Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I shook my head and began picking at a loose thread on her comforter.
“Olivia,” she said sternly. “You cannot come to me for advice and keep relevant details from me. That makes my only advice ‘seems like everyone’s being fucking crazy, wait it out.'”
I gnawed on my lip. “But everybody keeps overreacting to this part.”
Dahlia crossed her arms and sat up. “When does Gio flip out?”
“I don’t know, when he’s mad!” I plucked the thread off.
“He flips out when he’d worried.” Dahlia sighed. “And for all his many, many quirks, he doesn’t really get worried for no reason. So, tell me, and I promise I will react completely appropriately, so you have to take my reaction as true.”
I buried my face in her comforter and mumbled, “Sal was there because he got lost on the way to the bathroom.”
“I can’t hear you,” Dahlia said in a sing-song voice.
I sat up and faced her. “Sal was in Elio’s room because he got lost on the way to the bathroom!”
Her face went still. “You were eating in the dining room?”
I nodded. “But it’s easy to get lost in here!”
“Will you walk with me?” She stood and extended a hand.
I frowned and took it.
Dahlia walked me into the dining room. “What instructions did you give him?”
“First door on the left.” I pointed. “Out that door.”
She walked out the door I pointed at, dragging me behind her. Even just standing in the doorway of the dining room, I could see the door to the bathroom, slightly ajar as always. Hell, the toilet was clearly visible.
“Elio’s room is upstairs, Olive,” she murmured.
I slid down the wall and sat. Even if, for some crazy reason, the bathroom door was closed, he’d have to go much farther to even see the stairs, much less get to Elio’s room.
Dahlia sat next to me. “I don’t think he’s overreacting.”
Of course, he hadn’t gotten lost on the way to the bathroom. I was so stupid. It was the easiest place in the house to find, by orders of magnitude. He’d have to be an idiot to have ended up in Elio’s room, and if there was one thing I knew Sal wasn’t, it was stupid.
He’d lied to my face to get into my son’s room.
And I’d yelled at my husband for telling me that.
I jumped to my feet. Dahlia looked at me worriedly.
“I have to go apologize to Gio,” I blurted. “Can you take Elio?”
She nodded and hoisted herself to her feet.
I raced off down the hall before she could stand.
When I burst into our room, Gio was laying on the sitting room floor with Elio, coloring in one of his massive coloring book.
“Kahn!” Elio declared, holding up a red crayon.
Gio chuckled. “Almost. Try cray-on.”
“Cray!” Elio yelled.
“Um,” I said.
Both of my boys looked up at me. Dahlia stepped in behind me, panting slightly, and scooped Elio up.
“Wanna go see bubbles?” she asked.
“Buh-buh!”
The door shut behind them.
Gio rolled into a sitting position and looked at me curiously.
“What’s the rush?” he asked.
I threw myself into his lap, feeling crayons roll under my hip. “I’m sorry!”
He stroked my hair. “What happened, carina?”
Tears filled my eyes, and I swiped them away.
“I talked to Dahlia. She showed me there’s no way he made it up here, even if he did miss the bathroom.” I sniffled. “And I feel so stupid and so mean for everything I said to you.” I gnawed on my bottom lip, but the words burst forth anyway. “Because I think you were right!”
“Look at me, please,” he said.
I lifted my face from his lap and found him smiling at me, softly and sadly.
“I’m not mad, Olivia.” He cupped my face in his hands. “I didn’t want to be right.”
Tears spilled freely down my face. “Really?”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Really.”
I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his chest as the sobs broke loose. Gio just held me, stroking my hair and never once complaining that we were still sitting on the crayon-covered floor.
Eventually, I pulled my face away. “Do you know what the worst part is?”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”
I smiled a pained, tremulous smile. “That I just feel so goddamn stupid.”
A fresh wave of tears sheeted down my face.
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Gio said. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I wanted to believe him so badly.” I shook my head. “I wanted my dad to actually be mysteriously detained for my whole life, only to swoop back in at the first moment he could to be the parent I always wished for.” I stoked his cheek. “You’re such a miracle I guess I thought I could get another one, could actually live out every kid with an absentee dad’s dream.” I snorted. “I wanted it so bad I ignored all the warning signs.”
