Page 19 of Surprise Baby for Daddy's Best Friend

"I mean it, dad. If you mess this up, I can't save you this time."

"I get it," he growled. "Look, I've been plenty sober for a while now. Stop trying to be a mother and be my daughter for once. I'm not going to get angry at the table."

"That's what you told mom."

"Keep mom out of this!" something in his voice turned cold. I backed into the corner of the closet as if he were talking to me instead of Mandi. "I get enough about her from the anger management classes. Let this just be a nice vacation for me for both of us."

The door closed without either of them saying goodbye to one another. He didn't open the closet door either but shuffled back to the bed and collapsed into it.

I waited a few more seconds before opening the door and walking back into the room. My body ached from standing still for so long in a cramped closet. I felt like a high schooler hiding away at a boyfriend's house, instead of a grown woman. I stretched out my shoulders and glanced at Jared collapsed on the bed.

"She really cares about you."

He rolled his head over to look at me from the corner of his eyes, "You going to lecture me now too?"

"No, I'm not. She means well though. I can tell you both worry for one another, and you've been through a lot." I sat next to him and intertwined my fingers with his, "I can't say much since I'm not a mom, and my relationship with my dad isn’t like what you have with Mandi, but I think you both have something that's truly strengthening. Don't ruin it because of a fight like this, alright?"

He grumbled something under his breath and rolled onto his back, "I'm sorry you had to hear all that." The darkness in the corners of his face deepened as mental exhaustion took over. "You really shouldn't have been involved with that."

I shrugged, "It's not your fault and I'm not upset about it. Not a fan of having to hide in the closet, but that's my fault for sleeping in your room again."

He chuckled and shook his head, "You've slept in here more times than you've slept in your room at this point. I don't think they spent their money well."

We grew silent for a moment, just staying still with our fingers locked together. The quiet of the aftermath was needed for him to process his anger and for me not to show irritation when I was still aching.

Jared was the first to speak the quiet parts of our thoughts out loud, "So will this be the end of things?"

"Maybe. I'm too old to be sneaking around, and you're stressing yourself out too much from it too."

He shook his head and closed his eyes. A sense of youth coated his face as he smiled to himself, "It does give me energy though. Just acting like I was young again. You don’t get this much when you’re working all the time. There are no college parties to crash or climb into someone's window with the only repercussions being someone yelling at you later that day. Back then, if you did something stupid like that, you lost your income and credibility. That was your livelihood and you had to grow up fast or be chewed up just as quickly."

"Must have been rough," I waved my free hand in the air. "Granted, I didn't go out partying like that when I was younger, but I also didn't have to worry about forgoing a paycheck for it either. More like I might spend the night drunk at someone's house and not remember how I got there or sleeping in until it was almost dinner time."

"So, then this is farewell?"

I shook my head and squeezed his hand tighter, "No. This is fun. We just have to be more careful next time." I stood up and grabbed my panties and bra out from the drawer. My phone was the last thing I grabbed, shoving it in my pocket so I wouldn't forget it. "Perhaps we can try out some more skills with that tongue of yours again. Or see what else you can do with that experience of yours."

I winked and turned away before I could see his reaction. He would try and argue with me again about how he wasn't worthy of any attention from me, or something else like his anger or previous problems with alcohol. They might have been true at one point, but the Jared I had seen over the last few days didn’t seem to bethatJared. He was a different person, and the one I truly believed he was deep down, only if he gave it a chance, and not keep it stuck in his own shadow.

"Don't get into too much trouble," he called out as I stepped out into the hall.

I let out a sigh of relief as the events of the night and morning, came crashing down on me. I was ready to call it a day if it wasn't for the rehearsal that was supposedly going to happen later. I probably missed more events on the itinerary by sleeping in too and going missing.

The room was dark when I walked in. Only the light of the television playing some old black and white film gave a sign that Mandi was in here earlier.

"Sorry," I muttered to the room. "Guess I really suck as a roommate." I tossed the panties and bra off on the collection of dirty clothes. I needed to find a laundry bag tonight to collect my clothes in instead of the doom pile I was accumulating. It wasn't exactly like a resort would carry laundry baskets for every room, but it would have been nice, instead of trying to figure out what to do with my clothes every day.

The door clicked and opened, "Oh!"

I jumped and snapped around. A sigh of relief caught in my throat as I realized it was Mandi at the door, "You scared me!" I heaved.

"There you are! I was trying to call you."

I tapped to unlock my phone, but it was completely dead. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had tried to call me earlier when I was in Jared's room. She wouldn't have known it was my phone. I cursed myself for getting scared about it earlier.

"Sorry. I forgot to charge it."

She shrugged, "Don't worry about it. We have a rehearsal this evening and we're supposed to go shopping this afternoon." She walked over to her bed and flipped her suitcase open. "We have some time before then. Did you want to start unpacking with me and get ourselves settled?" She gave me a weak smile. It was obvious her conversation with Jared was still on her mind, but I couldn't tell her I knew about it. "I haven't made myself at home since I've been busy."

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