Hugs and kisses, laughter and happiness. These were all the things that I watched going on around me as I stood in the parking lot, waiting to see if my dad emerged from the crowd somewhere, letting me know he’d been there all along. Just then, my cell phone lit up with his picture on the screen.

“Daddy! I’m in the East parking lot. Where are you?” I asked, not even bothering to say hello first.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I got stuck at work and couldn’t make it. I’m so crushed right now. I hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me,” he replied, sounding as though he was trying to fight back tears.

When I hadn’t seen him before the ceremony, I knew there was a chance that work would be the reason. As a world renowned neurologist who is highly respected in his field, his attention is always being pulled in a million directions.

Of course, there was also a chance that he got caught up in one of the high stakes poker games that he seemed to be playing more and more. I was always curious about the games, but he never wanted to give much information other than the games were underground and not exactly legal, whatever that meant. I had no idea what could be illegal about a card game, especially in Vegas, but I never pushed because, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t really my business.

“It’s okay,” I lied. “They’re going to have DVD’s available for purchase. Of course there were plenty of people recording it themselves, so I’m sure it’ll be all over YouTube in the next couple of days.”

“I know you don’t really mean that it’s okay, but I appreciate you saying it anyway. Are you hungry?”

“Yes, I am starving. It’s been a long day and nerves may have gotten the better of me so I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

“How about I make things up to you and take you to dinner?”

“Only if I can pick the restaurant,” I joked.

“That’s fine, as long as it’s Italian,” he jabbed back, already knowing what I was going to say.

“How about we meet at Scarpetta in the Cosmopolitan in an hour? That’ll give me time to say goodbye to a few people and get changed.”

“All right, pumpkin. I’ll see you then.”

* * *

My dad was already at the restaurant when I arrived, standing up from the table as I approached.

“Hannah, you look beautiful as always,” he told me as he wrapped his arms around me. For a minute, I thought he was going to lift me up off the ground and spin me around like he used to do when I was a little girl.

“Thank you, daddy,” I said, my cheeks getting red when I realized how loudly he’d stated his compliment. I never did well when eyes were on me, and it felt as though every eye in the restaurant was looking in my direction.

“You said you were starving on the phone so I hope you don’t mind that I went ahead and ordered for us.”

“Not at all, thank you.”

Normally, someone ordering for me in a restaurant would have annoyed me, but my dad knows me so well that he would know exactly what I would have ordered for myself anyway.

When the waiter brought the food, my point was proven. He’d ordered me the Sicilian-spiced duck breast with preserved orange, root vegetables, and caramelized endive. I also eyeballed his dish of seared sea scallops with sunchokes and roasted porcini mushrooms.

“Would you like a taste?” he asked after seeing me checking out his plate.

“Maybe just a bite,” I replied, as he took a scallop and put it onto my plate.

As we ate our dinner, I could tell that my dad wasn’t being his normal jubilant self. Instead of laughing, joking, and carrying on, he seemed distracted. He was sweating profusely and kept looking around.

“Dad, are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine, why do you ask?”

“Well, you keep looking at the doors. Are you expecting someone?”

“No, sorry, just a little distracted. Anyway, you don’t need to worry about me. I want to say one more time how sorry I am that I missed your graduation.”

“Dad, it’s fine. It’s not like it’s a once in a lifetime thing or anything like that,” I responded with a wink.

“Okay smart ass, I just feel bad.”

“Really, it’s okay. I understand how your job is.”

“Okay, but I promise I’m going to try to make it up to you. I’ve got some exciting news that I want to share with you.”

“Wait! Before you tell me anything, I got some news this morning! You know the marketing company I’ve been interning at for the last two years? They called me and offered me a full-time position!”

“That’s amazing! What are you going to be doing?”

“I’m going to be the Junior Social Media Associate with a track to Social Media Manager.”

“Wow, so that’s quite the big opportunity for you, isn’t it?”

“It really is. It’s huge! Nobody ever gets their own accounts right out of the gate, but everyone has been so happy with me as an intern. They told me they notice how I always go above and beyond for them, so they have no doubt I’ll do it for clients as well.”

“That is fantastic news, Hannah! I’m so proud of you. When does your position start? Not in the next week I hope or my surprise will be all for nothing.”

“They’re going to go ahead and put me on the payroll, but I won’t actually be starting for about a month. They have all the summer interns coming in next week so things will be hectic around there for a bit.”

“Good! Now, let me tell you about my surprise! You and I are going on a trip to celebrate your graduation!”

“Oh! It’s been so long since I’ve been on a vacation. Where are we going?”

“The Maldives.”

“The Maldives? I’m not sure I’m familiar with The Maldives.”

“You’re going to love it! Your mother and I went together once before you were born. It’s a group of islands in South Asia. It’s right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It’s beautiful! Unless you aren’t interested in a week on the beach?”

“A week on the beach? I can be packed in an hour!”

“Well, actually, we’re going to leave tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning? That’s fast.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of an urgent trip.”

“Daddy, what’s going on? You’re acting really weird tonight.”

“Listen sweetie, I’m just going to be honest with you. When we go on the trip, you’re the only one of us who has a round trip ticket.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“You’re going to be coming back alone. I’ll be staying behind.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t do that. You have your career. People depend on you. You can’t just uproot your life. This is some kind of joke, right?”

“Oh sweet, sweet Hannah. I never wanted you to find out about any of this. You already know that I love to play poker. What you don’t realize is that it turned into a problem.”

“A problem? What kind of problem, daddy?”

“A big one. I started betting on sports. Every time I lost, I made bigger bets to make up the difference. It just brought me deeper and deeper into a hole and now I owe some people a pretty decent amount of money. It’s better if I just disappear.”

“That’s ridiculous. You make good money. Can’t you just set up some kind of payment plan?”

“These people do not accept payment plans, Hannah.”

“Well, I’ll be working too and making decent money. Maybe I can help.”

“Hannah, stop, this isn’t anything that can be helped. I owe just over $2 million and they want it now.”

Around this time was when I noticed him really starting to sweat. He kept looking towards the front of the restaurant, obviously seeing something that I couldn’t see.

“Is this something we can talk about? How about we take the trip and discuss it on the flight over?” I asked, genuinely becoming concerned.

“We may be able to do that, but right now, why don’t we just head for home? I’m not feeling so good all of a sudden.”

He left his credit card on the table before jumping up and heading towards the door. The fact that he was leaving his card behind told me he was serious about disappearing and not coming back.

I jumped up and followed my dad out of the restaurant, determined to get more information about this gambling debt so I could try to find some way out of it for him. If it was a few grand, I could help easily, but a couple million?

What the hell was he going to do?