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Show All the Variables & Other Love Stories 102 Angie's favorite when she was little, but now, all these years later, anything that remotely smacked of true love annoyed her. In the ensuing passion, they'd had two boys a year apart, Angie's older brothers. Angie had come unplanned a decade later. Her brothers hadn't taken much interest in her then, and less now. She saw them sparingly, and could tell they were embarrassed by her. They both had families and respectable lives of their own, and Angie didn't care what they thought of her. Angie's dad said, "Seems to me if you want to keep the boy, you ought to be yourself. You might catch his eye by pretending to be what he wants, but it doesn't matter unless he loves you for who you really are." He didn't visit often, but Angie was glad to see him. Angie could tell he'd been sent to support her mother's advice, which he'd never done before, though this wouldn't prevent her mother from being shocked. Her mother's conviction that Angie needed to get married had apparently grown; a month ago, Angie's mother wouldn't have dreamed of involving him in a conversation she believed to be best kept between women, as if he had no idea what they were talking about. "Your ma really thinks she's doing the best thing for you by carrying on like a fool," he continued. He smelt of spicy aftershave, leather oil, and chewing tobacco, like Angie thought a man ought to smell. Angie keenly remembered being disappointed that boys did not smell like her father. Most of them smelt like animals. "The logic is, you could do a lot worse than someone as gullible as yourjold dad, and after all, she caught me by using such shenanigans. At least, the first time," and he winked, "The second time, I knew what I was getting my fool self into!" |
