Page 9 of Grounded
"Ames, how are you, honey?"
"Hey, Dad. I'm okay."
"What's wrong?"
The fact he can sense something is up, even though I'm doing my best to disguise the hurt in my voice, makes my eyes well with tears.
"I'm having a rough time right now. I just got fired."
"Oh, Ames. Want me to come up and see you? Would Beckett mind?"
These sandpaper tissues are going to give me a rash below my nostrils.
"Beckett was cheating on me, and we broke up."
"That son of a bitch–" He mumbles the last part. "Where are you?"
"In a hotel room."
"Why haven't you come home?"
"I can't do that to you, Dad. I'm almost thirty. I'm an adult. I'll figure this out."
"No, come home. Just for a little while."
"Dad, I can't. You have your life with Molly and it's..." My words disintegrate into the quiet vacancy. I can't tell him that I'm scared to see what else they've erased from my childhood.
"I insist," he pushes.
"If I did, it wouldn't be for a long time. Would Molly care?"
"She'd love it. Theo is coming home next month, so I'm sure she'd be ecstatic to have you both here."
My heart collapses in on itself while my blood drains from my body.
"Theo's coming home, too?"
"Yeah, I guess he can't find much work, and he's running low on funds. We think he'll be home by the end of June."
I open my calendar app and realize that's five weeks from now.
Five weeks to find a job and an apartment before he comes home. This might be doable.
"I'd hope to be employed and on my own by the time he returns."
"I know you don't want to see him," he says quietly. "But it might be nice. You're both adults, and so much time has passed."
I want to make a sarcastic comment about there not being enough time in the world to get that manchild to grow up. But that'd show just how immature I still am.
"Let me think about it. I might try and apply to a few places in LA, but I'll let you know how it goes."
"Okay, I love you. Please take care of yourself. Make sure the doors are locked. Use the chain. Wedge a chair under the door handle."
"I'm pretty sure that doesn't work, but I'll do it anyway."
"Love you."
"Love you, Dad."
