Page 49 of Just A Little Love

Daddy: Jet lag is real.

Rory: Did you not know?

Daddy: I do, but I always think it won’t happen then it does and then I’m annoyed because it did.

Rory: That seems not smart.

Daddy: I never claimed to be smart.

Me: You’re an architect. I think it’s part of the job description.

Daddy: Nah, it’s not even a real job.

***

Me: Anders and Jakob had discovered a mutual love of mockumentaries.

Daddy: The dog show movie is the best. We should have a movie night to watch it when I get home. :)

Rory: not you too

Daddy: How about I promise to limit references to once a day?

Rory: Deal

Daddy: I could talk or not about soup with you for hours.

Rory: Please stop

***

Daddy: I miss you

Rory: I miss you more

***

Daddy: Can you stop by my apartment? The permit office sent paperwork to sign. I can walk you through it. My building knows my boyfriend is stopping by.

Rory: Sure, I can run by after office hours today.

Daddy: No comment?

Rory: No comment

Daddy: Hmm, I’ll be home on Friday, but the office needs papers no later than Wednesday.

Rory: I’m on it.

***

Since we had one of those rare clear days in the Pacific Northwest, I walked to Daddy’s high rise. It was only about thirty minutes from campus and, in the unusually nice weather, that didn’t seem so bad. Daddy had sent pictures of his time in London and I was jealous of the walking culture. And, if I was honest with myself, I was jealous that he was there. On mysalary, the odds of me ever being able to fund a trip like that were somewhere south of never.

When I got to his building, I gave my name to the reception desk, and they confirmed I was on the list. It made my heart happy. The desk guy gave me a funny look but said nothing else. It was probably my imagination, though. The closer it came to Daddy’s return, the more out of sorts I felt about everything. I’d been short with my parents and my students. It all felt so monumental.

What exactly were we doing?

I knew it was my idea to reassess, but maybe that was a mistake. When I said it, I intended to give him an easy out from whatever whirlwind we had going on. If I could go back, I'd tell Daddy I was in love with him. He’d probably say it was too soon to feel that, but when you know, you know. My parents got married after dating for a week, and they were an annoyingly, blissfully happy match made in heaven.

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