Free Picture Perfect by Ella Fox Page B

have beautiful children. Pop agreed.
    Me: Whoa dad. Slow your roll. I can’t even get her to hold my hand in public.
    Dad: You and I both know you wouldn’t have introduced her if you didn’t know this could be big.
    Me: True but it’s not me I’m worried about.  It’s Tess.  She’s not into me pushing too fast.
    Dad: I swear I love this girl already.  You’ve had it too easy your whole life where girls are concerned.
    Me: Hey! Mary didn’t make it easy on me.
    Dad: Mary didn’t count as a relationship, and if you think she did… then you’re an idiot.
    Me: Ouch dad.  Ouch.
    Dad: Fighting every day and breaking up every four seconds does not a relationship make.
    Me: I know, dad.  I’m just kidding.  You’re right.  I don’t know anything about having a relationship.
    Dad: Son, you learned at the knee of the master.  You’ve got it in you.  Now you just need to access it.
    Me: J eez dad.  Inflated ego much?
    Dad: I worshipped your mother. Still do.  That had to have rubbed off on you.  But I was talking about POP, smartass. 
    Me: I learned from you both, dad.  I remember how you were with mom.
    Dad: That means a lot Flynn. I’ve go t to get changed before I pick Pop and Gram up.  If I’m not there on time Gram will tweet about it.
    Me: She scares me with that T witter account.  Last week she put up a pic of me naked in the bathtub when I was a baby.  #myprecious   I swear to god I choked when I saw it.  All the gossip sites copied the pic too.
    Dad: Of course they did.  Gram’s got a million followers. She takes her legion of fans seriously.
    Me: I swear to god its Gram that’s the real performer in the family. She’s a nut.
    Dad: That she is!   But she’s the nut that you insisted on giving a computer and an iPhone to, genius. 
    Me: I just wanted to be able to talk to her all the time! Who knew she’d get into trouble?
    Dad: It’s Gram.  Of course she was going to get into trouble!
    Me: Now that you say it that way, I see what you mean.  Ha! See you at dinner. I love you dad.
    Dad: Love you too , son.
    I spent some serious time getting ready and choosing my outfit.  I’m a guy and I know that’s embarrassing, but I wanted to smell and look good for her.  Yeah, it was that bad.  I’ve never given a shit about looking good for anyone.  We’ve got a stylist that takes care of our tour wardrobe, but in real life I really don’t give a shit.  I’ve sure as hell never taken a shower, flossed, brushed my teeth, used mouthwash, shaved, dried my hair and then put on cologne to go on a date.  Or, a non-date I guess, since it was a family dinner.  In any case, I did it for Tessa and I hoped it would work for her.
    My drive to her hotel seemed to take entirely too long.  I missed her.  I can’t even explain why, but I did.  I’d never been excited about seeing a girl.  Even with my high school girlfriend, we’d been more of a thing because of proximity.  Our ‘relationship’ had been one big piece of bullshit drama after another.  We argued at parties, broke up every few weeks, cheated on each other and in two years never managed to have an in-depth conversation about anything .  We were young and dumb, and our relationship reflected that. As my non-rock band friends have gotten into relationships I’ve always found myself being jealous, wondering what it would feel like to be so enamored of somebody.  Now, I knew.
    When I stepped out of my car, I had some extra spring in my step.  My heartbeat sped up when I saw Tessa sitting in the lobby waiting.  She smiled when she saw me, but I’m pretty sure that I stared at her like a total idiot as she walked towar d me.  She had on a pair of khaki shorts, a black tank top and a pair of black converse sneakers.  You’d think that casual attire would have made her beauty easier to handle, but it didn’t because she looked amazing.  I’d never have guessed that a pair of converse sneakers would look so damn sexy