondering over all the events that had occurred yesterday since I left my restaurant...

Even after one hour of brain-racking, I could not figure out one reason why this man would suddenly emerge into my life after all these years of estrangement; and if he had wanted to be a part of it, then why run away in the first place? Even mother never talked about it. Now mother was here no more and not asking him about it yesterday wasn't feeling like such a smart decision now; but we were having such a good time talking about our day-to-day activities that I didn't want to bring all that up and ruin it.

Finally, I set up my mind. Even though I had a zillion questions, I was afraid of what the truth might do to us. I didn't want to complicate and get hurt by the things that happened in the past; neither did I want to rush things towards a 'happily ever after'. I decided to let it all move at their natural pace and wait and see what happened.

...

By a quirk of fate, I, June Miller, met Jeremy Bright again on the 28th of February. Within these two weeks, neither of us had tried to contact the other; but still, after a few days, we managed to find our ways back to each other in this little library.

"Hi June."

"Hey. What're you doing here? You come here often?"

"No but I've heard a great deal about this place and I wanted to check it out. Also had a bit of a free time so I thought why not spend it by reading a little."

" Oh that's nice. So what type of books do you read usually?"

...

Again our conversation had picked up its pace. It was amazing how even after all these years we could connect to each other so easily without being awkward or bored by each other's presence.

Nobody tried to be over-friendly or overly-caring given the father- daughter relationship and the fact that we were reconnecting after all these years- no we did none of that. We interacted like friends and simply let each other have a good time together.

...

Over the last six months, our relationship developed in a way I never thought it could. We went to games together, watched movies, met for dinner; he picked me up from university, I prepared lunch for him; we provided unyielding support to each other.

Jeremy was not the fun-loving, carefree person that I was; he was more the opposite- traditional, reserved, indoorsy. So I showed him all the colours the world had in store for us and perhaps made him fall in love with life again. In the meantime, he helped me become a much more refined version of myself- disciplined, responsible. I had started to fall in love with this person.

There were moments still when I felt my head explode with anger thinking about the last 23 years he had been away from our lives and the problems we had faced due to his absence; but then again I calmed down. I wasn't going to let the past ruin something beautiful that I could have.

...

Today, I'm standing in front of the same library Jeremy and I had met for the second time; the same library that helped us get closer once we worked for it together when it was on the verge of being shut down; the same library I had spent hours reading with my mother when I was just a little girl.

"June?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for giving me this second chance. I can't tell you how grateful I am and how ashamed I am of myself."

I held his hand.

His eyes watered.

" In all these days, you've never asked me what had happened."

" It doesn't matter. All that matters now is that you're here, and you're here for good."

With these words, I hold his hand, take my mother's picture in the other hand and walk inside the old library we blew life into again. Mama, me and daddy.