Tucker: Hot dog is probably not the best analogy.

Mina: The soda then?

Tucker: You have to suck a soda through a straw, so no.

I chuckled at the fact that he was turning everything into innuendo instead of allowing me to just basically bash myself. At least he would be worth a laugh now and then.

Mina: Okay then, I’ll just be the napkin cleaning up everyone else’s messes and then tossed aside when I’m no longer useful. Actually, that’s pretty accurate.

Tucker: Mina!?

Mina: You have shit to do. Leave me alone now before I change my mind again.

A few hours later, my father knocked on my door. There was no avoiding him today though. He used whatever master key he had for the house and unlocked it too, after making sure to announce that he was coming in. It was fine though. I’d been sort of expecting this visit, so I was cleaned up, face full of makeup to hide the fact that I’d been crying so much, and my fake smile was lodged firmly in place on my face.

“Mina, honey,” he held up a smallish stack of papers in front of him. “Bart just sent these and asked me to go over them with you. He said everything looked good as far as he was concerned and if you want anything changed to let him know first, and he’ll fix them before you sign.”

“Okay,” I managed to get out without sounding weird. I stood from where I’d been sitting at my desk and pretending to type. I held out my hand to take the papers, but my dad pulled them back towards his chest, almost as if he were guarding them.

“I thought you didn’t want to go through with this?”

I shrugged my shoulders and sat back down. “I decided that it wouldn’t be the end of the world and this way, you get to see your company go on to great things.”

“Mina, I was wrong to ask this of you,” he sat on the edge of my bed, which was the closest place he could get to where I now stood by my desk chair.

“It’s fine,” I promised.

“No, I don’t think it is.” He shook his head. “I was so busy pushing for this merger, and the wedding to happen, that I never bothered to look into the man I was tying you to. You were right to check up on him, and those photos you had to look through. Mina, I don’t want this for you. You’re my baby girl. I would never forgive myself if you were trapped in an unhappy marriage just to make sure my life’s work didn’t get sold off for scraps.”

“Daddy,” I said, reverting to a name I hadn’t used for my father in probably ten years. “I love you. This isn’t just about your business. It’s about me too. It will give me a chance to establish my own career without having to be a burden on you and Mom or having to work a day job.”