23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

P atty wiped her palms off a second time and began. “I met your father when I was very young, only seventeen. We were at a party, and his friend started talking to me first. Your dad was quiet and a little awkward, and I thought it would be a challenge to try to draw him out, so I started asking him questions. We ended up talking a lot, mostly about art. I was an aspiring artist, and he knew a little about it.”

Her mom was an artist? Cleo had often wondered where her affinity for it had come from, since neither her father nor Bernice had any talent in anything more than acquiring it.

“He got my number at the end of the night, but I didn’t think much about it because I gave my number to a lot of guys.” One side of her mouth lifted. “When he called a few days later, I honestly couldn’t even remember who Trevor was until he reminded me of what we’d talked about.”

Cleo could picture her father being shy and uncomfortable in his younger years. His money and status had made him less awkward now, but he still occasionally had his moments.

“I wasn’t really interested in getting to know him more, but I’ll say this for the man: he was persistent. He wouldn’t let me put him off forever, so I finally agreed to go out with him once. He took me to the Met; I had never been there before, and it became my new favorite place on earth.”

Cleo’s heart leapt. “That’s my favorite place, too,” she admitted.

“Really? I should’ve known you’d love art. You drew on everything in sight–the floor, the walls, your body.” A softness entered her eyes as if she was remembering those times with fondness, though Cleo could only suppose that it would’ve been frustrating to have a child draw on all the things she shouldn’t.

Patty gave her head a little shake before continuing. “I didn’t know your father came from money, not at first. He took me to Little Italy for pizza one night, and then talked me into another date where we walked to Chinatown. He said he wanted to give me the world, and I assumed he meant the way any poor college student can do that in a place like New York, where the world has come to your city. I had no idea that he had the means to take me to all the places on the planet I’d ever want to go.” She looked down at her clasped hands. “I should have ended things with him then when I knew it wouldn’t go anywhere, before I got swept away by the idea of a life that never could’ve been mine.”

“Did you ever love him?” She had to know, even if the question seemed a little premature for this point in the story.

Patty shook her head and then shrugged. “I loved him like I’d love a stray dog that I felt sorry for. I didn’t love him enough to marry him; that was for sure. But your father was stubborn and could be very persuasive, and he kept convincing me to spend more time with him. I got caught up in the idea of a romance with a boy like him, especially once he showed his hand and started giving me things that I’d never had before.”

She paused her story and then continued like she had to defend her actions. “You see, my mom raised me by herself and I had to do without a lot of things, so I admit I liked the idea of someone who could lavish me with all the comforts that had always been denied me. He bought me pretty clothes and perfume, painting supplies and books. I was working as a salesgirl at a makeup counter at a department store; he’d show up with some bauble and all the other sales girls would ooh and aah over my rich boyfriend and how lucky I was. I let it go to my head.”

Cleo could picture her father spoiling Patty like that. It wasn’t that different from how he’d treated Cleo. He’d obviously picked up the bad habit of trying to purchase people’s affections young, and didn’t learn his lesson that you can’t buy your way into someone’s heart. Cleo loved her father because of who he was, not what he could give her. But maybe she hadn’t done a very good job of showing him that. Maybe no woman in his life had shown him that he had worth beyond his money. Bernice definitely hadn’t, and it sounded like Patty hadn’t either. Her poor father. He didn’t deserve the way he’d been treated by any of them, and Cleo felt a fierce desire to make that right as soon as she could. But first, she needed to resolve things here.

Her mother went on. “I honestly don’t know what he saw in me. I wasn’t cultured or glamorous. I definitely didn’t fit into his world, but I think he liked that about me. He was tired of the society girls he’d grown up with at his preppy private schools. It would be crass to say that he was slumming it, because he never made me feel like I was less than. He treated me like a queen, and I let it go to my head. Why shouldn’t I be with someone who had a lot of money? With him, I’d never again experience the water or power being turned off in our apartment because we didn’t pay the bill. I’d never go without anything again, and to me that trumped everything else, even whether I loved the person or not. I was too immature to realize how selfish that kind of attitude was. I didn’t stop to think how unfair it was to your dad that he was falling in love with someone who was basically using him.”

Cleo agreed; it was selfish, but she could understand how Patty could’ve let it happen. Cleo had never been poor until this trip, and even then she had everything she needed. She couldn’t imagine how much the idea of being rich could mess with your emotions if you’d always gone without. It did make her heart ache for her father, though.

“It went on like that for over a year. I was almost nineteen when he proposed, and I hardly thought twice about my decision. I didn’t know how much his parents were against the idea, how he stood up to them so much more then than he did later. I knew they weren’t thrilled, but he’d sheltered me from the worst of it, so I stumbled into this new world and new life, not realizing just how ill prepared I was for it.”