Steven Easton

Bribery

Friday, May 24

This is gonna be a fun entry to conquer. 

Ava does not want to meet her dad who is flying in from Florida tomorrow with his wife. I have no idea how the next 24 hours are going to go.

Paisley, Ava's best friend, came over tonight, and I asked her parents to come pick her up at nine because I knew that Ava and I would need to have a talk before she went to bed.

After Ava showered, I asked her to come downstairs, so we could chat.

"You're dad is going to be here tomorrow, as you know," I stated as she sat on the other end of the couch.

"I know."

"Since he's flying all the way up here, I think you need to meet him."

"No."

"Ava, if you don't meet him now, you may not get the chance again. How would you feel if you flew all the way across the country to meet someone and they didn't want to meet you?"

"I want to stay with you."

"You will. All he wants to do is to meet you."

"I don't want to meet him," she snapped.

"Okay, why?"

"Because he..." She looked at me. "I don't like him."

"Why? You haven't met him."

"That's why I don't like him. He should've been there."

Biting my lip, I thought about the best way to handle. Opening up to her was never something that I enjoyed because I didn't want to involve her in my personal issues. "I know, and I wished my dad had been there for me growing up. Given the fact that your dad wants to meet you now means that he wants to know you because he cares about you."

"You're the only who really cared about me because you adopted me." She got up and trampled up the stairs. 

I didn't know what I was supposed to do, so I gave her some time, hoping that she wouldn't go to sleep quite yet. I prayed a lot about this, knowing that I needed to give this to God and put Ava first, even if it means crushing Nick.

I walked into her room after about 20 minutes or so because her door was open, she was reading. "How about this," I said, "how about you think about it."

"I have. I don't want to meet him."

"He didn't even know you were his until a year ago."

"Well, he shouldn't have had sex with my mom if he didn't want a child." Yup. That had just come from my 11-year-old.

"Okay, but if he didn't, I wouldn't have you, so don't say that." 

"Well, I got lucky," she mumbled.

"Look, if you give him a chance and he's as bad as you think he is, then you never have to see him again, deal?"

"I'll do it if you give me my phone back."

"No." If you read yesterday's blog, I talked about following through with my threats.

"Then I won't meet him."

Bribery is something I rarely use, but I figured it might be worth it, but I couldn't think of anything that would be a fair trade, and I didn't want to give her the ball because otherwise, she'd be asking for a million dollars. 

"I'll give you 20 bucks to spend on whatever you want at the mall after school's out if you agree to just meeting him."

She thought about this for a moment. "200," she countered.

"What do you want for 200 dollars?"

"An iPod Touch."

"You already have a phone!"

"I know, but I like the size. I won't use it for social media, I swear." 

"You can buy that yourself with your own money--30 dollars."

"A belly button piercing." 

"In your dreams." (I think she was joking; I hope she was joking.)

"I'm just kidding. How about a second piercing." She pointed to her ear. Those weren't too disgusting. Morgan has like seven piercings in her ears. 

"Okay, fine." 

"Really?"

"Yup, but only if you meet him and if you're good."

"Fine. When can I get it?"

"After school's out. How about next Saturday?" 

"Promise?"

"If you meet him and you're respectful."

"Fine."