Trapped… so to speak

At the clubhouse

Mr Edward had decided to check in on his house. He had this weird feeling that his wife had been up to something. There was no evidence for it. But he felt it. She had been too nice. Way too nice. But not uncharacteristically nice.

How was it that the whole family was out having fun and Andrew was nowhere to be seen. The excuse given was that he was working extra hours to finally start moving his career forward. That didn’t make sense. Andrew hated working weekends more than any of his other children did.

Slipping away from the fun of the family with the excuse of taking yet another business call, Mr Edward logged into the security settings of his house.

To his shock and dismay, he saw Andrew standing in front of Erica. She was totally smitten and taken by him. Andrew was performing again. He was treating this woman to the best of Andrew. The side Mr Edward wished he could help his son keep as his authentic self instead of the withdrawn quiet type Andrew seemed to favor.

The audio seemed to suggest that Andrew was pacing the conversation beautifully. If Mr Edward did not know any better, he would have sworn that his Andy knew how to charm the ladies very well. This was the side of his son he could not access. This was the very side his wife had tried in vein to reach, let alone teach.

To his great sadness, his wife had taken on the role of mentoring all prospective dates she wanted for Andrew. All of the coaching was against his wishes but why would his wife ever listen to him or the therapist?

Teaching these dates was her personal pet project. She wanted a marriage and she wanted it asap. Time was ticking by very fast. Andrew was not at all bothered, or showed to be bothered anyway.

Up until this very moment, Andrew had played along with less enthusiasm than he was showing today. Every single gal had reported falling madly in love with Andrew. He only took them out on three dates before calling it quits.

This had perplexed Mrs Edward to no end. Every single one of the five attempts had left love-sick puppy-eyed gals wondering what had gone wrong.

Mr Edward had to step in and help deconstruct the dates in details. How he hated sitting there listening to the tearful account of how beautiful everything had been. But he did, not to help his wife or the girls, but to see if he could find a crack in his son’s defenses. There were none.

The boy had skillfully walked each of the woman to the only conclusion his mother would accept without ever saying or doing anything that would commit him to their emotional state.

Andrew was the perfect gentleman. The perfect listener. Always interested… just enough. But never ever giving any insight into who he was.

As the girls recovered from their lapse in self control, they realized that they were projecting their desires on him and that they didn’t understand what he wanted. Mainly because he never revealed anything. He was just easy to talk to.

Erica was different. She was not the polished perfect gal Andrew was used to. Mrs Edward had learned a lot from her five prior failures. She had taken skillful notes. Mr Edward knew that his wife had used his interview skills as a tool to gain insight into Andrew as well.

Could this be the first signs of a break in the armor Andy wore? Could Erica really be perfect for him? Mr Edward would have to wait a few weeks to know. If this gal came crying back to them, he would have to step in and put a stop to this match making. If she didn’t, just maybe, for once, his wife might be on to something. Silently, Mr Edward cursed himself for not knowing which way the cookie would crumble and how he should act.