Wilfs mind was a mess, he had no idea what to do or what to say as he stood face to face with his daughter, his teenage lover hiding upstairs in the bathroom, all the tools of seduction laid out for anyone that entered the house to see. His brain scrambled for a response, but he was grasping at straws. Probably best to go with the truth, or at least, a partial truth, he reasoned. "Actually..., yes, I have some company coming over shortly but you know I always have time for you Buttercup."
"Company?" Melanie questioned, eyebrows still firmly raised, with no sign of them returning to their normal position any time soon.
"Are you really going to make me spell it out?" Wilf sighed in frustration. His daughter's only reply was continuing to burn a judgemental hole through him with her gaze, which was becoming increasingly icy and cold by the second. "That lady I told you about from the pub is coming over...," he finally admitted, suddenly feeling sheepish as he looked down at his shoes, hands stuffed into his trouser pockets like a stroppy teenager that had just been caught smoking by his parents. When he looked back up at Melanie, she was trying to hold back a smirk, but doing a very poor job of it.
"Ah, I understand," Melanie replied as she enjoyed the role reversal of her father being the one to feel awkward and uncomfortable upon being caught after all the times she had been in the exact same position growing up. "I won't keep you for long then, Richard wanted to borrow your drill, we just bought some new furniture and we didn't realize it needed assembling until it arrived."
"Oh, well let me just go and grab it for you," Wilf offered, hoping to get his daughter to leave as soon as possible so he could get back to his date and more importantly, to Sophie herself.
"Don't be silly Dad, I can get it," Melanie responded, a slight, teasing tone in her voice. She wanted to see exactly what kind of rendezvous her father had arranged and while she would normally mind her own business, she couldn't resist heading inside to find out. "You still keep your tools under the stairs?" she asked as she pushed her way past Wilfred and into the house's entryway before he had a chance to object.
"Yes but..., just wait will you Melanie?" Wilf protested as he followed her inside, doing his best to hide his annoyance and the rising tension in his voice. It didn't take him long to catch her up as she had stopped dead in her tracks standing in the frame of the dining room door.
"Damn dad," she said, spinning around to face him with a hint of hurt hiding in the corner of her eye, "flowers, what looks like a hundred candles, and that smells like your famous sole is in the oven. You must really like her." She didn't need to spell it out, but it was obvious what she was thinking. Wilf was replacing her mother already for some random woman he had met at the local boozer. Of course, this couldn't be further from the truth, but he still needed to hide the reality of the situation from her, while doing his best not to upset her. She had been through more than enough in the past few months. They both had
"Go and grab the drill, Sweetpea. It's on the top shelf. Once you've got it, come and sit down with me in the living room and we'll have a chat, okay?" Wilf asked in a soft, fatherly tone. Melanie nodded in response before walking into the kitchen to retrieve the much needed power tool. Wilfred took a seat on the sofa and relished the time to himself to try and think, he needed to handle this delicately for all parties involved. After a few moments Melanie joined him, choosing to sit in the armchair across the room rather than beside her father, another reminder of the gap that could grow between them if he didn't deal with this right now.
"Look, Melanie...," Wilf started saying, but before he could finish his thought, Melanie raised her hand, indicating for him to be quiet. Wilf immediately fell silent, wondering what was about to come.
"Dad, I've been thinking a lot. Ever since you told me about you and this woman. At first I felt upset, hurt, betrayed." Wilf winced at every word, knowing he had played a part in causing his little girl to go through this pain. "But then I started thinking about it. About me and Richard. About how I would feel if he died and I was left alone in the world, without the person I love the most. I realized that I was being unfair to you, judging you when I would probably do the same thing if I was put in your shoes." She stood up from the armchair, walking across the room and taking a seat next to her dad. Pausing for a second, she reached out and took his hand, pulling it into her lap as their eyes met. Wilf was tempted to speak, but he could tell from the look on her face that she wasn't finished speaking.
"You deserve to be happy, dad. You deserve to feel loved, both physically and emotionally. You gave everything to mum, and to me. You worked so hard to make sure we were taken care of, that we were happy and healthy. I still remember all the times you took care of me when I was sick, or dried my tears when I was sad. So, whatever you do moving forwards, I'm ok with it. I still love you and I'll do whatever I can to support you, okay?"
Wilf was an absolute mess. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and falling onto his freshly pressed suit, soaking into the fabric, leaving a little trail to show how much his daughter's words had meant to him. He leant forwards, taking his daughter's head gently in his hands and kissing her on the forehead as they held onto each other. "I love you so much Melanie, and no-one could ever, ever replace your mother," he whispered.
"I know dad," Melanie answered, her own cheeks now damp with tears. They stayed sitting like this for a couple of minutes, just allowing the emotion to wash over them and enjoy the kind of closeness that only a father and daughter can share. Eventually Melanie reached for the tissue box sitting on the table, dabbing at her eyes before turning attention to her Father. "We can't have you with puffy eyes and looking a mess for your date!" she joked cheerily as she wiped away any evidence of their emotional discussion from his face.
"Thank you Buttercup," Wilf said, voice dripping with sincerity, "you don't know how much this means to me."
"No problem dad," Melanie replied as she stood up, going back over to the armchair to collect the drill in its plastic case before turning back to him. "I better get going, Richards probably losing his mind looking after the sprogs by himself and I don't want to be here when your date shows up! Bit of a mood killer, meeting the daughter so soon." She looked at Wilf stone faced, but then burst into laughter, which was echoed by her father as they both walked out into the hallway. Relief washed over him, they had gotten away with it again, but this was the second close call they'd had to deal with and he wasn't sure if he could handle a third.
"Actually, I think I'll just nip to the loo," Melanie said, putting down the drill on the tiled floor and starting to walk up the stairs.
"NO!"
