Page 87 of Stabby Little

"About what?"

"His separation."

"No. Linda left him four years ago. She turned Miles against him, too."

"That's terrible." Sparrow narrows his eyes. "I wonder why she left him."

"He spent too much time searching for me. Linda convinced Miles that he preferred me over him and Miles got jealous, so he went with her."

Finn's eyes widen like flying saucers. "I'm sensing a love story in the works."

"I agree," Sparrow drawls. "You can take her place and fuck her memory out of his life. He's already obsessed with you—in a platonic way. This would take it a step further."

"It's not like that." I pat my stuffy on the head. "He's a father figure to me."

"A Daddy figure," Finn corrects.

"No. A father." I grit my teeth. "When he hugged me in his investigation room, it was like the past seven years evaporated. It was the same protective, all-encompassing hug he would've given me when I was a boy."

"He hugged you." Sparrow picks at his cuticles. "You left that out earlier, too."

"It wasn't crucial to the story."

"Thatisthe story." Sparrow takes another bite of his Zebra cake. "Grant obviously isn't opposed to showing you affection."

"In a fatherly way," I remind him.

"It's only fatherly because you're his son's long-lost best friend." Finn bites his thumbnail. "You're reverting to the role you played seven years ago when you hung out with Miles."

"You're reaching."

"If you both admit things have changed, you could create new terms of your relationship."

"I don't even know if he's into men."

"You can turn him," Finn says.

"I doubt that."

"You turned Jack in the warehouse," Sparrow reminds me. "He wasn't into guys before you."

I gag. "Jack was a rapist. That's not the most apt comparison."

"You still turned him gay."

"He was fucking the Room A boys long before he met me."

"Don't play down your accomplishments. You had something to do with his bisexual awakening."

"I wish I hadn't," I say. "Can we not put Jack and Grant in the same sentence? Jack was a piece of shit who hurt me more than I can fathom. Grant's the sole reason I made it through my captivity. If I didn't have memories of Grant, I would've given up long ago. I believed he was still searching for me."

"Hewassearching for you." Sparrow squeezes my hand. "You were right."

"That's why I'm fine that it's only a platonic thing." I shrug. "He can be like the father I never had."

"Can you remind me what happened to your real dad?"

"He gave up searching for me and organized a funeral two years after I vanished. He believed the FBI. I read about it online."

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