“Hurry up, kid. Your mom’s about to come back over here,” Tom said. He looked down and saw that his son, Ben, was still only about halfway through his cigarette. “Come on, what’re you doing? Haul it like you mean it, son! I’m almost done with mine.”
Tom looked over to the bar on the other side of the pool, where his wife was just picking up the two cocktails the bartender had set down in front of her. Then he looked back down at Ben, hidden from sight behind the deckchair, desperately sucking down on his cigarette. “You’ve got about 30 seconds, bud,” Tom said urgently.
He watched on as Ben heeded his father’s warning and hurriedly took three long drags in quick succession, not stopping for air in between. Despite the risk Tom knew he was taking in encouraging his kid to smoke so openly behind his wife’s back, he felt a tinge of pride as he watched his son exhale the contents of his lungs through his nose while taking another enormous drag. Teaching and enabling Ben to smoke had brought them closer together as father and son, and Tom felt he was only doing his duty in showing Ben how to be a man, regardless of what his wife thought. He didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity to bond with his kid, just as his old man had taught Tom how to smoke when he was a teenager himself. And this family holiday was the perfect opportunity for Tom to continue what he had started a few months ago and really encourage his son to smoke more often. His wife would spend all day shopping and visiting museums, while Tom and Ben would spend their week sunbathing and smoking by the pool area of the resort, which generously allowed guests to smoke and even had ashtrays next to the deckchairs.
On day 2 of their vacation, Tom’s wife had thrown a wrench in the works by deciding to stay at the resort with them instead of going shopping, but Tom wasn’t going to let that stop him. He convinced his wife to get them both a cocktail, and as soon as she had walked off, handed Ben a cigarette and lighter before sparking up a cigarette himself.
Now, as Tom nervously smoked and watched his wife approach, Ben suddenly gasped, “done!” and, still exhaling the residual smoke in his lungs, handed his spent cigarette butt to his dad. Tom quickly tossed the butt into the ashtray. It was not a moment too soon, as just then Tom’s wife reached them and handed him one of the drinks she was carrying.
“Really, honey, can’t you go even a few minutes without lighting up one of those things?” she began to protest at the sight of the almost finished cigarette in Tom’s hand.
“Just finishing up,” Tom muttered as he took a final, relieved inhale and stubbed out his own cigarette next to the one he’d tossed in the ashtray seconds earlier. His wife noticed.
“Two cigarettes?! You managed to smoke two cigarettes in the time it took me to get our drinks? I was only gone a couple of minutes!” she continued to gripe. “You’re setting a bad example for Ben!”
“Oh, don’t worry, honey,” Tom replied. “I think as far as Ben is concerned, he’s already made up his mind about smoking!”
Ben, who was pretending to scroll through his phone, caught his father’s eye and smiled.
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