Читать книгу Bad Dad - Alice Shane - Страница 20

At Mary Lou’s insistence, they ended up eating dinner at the Red Lobster, a franchise that existed throughout the South. In Bedford, it was situated on a lot next to a strip mall.

“Ah love lobster, but Danny can’t afford to buy it for me,” she whined coyly before they went out for dinner that evening in an obvious attempt to enlist Lester’s sympathy – a comment that compounded his distaste for his daughter-in-law.

Mary Lou desperately wanted Lester to know about the unrelieved harshness of her existence, the truth about her life with Danny who brought home measly little paychecks that barely covered their expenses.

They rarely dined out in restaurants, except for Applebee’s, which didn’t account for much as far as she was concerned. Even when they ate there, they watched every penny, never ordering entrees that cost more than $8.99. Nor did they ever go on real vacations, except for camp-outs with Charlie in state parks where she did all the cooking out-of-doors on a portable stove. It was all so unfair, Mary Lou thought, now acutely aware of her poverty in contrast to the lifestyle that Margo enjoyed. She would have given anything to stay at that swanky hotel where Lester and Margo had reserved a suite.

Why couldn’t she have found someone like Lester – rich, refined, someone who would make her feel cared for, who could buy her expensive clothes at Dillard’s, take her to ritzy restaurants like Marcel’s in suburban Bedford. Mary Lou ached with regret and a sense of loss, the knowledge of having made the wrong choices in life – little formal education, the birth of Charlie when she was still in her teens, never having the opportunity to have a career, like Margo. Not that she ever wanted a career or cared about making money. All she ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. Well, she had that and it wasn’t enough.

“I’d rather have steak,” Danny said, hoping that Lester would fall in line and avoid going to the Red Lobster. He knew that contradicting Mary Lou’s choice of a restaurant would generate a firestorm, that she would accuse him of being selfish and mean. Normally afraid of her unpredictable anger, his father’s presence gave Danny the strength to stand up to her.

“What about you, Dad? What about a good steakhouse?”

Lester could see it coming. Mary Lou was gearing up for battle, her bright red lips set in an uncompromisingly sour expression, her eyes narrowing.

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this. Make up your minds,” he said, exasperated, trying to avoid looking in Mary Lou’s direction.

“You can get steak at the Red Lobster,” Mary Lou insisted. “Ah love lobster but you can’t afford to buy it for me like your Daddy can,” she said, flirtatiously eyeing Lester who did not respond, but looked away, shocked, repelled by her wiles.

Danny’s face became florid, much the way Lester’s coloring flared when he became angry, Margo noticed. The guy dodges live wires to support her and little Charlie, and the twit doesn’t have a modicum of loyalty towards him, she thought, remembering how her own mother taunted her father for bringing home too little money despite the long hours he put in.

“Well, when you get up off your lazy little butt to bring some moolah into the house, you’ll be able to eat lobster and you won’t have to beg my daddy to buy it for you!” Danny snapped, feeling triumphant about putting Mary Lou in her place.

No more nice guy bullshit, Danny decided. If there ever was a time he hated Mary Lou, it was now, as he witnessed her attempts to curry his father’s favor by trying to make him look bad. He did the best he could, worked overtime, always brought his entire paycheck home – unlike the other guys on his crew who pissed money away at bars on Friday nights. What right did she have to complain to his father?

OK. He would give in, let Mary Lou have her way, Danny decided, wanting to avoid further argument in his father’s presence. They headed for the Red Lobster.