My best friend’s daughter…

James woke up as he would on any other day, alone in his bed, in a decent if not luxurious apartment.

He had a good paying union job, working in security for a defense contractor. He had a security clearance, was licensed to carry a firearm, but his role wasn’t that of a security guard. He helped to maintain the physical security of a facility that was working on a new sixth generation fighter jet.

He wrote policies and procedures, he ran blue team / red team simulations, and he hired contractors to attempt to breach security.

It was a well paying full time job, and one that had limited his dating life and which had ended his marriage years before. Money wasn’t ever a problem, he just didn’t see a reason to buy a house, he didn’t have roots, he might have to move for work, there wasn’t a need to waste money on a house.

He was also still in the Army reserves, continuing his time in the military from when he just got out of college.

James sometimes dated, but he tended to work fifty hours a week at the facility, had a lengthy commute and would work from home many hours above that. Add in hours in the gym ever week, and he just didn’t have the time to date. At least not to be consistent and actually maintain a relationship.

He had sex, that wasn’t a problem. James was six foot three and had an athletic build at over two hundred pounds. He spent a lot of time in the gym and ate right, and he still had his hair, even as it was starting to go a bit grey.

His best friend Jack from high school had made time for a relationship and had married. And Jack’s marriage had been amazing. More than twenty years married to one woman, with an adult daughter named Olivia.

Jack had been a good family man, loving his wife and daughter, making time for them, seeming quite happy.

But Jack had never been lucky, at least never in a good way.

Jack and his wife had struggled their entire marriage. Unwise with credit cards, too much spending on fancy cars and vacations, and then doting on their daughter Olivia in ways they could never afford. Then Jack’s wife was recently killed in a car crash, and James could tell from talking to his friend just how much trouble he was in.

But for all of his bad luck, Jack would never ask for help, he would not even let on he was in trouble. But he was in trouble, James could tell when he spoke to his friend. He could see it when he saw Jack’s daughter Olivia.

She was a year out of high school, 19 years old, but was taking after her father, not really doing anything with her life. James had gathered that she struggled back in high school, and had struggled to keep a job.

Olivia was undeniably beautiful. Five foot ten, with striking exotic features. She had light brown skin, and lovely bluish green eyes, with long brunette hair. She was fit and had obvious curves, but was always lean.

And while he thought she was very pretty, and also far too young for him, James worried she was going to try and just skate by on her looks, and he knew that might not end well for her. Looks fade, she needed direction in her life.

But what business was that of his? Jack and Olivia had recently buried Jack’s wife, now was hardly the time to comment on how she lived her life.

So from just down the street James watched as his best friend’s daughter was out late with friends, and looked to have wrecked her own car. He dug into their life using contacts he had, and found she hadn’t had insurance and was trying to pay for damage to another person’s car, and she was behind.

Olivia was sweet, his hope was that somehow she could get on a good path for her future.

Then one morning Jack knocked on his door, something that hadn’t happened often at all in the morning, even being friends for nearly forty years, and living four doors down. Jack wasn’t a morning person, and never had been. This was different.

Jack had been crying, that was obvious. He was not well kept, hadn’t shaved and looked like he hadn’t slept. He looked terrible.

“James, bud…I’m in big trouble…” Jack started when the door opened, skipping any greeting. “I passed out at work the other week and hit my head, and they made me get some scans at their company doc…”

Jack was breathing too fast, and he was talking even faster, James wanted to try and calm his old friend down.

“Come on in man,” James replied, wanting to calm his friend down a bit. “Whatever it is Jack, we can figure it out, I will help however I can.”

James offered coffee but Jack declined, he offered breakfast but it just agitated his friend.

“For fucks sake James, I don’t care about breakfast right now!” Jack said in a strained voice. “Look man, I have cancer, a lot of cancer…I’m dying, and they can’t do anything so much as slow it down.”

Jack had never been lucky, but how bad could it get? In a rushed conversation James found out that Jack had brain, lung and pancreatic cancer, and all we stage four and were aggressive. He might have two months left, he might die in a week, but he was expected to see his health fail very quickly.

James had no words, what could he say? Jack had lost the love of his life, and now he was going to leave his daughter with nothing. The biggest bum deal James could think of.

“Is there any family Olivia can go to?” James asked, “anyone at all that can look after her? Is there any life insurance?”

Jack explained that his wife’s small policy was spent to bury her and on her medical bills, and he didn’t have insurance. His had lapsed.

As it happened Jack had been let go at work, having cussed out his manager over a trivial matter, such was the stress he was under. When told to calm down he had punched his manager in the face, and had been walked out that day. This had been weeks ago, not long after his wife died.

Since then he had been working as a contractor for cash to try and keep the bills paid. He didn’t have medical or life insurance and neither did Olivia, in truth they had little of anything.

It was at this point Jack played a card that James had always expected to have seen on the table years before, perhaps decades, but never had.

“Do you remember when we were kids man…do you remember when you and I were fooling around, playing with old fireworks, and you burned old man Watson’s house down?” Jack said in a low voice, nervous to ask for something, an act he was deeply uncomfortable with. “Remember you were worried about your parents and how it would look if you had a record? I took the heat on it, even though you were the one that started the fire…”

It had been an accident, but it had been James‘s hands on the fireworks and the lighter, and it had been Jack who had run into the house and helped the old man and his dog out. It was for Jack that James had only burned a house down and not killed a man.

James just listened, he had waited for this for years, and his best friend was in crisis. He wouldn’t say no anyway, he would do anything Jack needed, why the fuck was he bringing up their past? He had promised Jack he would always look out for him after that, and James had tried. But Jack was ****, maybe he felt he needed to include the past.

“Just get to it Jack,” James replied softly, trying to set his old friend at ease. “Whatever it is man, I’m there for you, I always have been. I mean do you need me to put you and your daughter up for a while so you can focus on your health? I don’t have a big place but if you need it you have it…”

“That isn’t what I need, but it is about Olivia,” Jack replied. “She is lost man, I told her last week about my diagnosis, and she is barely talking man, I haven’t seen her smile since her mom died…now it is like she isn’t breathing.”

“I don’t need a place for me to live, I’m done paying the rent, but I will be dead by the time they can evict us,” Jack continued. “I need you to look after Olivia…I need you to promise me you will take care of her when I’m gone…see her through this, somehow.”

James smiled warmly, “Jack…come on man, of course I will keep an eye on her, you have my word.”

Jack drops his head in his hands, “dude…she started drinking with friends, she is gone all the time, she isn’t working and says she is done with school, no college at all. She doesn’t have any future, and in a month or two, hell maybe in a week she will be all alone in this world.”

What he said next nearly caused James to fall out of his chair.

“I don’t need you to look after her man,” Jack said, staring straight into his old friend’s eyes. “She needs a future, a place to live, health insurance, stability…a better life than I could ever give her…I want you to marry Olivia. I want her to live here when I am gone, and I want you to take care of her, better than I could. A happy home, health insurance, not having trouble keeping gas in the car or the creditors away.”

James sighed, that as a big ask. Too big, it wasn’t even possible.

“She is too young for me man, way too young, I have had my job longer than she has been alive,” James replied. “She would not accept me, and even if she did…I can just give her advice, I can help to guide her just fine without…”

Jack raised his voice and interrupted his old friend, “damnit James…how much have I ever asked you for?” He says sharply. “Me taking the heat for you on that house you burned down…that was on my record in my youth, paying for it bankrupted my dad, he died broke as fuck for paying for that for years. I am telling you this is what I need you to do.”

Jack steeled his gaze, he wasn’t taking no for an answer, “I need you to care for her…to love her, and better than you did your ex wife. Olivia is going to need someone, not to be alone all day while you work.” Jack continues intensely. It doesn’t have to be romantic, it can be a transaction, but I need her on your insurance and to have a place to live that is stable…better than I ever provided for her…this time is going to be very hard for her man.”

James sighed, he wasn’t going to change Jack’s mind.

“So I need you to marry her, get her on your insurance, have her live in your apartment, and I’m asking you to cut back and do more remote work. I know you just like all the hours, but my daughter is going to need someone to help get her through this. And for what you owe me James, it is going to be you man…”

“But how Jack?” James asks, “how would we even have that talk with Olivia? How would she even accept me?”

“She already has,” Jack replied. “She has known you her entire life, she calls you uncle James. I suggested this to her, and she said it was ok, that she could trust you…I literally have nobody else man…Olivia has literally nobody else. It has to be you.”

In truth Olivia had accepted it, she knew what was going to happen, she knew she had nowhere to go. And she thought of her dad’s friend like an uncle, she had known him her entire life. She knew he could be trusted.

A thousand questions flowed through James‘s mind all at one. Olivia was beautiful and fun to be around, but she was more than thirty years younger than he was, being 19 years old. What would people think? He had friends who would think poorly of him for it, it might even raise eyebrows at his job.

And she was a bit chaotic from what he had seen. Kind, funny, but unpredictable. Could he handle that sort of chaos in his life? Could James actual help her?

James looked at Jack and stood up, then shook his friend’s hand, “Jack I promise I will take care of her, and when she gets through this I will make sure she is in college, and meets the right guy for her at some point.”

“How in the fuck would we even do this though Jack?” He asked.

“Come by later man, pick Olivia up at five,” Jack said in a strained tone. “I know you work, but I need you to get clear of it. Consider this a way to get to know her, like a first date. I have some people coming over to my apartment around six, so I need you to spend the evening with her.”

“Treat her well, get her to eat something healthy, and try and get her to smile,” Jack continues. “Just be you man, you are the best version of a man I have ever seen, just show her life can be better, and bring her home after ten…I need time to get some things sorted.”

“Who is coming to your house?” James asked sternly. “Do you need some backup?”

“It is nothing like that,” Jack replied in a resigned voice. “They are bringing a hospital bed for my room, and a setup for me to manage my pain level, this thing is going to go south in a hurry, and I don’t want Olivia to have to watch them set me up for end of life care.”

‘Well fuck me running,’ James thought. But he nodded yes, “I will pick her up at five man, don’t worry about it, if she will tolerate me, I will do what you need me to do.”