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“Poppa?”
Henry looks up from his coursework and smiles at Delia, who’s shifting from foot to foot in the doorway of his shared office with Alex. “Hey, mon petit chou ,” he says, swiveling his chair to face her. “What’s going on?”
She wrinkles her nose. “I’m fifteen and you’re still calling me your little cabbage.”
Henry grins. “Is that what you came in here for? Because I can definitely put it on my Faceboo-”
“No!” Delia interjects, walking further into the room. She looks over her shoulder, probably to make sure her father isn’t hovering behind her, and closes the door. “I just … wanted to talk to you about something. Before I talk to Daddy about it.”
Henry nods for her to take a seat in the chair by Alex’s desk. “Sure, love. What’s going on?”
Delia sits and immediately starts picking at her nails. It’s a horrible habit that she picked up from her father and he’s done everything he could think of to break her of it. Usually she’s able to police herself but obviously something’s bothering her to the point where she can’t.
“It’s just … you know Diego Pérez? We’re in the science club together?”
“I do,” Henry confirms, a picture of the young man forming in his mind. The kid is tall and lanky, like he hasn’t grown into his body properly yet. He’s a cross country runner, Henry recalls, and very polite, calling both he and Alex “Mr. Claremont-Diaz” every time they meet.
Delia winces as her nail catches skin. She takes a deep breath and shoves her hands under her thighs - a method he taught her - and looks up at him. “So, he asked if I wanted to go see the new Jackson Dunn movie. Like, with him.” She pauses and spins the chair once. “And just him. On Valentine’s Day.”
Something hot and angry flashes through Henry - how dare someone ask his baby out on a date? - but he pushes it down. He’d gone on plenty of dates by the time he was in secondary school and Alex certainly wasn’t a stranger to romantic relationships - or at least what could pass as a romantic relationship in 6th grade.
“And you wanted to see what I thought your dad would say?” he asks, pushing down the sadness in his heart that his little girl is growing up.
“Um, actually, I … I kind of want to ask him - Diego, not dad - if we can invite other friends to go with us? Like, I’ll sit with him and everything but I don’t really … want to go alone? I don’t think he’d do anything I don’t want him to,” she rushes to add, the tiniest hint of panic in her voice and eyes. “I just … I just really think I’d be more comfortable if more than just me and Diego went. And I want to tell Dad all of this and ask him if I can go but also … I want to be able to tell Dad that I’m going to ask Diego if we can invite more friends. Like Lucy and Michael and Chris and Skye.”
Henry smiles and rolls his chair over so he’s sitting right in front of her. He reaches out and gently tugs her hands from their trapped position, holding them in his. “I think that’s very mature of you to know you’d like to have more friends with you, even if you do like Diego.” He pauses. “Wait. Do you like Diego?”
“ Poppa ,” she groans, her dark skin flushing just a bit. “I beg you to not.”
She says it in a horrible English accent, clearly mimicking him, and he narrows his eyes at her. “I’m sorry, do you want me to be Team Delego?” He pauses, squinting his eyes. “That’s the only name we can portmanteau because if I tried his name first, it would just be your name. That’s corny.”
“ You’re corny,” Delia retorts. “Are you going to help me?”
“ Maybe ,” he answers, though he absolutely is. “Do you think your friends’ parents will let them go to see that movie with you?” He really has no idea who Jackson Dunn is and what kind of films he makes, but he does know that he and Alex are generally more liberal than most of the other parents in the area.
“I think so,” she says with a shrug. “It’s a remake of an old movie.”
“I don’t want to know what you consider an old movie, so I’ll just let that one sit,” Henry tells her. “I think once you tell your dad, we can come up with a game plan. The first thing you’ll have to do is tell Diego. And then you can go from there, yeah?”
Delia nods and bites the inside of her bottom lip, not looking at him. She’s gathering her thoughts, he knows, and he’s always found it easier to let her bring up what she wants to say in her own time. While he waits, he’s content to just hold his baby girl’s hands. She’s unlikely to let him get away with it for much longer, so he’ll take what he can get.
“What happens if Diego doesn’t want to go if I won’t go alone?” she asks softly, her eyes and their hands.
Henry feels like there’s a vice around his heart. The tone of her voice makes him want to wrap her up and tell her to forget Diego and every other boy or girl or person who wants her attention and just stay at home with her dads and brother forever. He knows, however, that’s likely to go over like a lead balloon.
“Then you can tell him you don’t want to go with him,” he tells her softly. “Or you can explain to him why you’re not ready to go out with just him. If he’s a good guy like I think he is, he’ll understand, petit chou .”
Delia is quiet for a couple of long minutes before she takes a deep breath and straightens her shoulders. “Okay. When Daddy gets home, we’ll tell him that Diego asked me to the movies with just him, but I want to ask some friends to go too. And … and then we can talk about how to talk to Diego about it?”
Henry nods. “If you want, we can wait until Johnny goes to bed so he’s not hovering or teasing.”
Delia nods and lets out a breath. “ Please . Six year olds are the absolute worst .” She gives him a cheeky little grin and hops out of the chair. She presses a kiss to his forehead and heads for the door. “Thanks, Poppa.”
“Anytime, mija ,” he tells her with a smirk.
“Ugh!” she groans, flinging the door open dramatically. “Stick with French! Your accent is terrible!”
Henry laughs until he hears her bedroom door close and then turns back to his studies. His heart hurts because this is just one more step in Delia growing up and making room for another person in her life, but he’s so proud of who she’s become, he won’t let it bring him down.
He does, however, make a note for himself to get Ellen and Leo to take Johnny on Saturday night if Delia’s on a group date. He and Alex are definitely due for a little bit of Adult Romance Time.