Page 39 of Sexting My Ex’s Dad

“Isn’t it?”

My phone vibrates against my ear in what sounds like a message arriving. I pull the phone away and glance at the screen. The photograph loads in silence.

Athena and I stand outside the pizzeria, her hand wrapped around mine while she laughs up at me. My head is bent toward her. The angle makes it look intimate and private.

Someone took the picture from across the street.

My eyes narrow into slits.

“Well,” Cindy says through the phone, sounding delighted. “You received it.”

I lean back in the seat and study the image for another second before darkening the screen. “Where did you get this?”

“Oh Nathan,” she says. “Cities are full of people who enjoy sharing information.”

My voice lowers into something that leaves no room for games. “You followed us.”

She tuts on the other end. “That’s such an ugly word.”

I rest my elbow against the door and look out through the windshield. “What do you want?”

“Straight to business,” she murmurs. “You always did know how to ruin a conversation.”

My fingers flex against the wheel. “Answer the question.”

Another message arrives.

I open it.

This photo is closer.

Athena’s fingers are laced through mine while she leans into my shoulder, her smile open and careless in the way it gets when she forgets anyone else exists.

For a moment I just look at it.

“You see the problem,” Cindy says sweetly.

I lock the phone and drop it onto the center console.

“You’re not hurting me with that.”

“No,” she agrees. “But I can make things inconvenient.”

I turn my head slightly, staring out through the windshield while a car pulls past the lot entrance.

“Inconvenient how.”

“Well,” she says thoughtfully, “you are the Chief of Trauma Surgery at Hawthorne Children’s & Trauma Medical Center.”

I don’t respond.

“And Athena works there,” Cindy continues. “Which means you’re sleeping with a subordinate.”

The accusation sits there.

“That’s not illegal.”

“No,” she replies, “but hospitals do have policies about relationships between leadership and staff.”