My Fake Fling

REESE

The night had been good, but I felt a shift in her attitude. She’d been flirty even when insulting me. Now, she wasn’t insulting me or flirting with me. I wasn’t sure what changed, but I wouldn’t push the matter. Instead, we enjoyed our meal and did some mingling before calling it a night.

She looked exhausted as we rode back to her place. “Were you up early this morning?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “One of our regular volunteers is out sick. I had to go in early to help with feeding and cleaning out some kennels.”

“Gross.”

She smiled and rolled her head to look at me as it rested against the headrest. “How are you really doing?” she asked. “With your dad situation.”

“Fine,” I said. “I mean, I’m worried, but what can I do?”

“Didn’t he have a lot of work in Europe?” she asked. “I remember him always going overseas.”

“He does,” I said.

“Do you think he might have had a work emergency? Maybe he hopped a plane and jetted across the ocean to handle a problem.”

It was nice she was trying to offer me some kind of comfort. “I thought about that, but he would call. The opening of the tower was a really big deal. We’ve been working on that project for almost two years. There is just no way he would walk away without saying a word.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Thanks. I’ve been trying to convince myself it’s nothing to worry about, but it’s starting to sink in. He’s gone. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him again.”

I tried to say it with no emotion, but it just spilled out. She reached over and grabbed my hand. The car came to a stop and our conversation was over. The few seconds of comfort I had with her was over. It was back to me and me alone. There was no one I could really talk to. No one I dared allowing myself to be vulnerable in front of.

“Come in,” she said.

“What?”

“Come in. I’ll make some tea.”

I almost scoffed at the idea of drinking tea, but in that moment, I would have drunk gasoline. The dad situation was hitting hard. Thea was like a warm blanket on a frigid morning. She would give me just enough peace of mind to get through another week of not knowing where my dad was.

“I’d like that, thank you.”

I quickly pulled a couple hundred from my wallet and handed it to the driver. “Can you go get something to eat?”

The young kid looked at me in the mirror. “Hell yeah.”

“Give me a second to push the dogs back,” she said as we walked up the little path to her front door. “I can’t promise you there will be no hair or drool involved.”

“I’ve got nowhere to go,” I told her.

It was one of the most honest things I’d said in a long time. I had nowhere to go. With my dad gone, I had never felt more alone. I had a huge family, but it wasn’t like I could call them up and lean on them. Thea had always been the one person in this world that could see right through my bullshit façade. She could read me like a book. With that there came a certain connection. A certain vulnerability. I could tell her what I was feeling, and I knew she would try to understand without judgment. Even after what I had done to her. She was a much better person than I was.

“Brace yourself,” she warned before pushing open the front door.

We walked into the house amid a flurry of barking and dogs brushing up against our legs. “Down,” she said firmly.

The small dog that had been hopping and trying to jump into her lap immediately stopped. The others were still barking but there was no jumping. The largest dog was eyeing me in a way that made me just a little nervous.

“Is it going to eat me?” I asked.

“If only she would,” Thea said. “Kona, be nice.”

“Kona. That’s the one you take with you on Friday nights?”