I knock on the door, drawing his attention from his paperwork to me. “Hey, son. Home early from the gym?”
“Yeah, I figured I’d grab dinner at home tonight,” I nod and lean against the doorframe.
“Dinner?” Dad’s brows knit together. “What time is it?”
“Almost 8 p.m.”
“Damn.” His hand finds his forehead, lines etching deeper.
“I’ll heat up the pasta for you.”
“Thanks, Tyler. Got carried away with work.” His tone carries a tinge of regret.
I shake my head. “No worries, you do a lot for Harper and I.”
“Here,” he begins putting folders away, “I’ll finish up work real quick and I’ll come out.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, and let’s have dinner at the table for once.”
I smile and nod at him, earning a thumbs up. I finish warming up the leftover pasta I made yesterday and toasted garlic bread for the both of us. My little sister, Harper, is at her other grandparents’ house for the weekend. I make a mental note to bake her some cookies before I pick her up tomorrow morning.
Just as I finish setting everything on the table, I hear his footsteps slightly dragging into the room. I pull both chairs out and make a last run to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
“Perfect timing, dad.”
We sink into a peaceful silence, the only sound our utensils gently clinking against the plates. It’s not often, but it isn’t awkward that we don’t know what to talk about sometimes. When Harper is away at her grandparents’, we don’t usually have a lot to talk about. Weird to think that my three year old sister is our conversational buffer.
“Any plans this summer?” Dad asks, twirling noodles around on his plate.Did he hear my thoughts?
“Not much planned this summer.” We stopped going on family vacations years ago to save money now that Mom is gone.
“You’re not going to hang out with Cassandra?”
I quietly sigh. He could never get her name right despite Cassie and I having been friends since middle school. “I told you, we broke up.”
Broke up. More like never on the same page and got played like the fucking violin at a sold out symphony.
“Oh, right. Sorry, work is just… crazy. The other day, Simon,” he pauses to take a bite and I can tell he sees confusion on my face, “Simon, my assistant, asked if I needed a calculator.”
I actually laugh at the joke. My dad has always been good with numbers. Unfortunately, I definitely didn’t get that gene from him. Math was never my strongest subject growing up. I scraped by with Cs, and was usually fine with it, but since starting high school, I’ve been trying to get my grades up for college applications.
“Oh, did you put Harper’s car seat in my car?” he asks, taking a sip of his water. “I can handle drop offs and pickups this week.”
I nod, “I did, dad. I can still take her if things change.”
“No, no, no,” he shakes his head, “you only have a few weeks left of your summer. Enjoy it without worrying about us.”
“You sure?” I feel a small pang of guilt that he’s even giving me a break.
“Of course, it’s your last summer before your senior year. I can take care of Harper. Work should be easy this week.”
“Thanks, Dad. I appreciate it.”
We finish dinner in comfortable silence, and I clean up the table before we separate ways into our caves in the house. The gentle hum of my laptop calls, and I settle in, surrounded by the quiet comforts of home. I sink into my bed, getting a movie ready for the night, but of course it couldn’t run all so smoothly. Serena.
There was this magnetic pull that made our short conversation stand out from the black and white exchanges of my day. Her laughter is infectious, her smile so genuine. And those damn coffee-brown eyes. This might be an exaggeration, but in that moment, it hit me: I’m completely awestruck by her, like, I can’t stop thinking about her.
