And also because the guy hit on me first, although that's mostly because Dad didn't want to come to Annette's little get-together. There's not a standing thing where all the Inn People who have settled in New York get together like in Boston, but she tries to make sure there's one before the place opens for the season and one after the end, plus this one so that the folks who are coming here for school or the like know there's people who will have their back on a weird situation. I'm always down to meet new folks like us, although Dad is really trying to focus on being Emilia rather than hanging onto her old life, and Katey and Omar had something else to do, so I went on my own, which meant I didn't really know anybody there. There were a couple dozen of us, which seemed like a lot to be in one place, but New York City is huge, and I seldom remember how huge until something like this. Most of them were cool, although the guy who just walked away when he found out I hadn't actually been to college can get bent. The lady who owns a café in Brooklyn wanted to know why I never got around to selling her energy drinks, but I wound up spending most of my time hanging around with Ryan, who is 24, gay, and funny, especially when he does something dorky and jokes about it being a hangover from spending last summer as a suburban dad.
I was saying something to him about how great it was to get to know people like this without there being any sort of pressure to pair up when someone tried to hook up. A good-looking guy, tall, black, mid-twenties or so. He said his name was "Jonah", or "Junah" if you wanted to get cute, on account of how he used to be a lady named "June". He'd spent his first few years after visiting the Inn going to college in the city, thought the first girl he dated was The One, which was probably some sort of reaction to how his ex-husband had used the Inn to abandon her, and now she was coming back for grad school once that fell apart, because he really wanted to do something this time around rather than just being a housewife.
He asked about me, but as soon as I got to my age was like "Oh, you're young-young!", then apologized, though I said it wasn't a big deal. I was in the middle of some story when I remembered I had pictures on my phone. He had me stop at a beach one, like who's that?, and I snickered, saying it was my Dad. He nodded and said Dad was hot, and was she seeing anyone? Ryan jumped in and said I should totally set them up, because it would be a perfect yin-and-yang thing.
I figured what the heck, had Jonah pose for a picture, and sent it to her, saying he'd like to meet her. He texted that he wasn't ready to date, and for some reason I said that he might be a good place to start, since he used to be an older woman, so he'd understand when she was nervous and they wouldn't have to pretend. She didn't respond right away, so I had Jonah give me his number, and mostly hung out with Ryan for the rest of the evening.
A couple days later, though, Dad asked if I still had his number. Katey was spending Labor Day Weekend with Omar on Cape Cod, which was nice for her but has both of us like, holy shit, this is serious, and with a lot of guys hitting on her in the bar that night, I guess she figured she ought to take matters into her own hands rather than wait for someone to bowl her over like I am, especially since she figures matches that fit this well weren't going to come along that often.
Katey and I kind of figured Dad would get cold feet by the time they were both free this afternoon, but it seems to be the opposite - they've apparently been texting all week, and while Dad is dressed pretty casual, it's the sort of casual where she spends an hour trying to figure out which pleated miniskirt and babydoll t-shirt look best together and trying every shade of lipstick the original Emilia left her to find one which wasn't too much.
She apologized for all the fuss, because she still really didn't like doing all this girl stuff, and kind of hated that she was setting an example about being so worried about what some man thinks about your appearance, which is funny, because Katey and I are way ahead of her in girl stuff and haven't had problems with that.
Anyway, at some point Katey made a joke about whether Jonah is going to want us to call him "Mom", and it's really sticking with me. Like, we appear to be about the same age, but Jonah isn't just Dad's real age, but old enough to be his mother, so our grandmother, and, I dunno, that feels like it deserves a Mister or Grandma or something, right? Especially when it's just us and we don't have to pretend we were all born within a few years of each other.
I'm definitely overthinking this. I know. But if Jonah winds up being around more, it's something to think about, right?
-Rusty/Monica
3 comments:
First up, is this "Krystle's original body" Jonah or complete coincidence? Second, damn, Katey really is going all in on the relationship stuff.
Anyway, can see the benefit of dating someone with Inn experience is they're definitely likely to "get it", especially your situation. Dig back in the archives and I think there's a story of a parent and child who went to the in and ended up a married couple and the parent eventually had to push the child out of their life cause their new spouse didn't like "the ex" around all the time. Not as much a concern something like that happens for you all cause, like, you're all 20-something year old roommates as far as the world is concerned, but can still see how it might help for the SOs to be kind of in the know.
Same time though, yeah, definitely can throw the identity for a loop, especially cause it sounds like you're still trying to figure out what exactly the nature of your relationship with your dad is now. Mean, easy to say "Oh dad will always be dad" but, like -points to what I said above-. The Inn definitely doesn't always make it easy to keep your previous relationships the same.
Yeah, he's definitely part of all that babymama drama, but mostly after the fact, and he stays out of it as much as he can.
He seems all right. Dad's not really sure what he thinks of this whole situations herself.
Perfectly understandable to want to keep some distance from that, and fortunately Krystle seems to be handling herself well enough.
As for Dad, well, she's a 20-something year woman and a divorced dad, both groups of people for which dating is perfectly normal! So, you know, go for it!
God the Inn leads to some weird sentences being written.
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