Struggles of a Single Father (Book 1 of the Struggle Puff Series)

Chapter 39

Written - 03/19/2020

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Three weeks.

That's how long it had been since Tilisia and I fought. I cancelled my outing with Rosie the next day so that we could talk, but Tilisia refused to say anything about it. She said she'd rather pretend nothing happened then talk about it with me.

Since then, we'd barely held a decent conversation with one another. She decided to walk to school after that, and only came to the café to work. From what I'd seen, she'd barely eaten anything even though I make her breakfast every morning, and she hadn't hung out with Cadence or Ain very much. When she did see them, she smiles and apologizes for not being around and then goes into some short explanation as to why. I wasn't sure if they believed her, but if they didn't, they hadn't said anything about it.

I tried asking Ain about what happened at the sleepover, but he swore he didn't know anything. All she told them was that she was feeling sick and needed to head home, insisting that she could go alone. Apparently, she was fine up until she first texted me. Cadence wasn't even sure what happened. She claims they were having a lot of fun at first. I even called Jake to see if she talked to him at all. He knew nothing.

All of our Sunday outings were seemingly normal. Tilisia knew how to act well enough that no one thought twice about it. Even when we invited Rosie along with us, she was on ten the whole time. I admired her tenacity, but I worried about her greatly. How could I not? She's my daughter.

Every night I thought about how it all could've gone differently. Had I just looked at my phone to see her text, it would've been different. I'd probably know what happened to bring this all on. I'm still mad at myself for that. I started checking my phone almost every few minutes just to make sure she hadn't said anything, but I doubted she'd ever text like she did that night. I knew I messed up badly.

"Are you ready to go to Amy's goodbye party?" I asked through the slightly cracked door of Tilisia's room.

"Yeah. I'll meet you there." She answered, not looking up from her book.

"Why don't you just ride with me? I'm sure it's a lot faster than walking."

"I like walking. It's only ten minutes. No big deal."

I sighed and shut her door. I knew I wasn't going to win that one, but I still wanted to try.

Upon my arrival at the Westin, I walked to the reserved suite where her party was being held.

I scanned my surroundings and had yet to find anything out of place. Amy was talking to her colleagues near the drink table, some of her other friends were chatting it up on the couches, Rosie was in a seemingly deep conversation with Cadence at the kitchen island, and Ain and Jessica were talking quietly in a corner.

I began to make my way to Amy until I felt myself freeze. I slowly turned my head to where I saw Ain and Jessica and noticed how her hand was on his chest and his was on her waist. My stomach dropped to my balls as I watched her lean her weight on him and whisper something in his ear that made him chuckle.

The door opening behind me snapped me out of my trance. I looked over my shoulder to see it was Tilisia and my brain went into fight or flight mode as I sped over to the two teenagers and pulled Ain with me to the bedroom and shut the door behind us.

My back was against the door as I took deep breaths. Ain was staring at me like I lost my mind.

"Are you alright, sir?"

I glared at him, "Don't sir me, you lying douchebag." He took a step away from me and had the most hurt look on his face, but I didn't care, "You sat there at that ramen shop and lied to me, Tilisia, and Cadence about the nature of your relationship with that girl, yet here you are acting like you're grown up with her all over you in a corner. What the hell were you thinking?"