I sent him the Facebook event link.
Sebastian:Free food has been promised.
Sebastian:Don’t you have a brother who does security?
Hunter:Yes, but he’s crazy and belligerent.
Sebastian:So he’s a Svensson.
After finagling Crawford’s contact information from Hunter, I scheduled a consultation with him and then another with ThinkX.
I tried to talk myself out of ordering a drink. I needed to be focused when I met with my father. I was tired of having to worry and look over my shoulder on whether he was going to swoop in one day and nullify the guardianship papers. Hopefully with the meeting, I could finally make progress.
I shouldn’t have bothered rushing to arrive early, because my father showed up twenty minutes late. In his three-hundred-dollar T-shirt and jeans with ripped knees, he was trying and failing to look younger than he was.
Note to self. Never date anyone young enough to be your child.
My father tried to fist-bump me. “What’s hangin’?”
He sat down, pushed his sunglasses up on his head, and picked up the drink menu.
“I’ll have a beer,” he said to the waiter when he came by with a water.
“Don’t you have to work?”
“Final exams are in, and I just uploaded final grades. I am officially done for the semester! I gave Tatiana an A, of course.”
“She was your student again this semester?” I asked apprehensively.
“Her development internship offered her a job, and she didn’t have time for classes. So I created a special individual research seminar just for her. She got to hang out in my office, and I could fuck her whenever I wanted, and she was still able to collect her scholarship money.”
“Yes, I’m sure that’s what the scholarship committee had in mind when Tatiana was awarded those funds.”
“And she’s worth every penny. Her tits and pussy are amazing,” my father said conversationally. “I swear, I’m never dating someone over the age of twenty-three again.”
“I thought Tatiana was the one,” I said and took a sip of my water.
“Yeah, yeah.” My father waved a hand. “But after she has a few kids, she might go downhill. We’ll see how she handles it. I might need to upgrade.”
He sat back in his chair as the waiter set a frosted glass in front of him and poured the amber-colored beer.
“I’m pregaming,” he informed me. “Tatiana’s sorority is holding a big end-of-school-year bash, and we’re going to go hang out.”
Yes, because surely these college kids want an old professor at their party, playing beer pong and asking everyone what’s hip.
“It seems like you’re very busy,” I told him, sensing and taking an opening for my pitch. “Usually, the new wife doesn’t take kindly to having to deal with the last woman’s kids. It would probably be best if you just went ahead and let me officially adopt Alfie. You know, take him off your hands.”
My father sipped his beer. “I dunno. Tatiana thinks that he’s going to move in, and we’ll be one big, happy family.”
“Trust me. You don’t want him to live with you,” I warned my father. “Alfie’s not little and cute anymore. He’s a smelly preteen, and he’s obsessed with mushrooms. He’s even growing them in the house. Tatiana is not going to want to get out of the shower and have her bath mat covered in fungus.”
My father’s face twisted up in disgust.
Score.
“He’s a couple years from teenager-dom and has the attitude to match. You don’t want a bratty teen spoiling the best years of your marriage.”
My father narrowed his eyes at me.
