“Thanks for the ride!” she said and gave me one last kiss as Alfie helped Baxter out of the car.
“I like Amy,” Alfie said when we were back on the road, headed to the theater where the graduation would take place.
Hopefully traffic wasn’t too bad. We were going to arrive just in time.
“It’s nice that you’re dating her,” Alfie continued. “She should be your official girlfriend.”
Should she be my girlfriend? I didn’t want to spend my time with any other woman.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think too hard!” Alfie said with a laugh.
Traffic wasn’t too bad. We made it to the theater and parked with enough time for me to brush the horsehair off Alfie’s clothes.
“I should have made you wear a smock,” I told him, adjusting his jacket.
My father was waiting in the lobby of the theater when we walked in.
“Alfie!”
I held out the hand spray to him.
My father bristled. “When Alfie comes to live with me, we’re not allowing any of that nonsense.”
Alfie froze. I rested a hand on his shoulder.
“We’re here for Tatiana,” I said. “We can talk about the custody arrangements later. I have a reservation at a nice restaurant after the ceremony for a late lunch. Let’s just try to have a nice day.”
My father frowned but handed Alfie and me our tickets.
I patted myself on the back for defusing the situation as we filed into the auditorium. It was crowded with happy parents celebrating their children’s college graduation.
The ceremony started, and I settled in my seat with Alfie propped against me. It was a long graduation. It was only exciting, I supposed, when you knew the person whose name was announced. When Tatiana Petrov was called, she pranced across the stage to loud cheers from a family a few rows down from us… and from my father.
“Way to go, baby!” he yelled and whistled.
I inwardly cringed as people turned around and the whispering started. I guessed my father and Tatiana’s relationship was hot gossip at the graduation.
Tatiana must have heard the gossiping, because she shot an ugly glare out to the audience.
* * *
“That was so boring,”Alfie complained to me several hours after the graduation was over and we had filed out with the crowd into the lobby.
“Oh my god, hi, Dr. Rawlings! It’s so awesome to see you. He was the teacher who organized the trip to Greece,” a young woman in a black cap and gown explained to her parents.
“Kelsey.” My father smiled at her, and his eyes swept down then back up to her face. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been doing another study abroad in Germany all year. I just came back for graduation, then I’m flying back to Frankfurt for an internship. It is so good to see you.”
She gave him a big and somewhat too long hug.
“Get off my fiancé!” Tatiana exclaimed loudly, striding over to us with her family trailing behind her.
“Is there going to be a fight?” Alfie whispered to me.
I shushed him.
