Chapter 12

“Your father was nicer than usual,” Lily said. “He really seemed to like the idea of Kidz Kamp.”

“Especially when he found out he was paying for it,” Anna answered with a chuckle.

“How was I supposed to know you hadn’t told him?”

“It’s no big deal. But he doesn’t keep up with the books anymore. And I’ve stopped telling him everything we do in operations. He just worries about it, and he doesn’t need to. We have everything under control.”

Anna was driving them to her house in Bel Air, where Lily had left her car after coming straight from work.

“Seriously, he seemed very interested in hearing about the program,” Lily said. “And he was excited when Hal offered to take a few of the kids out on the boat. He even said he might come along.”

“I liked the part where you told him the kids would be less likely to steal BMWs if they had a positive image of the owners.”

“That was just outrageous bullshit that I made up. You don’t think he actually believed me, do you?” When she was invited to sit out by the pool with George and Martine, Lily caught on pretty quickly that she was on some sort of hot seat. She played along, determined to win over Anna’s father, if not with her pleasing personality, then with her sardonic sense of humor. The latter had actually seemed to have a greater effect.

“Before we left, I told them I’d be back one night this week to talk.”

“That means tomorrow night, doesn’t it? Don’t you leave on Wednesday for South Carolina?”

“Yeah, I guess it does.”

“And you won’t get back until Sunday,” Lily said dismally. Her brain had already stored the fact that Anna would be gone on Saturday, her thirtieth birthday.

“My plane gets in around six. If you’ll pick me up at the airport, I promise to make it up to you.”

“I don’t know. I’ll be very old by then. I probably shouldn’t be out driving by myself.” Lily didn’t like hearing herself pout, but she was disappointed that Anna would miss the cookout Sandy and Suzanne had planned for Saturday afternoon. It would have been a great opportunity for Anna to meet her friends. “I still don’t understand why you’re going.”

“They’re previewing next year’s models.”

“I thought that’s what you went to Germany for.”

“That was different. The design center in Munich showed us what the next generation of cars will look like, but those are about three or four years away. I’ve already seen these cars in South Carolina, but we get to take a last look at the changes before they roll them out.”

Lily loved the intonation of pride in Anna’s voice whenever she talked about her cars. It always made her smile to remember a mechanical engineering nerd resided in that beautiful casing. “You sure you don’t want to wait until you get back to talk to them?”

Anna sighed. “I don’t know. There’s something appealing about dumping it on them and running out of town for four days.”

“I can see that.” And when she got back from her trip, there would be no more barriers. “What are you going to tell them?”

“That I love you... that I intend to be with you whether they like it or not...” She snorted. “That I haven’t lost my mind.”

“And then what?”

“And then we’ll talk about Kim and Hal’s baby. That should leave them in a good mood.”

An entire corner of Anna’s office at Premier Motors was devoted to putting the Chamber of Commerce records in order, as after two consecutive terms, she was happily passing the baton to the incoming treasurer. It had been a busy year for the Chamber, especially as businesses continued to recover from the earthquake. Anna knew she had made an impression on the members with whom she had direct dealings. Several were pressing her to run for vice president next year, which would mean an automatic ascension to president the following year.

“Anna, do you have a minute for your old man?” Her father poked his head into her office.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, only half joking. She looked at her watch, already feeling overwhelmed by the things she needed to finish this afternoon before heading out tomorrow morning. She had decided to put off talking to her parents about Lily until she got back, since Kim had called her about seeing “the perfect house” after work.

“I can come back later if you want.” It was almost comical seeing him pout.

“No, silly. I’ll always make time for you.” Anna stood up to move a pile of paperwork from one of her extra chairs. “I’m just trying to get these files in order for the next treasurer.”

“It was good experience for you to serve as treasurer. It’s possible they’ll want you soon for vice president.”

“They already do, but I need a break. Maybe I’ll think about it in a year or two.”

He sat down and cleared his throat, obviously waiting for her undivided attention. “I’ve been giving some thought lately to how I interfere sometimes in matters that really aren’t any of my business.”

In her thirty-two years, Anna couldn’t think of a time when her father had come to her with such an admission.

“Anyway, I think I may have jumped the gun a while back when you were going out with Steve French.”

What?

“I talked with Steve the other day. He really is a nice young man, and I’m sorry if anything I said about him dissuaded you from seeing him again.”

“Steve French?” A knot in her stomach told her this wasn’t about the account manager at all, but about Lily.

“Yeah, he’s really a very interesting fellow. You two probably have a lot in common. I mean, with both of you in sales and marketing and all. Sure, he drives a Jaguar, but we know how to fix that.” He winked at her, but this time, his usual charm fell short. Way short.

“I’m not interested in Steve, Dad.” Though they maintained their professional relationship, her memories of the trip to San Diego still gave her the creeps.

“You should give it a chance, darling. He offered us skybox tickets next week to the Dodgers’ home opener. I told him you and I would come together.”

Yes, this was definitely about Lily. Anna saw clearly through her father’s charade, and was appalled at his unrelenting attempts to manipulate her. He had always done this, granting or withholding his approval as a way of bending her to his will. Enough was enough.

“You’re right, Dad.”

He smiled and started to stand, no doubt thoroughly satisfied at how easily he had accomplished his mission.

“You do sometimes interfere in matters that aren’t any of your business.” Anna stood and began to pace in her office. “We both know this isn’t about Steve French. It’s about my relationship with Lily, so why don’t we just put it out there?”

Her father grimaced at hearing Lily’s name. “You haven’t been making good choices recently, Anna. I’m worried about you.”

“What is a good choice? Whatever makes you happy?”

“You’ve always been so levelheaded. But ever since the earthquake, it’s as if you’ve lost all perspective. You threw away a perfectly good marriage. You—”

There was nothing perfectly good about her marriage, but Anna wasn’t going to open up her private life for her father’s judgment. “I made a mistake marrying Scott, a mistake so big it would have kept both of us from ever being happy.”

“That’s not true. Scott was very happy with you. I spoke with him many times and he never wanted a divorce.”

Anna felt a surge of anger. “You had no business meddling in my personal life. That was between Scott and me.”

“I thought you needed help, Anna, and so did Scott. You were so confused when you came out of that earthquake... like you’d lost your sense of priority.”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” she said, her voice softening as she struggled to get her temper under control. “Yes, I was changed by the earthquake, but not because I was confused. It was just the opposite. For once, I found my priorities. I learned—” He started to interrupt, but she quickly sat beside him and put her hand on his arm to quiet his objections. “I learned I was strong enough to do whatever I had to do, no matter how hard it was. And I realized I didn’t have to stay trapped anywhere I didn’t want to be—not in a dark pile of rubble... or in a marriage that was all wrong.”

His face showed only anguish. “I’m just afraid you’re being led somewhere that’s only going to bring you sadness.”

“I’m not being led anywhere at all, Dad. I’m going with Lily of my own free will. I love her.”

“Anna, this is not who you are.”

“Yes, it is.” She still hadn’t answered questions for herself about whether or not she was a lesbian, but loving Lily was who she was. “When I married Scott, it was because I believed it was all I would ever have, that I would never feel more love than that for anyone. But it wasn’t enough to make me happy. I wanted the kind of love I see with you and Mom, or with Kim and Hal. I didn’t have that with Scott. We were just going through the motions.”

“He loved you.” He stared numbly at his lap.

“Dad, look at me.” She waited until he met her eye. “You’re my father. And I need to have you in my corner on this, not Scott’s.”

His eyes misted with tears.

“Everything changed for me when I fell in love with Lily. Now I have what the rest of you have. I know what it is to really love someone, and I’m not giving her up for anyone.”

“I do want you to be happy, sweetheart. But I...”

As far as Anna was concerned, that was the important part. In time, everything else would fall into place. “No buts, Dad. Lily’s the one who makes me happy.”

 

Lily waved good-bye to Lauren and her husband, the last ones to leave the party. It had been a wonderful day, perfect but for Anna’s absence. At least Lily had been able to talk openly about their relationship, and to promise another chance soon for friends to meet her.

“You have quite a haul there, lady,” Sandy said, gesturing to the pile of crank gifts that commemorated her passage over the hill. There was a jar of wrinkle cream, a tube of denture adhesive and a Lawrence Welk CD. “What did Anna get you?”

“I don’t know. She said she was bringing a surprise from South Carolina.”

“Peaches?”

Lily chuckled. “No, it’ll probably be a BMW T-shirt, and a DVD on how to operate my car’s features.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“Believe it or not, Anna could make an oil change romantic. She really hated missing this.”

“Suzanne hated it too. She’s dying to meet her.”

“Anna said if she had any idea how to cook, she’d have everyone over for dinner. But then I reminded her that I wanted my friends to like her, so maybe we should all just meet somewhere and let the professionals cook.”

“Why don’t you just find out what night’s good and bring her over. I’ll handle the cooking.”

“That would be great.”

“So you want to get in the hot tub?”

“No, I think I’ll go on home. She promised to call tonight, and they’re three hours ahead of us in South Carolina, so it’s”— she looked at her watch—“already ten o’clock there.”

“Tell her I said hi.”

“I will.” Lily threw her arms around Sandy’s neck. “Thank you for making my birthday a good one.”

“Wish I could have given you what you really wanted.”

“I think I’ll last until tomorrow. But you guys made this day great.”

On the short drive home from Sherman Oaks, she wondered how Anna might have handled an invitation to get in the hot tub with three naked women. Not that Lily would have let it happen. She wasn’t going to share her first look at Anna with Sandy and Suzanne.

Pulling into her covered spot, she gathered the gag gifts and cards from the passenger seat. Despite her dark apartment, she didn’t feel so alone this year. Even though Anna was three thousand miles away, Lily felt close to her, especially after the intimate step they had taken on the phone last weekend, and Anna’s heart-to-heart with her father. The barriers were falling.

In her kitchen, she flipped the light switch with her forearm and dropped her gifts on the table. Disappointed to see the solid red light indicating she had no messages, she went again to her cell phone to make sure it was working. Anna had promised to call, but probably wasn’t expecting her home so soon.

As if reading her thoughts, the kitchen phone suddenly rang.

“Hello,” she answered cheerfully, recognizing Anna’s cell phone in the display.

“Happy birthday to you,” Anna sang.

“It is now. I was starting to worry you wouldn’t call.” She looked at the clock. “Are you finished with the car seminars?”

“I am, and I told them if they scheduled this rollout for the same week next year, I wouldn’t be there because it’s my girlfriend’s birthday.”

Lily couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present than to know Anna wanted to be with her next year. “You just made my day, Amazon.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, it’s so. I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. And I wanted to make your day. So I started thinking about what we could do on your birthday that was really special.”

Lily loved it when Anna called her baby. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, so when I tried to think of something really special, I started thinking about what we did last weekend on the phone.

Do you remember that, Lily?”

Lily shuddered, wishing she were upstairs in her bed. “How could I forget something like that?”

“There was only one thing I could think of that would be more special than listening to each other come over the phone.”

“And what’s that?” Her heart began to pound with anticipation.

“Why don’t you come upstairs and find out?”

It was then that Lily first noticed a glow from the barely cracked door at the top of the stairs. Her bedroom light hadn’t been on when she entered the apartment—she would have seen it from the walkway. She nervously made her way up the darkened stairway, trying to envisage what she would see when she got to her bedroom.

No imagination could have done justice to the sight that greeted her as she gently swung open the door. Anna sat in the corner armchair by the window, the picture of calm with one long leg crossed over the other, one hand raised so her fingers rested on her chin. Her features were shadowed by the dim light from the small lamp on the far side of the room. She was dressed in dark slacks and a long sleeved white shirt, her black hair draped loosely around her shoulders. Her elbows rested nonchalantly on the arms of the chair and her other hand held a cell phone in her lap.

Lily walked slowly into the room, stopping at the end of her bed, where the covers were already turned down. “I can’t believe you’re really here,” she said with guarded excitement. If they both kept their nerve, they would be lovers soon.