Page 3 of His Secret Virgin
Chapter 2
Emma
On my twentieth birthday, my dad had terrible news. Instead of coming home with the usual: a chocolate birthday cake and a bouquet of balloons, he came home empty handed. The look of despair on his face told me that there were more important things to worry about than a missing cake.
“Dad, are you okay?”
He shook his head and looked around the living room. “Where’s Mom?”
“In the kitchen, cooking shrimp alfredo for my birthday dinner.” I didn’t like the way my father was acting. He’d never looked so bad. “What’s wrong?”
Walking past me, he said, “Come on, I only want to say this once.”
I followed him to the kitchen where my mother took one look at him and then dropped the spoon she’d been stirring with. She walked straight to him, hugging him tightly.
“Sebastien, what’s happened?”
“The warehouse is shutting down.” He sighed deeply. “The company went bankrupt. No one from corporate ever mentioned anything about any financial problems. I just got a call from the main office; I was told to tell my people that today is their last day, and that it’s my last day too. Someone came from the bank to lock up the warehouse. It’s been repossessed.”
The shock made me feel numb. My father had been with that company since before I was born. I didn’t understand how an entire company could just up and go out of business like that.
“I guess I should tell Laney at the boutique that I need to work full-time.”
Mom let Dad out of the hug and looked at me with drooping eyes. “Yes, Emma, we’ll all need to do whatever we can to make ends meet until your father can get another job.”
“Celeste, you know I’m not going to find a job that’ll pay me as well as the warehouse.” Slumping over, he made it to a chair and sat down. Putting his head in his hands, he groaned. “I’m forty-six years old; no one’s going to hire me.”
“Well, that’s ageism,” my mother remarked. “I’m only a year younger than you, and I bet I can get a job. Besides, I’m sure there are a lot of managerial positions at any number of companies around here.”
“Not one that pays what mine did.” He lifted his eyes to look around the kitchen. “The mortgage payment alone will wipe out what’s left in our bank account. Then there are the three car payments. The other bills will have to be paid too. I’m afraid we’re going to lose everything, Celeste. You, Emma, and I can all go to work doing whatever we can, but it won’t be as much as I’ve been making.”
“You’re talking like we’re doomed, Sebastien.” Mom went back to the stove to stir the sauce.
I jumped in to help her as I could see from her expression that Dad’s words were weighing heavily on her despite her attempt at optimism.
“Here, Mom, let me help you.”
Handing me the spoon, she went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. Popping the top, she placed it on the small kitchen table in front of my father. “Here, drink this. Hopefully, it’ll settle your brain a bit. We’ll figure things out, honey. I know we’ll be fine.”
After chugging the beer, a thing I’d never seen my father do, he put the empty can on the table. “Not the way we’ve been living, we won’t.”
“So, we downsize,” Mom said with a positive attitude. “It won’t kill us to trade our cars in for cheaper ones. Or better yet, we can trade all three in and just get one.”
Dad looked like he wanted to cry. “I don’t want you and Emma to lose your cars.”
“I don’t mind,” I chimed in. “I’ll do anything to help out, Dad.”
He smiled, albeit weakly. “You’re a good girl, Emma. My little baby girl.”
“I’m kind of not a baby anymore, Dad. I did turn twenty today, you know,” I reminded him.
“You’ll always be my baby girl, Emma Hancock.” Getting up, he hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “Happy birthday, sweetheart. I’m sorry I forgot to pick up the cake and balloons.”
“There’s no need to apologize. I understand completely.” I kissed his cheek, which was bristly with a five o’clock shadow.
Letting me go, he went to the fridge and pulled out another beer. “I wish I could tell you that I’ll make it up to you, but we’re going to have to watch every penny until I figure something out.”
After a solemn birthday dinner, I walked next door to visit my best friend, Valerie. She and I were the same age and had lived next door to each other forever.
