A pinky swear and a movie

“Stella, you want to take a smoke break?” you ask your daughter.

You, Stella, and Cassie have probably spent about an hour cleaning up the rest of your apartment after you got home from buying the groceries. Since you and the girls are just about finished, and you’ll probably prepare dinner after this, you decided to see if your experiment with the magical Trait you bought from the Affection Multiplier app was working.

“Ew, no.” Stella immediately reacts, and Cassie chimes in right after with, “You’re okay with her smoking?”

“Not that I’m okay with it, but Stella’s an adult now. It’s not like I can magically make her stop, so might as well accept it for what it is.” Real subtle, Jay.

Hey, wait a minute, she didn’t have to sound so disgusted by the idea.

“Reverse psychology, really?” Stella asks with an unimpressed look.

“It’s not reverse-anything, baby. You were right for calling me a hypocrite. I just thought we could talk some more.”

Stella stops sweeping the floor entirely, and just stares at you annoyed. “Dad, I didn’t call you a hypocrite. I asked you not to be one. So if you want to smoke, smoke; if you want to talk, talk. You don’t have to **** yourself to get comfortable with it. I know you’d rather have me stop —” “Yes” Cassie interjects, to which Stella raises her hand towards her direction to tell her not to interrupt her again. “I know you’d rather have me stop, so don’t bother acting like ‘cool dad’ and pretend you’re okay with it, when you’re not”.

You stopped yourself from telling her you’re okay with it just to continue the ruse, you’ll just annoy her further. You know you're not okay with it. She’s on an athletic scholarship for chrissake. More than that, you even hoped magic could influence you and her to kick the habit. It makes you rub the back of your neck, feeling guilty that you tried to make your daughter a guinea pig.

“Look, I started thinking about it while you were out. If you want me to quit, I will.” You look at her shocked. That’s the ‘magic’ talking right?

“But you have to quit too. Deal?” she asks you, raising her pinky in your direction. Right now, it doesn’t matter if this is because of magic or not, you smile and go to your daughter to lock your pinky with hers. “Deal.”

You’re preparing dinner now while the girls take showers. While waiting for the water to boil before you drop the pasta in, you can’t help but think if the trait you bought worked that quickly. Having bought the trait for yourself too, you admittedly haven’t had the itch to smoke since; but a part of you also thinks maybe you just don’t want to, and now with the pinky swear, you also don’t want to break your promise with your daughter. Would Stella ask you to make that deal if you didn’t buy the trait for her? Maybe the ‘non-smoker’ trait wasn't the best way to test this magical app after all.

“That was so good, Mr. Craig. It’s still as delicious as I remember.” Cassie compliments you after dinner.

“Yeah, Dad. Can’t believe you kept ordering take out and pizza when you’re a pretty good cook.” Stella chimes in. You smile in response, but you look at the plates then towards the sink and Stella understands what you mean.

“Ugh. How lazy can you get?” she remarks. “No more of that, okay?” she immediately adds, she places her hand on your forearm that was on the table with a smile of assurance. You place your hand on top of hers and nod.

“Anyway, since ‘lazy-pants’ over here doesn’t like doing dishes, how about you two pick a movie or show we could watch while I do the dishes this time?”

…

The three of you watched a surprisingly enjoyable horror/comedy meets ‘Groundhog Day’. You and the girls had a couple of beers while watching, and Stella placed your arm around her shoulder and rested her head on your chest after finishing her second bottle, and you couldn’t help but think how much you’ve missed her.

“This movie has a sequel, you guys wanna’ check it out?” Cassie asks.

“I’ll say yes to that” you answer, having genuinely enjoyed the movie.

“It’s a no from me. I’m getting kinda’ sleepy actually” Stella replies. “But don’t let me stop you guys from continuing.”

Stella stands up from the couch, and starts to head towards her room. “G’night, baby!”, you shout out to her.

“Behave you two!” she jokingly shouts back. Cassie is clearly blushing from that remark by Stella. You both hear the door to Stella’s room close, and you immediately feel the awkward tension between you and Cassie.