I didn’t look at her as I read through the instructions for the day. “No. Just don’t want to work here anymore.” I grabbed the things I needed and walked off without looking at her once, just getting to work, just getting through the day.
I worked on the three-screen desktop and tried to flush out all the issues, but it was complicated. This guy must have downloaded a shit-ton of porn to fry his computer like this. He was an old guy, so he probably didn’t understand he could just stream everything.
The door opened, and Sicily entered, holding two vases of flowers. “Hey, I haven’t seen you all week.” She carried the vases to the table and set them down gently, but she struggled because they were heavy.
I didn’t get up to help. “Busy.” I kept working.
She turned to me and studied me. “Everything okay?”
My father’s face was still fresh in my mind, that pissed-off look on his face, the threat he gave me before I walked out. The interaction haunted me as much as he promised it would, but that just made me angrier with him.
“Dex?”
I hadn’t talked to him or seen him since the incident, and that was a few days ago. He had no intention of apologizing, and neither did I.
Sicily came to the desk and stood right in front of me. “Dex?”
I snapped out of my thoughts and lifted my eyes to look at her. “Hmm?”
“You sure everything is alright?”
Nothing was alright. My life ended a year ago, and it was steadily getting worse…when I’d thought it couldn’t get worse. “I’m fine. Just have a lot of work to do.”
She continued to study me with that concern in her eyes, having a natural warmth that most people didn’t have. She cared about people easily, let people in quicker than she should. That was probably why she’d ended up with a cheating asshole without realizing it. But you know what they say…bad things happen to good people. “If you ever need to talk—”
“I don’t need to talk. Let’s just get back to work, alright?” I dropped my gaze back to the screen and ignored her.
She lingered for another moment, but then walked away and left me alone.
My two weeks wasn’t close to up, and Mom started to interview people.
Good. She took me seriously.
I didn’t have another job lined up because I was too lazy to look. It was hard to get something that paid well without utilizing a degree, but my degree was only applicable to one thing—medicine. So, I would have to get a job in a lab or something, something relevant but not straight-up medicine. It would pay my bills, and I wouldn’t have to deal with patients.
Sicily looked at me a lot, but she kept her distance. Everyone else did too, like they knew they should just leave me alone.
Good call.
At the end of the day, I packed up my things and prepared to get the hell out of there.
Then Dad approached the office, dressed in his hoodie and jeans, his satchel over his shoulder. He clearly wasn’t there for Mom because she wasn’t there, and his eyes were on me. They weren’t venomous anymore. They were soft, gentle, as if he was ready to bury the hatchet.
Well, I wasn’t.
I grabbed my bag and put it over my shoulder as I rose to my feet.
He continued to stare at me, his dark eyes waiting for me to look him in the eye.
I walked right past him.
“Son.”
I kept walking.
He didn’t call after me again. He didn’t follow me. He let me go.
A knock sounded on my door.
I was on my laptop on the couch, submitting my resume for a laboratory position because my undergraduate degree was in analytical chemistry. My eyes flicked to the door, wary of who was on the other side.
The knock sounded again.
I sighed and put the laptop on the coffee table before I peeked through the hole.
It was Derek.
But I wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t there to watch the game. If that were what he wanted, he would invite me over so he could be with his kids at the same time.
I opened the door but didn’t invite him inside. “I’d invite you in, but I’m not in the mood for a lecture. Now, if you’d like to watch the game and talk about your rockets or whatever, I’m down with that.”
He stared at me the exact same way Dad did, and it was in that moment that I really saw how similar their features were, their mannerisms, their brooding natures.
“Alright, then have a good night.” I started to shut the door.
He pushed it back open. “Dex, come on.”
“Come on, what?” I walked back to the couch and closed my laptop.
He took a seat beside me and sighed. “How long is this going to go on?”