All the women my father dated seemed to be looking forward to seeing him again, but then they disappeared before dawn. When my best friend He agreed to find out the reason, a chilling message proved that it was no coincidence.
My father lost my mother 12 years ago.
He was old enough to understand what death meant, but not enough to understand what he could do to the person who was left behind.
My father changed after the funeral.
Before Mom died, he would fill every room he came in with life.
He sang while brewing the coffee.
He told horrible jokes during dinner and laughed before he got to the auction.
There was always music playing at home.
Afterwards, the house was painfully silent.
For a long time, he refused to date anyone.
Family members encouraged him to meet someone new.
The friends He was invited to dinners where, coincidentally, there was always a single woman sitting next to him.
He rejected all proposals.
Once, I suggested that Mom wouldn’t have wanted me to spend the rest of her life alone.
He looked at me with an expression that I can’t forget.
“I’m not alone, Lola,” he told me. “I have you.”
That answer broke my heart more than I let him see.
So, almost overnight, everything changed.
He signed up for apps of appointments.
I first noticed when I went to visit him on a Saturday afternoon.
I was sitting at the kitchen table with my cell phone in both hands.
He wore the reading glasses lowered to the tip of his nose and smiled looking at the screen.
My father hadn’t smiled like that for years.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
He quickly blocked his phone.
“Nothing.”
I arched an eyebrow.
It didn’t take ten seconds to confess.
“I made a profile.”
“A dating profile?”
He nodded, and suddenly he was noticed feeling embarrassed.
I hugged him before he could explain himself.
At first he stiffened, but then he surrounded me with his arms.
“I think Mom would think that’s okay,” I said.
“I hope so,” he murmured.
Soon after, she started dating wonderful women.
He told me about them before every date.
One worked in a library.
Another had a small bakery.
A third volunteered at an animal shelter on the weekends.
