What Are Your Thoughts

Hello, all. Bit of a buildup here, so it takes a little time to get everybody naked. Everyone in the story is over 21 years old, and imaginary. Enjoy, and please remember to comment and vote!

She'd done it! She'd finally graduated with her degree in Psychology. She knew that there was at least two more, maybe even four more years of study before she could hang her own placard on an office and treat patients, but dammit, this was huge! Her folks came up for the graduation festivities last weekend. Her mom had flown back, but her dad stayed behind to pack up her dorm room for the last time and drive her home. He was the one who supported her dream of becoming a psychologist. Her mom made no bones about the fact that she thought Gabrielle's choice of careers was "foolishness." Monica Jacobs had never supported anything her daughter did, and this was no exception. Her dad always told her, "You go chase your dream... I'll support you." And here she was, at least halfway there. And in celebration, last night at dinner, he announced to her that he'd managed to secure a position for her as an instructor at the college where he was a full professor. In addition to a decent starting salary, she'd also gain critically important experience as she pursued her goals.

She'd brought the last of her bags and boxes out to her dad's SUV and he was busy building the 3-D jigsaw puzzle of getting everything in the car for one trip. Gabrielle was making one last look at the room she'd shared with Cassandra Pyle for the last year and a half. Cassandra also had everything all packed up. She was waiting for her dad to show up so he could help her load up and move out of the dormitory as well. This was it! The two girls had become as close as sisters over the last two years. They'd spent weekends at each other's homes, and they swore to each other that this was not going to be the end of their friendship. Gabriella bid her friend a final goodbye and walked out of the dorm room toward her future. As she was walking away from the building, she bumped into a man walking towards the building. She stepped back to apologize, and saw that the man was Joseph Pyle, Cassandra's father. She'd met him several times, most recently last evening, when he and her dad had taken the two recent college grads out for a fancy dinner that included neither coupons nor ramen noodles.

"Mr. Pyle! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed.

"Gabrielle! So good to see you!" he answered. "Don't apologize... I wasn't watching where I was going. So, are you all done?"

"Yep! Packed up, signed out, keys returned, heading out. I am now a 'former student.' I guess I'm officially an alumnus!" she answered, laughing.

Joseph looked across the quad and saw Gabrielle's father, Roman Jacobs, waiting beside a large SUV. He waved at him. "Is that your dad over there?"

"Yeah," she answered. "We're all done and about to hit the road. Normally I fly back and forth home, but since this is it, Dad volunteered to drive his big SUV over and bring all my stuff home."

"Your dad mentioned your new position last night. Congratulations! Are you going to be moving back home?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to stay at home until I can save up enough to get out on my own. Kinda sucks."

"Don't sweat it, Gabrielle. Life's expensive, and you have all the time in the world to deal with bills and shit," he chuckled. "Plus, I'm sure your folks are glad to have you around a little longer. Your dad sure seems happy you're coming home."

"I guess that's true," Gabrielle said, though she didn't sound sure.

"Hey," Joseph continued, "Cassie already has a job, but I'm thrilled she's staying at home for a while. As far as I'm concerned, she can stay forever. I'm sure your dad feels the same way. So don't beat yourself up, okay?"

"Okay, I'll try, Mr. Pyle," she promised, though still half-heartedly.

"Trust me, it'll be fine," he said. "Oh, and now that you're all grown up, with your fancy new degree, no more 'Mr. Pyle.' I'm Joseph or Joe. Okay?"

"Okay, Joseph!" she said, almost flirting with him.

"That's better," he said, laughing at her sudden affectation. "Anyway, Cassie's up in the room?"

"Yep. She's all packed up and waiting for you."

"Okay," said Joseph going in for a final hug. "Well, good luck, and don't be a stranger, okay? Cassie loves you, so please don't let this great friendship die. Promise me that, okay?"

"Cassie's my girl! You don't have to worry. We're already getting together next week. I'm driving down and we'll spend the day in Miami, so I might even see you then!"

"That'd be great," he answered as he walked into the dorm building. Gabrielle looked at him appraisingly as he walked away and turned right, towards the room she'd shared with his daughter. He looked pretty good for an old guy. He was fairly tall, maybe six feet, and slim. Standing still, he had that sort of gangly look, but in motion, he carried himself fluidly, as if he was a dancer or a musician. His arms were long and his hands were large, but graceful. His movements were delicate and precise. His dark hair was long-ish and he wore it swept back. There were just a couple of speckles of gray, but that looked really good on him. All in all, Gabrielle thought, if she were ever to be interested in a older white guy, she could probably do worse than Joseph Pyle. Cassie certainly seemed to hang on her dad's every word. Gabrielle wasn't surprised. They'd both admitted to each other about how much they were both 'Daddy's Girls.'

She snapped out of her reverie and headed across the yard for the last time and ran to her dad. She grabbed him in a hug, squeezing him tightly.

"What's that for?" Roman asked as he squeezed his daughter.

Gabrielle just sighed contentedly against him and shrugged. "It's just all so emotional, you know?" she answered. "This is definitely the end of a major chapter in life, and I just wanted to take a moment to bask in it with you," she added, squeezing him again for good measure.

After a few seconds of enjoying the best hug he'd received in months, Roman finally let her go, saying, "As much as I'm enjoying this, we'd better get going. It's a long drive. But at least it's with my favorite girl!"

"Not mom?" she asked.

He scoffed softly. "Naw, babe," he said, shaking his head. "It's always been you. You know you're my girl!" he added as they got into the SUV.

She leaned across the center console and kissed his cheek. "That's right!" she laughed. "And don't you forget it!"

As they were beginning the drive, Roma said, "It's already after noon, and I'm starving. Let's stop at SoBee's one last time before we get on the road. It's a long drive, and there's not much to eat along the way." SoBee's was a locally-owned restaurant that had some of the best barbecue Roman had ever tasted.

"That sounds great," she agreed.

As the restaurant came in the view, Gabrielle reminisced over how many evenings she'd sat at her favorite booth in there nibbling on burnt ends while working on her studies. Suddenly, she gasped.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed.

"What?"

"Dad, you have to turn around. I left my laptop," she replied anxiously.

"Your laptop? Are you sure? How could you leave your laptop?" he asked as he turned the vehicle around.

"Those last few days of the term while everyone is packing up, always get so crazy busy," she explained. "Everyone is running around in and out of their rooms trying to pack and grab all their stuff. There's always some idiot wandering up and down the halls and if they see something valuable unattended for even a second, they grab it. So if anything is sort of valuable like nice cell phones or laptops, you hide them while you're packing."

"Why didn't you just pack it in your luggage?" asked Roman.

"Because I was gonna play with it here in the car."

"No problem," said Roman. "At least you remembered before we got a long way away. See, we're already back."

The campus had gotten surprisingly more deserted in the 30 or so minutes that they'd been gone. Roman drove straight up to the front door of the dormitory, she hopped out before the car was even completely stopped. She ran up to the front desk to get her key back from the resident assistant.

"Hey Gabs," he said. "I thought you'd be halfway home by now."

"We were driving out," she said. "Luckily, I remembered that I'd left my laptop slipped between the mattresses. Can I grab my key for a second?"

"Sure. Here you go," he said handing her the room key she'd just given him minutes earlier.

Their room was on the first floor, and she walked quickly down the deserted hall back to her room. The way the dormitory was set up, each room had two individual bedrooms with a small common area in the front. Gabby's room was on the right. Her bed was against the middle wall. From the way she'd had her pillow situated, she was always able to see the front door. Cassie's room, on the left, had her bed all the way on the other wall, so she couldn't see the door.

Gabrielle tried the knob, but of course it was locked. Cassie would have locked it up when she left. She turned the key and opened the door. The front room was windowless, but the bedrooms both had windows. She was surprised to see a piece of Cassie's luggage still sitting there. She went straight into her room and grabbed her laptop. As she was heading back out, she noticed that Cassie's door was open about a foot wide, and there was light coming in from the window...

*****

She'd been very quiet since she jumped back into the car with her laptop, urging him to 'DRIVE!!' Roman tried again to find out what was wrong. "Gabrielle," he prompted.

No response.

"Gabby!" he said sharply.

She jumped a little and looked at him as she was surprised to see him.

"What?!" she answered, as if annoyed.

"Baby girl, what the hell happened in that dorm? You weren't in there for two minutes, and you haven't said two words since you came back out. And now you're snapping at me! What happened?"

"I'm... I'm sorry dad," she began. "I'm not mad at you. It's just..." She looked as if she was trying to decide whether she could share what she saw with him. Finally, it seems she decided that she could.

"It's just this guy. I thought we might be talking later, you know. I walked in the dorm, I thought everyone was gone, and I saw him all hugged up with some other girl. Nothing had even happened with us, but I thought it might. Didn't even expect it to hurt so bad. I'm sorry for yelling at you. "

Roman took her hand, saying, "Oh, poor sweet baby. Believe me when I tell you, this is his loss. You're gonna be fine! You're gonna meet somebody a million times better, I guarantee you, he never will."

"I know," she said. "I'll get over it. It's just that right now, I'm still irritated by it all. He ain't no thaing, anyway. Whatever! Forget about him!"

Roman regarded his daughter. She didn't really look irritated. She looked confused. He shrugged it off as young love. His baby girl had always bee nothing if not resilient. Given time, he knew she'd be fine.

Hours later, as they finally pulled into their little town where they lived, Roman cleared his throat and said, "Yeah there's something I need to tell you."

"You sound serious. What is it?" she asked.

"When we get home, you're gonna notice a new dynamic at home."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "New dynamic? Like, what, did you guys bring in a third person? Eww!"

Roman scoffed, "No, nothing like that." He drove silently for a moment.

After a minute, she said, "Well? What is it?"

"Your mom seems to have found religion," he said.

"Religion?" she asked. "How is that a bad thing? So mom goes to church. I know you're not a believer, and I sure am not... but I don't understand how that would create some kind of new dynamic in the house," she said.

"It's more than that," he said. "She's at church four or five nights a week. Usually they're late, like until 10 or 11."

"Wow," Gabrielle said. "That seems... I don't know... excessive."

"I know," he said. "And there's more."

"More?"

"Yeah," he said. "Apparently, Jesus is not a fan of sex. She's cut off all relations, and a couple of months ago, she got tired of me asking so she moved out of our bedroom into the guest room."

Gabrielle gasped, "You guys don't sleep in the same bed anymore?"

Roman shook his head sadly. "No, I'm afraid not. The only reason I'm telling you this, is because I don't want you to be surprised when you walk into the house and see how things have changed between us.

"Is she still nice to you?"

He silently shook his head no.

"I don't know what to say," she said.

"There's nothing you can say. It just is what it is," he added.

"Dad," she said hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure she's actually going to church, or could just this just be a cover for her cheating on you?"

He sighed broadly. "I know for a fact that it's church. But that doesn't matter. I don't care if it is church."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well," he began, "if she's cheating on me, that just means that I'm not getting the love and attention I'm supposed to be getting from my wife. It means someone else is getting it. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if that someone else is some other guy, or Jesus himself. I'm still the odd man out in my own marriage."

By this time, they had arrived at the home. They sat there for a moment silently contemplating what all this meant.

"It really can't go on like this," he said softly, under his breath. Gabrielle barely heard it, but she nodded her head slowly in agreement.

Roman took a deep breath and said, "Let's not worry about that right now. Right now, I'm focused on the fact that my baby girl is back home and has a big-girl job waiting for her in a month or two! That's what we'll celebrate OK?"

She took his hand, wrapping her fingers around his. "OK, dad," she said. "I promise you; it's going to be OK. Somehow..."

*****

Gabrielle had been home for a week and a half, and her dad had seriously understated just how bad things were at home. Her mother had become cruel and verbally abusive. And she was also stern and joyless. Like some angry Pilgrim, every other word out of her mouth was an admonishment that something she or her father were doing was a sin. She knew she'd never be able to live under this roof with her mother acting this way towards both her and her father. Luckily, she had an outing planned for the next day with her college roommate Cassandra. They had a lot to talk about.

It had been a busy week. She'd been running around with her old friends and coming home to get yelled at by her mom. She felt sticky, so she decided to take a shower before bed. After her shower, she put on an oversized T-shirt and some soft shorts. On her way to her bedroom, she decided to visit with her dad. She knocked on the door. "Dad?" she asked.

"Come in sweetie," her dad answered.

Her dad kept the master bedroom. He was lying in bed with a T-shirt and shorts, reading. She looked at the cover, and it was a novel. It didn't look like anything too serious. "Can we chat for a second," she asked.

"Sure, sweetie," he said, closing the book. He put it in on the night table and patted the bed beside him. "Sit here."

She sat on the bed near his feet and turned to face him.

"So I guess you weren't joking about mom," she said.

Roman just shook his head sadly.

Gabrielle continued, "I mean I've only been here for 10 days. She was at church all day Sunday, and she's been at church every night except Friday. What is up with that?"

"Every time I try talking to her about it, she shuts me down. It's God this, and Jesus that, and I'm gonna burn in hell," he said.

"And you sure she's not actually having an affair?"

"I'm pretty sure she's not," he said, "but at this point, I don't really care. This started just before you came home for Christmas. It didn't seem out of place during the Christmas, because a lot of folks go to church more during the holidays, they're getting the church ready, and other things. I didn't think anything about it."

Gabriel said, "You mean this has been going on for seven months?!"

"Yeah," he said. "Like I said, at first, it didn't seem out of the ordinary."

She reached out and took his hands and clasped them in both hers. "You're too young to live like this. I mean, you're still a man. You still need..." She didn't finish her thought, instead letting what was unsaid reverberate through the room.

"Yeah, but there's nothing I can do about it, is there?" he asked softly. They sat there on his bed, holding hands, staring into each other's eyes. She didn't answer his words, only his gaze, as he searched her face for meaning.

Suddenly the door flung open. It was his wife, Monica. "Just what the hell is going on in here?" she demanded. To Gabrielle, she snapped, "And what are you doing in bed with your own daddy, and half naked at that?!"

"What!" said Roman. "We're just sitting here talking. And we're not 'in bed'. We're sitting on a bed."

"And this is what I wear to bed every night!" Gabrielle said defensively.

"Well, I don't like it!" Monica spat at them.

"No one cares what you like," said Roman, to Monica's great surprise. "It's not about you. Right now, we're just sitting here talking. Gabby's going to bed in a minute, anyway. So go pray or something."

She shot her husband and daughter a disdainful look and left without another word. They heard her door slam.

When her mother had stormed in, Gabrielle had backed away from her dad instinctively, as though they had in fact been doing something unseemly. Now she took his hands back in hers. "I'm going to see Cassandra tomorrow. I just need a few hours to just get away from all her drama. Could I take your car?"

"Sure, Gabs," he said distractedly, still upset by his wife's behavior. He took a breath and focused on his girl. She was beautiful even in her ratty oversized tee shirt and grubby soft shorts that she loved. "That's probably a good idea. Tomorrow's Friday, and she doesn't go to church at all. So she'd be here the whole time... just raggin' on us. Go see your friends. I'm probably going to hang out with Kirby. I'll be here when you get back."

"Are you sure you don't mind? You sure you're okay with her?"

He scoffed softly and said, "No, I'm used to her. You go have a good time with some normal people, okay? Like I said, I'll be here when you get back."

"We'll talk then," she promised. She leaned forward and kissed her father on the cheek. He returned the kiss to her forehead and hugged her tightly.

After she left, sleep was a long time coming for Roman.

*****

School was out for the summer, and Roman wasn't teaching a summer session. Gabby had sent in all the requested documentation for her to start her position in August, so she was currently a woman of leisure. Monica hadn't held a job since she'd been pregnant with Gabrielle. As a result, no one was up very early. Roman was up first, at 8:30, enjoying his coffee and solitude before his wife started in on him for the day. Just after nine, his best friend Kirby Wilkerson called to invite him to a road trip up to Tampa. He was slowly restoring a 1969 Lincoln Continental and was going in search of some hard-to-find parts. Just as Roman was considering whether or not to go, Gabrielle came out of her room fully dressed and kissed him on his head.

"Hang on, man," Roman said into the phone. "You headin' out?" he asked Gabby.

"Yeah," she answered. "We're meeting in the middle, in Lauderhill."

He waved her over for a quick hug. "Drive safe. See you tonight. Love you. Sweetie!"

She hugged him quickly. "Love you, too. I should be home before dark. Hey, Uncle Kirby!" She was out the door seconds later.