The Billionaire's Sweet Trouble

32

Sweet

I ran to the living room and opened the front door.

"Dad!"

"What the hell's going on here?" His face was a mask of anger, like he was ready to murder someone. And that someone was obviously Sebastian.

"The pickup broke down, and I tried to call you and Mom, but there's no signal here."

"Why is Stavrakos with you, huh? Give me one valid reason, Sweet. I swear..." his lips thinned and his hands balled into fist.

"He was just being nice, to accompany me home after our date yesterday."

"Nice? What the fuck!" Dad let out a frustrated sigh, "are you sure you're still in your right mind? From what I see now, those damn fake dates are starting to get real!"

"Come on, Dad. Don't make a fuss about it," my voice was very soft, almost begging him to calm down. The last thing I wanted was for him to create a bad scenario out of this already ugly situation.

"Why not?" He pointed a finger at me, "you think this is not a big deal? For fuck's sake, Sweet. You spent a night with that bastard!" he hissed, his eyeballs ready to pop out in anger.

"Shh...will you please calm down?" I whispered to him. My face flushed knowing that Sebastian could hear his loud voice in the bedroom, "Nothing happened, okay? I swear, nothing. Stop overreacting and let's talk this over in a calm way."

He seemed to mellow down, as he took a deep breathe, then answered in a calmer way, "okay, tell me what happened."

"We stopped to eat, and when I started the car, I couldn't move the gear, it stuck. We had no choice but to ask shelter in this cottage. We were just thankful that the owner accommodated us, or we spent the night inside the pick-up. It would be too cold and uncomfortable."

He nodded, understanding the situation better.

"I'm just so worried that you were with him. I don't trust him, you know."

"Stop worrying too much," I touched his arm, "I'm a big girl, I can handle him."

I used to be so cold and hostile when the topic was Sebastian. But now that I got to know him, my opinion of him changed. He was not the devil I thought him to be.

"He's not that bad, Dad. In fact, he'd been kind and a gentleman..." I would have added, nice, caring, protective, and fun to be with, that every time we parted on our dates, it got harder and harder for me to leave.

Nah, I wouldn't dare say that. Dad's face twisted in anger already when I mentioned Sebastian's admirable qualities.

"Now, you're changing your tune. You seem to be describing a saint now."

"Come on, no one's perfect, so is he. In our lives, we made mistakes and learned from them," I coaxed him to change his opinion of Sebastian, but I knew it would take some time, "my point is, I'm glad that he accompanied me, or I'd be alone sleeping in the car. Bad things could have happened to me. There's no safe place in this area anymore. Remember that girl in the next town, gone missing?"

"If you were alone, things would have happened differently. You'd be home on time, safe and sound," he said with finality like he predicted what could have happened.

I could understand Mom's frustrations with him sometimes. He would stick to his own opinion and couldn't get swayed to believe the proper thing. Like yesterday, I wouldn't have forced myself to come home and travel on my own late in the evening. He just insisted that I needed to supervise the potato plantation in the morning since Colton was in New York.