Page 134 of Smooth Sailing

He wanted his mom safe and out from under the thumb of some asshole pimp.

Enter Chaos for the second time in her life, they got her free of the last asshole pimp she had, set her up so she could manage her own clients, and she went freelance.

After that, he just hoped he didn’t grow up to be like his father.

“Harlan?” Di prompted.

“Never really thought about it,” he said to the window.

He felt the air get heavy and he let it be.

Because, yeah.

On Sunday, she had to know what she was dealing with.

They were in the zone they hadn’t had much time in, so when they talked on Sunday, if this wasn’t going anywhere, she wouldn’t feel like she wasted time on him.

In the meantime, he got to have her for the next four days. Have her time. Her smiles. Have her back when she sat down with her dad.

And he decided in that moment that was good for him.

Hugger hadn’t had a lot on his life, and it was no joke that what he had with Di the last six days was the best he’d ever had, bar none, and he hadn’t even banged her yet.

So he’d take what he could get of Diana Armitage, then he’d take off out of her life when she realized he was a hassle who wasn’t worth it.

On a thought that was unhappy, but not unusual for Hugger, he pulled out his phone to play solitaire while she spit-washed an ugly-as-fuck painting.

At lunch, they went downtown to a place that made excellent tacos using freshly rolled and grilled tortillas, and Hugger noted, in a city that seemed to be nothing but a never-ending succession of strip malls, they had damn good food.

On their way back to her work, they stopped at a Total Wine so she could buy her dad a bottle of gin.

She returned to the painting.

And he went back to something familiar.

Solitaire.

15

SOMETHING BIG

Diana

“You don’t have to change!” I shouted down the hall. “I’m not changing.”

We needed to leave imminently for dinner.

I was in the kitchen, trying to fashion a bow around Dad’s bottle of gin.

Maybe the bow was overkill, but I was nervous.

I didn’t want Dad to be a dick to Hugger, for one. That would end the night real soon, because I wouldn’t put up with it.

I didn’t want Dad to be a dick to me, either.

Of course, that would suck for me, but I wasn’t sure how Hugger would respond to it. Though, I did know neither Dad nor I wanted to find out, but Dad might want it less than me.

I was also nervous about Hugger.

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