Perfect Dad

Father & Son

Juan Pablo Muñoz impatiently glanced at the watch on his wrist, listening intently to the patter of slippered feet in his son's bedroom.

"Julian," he called out, his low baritone making the picture frames hanging on the walls vibrate. "Today, this minute would be great to come out of there, you know."

"Wait, Paps, I'm just putting on my shoes."

He rolled his eyes. He'd heard that before. Several times, in fact. As in, every. Single. Day. During the school year.

"Why don't we get you loafers next time so you don't take this much time lacing them up?"

"Ugh, Paps." He heard Julian groan before the door finally opened. "I have a better idea. Why don't you just let me go to school on my own so you don't need to wait for me and we won't have this conversation every day?"

Yeah, their morning dialogue had been on repeat since Julian became a teenager almost six years ago now.

"Fat chance." He draped an arm around his shoulder with slightly more effort than he was used to.

Damn. When did it become difficult for him to do that? He was almost six feet tall and putting his arm around anyone's shoulder had always been easy. Although Juan had seen and felt the gradual rise in his son's height, for some reason, it had become more apparent at that moment.

"I have another idea, a better idea," Julian looked up at him.

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for the younger Muñoz to explain.

"We need to get you a girlfriend."

"What on earth, Julian?" He almost choked on his own spit.

Where did that come from?

The imp just guffawed. And snorted. "You should see your face, Paps!"

His hand almost flew to give the smartypants a headslap.

"You're going to be late. Let's go," he said instead in his best strict dad tone.

Julian did not flinch, however, and blabbed all the way to the car. He talked about how his papa had been single for far too long and that maybe, just maybe, Paps would leave "the poor kid" alone if there was someone else occupying his thoughts.

Girlfriend? Not that he didn't want one. Sometimes, he did feel he missed having a romantic partner. He missed the intimacy. Before Julian came into his life, he'd had a girlfriend and they had planned to get married someday. But he promised his parents he would take care of his orphaned nephew which was how, fresh from university, he found himself a single father.

So yeah, he'd gone out on dates every now and then. But his priority had always been Julian. He could not start thinking of settling down and putting his personal needs first unless he was sure Julian had everything he could ever need to succeed.

Juan's head had started to hurt from the nonstop chatter and struggling to keep his attention on negotiating the road that was slowly filling up with cars. He breathed a sigh of relief and thanked high heaven when they finally reached Reeves International School.

"I'll pick you up later," he told Julian.

The young man groaned exaggeratedly "Ugh, Paps, you really need a life. Preferably with a woman in it."

"Get outta here." He managed to blurt out before he could burst out laughing. Then Julian was out the door, his guffaws echoing in the small confines of the car.

Teenagers, he shook his head, putting the car in gear and maneuvering out onto the street.

Girlfriend. The word kept swimming in his head like a last-song-syndrome that wouldn't go away.

This wasn't the first time his son had brought up a wild idea. More often than not, the ideas had involved things that were quite easy to make decisions on: pets (Juan didn't have anything against snakes, or any other reptile, but the building admin might), games (no, they were not going to sensurround the apartment so his PS4 games could sound better), or their next choice for a trip (he was adventurous, a daredevil even, but Banzai skydiving wasn't what he would call fun).

A girlfriend. Really?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he turned off the ignition. Better focus on work now. It would be more than embarrassing if he ended up spewing nonsense while delivering the news, or his ad libs in between songs. Nope. That definitely would not do for DWKX-Manila's most listened-to DJ.