The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(75)
“No, of course not. I just…” I shrugged. “I just didn’t have anything else to do today.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Is it because of that Evan boy?”
I shoved another cookie in my mouth to delay answering him. If I lied and told Dad no, he’d just interrogate me some more and find out the truth. But the thought of talking to him about boy problems made me want to throw up all the cookies I’d just eaten. This was one time where having a lawyer for a dad sucked.
Finally, I just nodded and kept my gaze down.
“I can’t say that I’m sad that you two broke up. I mean, he seemed all right at first. But that was before you two—I’m not saying that you—hopefully you didn’t. It’s just that I know boys are into, hmmm…”
Oh god. Now I was considering deliberately throwing up to distract him. I’d never seen him stumble over his words so much. Not even when he accidentally ran over some lady’s dog and ended up having to pay for the cremation.
Dad let out a sigh. “You’re my little girl. To be honest, I don’t think I want you dating anyone. Ever. At least, not while I’m still alive. Or while I can still see.”
“Well, that’s not really a problem now…”
“But I don’t want you to be sad, either.” He tugged on a strand of my hair. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up. Organization and structured plans aren’t the key to happiness and success. It might make life easier if things were perfect all the time, but they won’t be. You can’t plan everything. Things happen. And that’s okay. You shouldn’t do something just because it’s easy and neat. Because sometimes messy isn’t that bad.”
My eyes widened, and I gaped at him. “Can you say that again? I think I need to record that as evidence that you’ve gone crazy.” I dug out my phone and held it up.
“No way, I already told you I’m only saying it once.” He gathered up the plates and headed toward the door. “Besides, you know that in order to use the recorded conversation as evidence, both parties would have to consent, and I already said I wouldn’t. Therefore, this conversation would be inadmissible in court.”
I smiled sweetly up at him. “And you know that rule only pertains to certain states. And a good lawyer could always find a precedent in the conversation and obtain it as evidence if needed.”
He laughed and shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea for you to go to law school. God help me if you get any smarter than you already are. I’m just saying that if it’s something or someone worth fighting for, you should fight for it. It’s not called a fight because it’s easy.”
As usual, he was right. I munched on another cookie as I considered his words.
Dad paused at the doorway. “By the way, your mom wanted me to tell you that she bought more ingredients to make tuna. Should I tell her that you don’t need it anymore?”
“Tell her to put it away. Maybe I’ll need it later, but I’m good for now,” I said with a smile. It was better to be prepared. There’s no telling what would happen next. Life was unexpected like that.
29
{Taylor}
My eyes darted around the cafeteria at the booths and tables that were set up. A bunch of juniors and seniors wandered around to check out all the stuff. I let out a satisfied sigh. The first half of Career Day had gone according to plan and was awesome. Tons of people showed up (mainly because it got them out of class for the day) and got information about work-study programs and internships. The only thing left now was the presentation in the auditorium. All I had to do was start the slide show and introduce our guest speaker.
I shuffled through the papers in my arms, pretending to be busy looking for something so people wouldn’t talk to me. I actually should have been practicing my speech, and I sort of was, but I couldn’t help glancing up every time a blond guy walked in.
Where was Evan? He should have been here by now. The presentation was mandatory attendance for all seniors. Not that it had ever bothered him before. But still, he knew how much this meant to me. I thought he would at least show up.
“Ms. Simmons.”
I plastered a bright smile on my face when Mr. Peters came up to me with a pretty Asian woman in a simple yellow dress. “This is Mrs. Ann Nguyen. She’s the special speaker for today. She graduated—”
“Top of her class at Columbia, and not only is she the youngest partner at Ludwin, Pennington, and Nguyen—where all the partners are women—but her dream is to someday be on the Supreme Court. Something that she’s clearly on the right track for,” I recited, a little in awe that I was actually talking to Ann Nguyen. The Ann Nguyen. She was my idol. She even edged out Dad on my hero list (although I would never tell him that).
“I think I only mentioned the Supreme Court dream once in a university article when I first started law school.” Ms. Nguyen gave me an admiring smile. “I’m surprised you found that.”
“Well, Taylor has always been on top of everything. This entire fair was planned and organized by her,” Mr. Peters said with a hint of a smile. “Someone told me before that there’s nothing that she can’t do, and he was right.”
Looking at him in surprise, I beamed with his praise. It was almost indirectly admitting that he was wrong about me. Not exactly an apology, but I’d take it.