"Thanks for letting me borrow your hoodie."
"Don't worry about it."
She laughed and tugged the sleeves down her arms and over her hands slightly. It was definitely oversized on her and from angles, it did look like it was swallowing her. But it was warm, comfortable and smelt like him, so she didn't mind. "You might not get it back." She teased him, only half-joking.
"It's yours if you want it." He offered her a smile. "Were you serious about the website?"
She paused for a second, registering his words. "Of course, I was."
"It's going to be a lot of work."
"I know," she nodded. "I want to do it though."
"Okay," he smiled. "We'll talk about it some more on Sunday if that works for you."
"Yeah, that's great." She smiled, reaching out for the door handle to exit the car since he had pulled to a stop at the university car park. "I'll see you Sunday then."
He reached out and grabbed her wrist. When she looked back at him in confusion, he smirked and yanked her closer to him. Leaning his head down, he rubbed his nose against hers. "I think you're forgetting something."
"I am?" She asked, her eyes closed and her mouth tilted up in expectation.
He chuckled before his mouth finally descended down on hers.
"I need to go now." She whispered against his mouth, gently sucking on his bottom lip. A breathy sigh escaped her as he pressed his mouth against hers one more time, his tongue making a sneaky appearance.
She couldn't help but pout as he pulled away from her.
Thelonious Knight was a really good kisser.
When she finally opened her eyes, he was looking at her intensely, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. "I'll call you tonight," he promised, leaning in for one more kiss.
"I'll see if I can free some time up for you," she winked at him before jumping out of the car and heading towards the university building. Once she had reached the main door, she glanced over her shoulder to find him watching, waiting for her to go inside the building.
Raising her hand in the air, she gave him a wave before heading in.
Thelonious watched from his car until she was out of sight. He almost wished he had a janitor's shift today so he could follow her inside.
He had never liked someone the way he liked Darcy. Loved even. Maybe. He wasn't quite sure yet. He just knew that he couldn't stop thinking about her despite having spent a lot of time with her over the last couple of weeks.
The vixen had really weaselled her way into his life in just a short span of a few weeks and made a place for herself. They had only been officially dating for a couple of days now, and now that she had offered to design and create the hotel website for him, he was sure that he would definitely be seeing a lot more of her. He definitely hoped so, anyway.
He just wished that she didn't wake up one day and realise that she could do so much better than him. That would really crush him and Thelonious had already suffered more than enough hurt and pain for one lifetime.
Turning the key, the ignition rumbled to life. He reversed out of the car park and drove back to the hotel, already wondering when he would see her next.
-
It was pouring cats and dogs by the time that she had stepped out of the train station. Thankfully, her dad was already waiting for her in the car park.
Throwing her jacket on over her head in a desperate attempt to stop her hair from becoming frizzy, she jogged through the rain and flung open her dad's car door, sitting down.
"It's absolutely miserable outside," she muttered quietly once she had closed the door. Placing her bag and jacket behind her into the backseat of the car, she ran her fingers through her hair in attempt to save it. "Hi dad!" She leaned over and placed a sweet kiss against his cheek.
"How's my favourite daughter?" Elijah Blake smiled fondly at his daughter, already reversing out of the parking space and driving out of the car park.
"Dad," she stretched out the word, rolling her eyes as she leaned her head back against the head rest. A small smile played on her lips. "I'm your only daughter. Your only child too."
Her dad merely chuckled.
"I'm good, dad. Just glad it's the weekend. How are you?"
"I'm good. I didn't have any lectures yesterday so I went fishing with the boys."
"Did you catch anything?"
"There wasn't much fish this time of year, but I did manage to get 2 mediums salmons."
"Oooh," she perked up visibly. "Are we going to eat them?"
Elijah chuckled aloud. "Yeah. I've already marinated one for dinner tonight."
"Salmon sounds so good right now."
"How are Alice and Delilah?"
"Oh, they're good. We're all just busy with the last year of uni and all."
"Make sure you bring the girls down for dinner one night. I'll cook for you all."
"I'll mention it to them, dad. Thanks." She smiled. Her friends loved her father. He was pretty cool.
"Did you do anything fun yesterday?"
She shrugged. "We just went out to a club."
"On a Thursday?" He asked, surprised, though there was no judgement in his voice. Just genuine curiosity.
"We didn't stay out too long." She replied honestly. It wasn't like she was lying. Just omitting some details, like the fact that she had a boyfriend now. It wasn't like she didn't want to tell her dad about Thelonious or that she was ashamed of him or anything, but they hadn't been official for even a week now. Everything just seemed too new and it felt too soon for introducing the two men in her life to each other.
She was going to take things slow.
He nodded in understanding. "Did that company get back to you?"
"The one I interned at this summer?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, they did." She tried to keep the smile off her face. They had called her earlier that week but she had forgotten to mention it earlier.
"And?"
"They offered me a job for next summer."
"That's great!"
"I know, I accepted it."
"Are you happy with it?"
"It's alright. I think I'm going to apply at other places as well though."
"That's good. It's always good to keep your options open." He stated, pulling into their driveway. "But now at least you have a safety net to fall back on in case things don't work out the way you plan for them too."
"Yeah, you're right. Thanks dad." She smiled at him before reaching behind her to collect her bag and jacket from the backseat.
"Anytime, kiddo. I'm really proud of you."
"Thanks dad." She replied quietly, a warm fuzzy feeling erupting inside her.
Her dad was the best.
Once they entered the house, the first thing Darcy did was run upstairs to her room and dump all of her stuff on her desk. Pulling her laptop out of her bag, she placed it on charge for later that night so she could get some work done.
"What's the plan for this weekend?" She asked while skipping down the stairs. When she couldn't find her dad in the living room, she headed over to the kitchen where he had his sleeves rolled up and was placing the salmon in the oven.
She repeated her question.
He glanced at her over his shoulder before returning to chopping up some vegetables. "Sam invited us over to dinner at his place tomorrow. Other than that, it's a pretty quiet weekend."
"That sounds like fun."
"What about you? Do you have anything planned for this weekend?"
She shrugged, taking a seat on one of the bar stools. "I'm just going to get some work. I might be doing something on Sunday, but not too sure yet." She mentioned casually, hoping her dad wouldn't pay attention to the last bit.
Much to her dismay, just like when she was growing up, her father was always very observant.
"What's happening on Sunday?"
"Just hanging out with some friends."
"Alice and Delilah?" He asked. Truth be told, those were the only friends from university that her father had met. There was also the fact that Alice and Delilah were the only close friends she had.
She nodded. "And some others I think."
"Sounds good."
Darcy smiled at her father fondly. "Let me help you make dinner." She offered, not prepared to take no for an answer. Not having a mother or second parent in her life while growing up, Elijah cooked for both of them nearly all of the time. She was never very good in the kitchen, but had always been a sous chef to her father.
Helping him in the kitchen always brought up fond memories.
"We're going to need some sort of sauce for that fish," she gestured towards the oven. "Your always leave it in the oven for too long and then it comes out dry."
"That's the way it's supposed to be."
Darcy laughed. "No one but you likes dry fish."
Elijah mock frowned. "Don't give your old man sass."
Dinner was peaceful as she enjoyed her dry fish in front of the TV with her father, watching re-runs of friends until they got sleep. When they decided to call it a night, she headed upstairs to find her phone flashing on the bed with a few notifications.
Most of them were from various social media platforms which didn't hold much significance, though the missed called from Thelonious half an hour ago caught her attention.
She glanced at the watch. It had just turned eleven thirty.
She highly doubted he was asleep.
Biting her lip, she picked up her phone and called him back before she chickened out and changed her mind.
"I was waiting for you to call me back."
"Yeah, sorry I missed your call. I was watching TV with my dad."
"What's he like?"
"My dad?"
"Yeah."
"You called to ask about my dad?"
Thelonious chuckled at that. "No, course not. But it would be nice to learn a little about the man who raised such a fine woman as yourself."
"Flattery will get you everywhere. My dad's the best. He's pretty calm, cool-headed and very understanding."
"You mentioned he brought you up by himself?"
"Yeah, he did. My mother didn't stick around because she didn't want a family."
"That really sucks. She didn't deserve to have you guys as family."
She liked that he didn't apologise. "I guess, but that didn't stop her from starting a family with another man. She has three kids now. Two girls and a boy."
"Have you ever met them?"
She shook her head but then remembered he wouldn't be able to see her through the phone. "No," she answered. "She got in touch a couple of years ago, saying she wanted to fix things between us."
"What did you do?"
"I hung up the phone and didn't speak to her again."
"You weren't even the least bit tempted?"
"I was. I was too tempted. I wanted to call her back everyday after that phone and when I finally did, I found out that the only reason she even got in touch was because her dying father had left her an ultimatum that she would only get her share of his inheritance if she got all her kids under one roof."
"So it was just a ploy?"
"Yeah, so I hung up the phone again and haven't spoke to her since."
"She hasn't tried to get in touch since?"
"I don't know. I told my dad I wasn't interested in hearing about her anymore. She definitely didn't want me then so I don't think she gets to have me now, especially since having me would win her a large sum of money."
"Your mother sounds terrible."
"I don't know her very well, but she definitely isn't great at making first impressions." She sighed and leaned back on the bed, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance at the thought of her mother. "Romeo mentioned the other day you used to live in a care home?"
"Both my parents died in a car crash when I was a baby."
Darcy was lost for words. She sat up straight after having processed his words. "That's terrible! I'm so sorry!" She apologised, even though she hadn't wanted an apology for her sad excuse for her mother. "It must have been really difficult for you growing up."
"It was. Like Romeo and the other boys, I just went through multiple foster homes until I got too old and no one wanted me anymore."
"Is that where you met Mac and Ryland?" Ryland was the janitor friend who had travelled to the other side of the country to win back the love of his life.
"Yeah, both of us were in similar situations. Seeing as we were all of similar ages, we just stuck together. Ryland was a year older than me in school so once I turned 18, I moved in with him. Mac is a few years younger."
"It must have been really difficult for you to grow up without your parents. I can't even imagine what that would be like."
"It was difficult, yeah. As a child, I guess I didn't understand it. And as a teenager, I was just so angry about it. I think that's why I was so bad at school. There just felt like there was something missing and I couldn't do anything about it. But I guess the older I got, the more I learnt to deal with the pain. It's still there. I'm sure it'll always be there, but I've just gotten better at dealing with it."
"Do you remember them?"
"Honestly? No. I just have a few photos of them. Sometimes I think it was better they passed away when I couldn't remember them, because if I was old enough to remember then I would have missed them too much. It was already too difficult to deal with when I didn't even have any memories of the, I dread to think how difficult it would have been if I actually knew them. They were pretty successful people and left behind all their money to me in their will. But I only got that at 18. Hell, I didn't even know about it until my 18th birthday."
"And you used that money to open up the hotel?"
"Exactly. Well, I started off by investing some of the money but yeah, I used most of it to buy the hotel. That's why it means so much to me. Other than their pictures and their house, the hotel is the only thing that I have of them."
"You don't live in the house?"
"I've never actually gone to see it. I think I'm scared of what I'll find."
"Maybe you'll be able to learn about them if you go to see where they used to live; where they used to live."
"Maybe." He replied wistfully.
"I'm sure that wherever they are, they're looking down on you, proud of their son."
"I really hope so."
-
NOTE - not edited
The next chapter should be uploaded on 08/04/2020
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Layla Knight
15.09.19