Mike and Sarah Pt. 03

Dad sputtered, "Sarah this is all on me, I get an allowance when I travel and the only way I get close to using it is on dinners like this. My bosses know I meet him here, it's much cheaper than when they used to have to pay for his flights because he was technically my dependent. Did you call me Dad?"

"Yes I did William, I may be a little drunk but I'm trying it out. I don't know if Mike and I will last forever but that is my plan, I plan to choose him every day and if it works, you'll be my father-in-law. So I may not always use it but get used to it."

Dad laughed, "Choose him every day huh? I think Mike has told you about my parents."

"Yeah he did and I loved it," Sarah laughed back.

Back at the hotel, our conversation is far less serious, and Dad is telling her stories from my misspent youth. Her favourite is when I was 16 and the men's football team I was on got me drunk.

"Wait Mike was underage and you let him go on a team dinner knowing that they planned to get Mike drunk?" Sarah asked surprised.

"I wasn't pleased at the idea but I knew most of them and I knew they would never let him get into any real trouble. He was 16 playing with grown men and getting the shit kicked out of him weekly basis but he never complained. He never asked for special treatment because he was a kid and from what the guys I knew told me took his beatings like a champ. At least in those days, after shot-stopping, goalkeepers were judged on their bravery and ability to take punishment, if he was going to play with the men and take a beating like a man then he deserved to be treated like the rest of them. Plus at that point, we weren't close enough for me to stop him."

Finishing his drink Dad excused himself, "Sarah, meeting you has been one of my favourite evenings in years. I'll see you tomorrow. Mike, look after her. Let's meet at the Argyll Arms on Oxford Circus around 1." Dad then waved the bartender over, "Here's my room number, my son or daughter-in-law can sign the final tab to my room or theirs I'm paying. Look after them"

"Nice to meet you too Dad, I don't know where the Argyll Arms is," Sarah pouted.

"Don't worry Daughter, Mike does, we've been there are few times. See you tomorrow."

As Dad walked away, Sarah waved the bartender over and ordered us another round after we received our drinks, she spoke, "Mike I may be a little, okay, a lot drunk, but I want to say this tonight. I didn't want to like your Dad but I do. I can see so much of you in him, or the other way around, you know what I mean. He looks like you, he drinks like you, he cares like you, he's generous like you, shit, his mannerisms and facial triggers are yours. I can't bring myself to dislike him."

"Babe, I don't want you to hate him, I don't, I love him. We just have a complicated past which makes us having a proper father-son bond difficult but I told you he's a great drinking buddy."

"That he certainly is," she scanned the room to make sure we were alone before she continued, "So here's the plan, we're going to get a cocktail, then you're going to take me to bed and work on making me scream. I'm already good to go but I don't want to embarrass myself when your dad is paying our bill so if my knickers end up in my mouth to make me keep quiet that's my fault."

Feeling my cock rising I didn't respond I waved the bartender over and asked for a caipirinha for me and a margarita for her plus the bill.

"That's a really good idea, but I have a better one. You clearly aren't that desperate to make you scream since you want another drink, so I'm going to give you 2 minutes to go the loo and remove your knickers and return them to me if they're as wet as you say, the drinks can come up with us to the room. If they're not we have another drink and you sit at the bar with your bare pussy in the breeze."

Sarah gave me an excited look and rushed off to the loo. When she came back subtly slipped her knickers into my hand. I discreetly examined them to find that while they were damp on the outside the inner gusset was almost dry. Confused I pulled her into an intimate hug a discretely slipped my hand under her skirt. Her labia was fully swollen and stimulated but she was dry. Confused I gave her a look and she just smiled sweetly. Quietly we finished our cocktails and ordered another round.

A few minutes later she gave me a cheeky grin, "Have you worked it out yet Baby?

I shook my head.

"Well, your idea of me sitting here commando was so hot I cheated. Even though I only had a couple of minutes, I made sure to wipe my pussy and gusset dry. I even held my knickers up to the hand dryer with my extra 30 seconds." She whispered nibbling my ear lobe.

It was funny to watch her argue with the bartender about the bill. I'm pretty sure at this point he should have cut us off, but we were the last ones in the bar, and serving us plus tips meant more money for him. Eventually, she backed down when I reminded her that her new 'Dad' was paying and it was all fine - she may have ordered another drink for the room at that.

She gave me another deep look and went back to the bathroom, when she returned her face was freshly washed and she didn't look as drunk. I could tell she wanted to speak again so I let her.

"Mike, do you remember last week at our double date when Mandy made that joke about extra rewards for taking us out?" I nodded and she continued "I never want our relationship to be transactional. I love you, but more than that I believe that our intimacy is a big part of what makes us who were are. Obviously it's not the whole, a relationship based on sex isn't a relationship, but if we get to the point where our sex life is transactional it's time to break up."

"Baby girl you know if I ever mentioned a scenario in which we could break up you would hit me?"

"Mike we aren't going to break up, actual emotions are my part of the relationship. Come on drink up and take me to bed, I want to walk a little around London before we meet your Dad."

"Aww, so no fun hotel time then."

"Why do you think you're taking me to bed? You can be the provider of my first-ever hotel orgasm."

In bed, despite the drinks and late hour, we managed to find the energy for a short fun romp and I did provide her first hotel orgasm.

The next day Sarah was surprisingly perky while I was cursing myself for agreeing to additional cocktails. Taking note of my hangover she managed to hold back her excitement until after we'd had our first coffee, she even made a point of making me a plate at the breakfast buffet. Once she was satisfied I had woken up, she explained her plans for the day.

"Babe, I've looked at the map, if we leave in the next half hour, we can walk to St Paul's Cathedral from here and then the Millenium Bridge where we'll be able to see London Bridge and the Tower, on the south side of the river we can see Shakespeare's Globe, the Tate Modern and walk the southern embankment to Westminster Bridge. Then we can walk past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament before walking past Westminster Abbey and going up to the Palace, from there we either walk down the Mall to Trafalgar Square and make our way up to Oxford Circus from there or we can go via Green Park. Either way, we have to go through Piccadilly Circus, I don't care about seeing that though I want to see the shops on Regent's Street, and that should lead us to the Pub your Dad mentioned." She said excitedly.

"You know most people would only try to see 2 or 3 of those in a day not all in one morning?" I told her.

"I know, but we aren't going to explore those places like tourists would, I just want to take pictures of them and maybe a few pictures of us, so we can easily walk around all of them," She said her excitement not wavering.

It turned out to be a great morning and Sarah just glowed in happiness as we walked around London hand in hand. I couldn't remember being tagged in as many pictures on either Instagram or Facebook since I was a Uni student.

We managed to get to the pub 20 minutes early and unsurprisingly Dad was waiting for us. Sarah went straight over to him while I sorted out our drinks. As I joined them a few minutes later, I found them laughing as Sarah took Dad through all the pictures we had taken that morning.

"You know Sarah, you are good for Mike. He normally avoids having his photo taken," Dad teased me.

Sarah looked confused, "William, he has never refused to take a picture with me."

"That's what I mean dear. He just does it for you to make you happy. I know he does it for Amy, and Karen doesn't let him refuse at family gatherings. At home, he only agrees to be in pictures that are just him and my daughter Maggie."

Sarah gave him a big smile "I'll work on him about that, but I won't push his boundaries."

I wanted to put a stop to the conversation, "Let's get some lunch so Sarah can go shopping."

Dad looked at Sarah surprised "You've done all that walking this morning and now you want to go shopping, aren't you worn out?"

Sarah looked sheepish, "Mike says I can use his card to fund my shopping spree so all I need is some food and I'll have all the energy I need."

We'd just finished eating when I raised the next point, "Dad what's the plan for Dinner with Edward and Karen? Sarah has the habit of wanting to dress up for the occasion."

Sarah gave me an appreciative smile before returning her attention to Dad.

Dad noticed the shared look before answering, "We're meeting them at the Cork and Bottle on Leicester Square at around 6.15, Karen has booked us a table at one of the nicer restaurants in Chinatown. Sarah, I hope you don't mind Chinese food."

"I love Chinese food, Mike took me for a Chinese on our first date. What's the Cork and Bottle?"

"It's a slightly upmarket wine bar about 15 minutes from the hotel and a short walk from Chinatown," I replied knowing that if I didn't mention that it was upmarket, she'd be upset with me later.

Sarah gave me a devious grin, "Now I'm really happy Mike said I could shop on his card, I'll get going."

Taking my card from me she gave me a quick kiss goodbye and gave Dad a gentle wave, "See you later boys, I'll try to make it back to the hotel by 5."

Without Sarah to keep the conversation going tension slowly built between us. Using the silence as an opportunity Dad went to the bar to refill our drinks. I was determined to not start the conversation, as this was his show and the private time he had requested.

"Mike before I say anything else, I'm glad you've found Sarah. She makes you happy. I know it's been a long time since I've had the right to say anything about your decisions and you've thrived on your own but as your father, I still want to see you happy and make good choices."

I gave him a dark look, "Dad thanks but I don't need your approval or your wishes for my happiness, you've made it clear it wasn't a priority for you before."

"I deserve that, and more. But I still wanted to say it. The reason I wanted this conversation with you is because I want us to build a real relationship. I know you still care, because you still turn up when I ask, and you even come home when I ask. So there must be a part of you that wants a relationship," He replied showing a surprising amount of emotion.

"Why now? You've had 11 years to try and fix us, what if I'm happy with what we have now?" I replied still defensive.

Dad hesitated, watching him interlink his fingers and push out his bottom lip was like looking in a mirror. I did the same thing when I was struggling with what to say. I gave him a minute, and finally, with resolve in his eyes, he looked back at me. "Mike I have Cancer, Prostate Cancer. It's still early but I'm in treatment. It's early enough that it's just hormone therapy which is why I can still drink even if not the same as before, but if that doesn't work, we'll move to radiotherapy and finally chemo. That's at least 2 years away according to my treatment schedule depending on my progress."

"Dad, I'm so sorry, how long have you known?"

"It's been about 5 months. My annual checkup turned up an adverse finding and here we are."

"So you've had 5 months to tell me, you're still excluding me from your life, but you want to rebuild a relationship."

"I couldn't tell you via email. I didn't tell you on my last trip because I was still coming to terms with it but I'm ready now."

"So apart from Marie who else knows?"

"Edward and Karen because I wanted to see if Karen could get some advice from some of her old colleagues from her nursing days. Tom, John and Phillip know too."

"So your friends deserved to know before me. You want to rebuild us, but you're still prioritising other people over me. I learned to deal with Marie being more important to you than me when I was 16, I can accept you're a far better parent to Maggie than you ever were for me because she's 9 and represents your second chance. Given the circumstances, I can even accept you telling Edward and Karen. But until you learn to make me more than a box to check off your list we're never going to rebuild. Maybe what we have now works because we don't expect more than this, I don't give you a chance to let me down any more and you don't feel the need to try and be a real father," I told him my emotions getting the better of me.

"Mike you have a right to your anger, and maybe that's why it's taken so long for me to tell you. I will never be able to make it up to you for how I treated you when you were younger. I will never be able to repay the debt I owe you for keeping my mum and brother out of it when I asked you to because we both know they'd have abandoned me for you even though I was abandoning you emotionally if not physically. You're a better man than me, you've kept the door open even when you had the right to close it. I know part of it was because you wanted to keep your connection to Botswana and you couldn't afford it alone when you were younger. Mike, despite the doctors telling me I will beat this, and I intend to, the possibility still exists that none of the treatments will work and in a few years, I'll be gone. I have a lot of regrets to take to the grave, the only one I can try and fix is my relationship with you. I'm not going to ask you to be any more civil with Marie than you have been, I've got no worries about Maggie because you've always loved her. I just want to fix us," Dad replied keeping his tone measured.

"Dad, I'm not even sure you know how to do what you're asking. What happens the first time you promise me something and Marie disagrees or wants something else? You haven't chosen me over her in 15 years and I can't see you breaking that habit. She's been your priority all this time I can't imagine she's keen on sharing her spotlight," I retorted icily.

"Marie accepts the situation has changed and I need this," he replied with a plea in his voice.

"You really did marry a selfish bitch you know that? Only once the possibility of you dying is on the table is she prepared to share you with your son. She was meant to marry all of you including me, but all she did was work to cut me out. Think about that," I said not hiding the disdain in my voice.

Dad raised his eyes to challenge my description of his wife but on meeting my gaze he shrunk back and his shoulders slumped.

Feeling sympathy for him I decided to switch to a much kinder tone, "Dad I'm not saying no, I'd like to try for both of our sakes, I'm just giving you a taste of what you're up against. I'll put as much effort into it as you do but the second I feel your effort drop or you get complacent and slip into old habits, I'm going to withdraw and accept it as just another broken promise, it'll be on you to try and get me back."

Dad gave me a deep look and I could see in his eyes that he had accepted my offer, unable to speak he gave me a nod and excused himself to the bathroom. While he was gone I arranged another round and wondered whether or not I had made a mistake.

Coming out of the bathroom Dad initially moved towards the bar but looking over at me he realised I'd already sorted it.

"Mike thank you. I'll try my best, I can't promise I won't let you down, I'm human, mistakes will happen, and I can't just drop all my obligations to my wife and daughter for you, but I will try to make it clear to everyone that you are a priority in my life."

I nodded back at him in agreement before letting him continue.

"Now that's out of the way. Mike, Sarah seems set on the idea of marrying you or at least being with you for a very long time, are you sure you feel the same?"

Instinctively I gave him a look to stay away, but quickly softened remembering our new agreement, "Yeah I do, if I didn't she wouldn't be here and she certainly wouldn't be meeting Amy tomorrow."

"Are you sure she's up to marrying into your family? Botswana weddings are a lot, trust me I've been through two of them."

"I'm not sure if I even want to put her through all that. Not just for her, but for me. I don't want to jump through their hoops knowing I'm only a member of the family in name."

"Mike come on, I know they leave you out of things but they do love you. You know if you didn't at least make a gesture of goodwill in that direction, and you married her, they'd never accept your marriage as valid. Give them a gesture and get your uncles on your side, then do what you want."

"Dad I've thought about it but there is nothing I can do that will satisfy them."

"I have an idea. She'll need an uncle."

I instantly understood what he was saying, "Dad, no. I haven't asked for permission in years and I'm not going to start asking them now. Plus Sarah doesn't have an uncle I know of."

"I'll do it. It's easy, when you're ready to propose, do it your way and if she says yes, you can take your uncle aside explain to him that you intend to marry her, ask his permission and ask him to approach her uncle on your behalf for the blessing. Mike, I've been married in Botswana twice and I didn't have any uncles to ask but I knew I needed someone to approach her family on my behalf, my boss did it when I married your mum. It's mostly a courtesy these days anyway. Give them a gesture of cultural goodwill, technically I'm not a member of the family so I can be her uncle."

"I suppose that might work. But if it doesn't work I'm going to do it my way."

"I know that and most importantly so do they. It's a courtesy nothing more."

"Dad, why are you so keen on this? You've never cared about my relationships before," I asked bluntly.

"Mike I always cared, I just stayed away because that's the relationship we have," he replied cautiously. "Mike you care enough to have brought her into our lives, you've never done that before. I will admit that with my recent acceptance of my mortality, I wouldn't mind seeing you settle down and find your happiness."

"Okay, I can accept that. Sarah and I are moving faster than I ever thought and I do think we're on that path, but it will be on our terms and no one else's."

"Fair enough," Dad replied before checking his watch, "Come on, let's head back to the hotel, and have one more drink there, I'm going to need to nap before we head out later, and I want to annoy your aunt with that game we play."

I laugh knowing exactly what he's talking about and make a mental note to warn Sarah when I see her.

After a final drink together in the hotel, Dad headed off to his nap, while I stayed behind to think about Dad's news. I switched to a coffee conscious of how much drinking had already taken place, and how much more was likely to come. It was half past 5 when Sarah found me.

"Come on Mike you have half an hour to get ready. I've already had a shower and laid some clothes out for you. We can talk about whatever is on your mind tomorrow."