Letting out a sigh, I told him: "I wish I came with you.  It's been years since we last went."  
"You have other commitments here, yes? Next summer when you're less busy-"
"My new clothing line will be released by then," my mother interrupted, standing up and approaching us. "So Fallon will be extremely busy, as my best model."
The smile on my face strained slightly as I faced her. Her eyes, so dark they appeared black, were trained on me. "How was New York, mum?"
As business owners, travel was a big part of my parents' lives. When Dad's company took off he was able to fund my mum's fashion business, a clothing line which gained popularity through social media and soon became mainstream. I was her guinea pig for a lot of her original designs, something I didn't mind as first as it meant we could spend more time together.
If I knew that came with the constant nit-picking and criticising features of myself I couldn't change, my excitement would have been less. Working with a perfectionist was draining. 
After a few more minutes of polite talk, I felt my phone vibrate in my hand, signalling an incoming call. Only one person called me this early. 
I shot my parents a smile, even though Dad's attention was on his phone. "Luca's on his way to pick me up, so I'm going to head outside." 
That caught my dad's attention. "Ah, the boyfriend. Tell him to come inside, it's been a while since we've seen him."
"We'll be late for school if that happens, Dad. Mrs Courtney did mention arranging a dinner in the next few weeks, so you'll see him there. I have to go-"
"Wait, do you have any plans for the evening?" Dad asked quickly.
"Not that I can think of, why?"
He smiled. "I've missed you, yene fikir." My mum turned up her nose at the endearing term, which we ignored. "I was hoping we could have dinner tonight, just us two? You could catch me up on how your summer was and your plans for the year."
The feeling of elation spread through my body and my toes curled in excitement. It had been months since I'd had a conversation that lasted more than ten minutes with my father. I had so much to catch him up on. "Sounds amazing. Where do you want to go?"
He waved a hand. "You're more familiar with this area than I am, you choose a place." 
I nodded, almost afraid my smile would split my face in half. Glancing at my stoic mother, I asked, "would you want to come?"
She shook her head, already moving away from the table. "I have no time for things like that, Fallon."
You mean spending time with your daughter outside of work? The bitter thought came to my mind immediately.
My dad shook his head at her jokingly and I cracked a smile, walking backwards. 
"I need to go now, bye!" And with that I was out of the house, just in time as Luca's car pulled up.
As I opened the passenger seat a bouquet of roses greeted me instead of his face. I paused for a moment but accepted the flowers from a sheepish looking Luca. 
"What are these for?" I asked, giving them a quick sniff. They emitted a smell too sweet to be real. A quick feel of the petals confirmed. They were fake. 
"My apology for how I spoke to you the other day." Luca responded as I kept the flowers in the back seat. "I was out of line, Fallon."
"What made you out of line?"
"By talking down on you," He responded. "I'll support you with whatever you do, Fallon. You know that."
Did I?