TANGLED PLANS

57

Max

Once I drive home after leaving Daisy's house with my cheeks blazing from her kiss, I'm not feeling as gleeful as I was before. Daisy is, in one word, amazing. I've never felt myself blush before, but as soon as she kissed my cheek, I felt warmer than I ever did.

Once I get inside my house, I enter a quiet home. It's not odd, but with my heartbeat barely being regulated, my heart is in my throat because my brain knows what I'm about to do. My mom not wanting to be involved with me in every sense is something I already knew. I have told Daisy, who had already told her brother. It's now a well-known fact, and yet telling my father about it scares the hell out of me.

How would he react?

Moreover, how would it make me feel? Would I be able to even tell him about it?

But I have to. Daisy had shown me that I had to be in control now. I couldn't wait for my life to blow over. I needed to do something about it.

I drop off my stuff by the couch and head down the hallway and toward my dad's office, which is located at the far end. My dad's on a call when I stand by the door, judging by the noise coming from inside. I stand by the door as I wait for his call to end or to prepare myself for what I'm about to do. I used the time to think about what I was going to say in my head.

Once it has been too long and the fact that I have been talking myself out of it and the only thing that would make me go forth with it is Daisy, I knock on the door. It's now or all hell breaks loose, Max. I continue to knock on the door once my dad doesn't say anything from inside it.

"What do you want, Max?" My dad calls out, and I know that he cannot be that mad considering that he didn't call me by my full name. Since I shouted at him a few days ago, he has yet to call me by that. Which I appreciated. I was tired of hearing him say my full name in a tone that was harsher than it needed to be.

"I need to talk to you," I call out to him, and a moment later, there is a noise and then some footsteps coming toward the door. I step back to let my dad open the door, who does so quickly, then retracts his hand. He moves back inside the room and then heads over to the little bathroom behind his office. My eyes zeroed in on what he had been doing.

Once he comes back, I glance down at him and deadpan, "Your fly is open." My dad's face blushes red as he goes to zip it up really quickly. I try not to gag at the fact that my dad was no less having phone sex. And here, I had thought it was a business call. I guess it was, just that it wasn't my business.

That makes me kind of laugh out loud. I was doing a good job trying to get myself up to doing what I came here to do. My dad cuts his gaze to me and says, "It's not funny, Max. Your dad has...well."

"Yeah, no, I don't want to hear about it," I say to him as I put up a hand to stop him from saying anything else. My dad gives me a sheepish shrug and then says, "So, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes," I say, and then clear my throat. I move away from him and say, "So, have you called mom?" Saying the word that describes the term for the woman who doesn't want anything to do with me is hard. It makes me feel awful as soon as it slips out of my mouth.

My dad shakes his head as he says, "No, um, I got busy."

"Having phone sex?" I asked him, and normally I wouldn't. There would be no way I would talk about this. But I was stalling right now. I didn't know how I could break it to my dad. He thought I had had the best summer of my life when, in reality, I hadn't. I didn't want to break it to him.

My dad barks out a laugh and then stops when his eyes catch onto mine. It's as if he just realized that I'm his son. He holds a finger up and says, "No." I shake my head and turn away from him. I ran my hands over the box of business cards he had. I remember when I decorated the background for it, and ten years later, he still used it.