Page 67 of The Best Bad Decision

“Um, I kind of stopped answering my father’s calls, so that might be part of the issue.” My tone was probably the reason Casimir snickered, but I couldn’t help sounding like a kid who’d just gotten caught making highly questionable decisions. “He just kept badgering me to make my mother happy. It seemed like my only course of action when reasonable kept failing.”

I really should’ve told them no more often in life because it should not have been so confusing when I did it as an adult.

Practice made perfect seemed to apply to everything from kneeling to drawing boundaries.

Eventually Casimir got his sense of humor under control, but it took so long my parents were standing at the end of the driveway before he was back to looking “boring” as he called it. “Alright, baby, what’s the plan?”

“Um.” I’d figure that out eventually. “Go out to the movies? There has to be a superhero one playing. There’s always one of those out.”

That did not help his ability to keep his laughter under control but it did have him reaching over to squeeze my hand. “I think that’s why they’ve parked themselves behind my car.”

Fine.

“They might just not have any self-control.” Like Brandon. “If I attract crazy people, they have something to do with it.”

And his giggles started again.

We were never going to make it out of the car.

“I can do this.” He said that several times before he found where his self-control had wandered off to, but it gave me time for my frustration to simmer down enough to talk to them. “Alright. Any rules regarding this situation?”

“Don’t get arrested?” He was basically in the private side of social work, so he needed a clear record. “I think that’s it.”

I’d tried polite and that just hadn’t worked.

“Sounds reasonable to me.” Giving my hand one more squeeze, he smiled. “Come on. Let’s get this over with so we can have some privacy for the rest of our talk.”

Ugh.

He must’ve seen that on my face because he was still laughing as he got out of the car.

I followed after him, but I wasn’t in any hurry. That seemed to be driving my parents crazy because I could see their emotions dialing higher with every second passing. In the past that would’ve made me uncomfortable enough I’d have tried to fix it right away, but understanding the submissive tendency made it easier to handle.

And having Casimir there with me also gave me a boost of control over the situation.

“Can we help you?” Casimir’s full Dom tone had my blood pressure easing to a more manageable level too.

I really wished it hadn’t taken me this long in life to figure out what I needed to feel sane.

“No.” My mother’s snippy tone and the way she crossed her arms over her chest didn’t make her look like the badass she thought it did. “We’re here for Atlee. It’s time for him to come home until he can make better decisions.”

Huh?

There wasn’t anything rational to say to that, which might’ve been why I just stared at them in utter silence. Casimir never had that problem, though, so he turned to me and frowned. “Does she know you’re an adult? She just can’t take you home and ground you because she doesn’t like your boyfriend.”

Boyfriend.

He said boyfriend…but was that for their benefit or mine?

“At this point I don’t think we’re living in the same reality, so I just don’t know.” Yes, I was rude. No, I didn’t care. “This just isn’t reasonable because they seem to believe I should not only forgive Valerie but live with her forever no matter what she does.”

Where was the logic in that?

Casimir sighed as we both ignored the way they were sputtering. “You are not responsible for other people’s bad decisions or the consequences of them. Like getting pregnant.”

I still didn’t know how that happened.

“How likely is someone to get pregnant when they’re on the pill?” Casimir’s shrug didn’t surprise me. “Remind me to look that up later.”