The next day, Lisa was ready by 6:00 PM, although she was having second thoughts about her clothes. "Well," she told herself decidedly, "It will have to do, there's no turning back now." While lost in her fashion deliberations, she luckily spied Gary approaching the walkway to her house. She blessed her decision to leave well enough alone, for had she been up in her room changing, Gary would have been greeted by her father. That in itself would not have been so bad, if Lisa’s father did not hate the idea of his high school girl dating a college man. The last time Lisa dated a college man her father almost had a coronary. Even if Gary would have been a high school boy, Lisa wanted to keep Gary safe from her father’s endless questions. Never mind the mortification she always felt when her father met one of her new boyfriends, she was only too happy to spare Gary an introduction to her father because of the third degree that he would be sure to receive.
Gary rang the bell, and Lisa quickly barricaded the entry way from her father's approach. Never one to disappoint, her father was close at her heels. Lisa turned to her father, planted a quick kiss on his cheek and promised that she would be back home at a reasonable hour. She hastily ran out the door before her father had a chance to respond or to budge from his place. Much to Lisa's relief, her father did not protest, but he did seem a little bewildered when she left. Lisa appreciated her father's faith in her judgment, but this time she took a little advantage of it. She was not ready to confide her feelings about Gary to her father yet, and her quick escape allowed her to still maintain her privacy and buy her some time to let her acquaintance with Gary solidify and grow before she did.
Lisa whisked Gary back down the walkway from whence he came. He looked at her a little curiously about the rush she seemed to be in, but he said nothing about it. He thought maybe it was just a case of first date jitters which he found to be rather appealing. He gallantly opened the car door for her with one of his irresistible, "Allow me, Mademoiselle" and off they went to Chez Pierre Gauthier.
Continued