That evening Dad and I have dinner at the Copper Kettle, his favorite Aspen restaurant. It feels special. The food is delicious. Afterward, I’m bushed from skiing all day and ready to hit the sack, but Dad wants to go hear music. This is odd. He never listens to music at home. But, hey, it’s vacation.

We walk along the sidewalk, snow falling out of the dark sky and the scent of wood smoke in the air. This is really cool. We’re going to listen to music together. Another first. He takes me to a crowded place where people sit at long tables drinking mugs of beer while an oompah band plays. Not exactly the tunes I had in mind, but I’m ready to go with the flow.

Especially since it’s beer that’s flowing. When Dad orders a pitcher and pours us each a mug, I can’t believe it. Not only does he hardly ever drink at home, but I’m fifteen. There is no possible way that this can be legal. Thus, it is beyond cool. Together in Aspen, on our own and far away from the rest of the world, Dad and I are father-and-son party animals. It feels like I’m with a whole new person. Someone who for once isn’t being judgmental or critical. Someone who just wants to have fun . . . with me.

I finish my beer and Dad pours me another. At this point in my life, I’ve hardly had any drinking experience. After two mugs at an altitude of eight thousand feet, I’m three sheets to the wind and feeling no pain.

I don’t remember exactly when the woman from lunch joins us. All I know is that her name is Sharon, and once again Dad is chatting her up unctuously. He pours me a third mug of beer, lets me finish it, then puts me in a cab and gives the driver a hotel room key and fifty bucks to make sure I get there safely.

Not a whole new person after all.

On the sidewalk near our house, the paterfamilias has just said something about having never felt this deeply in love before. How Antonia is the true soul mate he never dreamed he’d find. I guess all those other women — the Hazels, the Sharons, plus the ones I never met but sensed were the reason for his “late nights at the office” (when he worked for himself and could make his own schedule) and “business trips” (when his businesses were nearby) — weren’t his soul mates. They were simply the women an iconoclast like him gets to cheat on Mom with.