[[[If this story confuses you, click on the author's name for an explanation.]]]

[[This incident happened YESTERDAY.]]

Boss and Doc took a holiday this month, a three-week-long stay in beautiful Cancun, Mexico to celebrate the nuptials of a distant cousin. (Yup. Three weeks. It’s good to be the Boss.)

Yesterday was their first day back, Boss seemed grumpier than the usual Monday morning allowances allow.

“Somethin’ wrong, Boss?” I chirped. Chirping annoys him. That’s part of why I do it. Somebody’s got to keep him on his toes.

“My boy is a genius idiot,” he grumbled, almost too low for me to hear. He went to his office and slammed the door.

Zelda looked over at me and arched an eyebrow. I shrugged. “Everybody has a bad day once in a while.”

Zelda snorted. “Whatever. We just have to be patient. Doc will know what’s going on.”

Two hours later, when Doc reported for duty, I was waiting for him on the steps, dodging a suspicious glare from Zelda as she answered the phone. “Any particular reason why your daddy’s mad at the whole world today? He hasn’t moved from his chair all day.”

Doc looked sheepish (which is how he usually looks, come to think of it). “It’s because of me,” he said. “I swore him to secrecy. Ellie, I wanted to tell you first.”

A scream pierced the air, breaking the tension, followed by loud laughter. We followed the source to Zelda’s office. She was gripping that phone like it was a first-place trophy. She grabbed Doc’s hand and pulled him close and picked him up off the ground in a bear hug.

“That was her!” she kept saying. “That was her!”

She put Doc down and danced around the room as we stared blankly. Doc has known Zelda years longer than I have, but from the look on his face I took it he’d never seen Zelda act that way either.

“Good news, huh?” I said.

Zelda put one arm around me and the other arm around Doc, somehow managing to squeeze my cheek and his at the same time with those long strong arms of hers. “Didn’t you hear, El? Our lil boy’s gone and got himself ENGAGED!”

Engaged.

Engaged.

Engaged.

ENGAGED!

Engaged.

I suppose you’d reckon I got upset when I heard that word. Or hurt, or sorrowful, or angry.

Truth is, I didn’t feel much of anything. My head went numb, and I sort of – crumpled, like I was made of tinfoil and hollow inside. Yeah, crumpled is the best word to describe it.

Zelda cooed and henpecked over Doc while I quietly escaped into Boss’s office. He was spinning around in his swivel chair, watching the ground beneath him. He didn’t look up. “Told ya I didn’t want no bother today, Z.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Ellie?” He stood up at the sound of my voice. “Then I guess you heard.”

I stood perfectly still. If Boss said it was real, then it was real.

“Who the hell gets engaged to someone they’ve only known two weeks?”

The world went fuzzy for a bit.

Seeing me sway and guessing I might fall, Boss came around the desk and gathered me up in his arms.

“I know it’s simple of me,” he said, his words muffled into my shoulder, “but I had always hoped...” He leaned back a bit, tilted my face up to meet his. “I’d always hoped you’d someday be my daughter.”

I broke then, and sobbed and sobbed until there was nothing left.