"Hey, girls, I'm back." I turn on the couch and smile to Liz coming in through the garage door. "Jamie, this arrived for you." She places her things on the table and hands a big envelope to her daughter. "Where are Jess and Daisy?"

"They're outside doing some weird workout Jess found online," I reply.

She laughs. "Ok. I'll be in my room if you need me." I nod and she leaves.

I turn back to Jamie and to find her frowning and completely zoned out. I ignore it for a little while, but when she doesn't move or says anything at all for over a full minute, my focus goes back to her.

I try to peak at the envelope, but I can't make out anything. I have no idea what it could be or who sent it — who even sends mail these days? Whatever it is, it's making her act weird.

"Aren't you going to open it?" I ask softly and it seems to pull her out of the trance.

"Yeah..." she places her fingers on the flap and rips it. Her hand reaches in and pulls a card about the same size of the envelope, the front of it has a pretty handwriting, but I can't read it either. She unfolds it and the inside is filled with the same intricate calligraphy. I try not to pry, but the lack of expression on her face and her silence are worrying me a little.

"What is it? Is everything ok?" My voice comes out softly.

Her head snaps up, coming out of her trance once again. "Yeah, it's... um..." she shakes her head a little with her eyebrows furrowed. "It's a save the date. For my dad's wedding." She hands me the card and I take it to have a look.

"Is something wrong?" I run my eyes over the card, but don't give it a lot of attention.

She huffs. "Well, when your father decides to get re-married, I believe it would be something he'd tell you himself, but it looks like he thought that mailing a save the date was just fine." The bitterness was clear in her voice. "Sure, we don't have the best relationship or even live in the same state, but I think I deserve at least a phone call, not some piece of paper everybody else he invited is getting." She gets off the couch and runs a hand through her hair. "I didn't even know he was engaged!" I keep my eyes on her as she aimlessly walks around the room.

Never in the time I've known Jamie has she been this distressed. She's the stereotypical laid back Californian, and always keeps her cool, so this is something I've never seen.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I break the silence.

"I..." she looks at me. "I need some air." She turns to the backyard door, but sees that the girls are there, so she comes back. She's like a bird that's trying to leave the house it accidentally flew into.

I quickly get on my feet. "Let's go for a ride. Get the keys and wait for me in the car, I'll be there in a sec." I start walking to my room. "I can drive if you want," I say over my shoulder.

I get my bag and a coat, and do the same for her. I come back to the living room and the garage door is open. I go to the backyard first to talk to the girls.

"Hey, Jamie and I are going out," I say quickly.

"Oooh! Are going on a date?" Daisy asks wiggling her brows.

"No, it's just..." I sigh and she sees I'm a little worried. "We're going out."

"Ok."

"Call us if you need anything," Jess says and I nod before rushing to the car.

I get to the garage and Jamie is sitting on the passenger seat. That gets me a little worried. I did offer to drive, but is it bad enough that she can't drive?

I quietly get in and start the car. We leave the house and I aimlessly drive around, just taking turns every now and then.

I reach for her hand to give her a reassuring squeeze.

"Do you want to go anywhere specific?" I ask. She stays silent for a little while, but then starts giving me directions.

We get to a pretty park and Jamie tells me to get the car to the parking lot so we could get out. She holds my hand to guide me and I smile at that small act. She leads us to a lake near by and we sit on a bench close to the waterline.

I stay quiet to give her some space and a few minutes go by before she finally speaks. "I've seen him four times for the past six years," she says softly, her eyes lost in the water in front of us. "No, actually I haven't seen him in almost two years. The last time I was with him was before I started at Berkeley. He had to go to LA for some business and decided to pay me a visit before he went back to Utah. So if it wasn't for business, he wouldn't have seen his daughter." Her voice breaks a little and I hold her hand tighter between mine. "My parents divorced when I was 13, but he lived here in Fresno until a little before I turned 15, then he moved away. After that we only saw each other when I was on vacation. The first year was fine, I went there twice and we had a good time together, but the second year..." she sighs and I squeeze her hand.

"You don't have to tell me." I sit closer to her and put my arm around her shoulders. "But just know I'm here for you."

She takes a deep breath. "It had been a full year since I last saw him and I grew so much in that time. I started finding myself and who I wanted to be." She turns to me and there's a small smile on her lips. "I was so happy that I was finally starting understand these things. I was dying to talk to him about all that. How I found a few cool Marine Science programs, some cool movies and music I discovered..." She turns back to the water. "I really wanted to tell him I found out that I liked boys and girls, because how cool is that?" She let's out a small laugh and I do the same. "I have double the amount of fish in my sea." She sighs. "He didn't understand that, so I told him that the way I was 'supposed' to feel about boys was also the way I felt about girls too." She looks at me and tears begin to form in her eyes. "I explained it so many times in so many different ways, Allie, but he couldn't understand. He didn't want to understand." A tear escapes and I dry it with my thumb, then leave my hand cupping her cheek. "He knew what I was saying, what it meant, but he refused to accept his daughter was bisexual." The tears come pouring down and I pull her in for a hug. I hold her as she cries.

"It's ok," I whisper in her ear and rub her back.

She stays in my arms for a few seconds before pulling away. "I was so excited to share this with him. Wasn't a father supposed to be happy that his daughter was discovering who she was? What she liked? Who she liked?" She runs her hand through her hair. "I had met this girl and I was head over heals for her." She giggles. "It was that silly puppy love and I felt like we would get married, have a hundred kids and live happily ever after. I wanted to share that with him, but he shut it down. He didn't even try.

"The next day things were weird, and, through out the rest of my time there, every time that a topic remotely related to romantic relationships came up, he made sure to reinforce that it should be between a man and a woman, that was it. I decided to come back home earlier than planned and he didn't even protest." She pauses to dry the few tears that were still coming. "I didn't go the following year and after that I only saw him during that business trip. We've talked on the phone and exchanged a few messages, but that was all." She gets off the bench and turns back to me. "What kind of parent would let go of their child just because of the people they love?" She raises her voice and takes a deep breath. "But it's his fucking loss. He didn't get to see who I've become and, not to toot my own horn, but I think I'm a really great person."

"Yes, you are." I get up and hold her face between my hands. "You're amazing and he has no idea how much of a bad ass, awesome, beautiful, charming, kind, and amazing woman his daughter is." We laugh and her arms hold me by my waist. "It is his loss." I brush her cheeks and look deep in those dark eyes. "We both know that the moment we decided to let the world know about the non-straight part of our sexualities some people would try to diminish us and bring us down. And I hate it so much that one of the people that did that to you was your father. I mean, even if he couldn't that, couldn't he try to keep it to himself or whatever? For you?" I huff and now I'm also holding back tears. "He chose to hurt you, and I'm really sorry about that. That makes him a shitty person. You deserve better people in your life, the kind that accept you for who you truly are, and I think we both found that in each other, Daisy, Jess and Scott. We're assigned a family when we're born, but we can choose a new one that will love us unconditionally. I know it's cliche, but it's true." I let a few tears fall from my eyes, and wipe away some of hers. "I'll be here for you. Always. And I'll support you on whatever you choose to do about this. Ok?" She nods and I smile. "C'mere."

I close the space between us and give her a tight hug. My hands move up and down on her back and I press my face on her neck. She pulls my tightly against her and I do the same, trying to take away her pain.

I pull back a little just so our lips could meet in a sweet and meaningful kiss. A few stray tears still streaming down our faces.

We stand there, kissing and holding each other for a while until she pulls away. "C'mon, let's go home."