As he continues to drive, I stay silent. I don’t want either of them. I just want delicious fries with some ketchup. Why does he have to decide that I can’t just have those?
“You aren’t my daddy,” I say before I can stop myself.
“I may not be but I’m responsible for you during this trip and hopefully if you allow me to for the rest of your life.” He gives me a pointed look as he pulls into a parking lot. “So I will be taking care of you and making sure that you get the food you need in your body. I’ll even feed you each bite if you want.”
My cheeks turn bright red, and I quickly look away. I wouldn’t mind him feeding me food.
I smack my forehead. “Bad Mila,” I scold myself.
“Hey! No hitting yourself,” Tobias scolds me. “We don’t hit ourselves. No matter what.”
“But—”
“No buts. You should not hurt yourself.” He grabs my hands and gives them a small squeeze. “It’s not good for you, and I don’t want you to get into the habit of it. Understand?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Good. Now, let’s go and get some food.”
We get out of the car, and Tobias grabs my hand, walking with me to the entrance of the steak place.
“I don’t really want anything,” I mumble. “I’m not that hungry.”
“Then you can have some of my steak, but you are eating some meat before you eat any fries.”
Pouting, I allow him to take me to our table and order the food.
“Why do you even care?” I grumble. “I’m no one to you.”
“Did you not hear what I said earlier?” he asks. “I am taking care of you during this trip and if you allow me to, I want to take care of you for the rest of our lives as well. I want to be someone that you can rely on and can tell me anything and everything.”
I open and close my mouth several times, my brain short circuiting. Did he really just say that to me?
“Wh-what?” I ask.
“I can repeat it as many times as you want but it’s going to stay the same. I won’t change what I meant,” he replies. “And I can even write it down on a piece of paper so you can keep it close to you, looking at it any chance you want.”
I just stare at him, not knowing what to say.
“I’ve seen that I’ve shocked you some. We can always revisit this conversation later. I do have a question for you though. Do you normally sleep that much?” he asks. “You had me worried with how easily you fell asleep in the car and wouldn’t wake upuntil this afternoon. You almost slept a whole day. I even called Aiden and was about to take you to the emergency room.”
“You called Aiden?” My voice comes out high.
My face falls into my hands as I take several deep breaths. This is not good. I can feel the headache from all the questions Aiden is going to ask me when we finally get there.
“Is it too late to turn back?” I ask as I look up at him.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“You called Aiden about this. Now he’s going to ask me a bajillion questions and I don’t want to answer any of them,” I grumble.
How does he not see how bad this situation is going to be? Once Aiden starts asking all of those questions, then he’s going to probe into other parts of my life and figure everything out.
“I don’t think I’m prepared for this. Let’s turn around,” I say quickly. “There is still enough time. Or you can leave me here and I’ll figure out how to get back home.”
Tobias shakes his head. “No. You are not staying here, and we are not turning around. What is done is done.”
“Why did you call Aiden?” I whisper.
