To Caress My Day

The following day, Seth and his father chose to head out to town for a bit of bonding while he's there. Seth didn't have as much free time as his sister, Rachael, to take a plane to Connecticut to visit their father, Ronald, as regularly as he wanted to because he was a workaholic, and so in situations like this when he could drop by to visit his father always took the time to spend quality time with him due to their insufficient junctures. Seth never delayed around in the past what with working all the time, and so Ronald always made sure to set aside a succinct amount of time for them to bond. Rachael was never perturbed by this, and completely understood why she was left out during those times. She wanted nothing more than for her dad to get some one on one time with Seth during his brief time there.

“Wow, everything still looks the same.” Seth commended the street they were moseying along. His brown eyes scurried from store to store, evoking their names from his recollections of the past. “Well, except for a few new businesses, but other than that nothing hasn't changed much.”

“Other than some former owners passing their businesses down to their children, you're right.” Ronald granted with a nod before an diverting smile stretched across his face. “Do you think any of them will recognize you if we walk in?”

Seth shrugged as they took their time walking down the sidewalk, passing the local library as they came up to a jewelry store. His eyes deviated to his left for a split-second and winced at the price tag of one of the rings on display in the windows. He shook his head in criticism of such excessive prices over a simple rock. “Damn, I feel bad for any of the poor sods buying these rings for their girl...and I'm a billionaire!”

“Engagement rings are no jokes for the average middle class man.” Ronald admitted, eyeing the valuations with a cringe. "It hurts my pant pockets just looking at them. Thank god I didn't go broke over Xiang's ring.”

“It's the least I could do, dad.” Seth teases, nudging his side with an elbow.

Ronald chuckled, knowing that to be accurate. His son was the rightly successful and had even welcomed him down to the FOX studios in California to be associated in a few episodes of his show among other opportunities. Ultimately, the money he made striving alongside Seth made it feasible for him to afford his second wife's ring. "Yeah yeah, it's the least you could do for coming out of my testicles and throwing me into fatherhood without my say so.”

Seth visibly cringed, halting in his tracks to turn away in revulsion. “Fuck dad, do you have to go there with it?”

“Well, it's true!” Ronald proclaimed defensively, his eyes ablaze with banter as he threw his arms up.
“Yeah but you don't need to express such horrific things in my presence!” Seth disputed playfully, rubbing his hands over his face.

“Excuse me, Mr. Sensitive!” Ronald dissolved his feelings with a wave of his hand as they turned to trek around the jewelry store. The were hush for a minute before Ronald's mind got to thinking about the exchange from the night before about to Avery and Tahliah. He gestured towards the display window of the jewelry store that shot all along the front of the corner building. “How close exactly did you get to procuring Avery a ring? I mean after four years I would think you'd have at least thought about it at some point, right?”

“Kind of.” Seth retorted with a indifferent shrug, not the least bit keen in thinking about the past with a woman who left him for no solid reason after four years together. “I probably paid more attention to commercials advertising them back then, but I never went as far as to do my research online or step into a jewelry store.”

“Never?” Ronald renewed, a bit stunned that his son conveyed of marrying Avery someday, but never even stepped into a store.

“God no!” Seth spurned, a look of offense contorting his face. “You'll never catch me alive in any of those stores anytime s-”

Ronald swung his head in the direction of his son only to find him gone from his side. Astonished, he called his name before spiraling around in search for him. “Seth? SETH! Oh, there you are.”

Seth was standing in front of one of the display windows gawking down at a particular ring slotted in a white silk bed among many others that paled in resemblance in his opinion.

Retreating back towards the jewelry, Ronald paused to stand beside his son, peering at his awe-stricken expression. “Son, you okay?” When his son didn't acknowledge his presence, Ronald tracked his gaze to the ring that presently had his son completely enchanted. It was a superb pear diamond halo 3 set ring that came with 2 matching diamond nesting rings for the top and bottom. It was a magnificent ring for sure, but Ronald didn't quite get why his son was so stupefied by it after his speech. Arching a thick white brow at his son, he declared his son's full name to get his attention. “Seth Woodbury MacFarlane.”

“Yeah?” Seth returned, but refused to expel his eyes from the ring. It was impeccable, out of all the rings in the store, it stood out to be the most extraordinarily formed. Every small diamond around the large pear shaped one serenaded to him to like an instrumental melody. He felt like he back in the studio making an album all over again. That excitement brought a slow grin to his face, his brown eyes glimmering just as brilliantly back at the puny valuable stones.

Studying between his son and the diamond ring, Ronald impatiently demanded. “What's going on with you? One minute we're talking and the next you're love-struck by some jewelry?”

“It's not just some jewelry!” Seth opposed, finally pulling his eyes away from the ring but only for a minute. “Look at it again!”

“Seth, I-” Ronald began to protest.

“Look at it again!” Seth recited urgently, reaching out to snag his dad by his shoulders and navigate him in his previous spot so he could observe exactly what he saw. “And I mean really look at it, Dad!”

Ronald squinted down at the ring, examining it's extravagant stones, and gold metal work. It was a ring. That's it. Just a ring. Failing at perceiving the ring for anything other than a ring, Ronald sighed with defeat and shrug his shoulder. “Seth, I'm sorry, but I'm still not following...”

“Don't you see it?!” Seth exclaimed impatiently, snooping over his dad's shoulder to aim directly at it.

“See what!?” Ronald asserted back, throwing his arms up in irritation.

“Her!” Seth shepherded his father safely aside, so he could reclaim his spot and ogle at the lone jewelry. “Can't you see her within it?”

“SEE WHO!?” Ronald snapped, his perseverance wearing thin.

“TAHLIAH!” Seth hollered back in rejoice, gesturing to the ring as he beamed at his dad with twinkly eyes. “I swear to god I saw her within this ring a moment ago.”

Ronald stared at his son for a long time. His son, who was acting like a kid mesmerized by a toy at a toy store he'd give his left nut for. From what he knew Seth and Tahliah haven't known each other quite that long, and yet he was standing outside a jewelry store peering at an engagement ring. Reaching out, he placed a hand on Seth's shoulder, trying one last endeavor to get him away from the store. “C'mon son. We don't have time for all this. We got some shopping to do for our little Bella, remember?”

“You can keep on going without me.” Seth pressed him along, migrating in the opposite direction towards the door of the store. “I'll catch up with you in a few minutes, I promise.”

Throwing his hands up again, Ronald called it quit. His persistent child was gonna do what he wanted, and so should he. Heading back the way he intended to go, Ronald set his mind to shopping for his granddaughter and leave his enraptured son to his own designs.