FRICTION

-Shawn-

"No, you can't stop by the office today," I insisted rather firmly into the phone, having no intentions of arguing with Meghan for much longer. I had already made myself quite clear, so I didn't even know why she was bothering to ask.

My daughter could be awfully stubborn, but even she realized she'd inherited that insufferable trait from me. And there was no way she was going to argue her way into stepping foot here, not even if she threw a tantrum.

"But Daddy..."

"I have work to do, Meg," I replied tiredly, hoping I could coax her into dropping the subject. "Can we talk about this later, preferably at home?"

She scoffed. "Seriously? That defeats the purpose."

"Well, yes."

"How about we talk about it in your office?"

I rolled my eyes. "I instructed Brenda to escort you out if you're spotted within the premises," I confessed, as if our security wasn't known for letting Meghan get away with the most ridiculous of things. I still recalled when Meghan snuck in to cover my office in post-it notes for some online prank and Brenda just let her. Hell, I think she even helped out.

So, I was bluffing, sure, yet it did seem to work.

"Daaaad," she whined in annoyance. "She'd never do that to me."

"Wanna bet?"

It was midday, which was around the time Meghan had lunch time at school. Unsurprisingly, that was also the time that I could expect a call from her if she needed something. Today's request, unfortunately, was one that I simply couldn't fulfill, which was probably an ironic turn of events for her.

Usually, I would've been over the moon about her visiting.

Whenever she decided to bless me so spontaneously with her presence, I usually took an early day and we spent the rest of the day together, out and about. If we didn't go to the mall or ice skating, we'd at least have dinner somewhere nice and then head back home to watch a movie.

In this case, however, I knew damn well I wasn't the reason behind her desired stop.

So, no.

"Yes, seriously," I replied. "If I recall correctly, you're grounded."

Meghan grumbled under her breath, clearly having forgotten about that already. And I just rubbed at my eyes while listening to her complaints, sleepily gazing at my computer screen. She was tiring me out with her persistency, though I still wasn't going to change my mind.

"I hate—"

"—no."

"No?"

"Do you really want to go there?" I asked warily, cutting her off before she could start hurling whatever bratty cliché phrase she could get her hands on. She'd mostly outgrown doing that, though there were always those rare occasions where she forgot herself... as if I wasn't far too sensitive for that kinda shit.

"Remember that your dad's sensitive."

"I—ugh," Meghan retorted, groaning in annoyance. "Fine. Sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"You are being a jerk, though," she muttered out, though there was no real heat behind her words.