He nodded his head, "yeah! I first heard him on this song and I started listening to him through there. When did you start listening to him?"
"When Apricot Princess came out...which was 2017." I smiled, "I fell in love with that man as soon as I heard the first chord."
He chuckled, "I haven't listened to it, yet. You wanna put that on?" He asked. Quickly, I grabbed my phone and changed the album to Apricot Princess. The first thing that played was Apricot Princess which I sang every word to while cranking the volume up.
We stopped at a red light when it hit the chorus. I sang loudly while Ethan filmed me. The flash was on me while I sang. "I said, I wanna know! Know, know, know, know! Said that I need to show! Wanna show her the world!" He posted it on his public Snap story, of course, before the light flicked to green.
🏒🥅
We pulled into our parking spot, I spotted my dad's truck closer to the restaurant. "Alright, he's in there waiting for us." I could see the distress on Ethan's face as he shut the car off. "Take a couple deep breaths. I promise he won't kill you, but he may leave you in critical condition."
"Ha," he chuckled dryly. He fixed his hair in the rearview mirror. "I look decent right?"
I placed a hand on his shoulder, "you look cute." I said with a smile.
A smile grew on his face before he nodded his head once. "Rule 2."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." I say while rolling my eyes. I got out of the car and he got out shortly after me. I grabbed his hand and we made our way into the restaurant. Ethan let go of my hand and held the door open for me. "What a gentleman," I smirked as I walked in. As soon as I entered the restaurant doors, I saw my dad sitting on the bench waiting. "Dad!" I smiled wide, running over to give him a hug.
He got up, a smile on his face. "Hi, Sweet pea." He hugged me tightly, the last time I saw him it was Thanksgiving. He let go of me and turned to Ethan. "Ethan," he held out his hand to shake.
"Mr. Finch, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Ethan smiled as he shook my dad's hand. "Please, don't put me in the hospital, I'd love to continue dating your daughter."
A smile slipped on my dad's face. "We'll see if I need to tonight." This was a good sign. The waitress walked up to us and told us to follow her. She walked us to our table, Ethan and I sitting across my dad.
I ordered an Unsweetened Tea with a lemon, Ethan ordered a Coke, and my dad ordered a BlueMoon. I could feel the tension between the two like a thick cloud hung over the table. "Dad? Do you remember when I told you Ethan plays hockey?" I placed my hand over Ethan's on the table.
"Yes," he said, now looking over at Ethan. "How old are you?"
"20, sir." Ethan intertwined our fingers while looking over at me. "I'm a defenseman." He ran his fingers through his hair.
My dad nodded his head, "how many penalties have you had?"
"A few, sir. I've only gotten ejected once though," he stuttered a bit. My dad's eyebrows crinkled which led Ethan to follow it up by, "it was a clean hit and I accidentally broke the guy's nose. It was a bad call."
The lady came back with our drinks and asked us what we wanted to eat. I looked at my menu briefly, Ethan completely disregarded his own and hovered over my shoulder. "I'll have a Kale and Romaine Caesar," I ordered, handing the menu off to Ethan. He ordered himself fontina vodka penne and my dad ordered an 8 oz filet mignon.
When the lady left, my dad took a sip of his beer before asking the hard hitting question. "What do you like about my daughter, Ethan?"
He looked at me, his mouth open to speak while a nervous smile formed on his face. "Everything. She's smart. She's talented with the guitar. She's very supportive and comes to my games. She's also very beautiful." He looked me in my eyes as he said every word. My mind grew cloudy and my heart began to race. He then looked back at my dad before adding, "she does have an interesting taste in teas though. We went to Panera the other day with Brooklyn and her boyfriend, who's my best friend, and she got a blood orange tea."
I scoffed at him, slapping him lightly on the arm. "I could never understand why she liked that tea. It's too bitter," my dad wrinkled his nose while shaking his head. "But it's what her mother liked." He took another sip of beer.
"That's what I told her," he smiled. At least they were smiling and laughing together, that's always a good sign.
Dinner flew by pretty fast and soon enough the waitress came back asking about our check. "Can we get two bills, please? One for him and one for her and I?" Ethan asked. He was seriously getting some brownie points from my dad, even without a home cooked meal.
My dad smiled, "I've made up my decision." He placed down his now empty cup and leaned back in his seat. "Esme," he said, "I'll let you go to Canada with Ethan."
"Really?!" My eyes lit up, "you will?!" He nodded his head, my attention immediately turned to Ethan in excitement as I beamed. "Thank you so much, dad!"
"Maybe during spring break you should take him down to our place so he and I can talk about him playing for the Devils soon!" He joked.
Ethan laughed, "I'd love to, Mr. Finch!" Shortly after, Ethan paid for our meal and my dad paid for his own. I gave my dad a big hug before we left. I couldn't count how many times I thanked him about letting me go to Canada to finish out Ethan and I's plan. We walked outside of the restaurant before parting ways with my dad and made our way to Ethan's car. "I really like your dad, he's nice."
I nodded my head, "I'm glad you like him. You sold it with what you liked about me." I smiled while hopping into the passenger's seat.
"It's true," he said with a smirk as he started the car.
I faced him, a smirk on my own face. "Rule 2," I slyly said.
He rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah."
🏒| MR. FINCH
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