024: Coming to Terms

Lara

After work, I find Ander in the living room of our apartment. I'm exhausted, mentally and physically. I try to paste a smile on my face and ask, "Hey, bud. What have you been up to all day?"

He stands up and walks up to me to give me a hug. His arms are loose around me and he's not enthusiastic at all about any of this. I feel so bad. He says, "I've just been playing around."

"Yeah?" I ask. "Weekend is coming up. I'll ask my boss for a few days off so we can go on a trip. I've been making really good money. Should we have a pizza for dinner? What do you think?"

"Sure," is all he says.

The pizza comes and we have his favorite, which is pizza with pepperoni. We're eating directly across from each other. I watch his face for any emotion but he doesn't give anything away. He's eating silently.

I then ask him, "Is something wrong? Something you want to talk about?"

He puts his slice of pizza down on his plate and says, "You never told me much about my dad."

I feel acid burning all th