Page 17 of Easter Daddy

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“Liam?”

“Yes?” he asks, looking up from his meal and dabbing the side of his mouth.

“Are you enjoying your meal?”

He smirks at me again, and it’s similar to the dirty one he gave me earlier.

“Yes,” he says. “It’s great.” He clears his throat, looking at me normally once more. “When does your shift end?”

“At four.”

“I’ll come back and give you a ride home when you’re done.”

He’s so bossy he doesn’t even ask, just tells me. I don’t mind, though. Like I said, I like it—way too much, in fact. He leaves shortly after that.

The rest of my day goes by rather quickly and without much incident. One older lady is particularly condescending, but I’m so accustomed to things like this that I just let it roll off me. I ignore it. I know that many cannot do that, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m jaded, but some people never get to my level. Some are always affected by the patronizing attitude of some customers, and I truly feel sorry for them.

When he returns for me, I’m already waiting outside.

“Had a bad day?” he asks with a frown as he comes up to me.

“No, why?”

“Your shift ended two minutes ago and you’re already outside.”

“I just didn’t want you to have to wait too long for me,” I say to him.

“Oh,” he says with a nod. “Okay.” If I am not mistaken, he seems slightly bothered by this, judging by the way that the corners of his lips turn down slightly.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. He sighs.

“I don’t like making people wait on me, either.”

“Oh, okay. I mean, I wasn’t here that long. I got here about thirty seconds before you, so it’s fine.”

He nods his head and leads me to the car, his hand on the small of my back. I stiffen because his touch always does things to me.

For the first part of our drive, neither of us says much. When we’re about halfway home, however, he starts to talk.

“Lily?”

“Hm?”

“What do you want to do?” he asks me.

“Be an environmentalist.”

“What degree would you get for that?”

“Environmental Studies at FIU.”

“Hmm.” Was he expecting something more…extravagant? Or perhaps something mainstream. He seems to really be contemplating my words, but the conversation makes me wonder what he did at university if he even went. I don’t see his father accepting him not going, though. Then again, Liam is probably very strong-willed to have gotten to where he is in life.

“What did you do in uni?” I ask.

“I have an undergrad in business administration. No master’s or Ph.D. Drove my dad mad,” he says with a chuckle. “That is until he saw my success and realized I wasn’t gonna fail in life. But I’m the first to admit that I got lucky in some respects.”

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