“Are these Cottons?” he asked, still not looking at me.
“Dad!” I snapped louder.
“That one was at the V&A, I remember the frame. Unusual frame, perfect for that picture.”
“Dad!” I shouted and his head turned to me, his eyes did a sweep of my body in my nightie then they moved over my shoulder.
I looked over my shoulder too, to see Max there, now wearing jeans and still pulling down a t-shirt but his feet were bare.
Again my father didn’t greet me, didn’t address me at all.
Instead he said to Max, “May I have a word with my daughter in private?”
Max didn’t answer or I didn’t give him the chance to mainly because I stomped to the door.
“No, you may not,” I announced, opening the door and standing in the cool air that rushed in looking at my father. “But you can leave.”
“Nina,” Dad said.
“Go,” I said back.
Dad walked toward me and stopped. “We need to talk.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“Niles telephoned.”
“Yes, I guessed that.”
“Therefore, we need to talk.”
“No, we do not,” I reiterated.
Dad gave up on me and looked back to Max. “Really, would you mind?”
Max’s eyes were on me but when my father addressed him he looked at Dad, planted his feet, crossed his arms on his chest and said, “Yeah, I’d mind.”
If I wasn’t so incensed, I would have rushed across the floor and kissed Max hard. Unfortunately, I was incensed.
“Dad, go,” I demanded.
“Nina, listen to me,” Dad said instead of leaving. “You’re throwing your life away.”
I shook my head and said, “No, no I’m not. I was but evidence is suggesting that I’m not anymore.”
Dad looked to Max then glanced quickly around the living room then back to me, his eyes settling on my bruised cheekbone and his brows came up before he asked with only partially veiled derision, “Honestly?”
“Go,” I repeated.
“This isn’t you,” my father told me.
“You don’t know me,” I told him the truth.
“Niles is a good man, works hard. He’s from a good family.”
“He’s got money, that’s what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying he’s a good man and I’m reminding you about the fact that you haven’t chosen many of those in your past, in fact, none at all.”