I Don’t Want a Daughter Like That

Linda Thompson slammed the crumpled form onto the table. “I don’t need a daughter like you! You’re a disgrace to this whole family! How can I possibly show my face around here?”
“Please calm down, Mum,” Katie begged, hovering in the kitchen doorway, eyes red-rimmed and sore. “Just talk to me properly.”
“What is there to say?” Linda’s voice hit a higher pitch. “Dropped out of University, can’t find a proper job, and now this! Got yourself tangled up with heaven knows who, shaming us all!”
Mrs. Higgins from next door in Flat 1B peeked into the hall, drawn by the shouting. Linda spotted her prying eyes and flushed even deeper with anger. “See? The neighbours already know! Twenty-five years I raised you, gave you everything, and *this* is how you repay me?”
Katie picked up the fallen paper, her hands trembling as she flattened it out. It was their marriage registration form. Hers and Alex’s.
“Mum, I’m really happy,” Katie tried to explain. “Alex is decent, he loves me…”
“Decent?” Linda let out a sharp, mirthless laugh. “Divorced with a kid? No proper career? Ten years your senior? He’s just a bloody lounge lizard!”
“That’s not fair! Alex works hard! He runs his own car repair business…”
“Business!” Linda snorted contemptuously. “A bloody garage! So you’re happy sniffing petrol and grease your whole life?”
Katie sank onto a chair, feeling her legs buckle. She’d spent days preparing for this talk, rehearsing what to say, hoping for understanding. It was all going wrong.
“Mum, I’m not a kid. I’m twenty-five.”
“Exactly!” Linda exclaimed. “By your age I was married to your dad, working at the factory, queueing for our council flat! And you? Floundering about with no direction!”
“Dad left you too,” Katie murmured softly, instantly regretting it.
Her mother’s face went deathly pale with rage. “How dare you! Your father died in a crash! He didn’t abandon us!”
“I’m sorry, Mum, I didn’t mean…”
“You meant exactly it!” Linda paced the tiny kitchen like a caged tiger. “You want my life? Left alone raising a kid? That Alex of yours wrecked one family already!”
“They split up mutually. It just didn’t work out.”
“Oh, ‘didn’t work out’!” Her mother sat back down opposite her, pinning her with a stare. “But it’ll work with you? Do you have any clue what you’re getting into? He’s got a kid already! Child maintenance to pay! What scraps will that leave for you?”
Katie stayed silent, rubbing her temples. Her head pounded from the shouting, a dull ache throbbed in her chest. She’d dreamed of telling her mum her happy news, of them planning the wedding together, shopping for a dress…
“And anyway,” Linda pressed on, “where did you even *meet* him? Down some dodgy pub?”
“At Sarah Jenkins’s birthday. Remember I told you?”
“*Sarah Jenkins*!” Linda threw up her hands. “That floozy on her third engagement? Lovely mates you’ve got!”
“Mum, what’s Sarah got to do with it? Alex was just there by chance, a mate invited him…”
“By *chance*! Men like that don’t happen anywhere by chance. They hunt out naive girls like you.”
Katie jumped up. “Stop it! You don’t even *know* him!”
“Why should I?” Linda stood too. “I can see it on you. You look half-dead, lost weight, shadows under your eyes. *That’s* your happiness?”
“I lost weight because I was stressed! I knew you’d react like this!”
“Damned right I am! I didn’t raise you just to hand your life over to the first charmer that comes along!”
The doorbell rang from the hallway. Both women froze, instantly alert.
“Is that him?” Linda hissed.
“Yeah, we were meeting here.”
“Over my dead body! He’s not setting foot in this house!”
“Mum, “please”! Just meet him. Maybe you’ll change your mind.”
“Never!”
The bell rang again, more insistent. “Katie? It’s me,” came a man’s voice.
Katie looked at her mum, pleading silently. Linda hesitated, then curiosity won out. “Five minutes,” she snapped. “Then he’s gone.”
Katie opened the door. There stood Alex Carter, tall, mid-thirties, dark hair, eyes weary. He held a bouquet of white roses.
“Hello,” he said, stepping inside. “Mrs Thompson? I’m Alex.”
Linda surveyed him coolly – jeans, leather jacket, strong, work-roughened hands. Exactly what she’d pictured.
“Hello,” she replied stiffly, refusing his outstretched hand.
“These are for you,” Alex offered the roses. “Katie talks about you a lot.”
“Save your breath,” Linda cut him off but took the flowers anyway. “Kitchen.”
They sat awkwardly around the small table. Alex looked calm, but Katie saw the tension in his shoulders.
“So. You want to marry my daughter,” Linda started bluntly.
“Yes. I love her.”
“Love. Can you provide?”
“I can. I’ve got steady work, reliable income.”
“In a garage.”
“Autoshop,” Alex corrected. “I’ve got three mechanics working regular for me.”
“And the maintenance? You pay?”
Katie flushed red. “Mum!”
“I pay,” Alex answered calmly. “I will pay. He’s my son.”
“Exactly. What will you live on?”
“Mrs Thompson,” Alex said gently, “I understand you’re worried. I’m not after Katie’s money. I want to look after her.”
“Fine words. What about the first wife? Looked after her?”
Alex paused, gathering himself. “We married young, stupid. Turned out we wanted different lives. She wanted flash, I was just starting up. Constant rows, nagging… We both admitted splitting was best.”
“Right. And it’ll be different with Katie?”
“It will be. Because we’re right together.”
Linda got up and walked to the sink. “Katie, step out. I need a word alone with this future son-in-law.”
Reluctantly, Katie left the kitchen. Linda sat back down opposite Alex, staring him down. “Listen here, lad. Katie’s my only girl. I poured my life into her, dreamed she’d marry well, have a good life. What are you offering her?”
“Love, loyalty, a family.”
“Just words. Reality? Where will you live? Squashing in here?”
“No. I rent a two-bed flat. I’ll get the tenancy agreement updated.”
“A rented flat. Brilliant. When will you get your own place?”
“Saving for a mortgage deposit. Should have it within a year.”
Linda shook her head. “A year. ‘Should’. And if you don’t? Katie spends her life bouncing round rented dives?”
“I will,” Alex stated firmly.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Got loyal customers, the business is growing. I don’t drink, don’t gamble, every penny goes to my family
Right then, love, so after Katie and Alex left, Valerie stood there alone in the quiet flat, the scent of those white roses faint in the air. She stared out the kitchen window at the rain slicking the streetlights, proper classic English weather, feeling a right mix of relief and dread settle over her proper like a damp fog. All her bluster about mistakes and council flats felt heavy now, replaced by the raw worry nagging at her that she hadn’t fully protected her girl, that she might yet see Katie hurt, you know? She sighed proper deep, wiping a hand over her tired face, dreading the months ahead where she’d have to watch and wait as Katie built a life with that Alex fella, her heart absolutely racing with the hope that maybe, just maybe, her daughter knew best this time, bless her heart. Thinking back, she admitted to herself, proper quiet like, that her little Katie had always been a sensible, kind-hearted soul at her core, even if she hadn’t followed the path Valerie mapped out for her – maybe, just maybe, this messy, nervous love with Alex was exactly where her heart needed to be after all, even if it scared the life out of her mum. She put the kettle on for one last cuppa before bed, knowing sleep wouldn’t come easy tonight with all those thoughts rattling around her head like marbles.