55

Joel looks like he wants to keep talking, but he sizes up Sebastian, who’s a good four inches taller and has twenty pounds of muscle on Joel. Add the tattoos, and Sebastian is rather intimidating to a punk like my son.

Joel rolls his eyes. “Whatever. But Dad, you can’t fire me.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing, though,” I say. “I gave you every chance to respect this young woman.”

“You only care about that because you want to fuck her,” he says.

Sebastian leans forward. “I’m fucking telling you, you better watch your fucking mouth.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Joel looks past Sebastian to me. “You’ll change your mind, Pops.”

“Doubtful,” I say. “But maybe when you change your ways.”

Then he points at Ella. “And you’ll change your mind, too.”

“I’m already changing it,” she says.

Sebastian and I stare at her. I couldn’t have heard her right. Even Joel looks surprised.

But Ella holds out her arms and says to Joel, “How about a hug goodbye?”

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. She steps forward and…hugs