LOVE HATES

Surprise Her Kristine had the table filled with bacon, eggs, sausage, omelets, and even French toast. She claimed that she got bored and cooked a few things. Looked like everything she could find. It didn't matter to my dad but it did to me, only because he might get too used to it. After a few minutes of eating, the doorbell rang, Kristine automatically started to answer it but stopped as dad yelled, "Come on in Jack, the door is open." My eyes went straight to dad's face as he got another piece of French toast from the never ending stack. He read my expression and said, “What? You didn't think we could eat this all by ourselves did you?" It was a strange thing to do because what was left over always was given to dad's biker friends. They came over every couple days to play in a man cave that dad made out of the den. After a second or two Jack was sitting across from me; he helped himself to a few pieces of bacon and a fat stack of French toast. "Morning guys" he said smiling widely at everyone. "So, is there anything new going on around here?" Jack began looking at my dad for the answer. "Nope" He said back taking a sip of his coffee. "What about you Ellen,” he asked his eyes meeting mine. I just shook my head and continued eating. I flashed dad a look that said ‘do it already’. He let out a heavy sigh and set down his coffee. "Kristine, honey..." he got cut off by Kristine's sudden outburst and a smoke alarm going crazy. "Crap, crap, crap," she said running to turn off the oven and alarm. Jack swallowed loudly and then grabbed the broom stick to poke the off button on the alarm on the ceiling. The loud beeping stopped, everyone went silent as Kristine pulled a burnt heap of meat out of the oven and her face went into a pout. "Oh honey, I'm so sorry” dad said, pulling her by her waist into a hug. I examined the charcoaled meat until I realized that it was in fact dinner. The big lump was ham appeared to just be burnt on the outside, some people would have called it Cajun but I knew it was going to be trashed. Kristine would not have served that thing to her worst enemy, let alone people that she cared for. "Wow, I'm so sorry Miss. Kristine that really blows." Jack said, giving a pitiful look as a sign of sympathy for Kristine's dinner. Dad didn't really pay the meat any attention just turned Kristine around and gave her a real good look. "Sweet Heart, it will be okay. We can have take-out or.....” Kristine interrupted, "No!” She blurted out, “It's not okay, I'm supposed to cook for you and be a good example to the kids and I’m screwing it all up." Her faint little tears were soon gone as dad kneeled down on the kitchen floor. Kristine and I both gasped as he pulled out the small black ring box. Jack nearly fell out of his seat as dad began to speak. "I hope you think of me as much more than just your boyfriend. I want to be so much more than that to you, and I hope that you want more than that from me" He stopped to open the box that he dropped a couple of times. By the third try, he managed to get the tiny box open and show off a simple gold band with a small princess cut diamond mounted on it. Not something that Emily would have liked at all, but to Kristine it was perfect. At first she was silent, dead silent, and then dad finished in almost a whisper. "Kristine, honey would you marry me?" She looked at the ring, then at me "Elli, is it okay?" She asked tears still in the rims of her eyes. I nodded speechlessly. "Well snap, we got ourselves a wedding" Jack said killing whatever romance that was left in the moment. Kristine laughed as dad slid the ring on her finger, and so it was final, I was going to have the mom I wanted from the very beginning. I continued to stand there completely speechless. It was almost dinner time when dad and mom came home from their date, dad had made special plans just for this day. I however found it strange to call her mom because I'd gotten so use to calling her Kristine or Miss. Kristine but never mom. It felt good to know that Dad was going to marry a lady that would treat me like her daughter, not a toy to try to impress her friend, and even better to know that it was going to be Kristine. The fact of getting use to calling her mom would be challenging but something I'm was willing to do. Jack left a little after lunch and made me promise to call him before I went to bed. I made the promise mostly to get him off my back and also because it was just something that we did every night. It really started with me going through many months after Ethan left, after doing it for so long we got into a habit of calling one another. Mom didn't say much when she came back, just went straight bed, that was a good indication that she had a good time and she was tired. Dad how ever came into the living room and asked me to join him. The request was rather odd since everything was going okay and we didn’t talk in the living room unless something was "really the matter". "Hey Dad, what’s up?" I asked sitting down on the couch across from him. He looked rather edgy in his biker gear that he wore mostly because Kristine liked it. He had a confused expression on his face and spoke heavily. "So, how did I do?”, he asked. "With what?" "On popping the question, how did I do?" “She said yes, didn’t she?” “Well yeah, but did I sound lame?” “Of course you sounded lame, she said yes, and that’s all that matters, right?” “I felt like I had my foot in my mouth and my head in a bucket!” “Well, it was great and I think Kristine really loved it. Where did you get the ring?" "Rings”, he corrected me holding up his hand and poking out his ring finger showing me the almost same simple ring that he gave Kristine on his finger. This one was gold and a little wider, with a single diamond flush mounted in the middle to insure that it didn't come out. I inspected it carefully before nodding with a smile. "I got them at a new jewelry shop called ‘Robert’s Jewelry’" My jaw dropped, Robert had always joked about going into business for himself with his very own little shop. I never thought in a million years that it would actually happen, let alone this fast! Dad read my expression and began to explain more. "Yah, he got his income tax refund and decided to try out his dream. I was the first person that he sold something to and that was just about a month ago. You really should go talk to him Elli. You haven't seen him since.....” He broke off there because he knew how sensitive the subject of "Him" was. I nodded to let him know that I was okay, and then gave him a half smile that he returned. He stood up smiling; he was now more calm and relaxed, gave me a kiss on the forehead. He then went off to bed. "