A Terrible Whore

'What are you doing with my daughter?' Carl asked.

'We're seeing each other,' Lenny replied.

'Really?'

'Really.' Lenny areed. 'I won't do wrong by her. I really like her,' he said. 'If that's what you're worried about. I know I'm twenty-three, but I also want you to know that I'm going to TAFE at night, so I won't be a concreter forever.'

That's when Carl uncharacteristically lost his temper.

'You've ruined her,' Carl accused angrily. 'You fucked her.'

The way Carl spoke it was almost as if he felt Lenny had raped her, and the younger man, not missing the tone and intent, again turned to Dean helplessly before deciding to try and explain the situation to his girlfriend's father.

'It's not like that, mate,' Lenny replied, his eyebrows knitted together with concern. 'I didn't... it wasn't... I love her. Yeah, yeah, I've slept with her, but she's not pregnant and it wasn't that she didn't want it. I would never... never... go with a woman who didn't... want it, want me.'

The poor man was absolutely lost and stumbling. My heart was racing. For God's sake, I thought, what's going on? Carl had only just laid eyes on Lenny for the first time and now he was all but threatening him. That was quite unusual behaviour. I know that throughout this story Carl has threatened me, but that was only ever in private. In public, he was normally highly composed.

Dean was the only one with any sort of control. He walked up to Carl, a wet child in his arms, and looked him straight in the eye. 'You can wait around the front, mate.'

'I have a right to come here to collect my daughter,' Carl said.

'I can't remember any sort of legal agreement like that,' Dean countered. 'You're obviously angry, so I'm asking you to go around the front, mate. You're scaring my kids. If you want to ask questions about Lenny, ask Elise, but keep in mind she might not want to talk to you about him.'

'I have every right to know!'

'Elise is eighteen,' Dean reminded him. 'An adult. She's entitled to keep her relationships private.'

Carl stared at him with unmitigated rage. 'You're to blame for this,' he said. 'You ruined my daughter. You set her up with one of your mates for the express purpose of making fun of me.'

Dean snorted. 'Ruined? Ruined mate? If you think your daughter having sex is the same as her being ruined, then you're a bigger fucking prick than I've ever given you credit for. As for 'making fun of you', I'm doing nothing of the sort. Now go around the front and wait. I'm not going to ask you one more time.'

Carl stared at Dean, then at Lenny, then at me, then back to Dean. Dean raised his eyebrows expectantly.

The situation may have worsened, except that Carl's phone rang. He checked the caller ID and decided he wanted to answer, but not in front of us, so he went around the front of the house.

'This is going to be fun,' Dean muttered.

'I know,' I agreed.

As it turns out, Carl was indeed a bigger fucking prick than we'd ever imagined. He was so horrified by the realisation that his offspring was an adult woman, that that was the last time he bothered contacting her.

Six months have passed since that evening. I can only hope that this time, he's gone from our lives for good.

The End