The True Story of My Date With A Beautiful Genius Recovering Drug Addict Ex-Lawyer Turned Vegan Chef - Part 5

We ended Part 4 at the conclusion of my first date with Anna and my head swirling from the story she just told me.

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Part - 4

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I didn’t know what to think. I mean, wow. Should I give a girl with that kind of past a chance?

For the next 48 hours I struggled with what to do. Normally I’d have already run for the hills, but something wouldn’t let me let go. Like I said, our time together was intriguing. I called my friend Akili, we’ve been friends since seventh grade and he is a social worker so figured his opinion was that much more appropriate.

After giving him the cliff notes of Anna’s history he just laughed at me and said “stop being stupid.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Do you enjoy talking to her?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m intrigued by her”

“OK, so talk to her”

“Yeah, but why even talk to her if I don’t think she’s someone I’d consider dating?

“Mitch, you’re over thinking it.”

“I know, but why even talk to her if I won’t ever be willing to get involved with her. I mean, I’ll always worry about her having a relapse. How many people actually stay clean their whole lives, it’s got to be a small percentage.

“STOP - OVER – THINKING - IT!” he exclaimed.

“Ok, Ok….I’ll just talk to her and see what happens”

I called Anna the next day to see if she wanted to go to Barnes & Noble some time. I’ve always thought it a good way to gauge someone’s interests, seeing what they read, what topics they gravitate toward.

That phone conversation lasted nearly three hours. I’m not even sure how. She was game for the bookstore, but we strayed off to other random topics before deciding on a day and time. It seemed she wanted to ask me something.

“What are you doing Saturday?”

“No set plans as of yet” I responded.

“Well, there was something I was thinking about asking you to do. I’m not sure if you’d even want to go”

“Ok”

“I think it would be good for you to go. Actually, nevermind you won’t want to go.”

“Anna, I can’t know if I want to go if you don’t ask me what it is”

“Ok, I’m going to group on Saturday, it’s ACAP. I think you are a good candidate for it.

“What’s ACAP?”

“It’s Adult Children of Alcoholic Parents. From what you told me about your dad I think it would be good for you.”

The question kind of threw me for a minute. I mean, technically she had a point, but I never really thought I had any unresolved issues due to it. I’ve led a responsible life, don’t have any nasty vices and have stood on my own two feet since my late teens.

Let me back track though. During one of my conversations with Anna, I told her how my parents split when I was 12 years old and how I didn’t mess with drugs because I watched it destroy my dad’s marriage and his life for the most part.

All of this started to come about when I was 10 years old and found a paper bag on my kitchen table that contained a pound of weed. My dad had walked into the house as I was looking into the bag, smirked and said “fertilizer” as he grabbed it and walked away.

It wasn’t till two years later that I realized what it was I found. Playing wiffle ball in front of the house with my neighbor, I was standing at the sewer cap we used as home plate waiting for the pitch to come in and randomly that day popped into my head and I realized just what I had found!

All I could do was laugh. My friends looked at me strange and then we continued to play on.

Anyway, when my parents finally did split my dad decided to move to Florida as if this was going to solve all his issues. Uhm…yeah, they have drugs there too buddy. That was pretty much the beginning of the end with him. I saw him a handful of times after that, the last being when I was 18.

The last constructive thing we did together was shop for my first car. I had worked and saved up money for two years and skipped senior prom so I could buy a car after graduation. My dad was a car guy, so we went and looked at used cars together eventually finding a good deal on a 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It was an 8-cylinder beast that pumped out 350 horsepower.

Yeah, an 18 year old kid with a fast car. Always a good recipe!

I flew down on my own dime that same summer to see him. That was the last time I ever saw him. At that point he was still a somewhat functional member of society, holding down a job, despite the drug habits. That didn’t last much longer though.

Over the next few years my mom would tell me more and more about my dad that I did not know. All I really knew was he was a pot head and then got hooked on prescription drugs. However, there was a point in time when he was holding down a full-time job and running a catering business with my mom.

The catalyst for my mom telling me more was my first car wreck. I was working two full time jobs over the summer before my sophomore year of college to save enough for tuition. The schedule certainly didn’t promote much sleep and about a month into it I fell asleep behind the wheel on the commute home. Totaled the car - the one my Dad had helped me find just a summer before.

My mom said “I don’t know what you were thinking, trying to work those hours.”

“Hey, Dad did it and if he could do it than I can.”

Mom sighed. “You do realize how he was pulling that off…..he was snorting coke, that’s what kept him going.”

I laughed and responded “that's hilarious.”

After finishing my story Anna and I decided we'd visit a bookstore together in a couple days for date number two.

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Regards,
From the Life and Times of Mitchell J (and the mind behind @scaredycatguide)
Thanks for the pic pixabay