Roman Roommate

16 - Surprising Skills

"You're not seeing him, right?"

"Right. You need to stop worrying. I'm not a teenager anymore. I can handle it."

"I know you can," my dad said shoving his hands in his pockets as we walked down the streets of New York. I had my gym bag slung over my shoulder as my dad walked me to work. He claimed that he wanted to 'chat with Carmen' which wasn't too suspicious but I knew his actual motive.

"Do you know much about Roman mythology?" I asked.

My dad's expression turned to a thoughtful one. "I barely knew anything about Greek mythology until I met Peyton."

"Everyone knows that story," I reminded him in a bored tone.

"Just wait until it happens to you."

"No," I said quickly. "No, no, no, no!"

Dad shrugged picking up his pace slightly. "I'm just saying that it doesn't hurt to learn on the job."

"Are you calling Mom a job? You were kind of her job actually."

"I wasn't calling her a job. She has always been a pleasant to work with."

We both exchanged knowing glances before bursting out in laughter.

"Moving away from the subject of Mom as much as I love her, but what do you have to speak to Carmen about?"

"Nothing much," my dad said casually. "I haven't seen her in a long time and I figured we could take a few minutes to catch up."

I nodded seeing nothing too out of the ordinary.

"Are you sure you're able to work today? Is your leg feeling better?"

I paused in my path to the studio to stretch out my legs and test them. I wasn't prepared to do the splits quite yet but I could do the basic stuff which was enough for the Saturday's salsa class.

"You realize that you are taking the chance of her not being home, right?"

My dad nodded. "I'm aware but she said she was going to try and meet me at the studio."

"Yeah she's staying the night there again. I guess her house doesn't have electricity or water yet."

"That provides a problem," my dad answered sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes as the dance studio came into view on our side of the road. My dad picked up his pace slightly which wouldn't have been very noticeable to many people. Yet this caused me to pick up my pace just only slightly more. This began a silent race between my father and me to the studio. It wasn't long before we were both speeding towards our destination in full out sprints.

We arrived both out of breath but I was happy to claim that I was the one who made it there first. This was something my dad often did with us kids to keep us entertained and to get our energy out.

"Seems that you're getting slow old man."

My dad childishly stuck his tongue out at me as if that proved his dominance. "I let you win obviously."

I paused to catch my breath before smartly replying, "Obviously."

I raced up the stairs and entered into the wooden mirrored room of the studio. Carmen and Elijah were already there conversing on some topic. They both looked our way as we entered and I could tell something was up.

"Hello Nathaniel," Carmen greeted cheerfully.

"Charmeine."

"It's been such a long time," she continued leaving Elijah to come and chat with my dad. I walked over to Elijah smiling but sadly he didn't smile back. He didn't look very good at all. It seemed as if he hadn't slept last night and he had a thin layer of sweat on his face. He motioned over to my father and asked who that was.