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Bob and Helen were getting ready to settle in for the night. Helen sat at her vanity, brushing her hair. Bob was reading a book, not really sure what the story was and too tired to care all that much.
“Long day,” Helen said.
“Yeah,” Bob answered. “Longer day tomorrow.”
“You’ve got that ribbon-cutting ceremony?”
“Yeah. And you’re doing a... commercial?”
“Devtech. We’re here to help,” Helen quoted in what she’d come to think of as her ‘Devtech’ voice. Bob smirked in response.
A knock at the door interrupted them.
“Come in, Violet,” Bob called without looking up from his book.
“How’d you know it was me?” their daughter asked as she opened the door and stepped into their bedroom.
Violet was wearing her pajamas, but clearly hadn’t gone to bed at bedtime.
“You and Karen are the only ones that knock,” Bob explained, putting a finger to mark his place as he closed the book. He looked over his glasses at her and added, “Though Dash is getting better about it.”
“What is it, sweetie?” Helen asked, putting down her brush. She went to their bed and pulled back her side of the covers, hoping their girl would take the hint.
“Well, I was thinking, since my birthday is coming up and it is my sixteenth, I’d like to have a party? And invite lots of people.”
Bob and Helen shared a look.
“Oh,” said Helen, “that’s new. You never wanted a big party before.”
“No I know,” Violet said, coming further into the room and sitting on the end of their bed. “It’s just… You know, Sweet Sixteen? I just feel like this year is different.”
“Okay,” Bob said, opening his book again.
“Really?”
“Now wait a minute Bob,” Helen said, irritated. “You can’t just agree to host a party like that.”
“Why not?” Bob asked.
“Why not? Bob, a sweet sixteen party is a big deal!”
“And um one other thing?” Violet asked timidly, trying to defuse her parents’ argument with meekness. “Some of my friends have boyfriends so there would be boys at the party but of course you could chaperone and maybe invite Lucius and Honey and some of your other friends like Edna and then it wouldn’t be so bad right and you wouldn’t have to worry about any funny business?”
There was a long, long pause, and finally Bob said, “Funny business.”
Violet had the decency to blush, at least.
“I think we can agree to have a party,” Helen said, changing the subject and saving them all from an embarrassing conversation none of them wanted to have at that precise moment. “We can discuss the details in the morning.”
“Really?” Vi said, brightening immediately. “Thanks Mom!”
“Okay? Good night, sweetheart.”
Bob turned back to his book. “Good night, Violet.”
“Okay, thank you!” Violet hopped off their bed, headed for the door, and paused for a moment. “Mom, do you have any heels I can borrow? I want to practice walking in them.”
“Oh! Sure,” Helen said, stretching her hand across the room, into her closet. She pulled out a pair of her shoes, the kitten heel ones she’d gotten for the DevTech Christmas party. They had a nice little one-inch heel, perfect for Violet.
“Oh,” Violet said, disappointment heavy in her voice. “I was kind of hoping to try a taller heel? Like your blue ones?”
“The three-inch stilettos? I don’t think so.”
“But Mom!”
Helen crossed her arms. “Violet, you’ll break your neck! Or at least twist your ankle.”
“Mom, how can I learn to wear real heels if I never try them?”
Helen was far too tired to be having this discussion. She sighed. “Prove to me you can wear those one-inchers and we’ll discuss you trying on my three-inchers.”
“Okay,” Violet said, slipping on the shoes she’d borrowed. Balancing on the heels wasn’t something that came naturally, but Violet managed to walk out of their room without tripping or stumbling.
“You could have been more involved,” Helen complained to her husband as she settled into bed.
“I never come between two women arguing over a pair of shoes,” he answered with mock seriousness.
“Mm-hmm.”
Bob gave up on trying to read and set his book and glasses aside. “She’s getting your figure.”
“You think?”
He ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “I’m going to lose what’s left, I just know it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When the boys come sniffing around.”
“That’s a lovely way of putting it.”
“You know what I mean.”
“We’ll deal with it when it happens,” Helen said, rolling over to face him. “Don’t go looking for things to worry about, we’ve got more than enough as it is.”
“I’m not worried, I’m just saying, with your figure she’ll be popular with the boys.”
“Maybe so.”
Bob paused and looked at his wife, thinking. “Wait a minute… Is that why she’s been in such a good mood lately?”
Helen’s eyes snapped open. Bob could make surprising leaps of intuition at times.
“What do you mean?”
“She’s been playing happy music, smiling, giggling,” Bob said. “She was nice to Dash the other day!”
“Maybe she’s just maturing.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Helen?”
Helen sighed, seeing no way out of the conversation. “She has a new crush.”
“I knew it! One of the boys in her class?”
“No.”
“A senior?!”
“No, not a senior.”
“A younger guy?”
“No, not anyone from her school, I don’t think.”
Bob frowned. “Where else is she going to meet boys? She’s not in any clubs and only ever goes anywhere with Karen and the boys.”
Helen braced herself. “Her crush isn’t a boy.”
She’d seen Bob take a cannon blast to his face and shrug it off. Now she watched his face for any sign of what kind of emotional storm might erupt, but he kept it completely neutral.
Finally he shrugged and said, “Oh.”
“‘Oh’? That’s it, ‘oh’?”
Bob shifted down in their bed, laying his head on his pillow. “I never figured her for being that way, but okay.”
Helen crossed her arms. “That’s all you have to say? I tell you our daughter is interested in girls and you just say ‘okay’?”
“Are you looking for a fight?” Bob asked. “So she takes after her mom, so?”
Helen blinked, startled. “What? What do you…”
Bob raised an eyebrow at her. “I know, Helen. I’ve always known.”
Helen felt dizzy. “How? I never said-”
“Gail told me.” Bob said softly, knowing the topic of Strato-Gale was a sensitive one with Helen.
“That party, at Lucius’. Just after Dash was born.”
“That was…” Helen quickly did the math “... ten years ago.”
“Yeah about that. You’d lost some of the baby weight but you were still nursing, so your, uh, you know…” he pointedly eyed her breasts “... were still pretty big. Gail had been drinking, probably more than she should have, and kept going on and on about how good you looked, how lucky I was, how much I had better appreciate you… Then she cornered me in the kitchen and told me all about you and her, and how she hadn’t even been your first girlfriend.”
Helen struggled to fit the new information into her world. She’d never brought it up with Bob, kept it a secret all these years, because she’d been afraid of what he might say, how he might react. And now it turned out he’d known. “You’ve known for ten years, and you never said anything.”
Bob shrugged again. “What does it change? You’ve always been that person. I love you now, I loved you then, you married me, we’re still together even after everything we’ve been through.”
Helen shook her head and smiled, amazed that after all the years, he could still surprise her. “I’m sorry I underestimated you.”
Bob yawned. “Don’t worry about it,” he reached over and turned off his reading lamp. They settled into bed together, Helen snuggling up against him, his arm under her head, her arm across his chest. Quiet filled the room.
“So who’s the lucky girl?” Bob asked suddenly, just as Helen had begun to drift off.
“Mmm?”
“Violet’s crush.”
“Oh,” Helen said sleepily. “She hasn’t said, but I think it’s Karen.”
Bob went still in a way that woke her up, instantly alert.
“Karen who?” he asked.
“What do you mean, Karen who?” Helen asked. “Karen Karen. Our Karen.”
“Karen Karen?! Our Karen?! Voyd Karen? That Karen?”
“Could you keep your voice down? You’ll wake the kids.”
“Voyd,” he repeated to be absolutely clear. “That Karen.”
“Yes, Bob, that Karen. I don’t understand what the problem is.”
“Well, she’s way too old for Violet.”
Helen reached over him to turn on the reading lamp so she could see his face better. “That’s your problem? It’s only four years difference.”
“You wouldn’t say that if it were a twenty year-old boy,” he argued.
“We’re almost four years apart, Bob.”
“Yeah, and look at what a hound dog I was when we met.”
“You think that’s going to happen with Karen and Violet?” Helen laughed. “Come on, Bob. We leave the health and well-being of our children with that young woman every day. Sometimes their lives. Do you honestly think Karen would ever do anything to hurt our girl?”
Bob stewed on that for a long time, then countered with, “I’m not saying it would be intentional.”
“It’s sweet that you’re so concerned,” Helen said, turning off the light again, knowing she’d won this round at least. “But Violet’s getting to an age where she has to navigate these paths by herself. Even if there’s heartache at the end of it. We can’t watch out for her forever.”
“Who made that rule?” Bob yawned again. “I want to register a complaint.”