Grandfather Was Present at Your Conception

Story Submitted by Joseph:

I met Edie online, and things went well enough to progress to a date.  We arranged a time and place, and I looked forward to it.  She seemed compassionate, humorous, and was easy on the eyes.

Come date night, I met her outside of the restaurant.  A man in a grey jumpsuit stood next to her, an older man with messy hair and a scowl.  She said, "Joe, this is my father, Rick."

Confused as to why her father was with her, I nevertheless extended my hand to greet him.  He looked at her and she said, "It's okay, Dad.  It's just Joe."

He extended a limp hand to me, and I shook it.  She asked me, "Ready for dinner?"

I was, but I had to ask, "Is your father coming with us?"

She replied, "Of course!  He's my dad."

Of course.  How silly of me.  We went inside the restaurant, sat down, and ordered.  The entire time, her father had his face turned toward Edie, who sat next to him, but his eyes fastened squarely on me.  I asked him, "What do you do?"

He stared back without an answer.  Edie chimed in, "He's an engineer.  He's on sabbatical right now."

"What sort of engineer?"

She replied, "Manufacturing.  He's invented some machines that they use in auto parts manufacturing."

"That's impressive," I said.  The man stared at me as if staring at a blank wall.

The only time he made a sound the entire time was after our meals came.  He pointed at me and said, "Plop plop."

Edie said to me, "Excuse us, my dad has to use the bathroom," and she led him to the restrooms and they returned after a little bit.

He never otherwise made a sound, and it made me very uncomfortable.  Clearly, he had some sort of disorder or had been in an accident, although why Edie brought him along was a mystery to me.

After dinner (I paid for her, but she insisted on paying for her father's meal, which he hadn't touched at all), we left the restaurant.  I was anxious to be free of the situation, as I hadn't been able to concentrate on being myself or learning more about Edie with a strange man staring at me through the entire thing.  I wished her and her father a goodnight, but Edie said, "You don't want to hang out anymore?"

I said, "Is your dad going to be with us the whole time?"

She said, "He's my dad.  Of course."

I replied, "I think I'm going to call it a night."

She asked, "Do you hate my dad or something?  What did he do to you?"

"Nothing.  I'm just tired.  Goodnight."  I gave her a quick hug, her dad a fast nod, and then I was off.

She wrote me an email that night to thank me for dinner.  I wrote back to tell her that she seemed very nice, but that I thought that her father coming along was a little strange and that if we were to go out again, I'd prefer it if she left him at home.

I never heard back.