“I won’t even tease about it. Besides she only has eyes for you. Can I help you with anything?”
“You already are. Watch out for her. If I know she’s got you watching her back, I’ll be good.”
“Done. You still want Special Forces training?”
“My recruiter thinks it’s a good fit.”
“So you’ll be hitting the ground running. Upside, you won’t be deployed.”
“Not for a while.”
He started for the door. It was harder than I thought it would be. Anton was like a brother and it felt really fucking nice to know he thought of me as one too. “Take care of yourself. When you’re ready, I’ll give you a ride to the airport.”
“Thanks. I mean it, Anton. Thank you.”
“You can thank me by coming back in one piece.”
It had been a week since the graduation party and Damian wasn’t acting like himself. I was worried about him, but he was never around when I stopped by to see him. I was upset, even scared, because the clock was ticking and we were wasting precious time being apart.
“Hey, Thea,” Dad said as he and Mom walked into the kitchen. “I see you’re wearing your slippers.”
Dad had surprised me with fuzzy bunny slippers after my graduation party. They had made me smile when I saw them, but not even their adorable little faces lifted my spirits.
“Can we talk?” Mom asked, but she was already pulling out a chair.
The last time Mom and Dad wanted to talk, as a unit, it was to tell me that Santa Claus wasn’t real. “Ah, yeah.”
“We wanted to talk to you about Damian,” Mom said.
I assumed this was the sex talk. Damian and I were a couple and my parents knew that. It was fair for them to assume we were having sex and we were. We didn’t go out of our way to hide it, but I also didn’t talk about it around the dinner table. I loved that they wanted to have the talk, but that ship had sailed.
“Ah...this is awkward, but you’re a little late if this is the birds and the bees discussion.”
“We know.”
I can’t say I was surprised, my dad missed nothing, but I could say sitting across the table from my parents while we discussed my love life was definitely uncomfortable.
Dad continued, “Your eighteen, an adult and smart. You are being smart, right?”
“Yes.”
“And we like Damian. He’s a good guy,” he added.
“He is. The best. So if this isn’t about sex then what’s up?”
“First love can be very powerful and when you add sex into the mix it can be life changing, but you have plans for the fall.”
“I’m not changing my plans.”
“It’s not you we’re worried about.” Mom said. “It’s Damian. His goal is the military, has been for a while, but we heard he’s been talking with Cam about finding a job closer to you.”
“Yeah. He mentioned that not too long ago.”
Dad was giving me his cop look before he said, “You don’t agree.”
“I would love for him to stay with me, to move closer so we could continue to explore what has only just started between us, but I don’t think he would be happy…not for long anyway.”
“Have you talked to him about it?”
“I’ve tried. He’s been busy since the graduation party, but we have to talk and soon. It’s just…” It hurt; really hurt talking about this because I wanted to be with him, wanted to learn every little thing that made up Damian Tate. It would take me years. I wanted years. I wanted a lifetime. Sometimes I tried to imagine my life without him in it and I actually had trouble breathing. It was going to be unimaginably hard letting him go when the time came, but we were young and in love. My hope was that we didn’t end, we’d just put us on hold for a little while.
“It doesn’t have to be goodbye.”
“I know.”
“But at this point in your lives you both need to think about yourselves first, you need to be selfish,” Mom finished.
“And love, time only makes it grow stronger,” Dad added.
As much as I tried to push the inevitable from my mind, this conversation made it real and I couldn’t stop the tears. “It still hurts.”
Dad reached for my hand. “Love often does.”
I needed to change the subject before I embarrassed myself. “How are you? You’ve been working a lot and seem kind of stressed too. Is everything okay?”
He didn’t answer right away before he smiled. “You’re a very astute young woman. Yeah. It’s just sometimes we’re faced with challenges, temptations, and doing what’s right even when it’s not popular.”