The Humper Game Pt. 07 Ch. 04

Just before they left, I told Jon, "I have to tell you, or maybe I should say warn you. I feel a little bit in loco parentis regarding Kelly. Or maybe I should say, 'in loco patris'. And that's kind of ridiculous on several grounds, not least of which being that she's older than I am." Kelly and Ellen both laughed at that. "Honestly, I don't have either the right or the responsibility to justify those feelings. But I want to try to be clear what I mean. Let me give you a parallel case.

"Ellen's brother is six or seven years older than she is, and the first time I talked to him was the evening I had moved in here. Ellen had fed me dinner in her apartment downstairs, and I was cleaning up while she talked to him about something. Sam's drawing," I added to Kelly. "And he had something to say to me relating to that. But then he just added that since I was there with her, having dinner, he thought he should tell me to make sure I treated her right. Well, you should have heard Ellen jump on him with both feet and tell him to butt out—she'd called him with an artistic issue, not for relationship advice. And he had actually put it very gently and diffidently.

"So I'm kind of hesitant to say this, but—um, Kelly is a really close friend, and I care about her. And as far as I know, you really are the right kind of man for her, if things go that way and everything works out. And as I say, I don't really have any standing to say something like this, but please be careful to treat her right, OK?"

Kelly came over and gave me a quick hug, and said, "Phil, thank you. I know if you ever butt in you'll have good reason to. I doubt I'll ever have cause to complain about it."

Then Ellen gave me a hug, too. She said to Jon, "Steve is a great brother, I couldn't ask for better. And he's smart, and he's super good at the kind of commercial art he does, too. But he's not always good at understanding people. Phil's right that I ranted at him a little, but anything less might not have come through clearly. And I told him he'd approve of Phil when he got to know him, and that sure was true. But if I'd been sure he would understand it, I wouldn't have said things that way."

Jon said, "I hear you. We're a long way from deciding anything, or even really asking those questions, but however it goes, I admire and respect Kelly. I sure don't mind hearing that you want to see she doesn't get hurt, and I'll try really hard not to hurt her."

He hugged Ellen and shook my hand as they left. When they'd gone, I told Ellen, "You know I couldn't ask for a better brother in law than Steve, too. I'm afraid I do feel a little responsible for Kelly, though."

"I think they're likely to wind up very happily married, but you know she's a little bruised from what happened with her first boyfriend. Even now. But I'm pretty sure the worst risk is that they'll fall a little in love and then decide it won't work, and I don't think that's likely. No visions or anything this time, thanks be to God, but I'm pretty sure they'll be happy together.

"But now you've made me remember some things. Steve couldn't ask for a better brother in law, either, and he knows it. And I'm pretty eager for bedtime, to say I couldn't have asked for a better husband, either. Do you have anything to do that can't wait, before bed? 'Cause I sure don't!"

Revision: 8/13/2019