Chapter 5: Blow Out, Fall Out

Lief had managed to keep his new relationship with Josefin a secret from his children.

He was not entirely sure how they would take it, but it would not be long before the truth came out.

Though perhaps he could have chosen a better time to break the news.

For whatever reason, Karen had woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. Perhaps it was simply one of the many quirks of adolescence.

Or, it might have had to do with the fact she fell off the bed in her sleep, at some point during the night.

Either way, Karen clearly was not in the mood for anything displeasing.

That morning, Karen found her father outside, painting and merrily humming. The girl had a vague idea what had Lief in such a heavenly mood.

She had that before, when she first began dating Arvid. Her father had been bitten by the love bug...again!

"Um...Dad?" Karen hated to bother her father while he was painting, foul mood or not.

"Yes, sweetie?" The tone of Lief's voice sounded almost...lyrical. Before Karen could ask what was going on, however, Lief's cell phone rang.

"Y'ello~? Oh, hi, Josefin!" To Lief's delight, it was his new lady friend. Rather than ask for a favor, Josefin asked if he was good for a date tonight.

Knowing full well saying no was rude, and he wouldn't refuse anyway, Lief was all too happy to oblige.

But after he hung up, Lief found himself with a very upset teenage daughter.

"'Josefin'? You're dating Arvid's mom now?!" Karen did not like the sudden turn of events that appeared to have happened last night.

"Now, Karen..."

"Dad! Arvid's my boyfriend! You can't just up and start dating his mom!" For whatever reason, Lief wasn't sure if he liked where this was going.

"Well, why not, sweetie?" His question just made Karen even angrier.

"Because that's just creepy! It'd be like I was dating Karl!" Karen knew full well her arguments were being rather petulant in nature, but she was cranky and tired enough to not care.

Before long, Karen was off on a tirade of angry words towards her father.

"I can't believe you're dating again! Why are you dating Arvid and Edvin's mother?! Didn't you learn the first three times?! This is practically betrayal! Are you just going to keep adding on to your ex-wives like you're proud of it?!"

The entire time, Lief was too shocked to say a word to stop her. By the time she was finally done, Karen turned on her heel and stormed back inside.

It was a short while later before Lief himself headed back in. He figured to try to do some computer work before he went to see Josefin tonight.

He just really didn't feel like painting anymore.

Never in all the time had Karen acted in such an extreme manner. Lief felt it was understandable, seeing as she had been through this same process twice before.

But she had never been that angry about it. She had been merely disappointed.

Then again, she may have been mad at the fact that his new woman was her boyfriend's mom.

It was rather creepy to think about. But what could Lief do? He simply couldn't try to break his daughter and her boyfriend up.

No, that would be far too cruel. But he felt a connection to Josefin, as well.

Either throw away a potential relationship, or ruin his daughter's life...

What was a father to do?

(End of Chapter 5.)