Chapter 12
As graduation approached, Brad asked her if she was going to the Senior Prom. She told him that she was and he took her to buy a prom dress. The dress was much more adult than he would have picked. It was a strapless gown that fit her like a glove.
A week before the Prom, Amy sat at the table eating breakfast with him. He could tell that something was on her mind. He waited and she fidgeted in her chair but didn't seem to know how to say whatever it was she needed to say.
"Well, are you going to say it or keep it inside the rest of the day."
Amy looked at her plate, "I think that I volunteer you to be a chaperone at the Prom. Will you do it?'
Brad laughed, "Of course I will. It will give me a chance to keep an eye on you. I don't trust boys around you in that dress you're going to wear. By the way, when am I going to meet the guy who's taking you to the prom?"
"Well he's taking his tests for college and he's on the Prom Committee so I told him that you would drive me to the Prom. He'll be busy setting up everything and that would save a lot of hassle."
He was sure that there was more to this story than she was telling him, but she was not giving up any more information. She got up and scraped her plate and put it in the dishwasher.
"You'll need a tux. Do you have one?" she asked with her back to him.
"I have a tux. In fact, I have more than one."
He could see that something else was on her mind, "Are you going to finish what you have to say or am I going to have to drag it out of you?"
She sat back down at the table, "I was wondering, after I graduate I have to get a job and eventually see about getting a place to stay."
Brad put his hands over hers, "I guess we'd better talk. I was going to save this for later, but since now seems to be the right time I say it now. First, I am a little hurt that you are thinking about moving out. This is your home now and will always be your home as long as you want it. If you want to move out I'll help you get a place."
Amy shook her head, "I don't want to move. It's just...
She didn't finish because the tears started again.
"Amy, I did something a couple of months ago and I was waiting for the right time to tell you. I guess this is a "right" a time as ever. As you know you are the only family I have. I got in touch with Carl Samples and changed my will. If anything ever happens to me you get this house and everything I have, it's a lot more than you think I have."
She ran around the table and sat on his lap and started to try to talk but only sobs would come out.
Finally Brad spoke, "Get off my lap. I have something else that I have to tell you."
"No. I like sitting on your lap and I love having you hold me. I wish you would hold me more often. I feel so content when you hold me."
She started sobbing again harder than before.
"What's wrong Amy? Did I do something wrong/"
"No dummy, these are happy tears. I seems obscene for someone to be this happy."
Brad finally pushed her off his lap and went to his office. He brought back a large envelope and handed it to her. She opened it and looked at him with a puzzled look.
"What's this?"
"My dear, that is a cruise ship brochure, the cruise ship itinerary and two tickets to a two week cruise around the Mediterranean. We leave a week after you graduate. I've booked a balcony stateroom for us so you can look out over the Mediterranean every day. The only problem is, we're going to have to get you a passport."
"Doesn't it take months to get a passport?"
"No, there are passport and visa services that can do it in a week or less. Do you want to go or do you have other plans?"
Amy sat staring at him, "I would love to go. This is something I have always thought that I wanted to do, but I knew would never happen."
Brad had to pry her off of his neck again.
"You had better make an appointment with a doctor and get a checkup and get whatever shots he thinks are necessary."
Amy ran to the phone and called Carol and excitedly told her about the cruise. She went into great detail explaining the itinerary. Apparently Carol made some remark about the accommodations, because he heard her say, "I wish." The rest of the week, every time he passed Amy, she was on the phone telling someone about the cruise.
They got her passport photos and sent the forms and her pictures by FedEx to the passport service. When he applied for her birth certificate at the Health Department he was surprised to find that she was really twenty and not eighteen. Amy said that a lot of her friends that she played with went to school before she did and her mother told her that she was too little to go to school yet. She told him that her mother and Myron were constantly fighting and they didn't have much money. Amy only had a few ragged clothes, so maybe her mother was ashamed. She said that she had been enrolled in school and had heard her mother tell the secretary at school that she was six. She said that Myron told her never to tell anyone her real age so it became a habit to shave two years off her age. She told him that birthdays were rarely celebrated at her house. Her passport arrived the morning of the Prom.
"Well now you can stop treating me like a teenager," she said as walked upstairs.
The morning of the Prom, Carol took Amy to the hairdressers. Amy looked beautiful! Carol supervised her makeup and hovered around Amy all day like she was Amy's mother preparing her for her wedding.
Brad sat in the living room in his tux waiting for Amy to come down. Carol kept yelling for her to stop crying because she was smearing her makeup. He wondered what was going on. Amy started down the stairs and a lump came into his throat and he was afraid that he was going to cry. She was beautiful. He thought to himself that he no longer had a teenager. Here was a mature young woman.
They drove to the Prom in his Jaguar. He hadn't considered a limo because he didn't know if her date had hired one or not. He was a little apprehensive about the fact that the boy wouldn't see her until she walked into the banquet hall.
He pulled into the parking spot and turned off the engine. He turned to Amy to ask her if she wanted to go in alone or if she wanted him to walk her inside. He stopped when he saw the scared look on her face.
"What's wrong? Is something wrong?'
Amy shook her head no. It was a long time before she answered.
"I lied to you. There is no one inside waiting for me. You are my date for the Prom. I guess I should have asked you, but I was afraid you would say no. There's no one I would rather have take me to the Prom than you. Will you be my date?"
Brad put his hand on her hand, "You know that I would be honored to be your date and I would be proud to be your date, but what are all of your friends going to think?"
Amy gave him a weak smile, "Everyone knows that you are going to be my date and all of the girls have asked if they can dance with you. Half of the guys can't dance so some of the girls will have to sit out Prom. Please say you'll be my date."
Brad got out of the car and went around to Amy's side and opened the door for her. She got out hesitantly and he offered her his arm and she broke out in a big grin.
"I have the most beautiful woman here tonight. Let's go in and get
the guys drooling and make the girls jealous."