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Although I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t want to be alone right now.
Yeah. Give me five.
After receiving Dad’s thumbs up text, I then threw on a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt. Just as I was stepping into my shoes, a knock came at my door.
When I answered it, Dad’s brows shot up. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled.
“I thought you promised your coach you wouldn’t get shitfaced.”
“I did, and I didn’t.” At Dad’s skeptical look, I replied, “It’s about a girl.” I exhaled a painful breath. “It’s about Gaby.”
“You look that way because of Gaby?” When I nodded, he teasingly added, “Don’t tell me she beat the shit out of you?”
I held my hands up. “Seriously, I can’t deal with you right now.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made any jokes.” Grabbing me by the arm, Dad said, “Come on, let’s go have breakfast, and you can tell me all about it.”
“What self-respecting man talks to his dad about his love life?”
“How about me?” At what must’ve been my questioning expression, Dad replied, “Your Pops got me through a lot of really tough romantic times.”
“He did?”
“Totally.” Cocking his brows at me, he countered, “If a Marine could talk about love freely with me, what makes you think you can’t?”
As we stepped onto the elevator, I sighed, “I guess you’re right.”
“Of course, I am.” A sad smile curved on Dad’s lips. “If he was still with us, you better believe he'd be right in the thick of this conversation, dishing out advice left and right.”
Since he was already seventy-two when I was born, I’d been lucky to have my Pops for twenty years of my life. My parents had honored him by giving me his name, Patrick, for my middle name. My greatest regret was that he hadn’t lived to see me make it to the Olympics. He always believed in me, and as long as he was physically able, he never missed a single swim competition.
Five years ago, he’d passed away peacefully in his sleep. While it wasn’t totally shocking at his age, it still seemed to happen out of nowhere. But he’d always wanted to go quick, especially after seeing my grandmother suffer from cancer. “I miss him,” I murmured.
“Me too, son,” Dad replied. He reached over to ruffle my hair like he had when I was a kid, but then realized I wasn’t my previous size. “I never thought I would see the day you’d overtake me.”
I laughed. “Just living in my shadow now, huh?”
“Bullshit,” Dad grunted.
The elevator doors opened, and we then made our way to the hotel’s restaurant. I couldn’t help scanning the tables to see if Gaby might be there with her family. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her.
After the waitress took our orders, Dad leaned forward on his elbows. “Tell me everything.”
At that moment, I would’ve killed for a mimosa sans the orange juice or at least something stronger than champagne. Anything to numb my senses. But once again, I remembered my promise to my coach. As best I could sober, I filled Dad in on everything that had transpired between me and Gaby.
The angst that she’d had such a low opinion of herself. The joy of being with someone who didn’t take any of my shit.
“I really like you, and I had a really good time with you. But the distance between us coupled with your ways … Regardless of how much I like you, I like myself more, and I don’t want to get hurt.”
The desperation of watching her walk out the door.
When I finished, a knowing smile appeared on his face. “Oh, son, just when I thought we couldn’t be any more alike, you go and catch the feels for an unattainable female.”
“Since when did you ever have an unattainable female?” Over the years when I’d reached adulthood, Dad had regaled me with some of the stories of him being a womanizer.
The waitress returned with our food. As he unrolled the silverware from his napkin, Dad replied, “There was only one.”
