My Daughter's Boyfriend Needs a Fixer

Brazzers

Sam Bourne, Michelle Thorne Pic(s)

My daughter’s new boyfriend, Sam Bourne, arrived for dinner looking like a man who had just lost a fight with a spreadsheet, his shoulders slumped with a palpable weariness. I could see the anxiety flickering in his eyes as he tried to make polite conversation, a stark contrast to my daughter Michelle Thorne’s usual, effervescent spark. He finally confessed his turmoil over a catastrophic data loss at his small tech startup, a crisis threatening to sink everything he had built. Michelle, ever his fierce defender, shot me a look that was less a request and more a command, her silent plea landing squarely on my shoulders. You see, long before becoming a father, I was the man people called for problems that couldn’t be solved by conventional means. Later that evening, I made a few quiet calls to some old, well-connected friends from my own checkered past. We arranged a discreet meeting in a back booth of a dimly lit diner, far from the prying eyes of his corporate rivals. I laid out a simple, elegant plan to not only recover his lost data but to turn the tables entirely on his saboteur. Watching Sam’s face transform from despair to dawning hope was its own unique reward, a restoration of spirit. Michelle squeezed my hand later, her simple “thank you, Dad” containing volumes of gratitude and understanding. It seems my particular set of skills is now being passed down to the next generation, one fix at a time.