I woke up to the sound of a ringing phone. I didn't intend to doze off, but here it was 3PM already. I jumped out of bed, and ran into the living room to pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
It was Amanda. "Hey, Will. I was wondering if you were going to pick me up on the way to work or should I have my Dad drive me?"
"Sure," I said. "Be there in an hour?"
"Or sooner if you want to meet my folks," she said.
"Meet your folks?" I said, surprised.
"Well, yeah," she replied. "Most boyfriends meet their girlfriend's parents at some point."
"Oh! Yeah," I laughed. "Sure. Gotta sell it, right?"
There was a bit of a pause on her end. "Uh, yeah, sell it," she said. "I'll see you when you get here." She hung up abruptly without allowing me to say "bye".
I frowned. She almost sounded mad at me. I showered quickly, changed into work clothes, then drove over to her house. Exiting the car, I walked up to the front door and knocked. A woman answered the door.
If I wanted to know what Amanda looked like when she got older, this woman was it. Obviously her mother, she was an older, slightly heavier, version of Amanda right down to the oversized chest. Like Amanda, she was very pretty.
"Hi Mrs. Jenkins. I'm here to pick up Amanda," I said.
Her face broke into a smile. "You must be Will. Please come in!" she said cheerfully.
Once inside, she closed the door behind me. "Amanda!" she called out. "Your beau is here?"
I smiled. Who used "beau" anymore?
Amanda appeared and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. It was more of a peck, really.
She turned to her mother. "Mom, this is my boyfriend Will. Will, this is my mother."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am," I said to her mother.
"And now that you have met him," she said, glaring at her mother, "you don't need to use the term 'strange boy' when talking about my love life, right?"
"Amanda!" her mother said in a shocked voice. A bit of color rose in her cheeks...obviously, this was part of a previous conversation that she didn't expect to continue in front of me.
Amanda grabbed my hand. "C'mon, let me introduce you to my dad," she said, towing me behind her through the house. We ended up in a den that was really nice. It had a couch, a bookcase, and on the far wall was an honest-to-God bar with bar stools. There was an older man sitting in a recliner reading a book.
"Dad, this is my boyfriend Will," she said.
He set his book down and rose. Shaking my hand, he said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Gerald, but most people call me Jerry."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Jenkins," I replied formally. The handshake went on a bit longer than I expected it to, and he seemed reluctant to release my hand. When he did, I glanced over at Amanda to see her giving her father a warning look.
"So you two met in school?" he asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Yes, and we work together now," I answered.
"Which we're going to be late for," Amanda said abruptly, taking my hand again.
"Again, nice to meet you, Will. I hope we have an opportunity to get to know each other better," he said, giving me a squeeze before letting his hand fall off my shoulder. Amanda towed me out, yelling "We're leaving, Mom!" as we went through the house.
When we got in the car, I said, "We have plenty of time. Why'd you want to leave so quick?"
"I just wanted to get the introductions over with," she said.
I started the car. "Well, they seem nice. And they seemed to like me, at least from what I could tell in the twelve seconds I got to talk with them."
"Dad certainly did," she grumbled.
"What?"
"Dad was practically drooling all over you," she said. "I figured that was going to happen...you're just his type. Young and cute with a nice ass."
I did a double-take. "He was? And I'm 'cute'?"
She glared at me. "Yes, of course you're cute. Don't tell me you didn't know that."
"Honest! Nobody has called me 'cute', like, ever," I protested.
She didn't respond, just crossed her arms in front of her and sat silently.
"Did I do something to make you mad?" I asked finally.
"No."
I waited for a few seconds, then put the car in reverse to pull out of her driveway. Just before I left the driveway, she suddenly said, "Yes."
I stopped the car. "Yes, what?"
"Yes, you did something that made me mad. And I'm mad at myself for being mad at you about it."
It took a second to follow through all her "mads". "What did I do?" I asked.
She turned to face me, and her expression went from anger to pleading in an instant. "Will, I like you. I mean REALLY like you," she said. "I offered the whole 'beard' thing because I just wanted to be around you. Even the thing with John after work was more to be around you than anything to do with him. So when you talked about 'selling it' on the phone by meeting my parents, it made me mad because I really want more than just 'selling it'. And I have no right to want that or be mad." I could see tears welling in her eyes.
"Shocked" didn't even come close to what I felt when she said that. My mouth hung open in complete surprise as this came out of nowhere.
"I know you like guys more than girls. But I don't think you're completely gay...last night should have proven that," she continued, tears starting to run down her cheeks. She stopped, wiped her face. "Ah, never mind. I'm just a fucking idiot making an ass out of myself."
I was really touched. I remembered she said she liked me, but I thought it was in a "hey, you're cool" kind of way. I didn't realize that it ran deeper than that.
"You're not an idiot," I said. "I think you're awfully goddamned smart. I just had no clue you felt like this."
She sniffled. "So, what do you want to do? I'll understand if you want to stop seeing me."
"That's the last thing I want," I said.
"So 'Operation Beard' continues?" she asked with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Listen...you know I like guys. And not only were you not disgusted by that, you offered to help me. You're fun, you're pretty, you're understanding. And you like me. I don't know if I could find those things in another person." I said.
A glimmer of hope shone in her eyes. "So you're saying...?"
"'Operation Beard' can be 'Operation Girlfriend'," I finished for her.
She half-laughed, half-cried at my clumsy phrasing. "Are you sure? This is your chance to be rid of me."
"If you can accept that I'll be having sex with men and still want to be with me, then yes, I'm sure," I said. "I mean, it works for your folks, right?"
She threw her arms around me, no mean feat as we were sitting in the cramped front seat of my car. "I'm ok with that. Hell, I'll help you get all the dick you want. All that I ask is that you love me." She gave me a shy smile. "And maybe see if you would like sex with me, too?"
I was a bit bewildered that she'd gone from "like" to "REALLY like" to "love" so quickly. However, she had hidden her feelings from me the whole time. I was so wrapped up in guys that I completely missed it. Why else would she offer to give me cover?
I pulled the rest of the way out of her driveway and headed to work. Flippantly, to lighten the mood, I joked, "And I promise not to sleep with your father."
She snorted. "HA! Fat chance."
I laughed. "What?"
"You got his interest up," she said. "Plus you're going to be around a lot if we're in a real relationship, so that interest isn't going to go away. So, it's GONNA happen at some point."
"You're kidding," I said, astonished.
"Nope," she said.
"You'd let your father fuck me?" I asked.
"He's a really good looking guy, isn't he?" she said. Then she gave me an evil grin. "I did promise you all the dick you wanted, didn't I?"
Sunday was half-price night at Burgerstack, so it was really busy all night. It felt weird after close to not make my (our?) way into John's office, but he was in there with the company rep. We clocked out and I told John we were leaving.
"Take you home?" I asked Amanda as we walked to the car.
"Do you mind if I stay at your place again?" she replied.
"Not at all."