I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous. She’d told me along time ago that she didn’t want to marry me, and then kept a life altering secret from me.
If dinner at an expensive French restaurant was the price to pay to find out information about my daughter, then I was willing to pay, as long as it was a step in the final direction of telling her the truth, or at least that I was her father and not that slime-bag she had married, who’d been fucking her and working for English at the same time.
Well . . . . maybe I did have some issues to work with, and a little anxiety was warranted.
We arrive a few minutes prior to our reservation, old habits died hard and punctuality 
had long been driven into me. From what I could see, Amelia’s old army habits weren’t dead either. I had arranged a car service, proof that I had been around William and Henri too long. I mean, who couldn’t drive themselves?
I suppose it was chilly in the evenings in San Diego this time of year, I didn’t really notice anymore, but Amelia was wearing some sort of black wrap over what I assumed was a dress of some sort. The wrap I recognized from our shopping trip a couple days ago, but she’d already had it on when she came out, so well, about all I could say that was that her long, muscled legs weren’t covered by it as I helped her out of the back of the car.
A hint of a memory flashed through my mind, and then was gone. Ever since I started working with Whitley, I’d get these little flashes, as if something was pushing through, but it was almost more frustrating than the false ones. Or were they real, that was the problem, which were implanted, and which were real, and which were just trauma from the deaths I had watched, the deaths I had caused, or even the times I had died.
The Maitre D‘ welcomed us in French, and I replied, much less fluently, and he smiled politely at my attempt. What can I say, it’s been awhile since I worked with the DGSE in the mountains of…..damn, I think Afghanistan. Or was it the Congo again? No matter, not important now.
He led us out onto the balcony, and Amelia pauses for just a second when she realizes that only one table had the candle lit, in the very center. I don’t know what her game is, but she’s hunting something, and whatever prey she’s after, I’m a hunter too. It wouldn’t hurt to remind her that I’d come a long way from that earnest young soldier I’d been so long ago.
I walk around the table to sit, able to face the door. A two for one victory, she’d be able to see the view of downtown more clearly, and I’d see anyone approaching. Yes, I know that in today’s world, threats could come flying at you from any direction, but, still, I’m an old special forces soldier for a reason. Besides, ultimately so was she, and her reactions, even if rusty, would give me time if the less likely threat popped up.
The waiter came up behind her, and she started to unwrap the the black covering, undoing the belt and as she revealed the dress beneath, I…..froze.
She was laughing as we walked down the dark street, holding my hand.She turned into me, the flickering lights of the streetlights burnishing her hair as I held her tightly, joy at her having said yes rushing through me. I pulled her into my arms, kissing that smiling face as if the night would never end……………..
Then I’m back in the present, and her dress shimmers in the candlelight, highlighting her body, the material flashing across my eyes, teasing at what I had once known so well, so long ago.
Last Dreams 