I was loafing on my bed reading when I heard the front door open. I wasn't actually supposed to be home right then. I'd had a business trip scheduled that should have taken several days, but the person I'd gone to see had a heart attack the day I arrived and was in hospital.
So I'd come home early and as it and was a Friday I didn't bother returning to the office. I had a rare leisure day and I'd been enjoying it.
When I heard the front door open I assumed, rather naturally, that it would be my daughter, but I had no idea why she would be here when she thought that I was away. I'd let her and her mother know I'd be gone several days.
Dumping my book I headed out to see what was going on. I reached the hallway just in time to see Laura and a stranger disappear into the front room. I ambled on down to meet them.
I'd just reached the lounge room when I heard my daughter talking and I stopped to listen for a moment.
"God, if my dad caught me doing this he'd kill me. I don't know how I let you talk me into it."
There was a laugh in reply. "I didn't have to talk too hard," said her companion. "If we don't take along some drinks we won't get into the party. You said yourself that your father had a nice bar. He won't miss a few bottles."
"He probably will," said Laura. "I'm just counting on him not missing them for a while. He won't know when they went and he won't want to ask me in case he's wrong."
"Grab some bottles from the back. It'll be harder to spot that they're gone. We'll grab two bottles each and spread the others out a bit and he may never notice."
I lounged against the doorway, watching, waiting until they turned around, loot in hand.
It was all I could do not to burst out laughing when Laura's friend turned around, scotch in one hand, vodka in the other, and saw me leaning there.
"Ah, Laura," she said, "I think there's a problem."
"What is it," asked Laura with a laugh. "Too much choice?"
She turned to look at her friend, saw straight past her to where I was leaning and went very quiet.
"Introduce me," I said, indicating her companion.
"Ah, this is Melanie," Laura said softly. "Melanie, this is my father."
"I guessed that," I heard Melanie mutter. "I thought you said he was away."
"I was," I said cheerfully. "I came back early. Fortunate really, or I may have missed out on meeting you."
The look on Melanie's face indicated that she would have survived the disappointment. She wasn't so sure regarding actually meeting me.
"As much as I'd like to have you stay while I have a discussion with you, Melanie, I think family come first. So you may leave while Laura and I have a father/daughter chat."
Flushing, Melanie shot a sympathetic look towards Laura and headed for the door, watching me nervously.
She halted, her flush turning bright red when I spoke again.
"Ah, Melanie, I meant you to leave without my bottles."
Melanie hastily put them down and headed towards the front door. I opened it and as she passed through I had a final word for her.
"As you don't have the alcohol to pay your way into this party tonight you may drop by here instead and let me have your apologies for your misbehaviour."
Before she could say anything I'd closed the door and turned my attention to Laura.
"You may put the bottles away, Laura," I told her.
From that point on the day went downhill rapidly from Laura's point of view. She especially didn't appreciate the phone-call to her mother where I mentioned such things as grounding and weeks in the same sentence. The only bright spot of her day was that I didn't tell her mother why she was in my bad books. (I figured her mother would pry that out of her without me actually blabbing.)
It's not often that people surprise me, but Melanie did. About eight o'clock that evening there was a knock on my door and Melanie was there. I must have looked slightly startled because Melanie became belligerently defensive.
"You said I had to come round to apologise," she reminded me, but there was sure no sign of an apology in the way she was glaring at me.
I shrugged and ushered her through to the lounge room.
Once in the lounge room Melanie dithered. She beat about the bush and said nothing while I waited to see what she really wanted. It turned out she wanted to protect Laura.
"The whole thing was my idea," she suddenly blurted out. "There's a party on tonight and everyone is going but you have to pay for your admission with alcohol. Laura and I are both broke and couldn't afford any and then Laura made this crack about needing a bar like yours and I asked what sort of stuff do you have and she told me and I said why don't we just grab a couple of bottles.