GRIND

A few men were standing around at the end of the hallway, and I assumed my dad was in the middle. I got closer until I heard his voice. I hung back for a minute, not wanting to interrupt them, but I couldn’t help but overhear their loud conversation about my dad’s reelection coming up.

“Leonard here thinks he’s got this one in the bag, fellas. What do you think, Gerald?” one of them asked, nudging a short, stockier man that I didn’t recognize.

“In the bag, huh? I don’t know, Leonard. Sujit Patil was doing pretty good last time I checked. She might just give you a real run for your money this year.”

I could hear my dad scoffing. “The woman has no political experience, whatsoever. She’s a great leader, don’t get me wrong, but I think she should stay where she belongs. In the court room.”

A couple of them chuckled, and I felt myself wondering if maybe I shouldn’t just leave altogether. This may not have been a conversation I wanted to be privy to.

“Sure, but a lot of people said the same about you, if I recall,” John Andrews, another colleague of my dad’s, replied.

“The campaign’s running strongly, John, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As long as nothing gets in the way, of course.”

Even more laughing. “I’d hate to be the person who stood in your way, Leonard. You’re one scary son of a bitch when you want to be,” someone else chimed in.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, making me feel rather uncomfortable. This was the side of my dad I never saw, and I had to admit, it wasn’t something I was all too thrilled about.

“You know that other guy… What’s his name? Demetrio, right? He’s all about trying to dig up some dirt on you. You don’t have any skeletons in the closet, do you?” John joked, leaning back.

I turned away from the group of men, until I was halfway hidden behind a door to an empty office.

“Me? Hardly. I don’t think you’re really going to have to worry that much about that. Even Jennifer and I talked about it. I asked her if she was okay considering the fact that someone probably would find out about her and I being together, because you’re right, John, that Demetrio bastard really does want to try and find something out to hinder my campaign. But she seemed all right with it. Told me she could hardly care less what other people thought of us. So since she isn’t bothered by it, I’m not either.”

“Good man, good man,” one of them said.

“And your daughter? I saw she’s been handling the annual food bank drive this year. Good on her, stepping up like that,” one of the other men added, his voice familiar.

My dad was all business now. “Gabrielle is very responsible. She’s got a good grip on the food drive project, and I know she knows where we stand. She knows better than to do anything that might, well, look bad. We’ve has the talk before. It was pretty hard when Denise died, Gabi had a difficult time dealing with it. Hell, so did I. It didn’t look so great in the news, but I think everyone just chalked it up to her grief, which was understandable. This time however, no, I don’t think I have anything to worry about. She’s a smart girl.”

They continued talking, discussing whatever city ordinance Martha had been talking about earlier, and I slipped away, hoping that no one saw me standing there listening.

I couldn’t believe he was just talking to them about me like that… so openly… as if my feelings weren’t necessary. He made it sound so ominous about things getting in his way… It wasn’t the Leonard De Leon I knew.

And then I thought about Jacob…

What if my dad found out about him? If we became official I would want him to meet Jacob eventually, wouldn’t I? Shouldn’t I? I was sure he would be impressed with Jacob’s shot at becoming a doctor, but there was the whole business of him also being a stripper on the side. That… might complicate things in my dad’s eyes.

What if I just didn’t mention Jacob at all to my dad?

But then I thought about how Jacob might react to that, circling back around to whether I should tell my dad or not. If Jacob and I were really dating, which at that point I figured we were, wouldn’t he be hurt if I didn’t want him to meet my dad? I knew that if that were the other way around, I most certainly would be.

I slumped into my car when I made it to the parking garage, banging my fist on the wheel and scaring the hell out of a couple of people as the horn went off.

What the hell was I going to do if my dad had an issue with me dating Jacob?

10

Jacob

I waved at a couple of my classmates before finding my truck in the parking lot. It’d been a grueling meeting, going over that week’s latest heart condition case. The meeting had lasted an extra two hours longer than normal.

All I wanted to do was to go home, take a shower, and call up Gabi to see if she wanted to maybe hang out. Ever since a few nights ago when she had basically explained that we were dating, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Even more so than before. It felt kind of surreal to think that I had a girlfriend, much more that I was dating Gabrielle De Leon.

I started the ignition, checking my mirrors before turning the radio up, finding the right station. Sometimes my shitty stereo had the worst reception. But my favorite station was coming in okay, so I left it on, reversing out of the parking space as the DJ started going on about the daily headlines.

The guy was laughing about something, talking to someone else who was calling in for the audience part of the show.

“What an idiot,” I mumbled to myself, listening to the person on the line complaining about their girlfriend dressing too sexy. Who complained about something like that? If it were up to me, Gabi would walk around completely naked at her leisure. It was a damn shame she had to hide her rocking body. The guy was just another insecure prick, probably.

“Hey man, I’m thinking you might need to take a few pictures of your girl for us, just so we can, you know, evaluate,” the DJ said, laughing as the guy tried to lay into him over the radio. He cut him off before the guy had the chance to hang up. “Well, that was exciting, folks. All right, before we take another call here, why don’t we go through the last headline for the day? Oh wow, Rick, did you see this one today?”