Tethered ? Awsten Knight

Part 9

"I was about to head into the offices actually to work on some mixes with Zakk. What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the dance studio soon for a bit and I'll probably go for a walk. Maybe Echo Park for a while."

"I can call you later tonight? I'm going to the grocery store after, I just ran out of time yesterday."

"Sure, you can call me later." I stared and my flowers and rocked on my heels.

"Oh and do you prefer steak or chicken? For the fajitas."

"I like both. I feel like steak is your classic fajita, right?"

"Then steak it is. Okay, I'll call you later today."

Two bouquets in a week.

Josh never got me flowers.

I don't even think he ever cooked for me.

I actually don't remember a time anyone besides Francesca cooked for me when we alternated meals.

"Okay, sounds good. Talk to you later."

"Bye, Tatum."

"Bye, Awsten."

I hung up and looked back at the flowers, then back at my phone.

What I should also really do is call my dad.

I'd been thinking about it since Awsten and I talked about Mom this past weekend.

I hadn't talked to my dad in a while.

So I sat on the edge of my bed and went to his name in my phone and pressed 'Call.'

My heart was racing for other reasons this time.

"Hi Tatum."

"Hi Dad..." I trailed off, staring at the picture of my family on my bedside table. "How are you?"

"Doing alright, you?"

"Hanging in there..." I trailed off a little. "Been missing Mom a lot lately."

"Me too. I miss her every day."

I laid back on my bed and stared at my ceiling.

"Me too," I sighed and thought of what to say next. "I'm...uh...seeing someone."

"Oh yeah? What's um...their name?"

"Awsten. It's a 'he' Dad."

"What does he do? How'd you meet him?"

"He's a musician. And I kinda met him through Francesca."

"Tatum..." He sighed. I could picture it in my head. "Again?"

"Dad...He's great." I sat up a little. "He's not Josh. He's gotten me flowers already twice within the past week - he had them sent to my apartment today. I really like him. He's even sober."

"Really? Is that because he's-"

"No," I said quickly. "Never in his life. Anything...and he's been really good to me."