Episode 1027: Clean

By the time he finally made it to the walkway, the door of the house swung open and out charged a hairy beast of a dog dragging Sebastian’s dad behind him at the other end of the leash.

They came to a stop right where Sebastian stood, with the dog slamming into his legs and Phillip Marques fighting to maintain his balance.

“No wonder Walter was in even more of a hurry to get outside than usual,” his dad said once he’d caught his breath. “I didn’t realize we had a guest. It’s so good to see you, son, it’s been too long.”

Grinning ear to ear, he embraced Sebastian with his free arm and clapped him on the back. Sebastian found himself smiling, too. He’d felt almost sick coming over to his parents’ house like his body was trying to warn him that asking his father for help was a bad idea. But he loved his dad so there was a sense of comfort in being around him, a sense that his dad could and would fix anything for him. He need only ask.

Sebastian could never admit it to Ava, but he missed the security his dad provided. Yeah, sometimes his father did things, manipulated situations in ways that crossed lines, that Sebastian didn’t always like, either, but at the same time it would never have been his idea to cut his dad out of his life. That was Ava, and he understood her position, he really did, his dad was too much sometimes. But he was still Sebastian’s dad. And it turned out Sebastian missed him, he genuinely missed him as a parent, it wasn’t even really about the money and power.

“Your mother isn’t home from the clinic yet, I was just going to take Walter for a walk but that can wait if-”

“No, I’ll go with you guys. I still can’t get over that you have a dog,” Sebastian said, scrubbing his hand over Walter.

“I’m getting soft in my old age,” his dad answered with a laugh.

Was that true? Was his dad really softening? If he asked for help would his dad do something less conniving, less likely to blow up into a big mess if the truth came out? Did this new softer dad get things done in a cleaner way now?

Episode 1028: Poison