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The food finally cah of relief, because the atuilty after thinking that, because this was the first tiether that had nothing to do with the teaot to see each other at home because ere both busy Other than work, we didn’t have anything in common, either, so whileeach other nearly every day, there would be days we didn’t say a single thing to each other

I took a bite of my pizza and a sip of my wine, and decided it was perfect Then Dad broke the silence

“So,” he said “How have you been? I haven’t seen much of you recently”

“I don’t know, Dad, just busy Practice is about to start so we’ll see each other more often, but you’re busy, too, aren’t you You’re even dating”

He let out a tiny smile “Yes She wanted to invite you over for dinner, actually”

“When?”

“Whenever you’re free”

We were quiet for a bit, and I thought as I ate It ard for , especially e had going on between us, only I’d slept with hi around his mom would be weird for me, but then I wondered if it wouldn’t be weirder for Dad

I turned to him with deterry, but I was done with his stubbornness, too If he wasn’t going to take ive Howard that consideration

“And Howard?”

Dad froze then looked up with a frown, setting his glass back down “What about Howard?”

“Will he be present at this dinner? I assume his mom would want him there as well?”

He sighed and picked his glass up again, taking a sip “He will probably be there, sure He does live away froht be busy”

I narrowedhe would prefer if Hoas busy and wouldn’t show up He couldn’t outright show hostility toward hiht have fucked up, but his est supporter, and a part of me envied him that

“Why won’t you just give Howard another chance?” I asked “I know he’s been asking”

He scowled “Howard is a loser, and I don’t want a loser on ain I know you’re the one who head hunted hiet about him”

I scowled back at Dad I was a little surprised at the wave of anger that washed through ht of Howard, but hearing him talk about him that way upset me

“That’s out of line, Dad It’s also not fair, he has been trying–”

“He shouldn’t have ie onto the teaets out, our reputation will be ruined If he wants to ruin his own life, that’s fine, but I won’t let him take my team down I know you meant hen you asked hi back Don’t bring this up again”

I opened rown up already, Dad was still treatingearlier, he hadn’t taken , he’d just shut me down Obviously, he couldn’t deal with the fact that I was grown up, with thoughts of n with his own

My frustration at him made me snap I looked down at lass of wine I stuffed my mouth as left, because it would be such a shame to waste it, then I knocked back the wine Dad just watched me in surprise as I quickly finished my meal then jumped up, dropped some bills on the table to cover my cost and walked out I assumed he was too surprised at my behavior, or too exasperated, to call me back

I got outside, and I paused He drove et a taxi, but I didn’t knohere I wanted to go Should I go and look for Howard so we could talk? But I didn’t think I could put up with him, either, inout with, and they’d all be busy in the middle of the day on a weekday, so the only option was to head back to hoht decide to stay over at his girlfriend’s ho him