2:12

Gareth stood up and stretched his shoulders back and down, and tried to work out as much of the tension out as he could. For as long as he could remember his father had been able to wind him up faster than his coffee could cool. When he was younger he had sipped a lot of cocoa at family ’chats’ and he’d early on noticed that he would be out of sorts long before the caffeine had a chance to hit his system. Things were certainly no different now.

He gazed over at Rowan, who was presently occupied with her iPhone, and turned back to the still-sitting man who presently occupied the role of father, no matter what Gareth might have wished. “I think we’re done now. There’s no point getting off track and regurgitating all this old shit. I’d like you to consider what we’ve said and what you think you can bring yourself to do about it, but that’s as far as I want to take things right now. OK?”

One thing about his father, he didn’t do gray. Gareth would get either another earful or nothing would happen — highly unlikely to get any bullshit stringing him along.

His father glanced down at his empty cup for a moment and then looked Gareth in the eye. “But we’re not done…,” he started

“No. We’re not done. Yet.”

“Fine.” A nod and he shifted his focus back to his cup. “Fine,” he repeated.

“Then I’m going now.” Gareth turned toward the counter, tried to catch Rowan’s eye and headed for the door. He would wait outside if he had to; she would notice soon enough.

Outside Gareth turned his face upward, spread his arms and inhaled. As he slowly let the air out he worked to put a smile on his face but attained mixed results at best. Ironically enough, his failure to force a smile brought the hint of real humor to his lips and by the time he sensed Rowan coming up behind him he had managed to erase most of the negative tension from his face.

Rowan, not totally unfamiliar with the stress of dealing with crap, noticed the receding but not quite eliminated tension and opted for, “So, about that beaver you wanted to show me…”