Chapter 7

Four Years Later, Day One: Saturday

Bella Lisa quietly sat in the front seat next to her father, sipping on industrial strength gas station coffee, on the long drive from Stanford to Seaside City. He had made it to the graduation, sat through the endless ceremony and afterwards gave her a bouquet of flowers and a congratulations balloon. Her dad seemed very proud of her getting her degree, if somewhat uncharacteristically subdued. They packed all her earthly belongings in the trunk right after the ceremony and hit the road, avoiding all the post-graduation parties.

It was just as well. She had just gone through another messy break-up a few days ago and didn’t want to bump into the guy, especially in front of her dad. She knew he would make an embarrassing scene again, whining even more so than the last one. It seemed every time she let a guy she was attracted to touch her breasts, or even worse, have sex with her, it drove them crazy. Having sex inevitably changed them for the worse. Though she felt quite comfortable with and very much enjoyed the momentarily heightened sensations of sex, after the intimacy, her feelings for them would pretty much remain for the same. In fact, she was always slightly let down afterwards. There was an excitement at first, but it never lasted. She wished at least once in her life she would be passionately swept away by the cute guy she was dating.

I’ve got to stop reading those trashy romance novels Mom keeps sending me.

Of course, for the guys it was a completely different story. It was as if her body became their new drug of choice, and each successive boyfriend over the last four years of college became increasingly addicted to her. One taste and they were hooked. They would become annoyingly possessive and jealous, complaining about how the clothes she wore attracted too much attention to her body. They would fight like ugly barking dogs with every other guy that looked at her. Or they would become like little cloying puppies, following her around constantly, never giving her any space, lapping and nipping at her heels. The same pattern would occur for her each time. After she had sex once or twice with any boyfriend, they began acting weird; she’d lose her attraction for them and then not want to see them again. They would act as if their world was coming to an end just because she no longer wanted to have sex with them anymore. But after the shouting and anticipated sessions of name-calling and recriminations, she would have peace in her life again. After all the break-ups she finally learned that she really didn’t want a long-term commitment at this point in her life. She didn’t want to follow some earnest guy to a podunk town, raising kids and becoming active in the PTA.

I want to do something more in my life, something important.

She was glad to be free to return to Seaside City, get a job, perhaps to eventually go on and get her Master’s degree in Social Work and do something valuable with her life. She also looked forward to living in that beautiful condo her dad had bought before she left for college, relax a little after all her final exams, lay out on the beach in the new swimsuit she had bought herself as a graduation present and read a few more of those romance novels her mom had sent her.

They made pretty good time and stayed for the night at a hotel a few hours south of Stanford. They ate a quiet dinner at the small restaurant in the hotel before retiring for the night. They left early the next morning. Her dad was usually very talkative, but he said barely a word on the whole trip. Maybe this would be the right time to talk to him, she thought.

“Hey, Dad?”

“Hmmm?”

“You seem very quiet.”

“Do I?”

“Is there anything wrong?”

“No. I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep well. It’s a long drive.”

“Thanks again for coming to my graduation.”

“I’m very proud of you honey.”

“Thanks, Dad. I can’t wait to get back home and just relax at the beach.”

“Yes…”

Another few minutes of awkward silence passed until Bella Lisa spoke.

“Are you sure there’s nothing bothering you, Dad? You seem a little down.”

“Oh, well, I lost a few jobs lately – a movie role I really wanted. I got called back several times, but my agent called yesterday and said they went in another direction. It could’ve really put me back in the game…”

Bella Lisa had a familiar sad feeling talking about her father’s career. She remembered feeling let down in the same way when she read the bad reviews he received in the play she saw him in four years ago, before she left for Stanford.

“Oh, that’s too bad. I’m sorry, Dad. But don’t worry. Another role will come along that’s perfect for you. You’re too good of an actor to be out of work for too long. You’ll see…”

Mauricio just nodded and kept staring down the road. The life of an actor must be hard, facing all that rejection day after day, Bella Lisa thought. They kept driving for another hour until she broke the silence.

“Can we stop for lunch at the next exit? I’m kind of hungry.”

“Do you mind if we just grab a snack or something when I fill up for gas? I have a meeting with this guy who said he’d help me with my stock portfolio at 3:30. If we push on we can make it back to Seaside City just in time.”

“OK, I guess. Do you have food in the frig?”

“Yeah, but… can you do me a favor?

“Sure, Dad.”

“I’ve talked about you so much to this guy, bragging about your accomplishments at Stanford, the Dean’s list and everything, could you pop in for a minute so I could introduce—”

“Listen, Dad, I’m not really in the mood to meet anyone right now, it’s been a long drive, I’m exhausted, I need a shower—”