Page 90 of Our Bender

I blew out a sigh and surveyed the living room. Adrienne had dropped her off with only a singular duffle bag. She definitely needed more stuff if she was going to be here for an extended period of time. But how much time was the question…

I guess that didn’t really matter. Now that I knew about her, I’d want her to stay with me as much as possible. My lease with the guys wasn’t up until March, and at that point, I’d try and get an apartment for just the two of us, but I guess this place would have to work until then. But would she go back with her mom to Minnesota soon? What would I do if that were the case? Would I be able to convince Fi to move out here to Detroit? My mind was like a constant loop of questions I had no answers to…Unless… Stevie had the answers.

Appearance wise, she was most definitely half of me and half of Fi… But she was raised by Fi, who was smart as a whip, so our little girl probably had way more answers than she was letting on.

“So where’s your mom? How come she didn’t come with you?”

She leaned her little chin on her hand and avoided my gaze. “She had to go away. I don’t want to talk about it,” she said glumly.

My face crinkled.Go away?What did that even mean? Anxiety spiked in my chest. “Is she in some kind of trouble?”

She huffed. “Well, not anymore.”

Okay, so she went away, not in trouble anymore… “Did she go to rehab or something?” That made the most sense. If she went to rehab, her parents would definitely use it as a play to take custody.

But Stevie’s round blue eyes stared at me angrily over her cereal bowl. “Do you not know what ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ means?” she bit back.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Okay, attitude, much?”

When I first met her, I felt like she actually wanted to find me and talk to me. Now she was looking at me with a mixture of doubt and hopelessness, like she was stuck with the dumb kid in class or something and the two of us were doomed to fail. And I’m not gonna lie– it kind of hurt my feelings. I needed to get my dad shit together quickly.

She rolled her eyes, making her look more like a teenage girl than an 8-year-old one. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

I sat there scratching my cheek. It was obvious that talking about her mom was just making her upset, and I guess it didn’t really matter where Fi was right at this second, because Stevie would be in my life forever. I had to prioritize establishing this relationship somehow. But what the hell did I know about a Father-Daughter relationship? Thinking about fatherhood made me feel like I was out to drift in the ocean with no lifeline. I didn’t have the first clue about parenting stuff. I wasn’t even raised by a father myself, I only ever had Casey-

Casey.

I pulled out my phone and quickly shot him a text saying that I’d be coming by for dinner. I didn’t even give him an out. He canceled on me last week, so I figured I was owed this anyway. Besides, we could have McDonalds for dinner for all I cared, I just needed to talk to him about this.

A second later, my roommates came barreling in the door, making Stevie knock her cereal bowl over in her lap.

“You dummies!” she screeched. “You scared me!” Her face flushed and her jaw angled out to the side as she stared at the spilled milk in her lap.

I’m not sure if it was because she reminded me so much of Fiona in that moment, or if it was the way this little girl leveled my roommates down to “dummies’’ so easily, but I had to fist my hand and hold it in front of my mouth to muffle a laugh as I handed her the paper towel. In my defense, I put up a better front than Garcia, who was cracking up at her jump scare.

“Who’s your friend?” Hassik asked.

“Well guys…” I paused cleaning up the milk and racked a hand through my hair. “This is my daughter.”

Garcia blanched. Hassik dropped the coffee he’d been holding and it splattered all over the floor.

Both of them stood there in shock, their eyes shifting back and forth between me and Stevie.

“I know she’s not on the lease,” I grimaced, “but if it’s okay with you guys, I’d like to give her my room and I’ll take the couch. Just ‘til we can get our own place in March,” I assured them.

“All good,” Hassik responded immediately.

Garcia rubbed his forehead like this presented a major problem for him. “She gonna obey the rules of the loft?”

Completely forgetting about the milk now, Stevie’s ears perked up. “What are the rules?”

Garcia kicked off his shoes, then ran and slid on the hardwood to the corner of the room, where a big dry erase board leaned against the fireplace.

“One!” he announced, pointing to the rule. “Whoever loses video games or push ups must go out into the tundra to get the food. This includes you now, little missy!”

“Tyler’s gonna have to get all the food from now on,” Hassik whispered, and the two of them cackled together.

I shook my head dryly. “I’m gonna have to teach you some video game tips,” I whispered out the side of my mouth to Stevie. “Can you do push-ups?”

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