Check, Please (Book #2)

Thirty-Four.

With a final look at the text message that Parker had sent me earlier in the day, I sighed, pocketing my phone as I stepped into the dining room. Dad grunted when he saw me, his arms folded over his chest while he surveyed the dishes Mom had already set out in front of him. My stomach growled when I spotted a dish brimming with macaroni and cheese, and I slid into the chair next to my father, crossing my fingers that he was in a halfway decent mood.

"Hey, Dad," I began, wincing when my arm bumped against the table. The water glasses rattled angrily. Dad turned to study me beneath raised brows. "How's, uh... How's it going?"

"Alright." He pursed his lips and I realized that this was the first time we'd been alone together in a room since the start of winter break. The silence in the room was almost unbearable as we stared at each other without speaking. Eventually, he cleared his throat. "Got your grades yet?"

"Oh," I said, instinctively looking down. "Yeah, I did."

"And?"

For once in my life, I had no reason to be terrified by his question, but that didn't stop my heart from beating rapidly. I swallowed. "I did pretty well."

"What does that mean?"

He sounded skeptical, which was exactly what I'd been expecting. Wordlessly, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a folded sheet. I passed it to him, sliding it along the ivory tablecloth until he reached out and picked it up. I watched him carefully unfold the page, his fist running along the creases in an attempt to smooth them all out. When he was done, he examined the paper with obvious disbelief.

"You got an A-minus in kinesiology?" I was tempted to tell him not to sound so shocked, but even I was stunned by the outcome. Still, it would've been nice to know that my dad had a little faith in me. His eyes bulged so far out that I thought they might fall from their sockets. "And an A in... What is this? Business Negotiation?"

"Yeah, and two B's," I added. Dad shook his head, lifting my grade printout and holding it so close to his face that I thought his nose might get a papercut.

"You didn't doctor this, did you?"

"What? No!" 

Dad let out something that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a bark. "Well, I'm not going to ask you if you cheated," he said, handing the sheet back to me, "but I'll be honest and admit that I wasn't expecting you to bring home a report card looking like that."

"I told you," I replied. "Nothing lower than a B-minus. That was the deal, right?"

"Yep, that was the deal," he said, stroking his chin. "Remind me, who am I supposed to make the check out to for your fraternity dues?"

"Kappa Omicron. But you can pay online now, you know."

"I'll stick with sending a check, if you don't mind."

I folded the paper again, though I left it on the table next to my plate. Mom would probably want to see my grades, too. "Thanks," I said, but Dad simply shrugged.

"Deal's a deal. Plus, it looks like you earned it."

"I tried."

When he didn't respond, we lapsed back into an awkward silence. He wasn't like Mom, so I doubted that he could sense that there was something big on my mind. I glanced towards the kitchen; maybe I should've gone to Mom first. My pocket buzzed as an alert came in but I didn't dare reach for my phone. Not at the table, and definitely not in front of my dad. I watched him take a sip of water and decided that now was as good of a time as any.

"Dad?"

He responded with a muffled noise.

"So, you know how Parker's dating that actress? Sophie Winters?"