Worries

            Ruth has made it here! She took some time to get everything squared away, but now that she’s here, I really feel at home in the city. I’ve told her about Will, and she’s very excited at the prospect of him, but hasn’t pushed it since she hasn’t met him yet and wants to judge for herself. Tonight they’re both coming for dinner so I’ll see what her opinion is then.

            But there is something that Ruth and I have been able to discuss, and that is Dad’s secretary, the twice-divorced-before-thirty, weaseled-into-her-boss’s-personal-life, flirtatious secretary. Now, they’re not together, at least not publically, or even to any of us. But I can tell the secretary hasn’t given up. She puts her hands on Dad whenever she gets the chance and laughs at his lame jokes and bends at all the right times and all the right angles—and that’s just what I’ve seen. For a man who’s been living with her for almost six months, Dad seems rather unperturbed about it, and I haven’t found anything to suspect any action on his part…but his gaze lingers. He likes it when she laughs at his jokes and he’s often complimenting her on how she looks. I think he’s wearing down.

            Ruth has said he wouldn’t do anything that would replace Eliza, and that someone as poor and nameless as his secretary wouldn’t be much of an enticement, but I’m not so sure. He has always wanted a son.

            I really wouldn’t mind Dad re-marrying, but his secretary? And it’s not because she’s middle class or anything like that, I mean, I was willing to marry Fred when he had nothing. I just don’t trust her. I doubt she has any true affection for my dad, and I worry about how extreme she would spend money if she came into a lot of it. We’ve had to be so careful these past six months with money, I’d hate for all of that progress to mean nothing because my father becomes someone’s sugar daddy.

            Whenever I’m around Dad and his secretary, I can’t help but wonder if I should be worried. It doesn’t seem likely anything will happen, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t. I just wish I could trust Dad to make good decisions, but unfortunately he doesn’t have a track record for it.