Worth Waiting For

Chapter Two

The following morning Daenerys took the opportunity to sleep in. She didn't get up until seven o'clock- a full two hours later than her week day schedule - and entered the gym on the first floor. Almost one hour into her work out she heard the front door open.
"Vis, is that you?"
"Yes it's me, sugar plum" her brother called back. "I bought some breakfast if your hungry."
Daenerys grimaced, her legs moving swiftly on the treadmill incline. It would be something she didn't want to eat, but to avoid hurting her brother's feelings, she would nibble at the hash brownies or whatever he had picked up at a fast food restaurant along the way. He was looking out for her welfare, and it was hard getting his m to understand she had given up fried foods. After her morning routine, Daenerys joined her brother in the large sunny kitchen. It was her favourite part of the house, where she spent a lot of time. A bay window took up most of one wall, and she loved how plenty of sunlight entered through the two large windows over the sink. A breakfast table that seated three sat in front of the bay window. Before moving in she had the old cabinets replaced with white ones with nickel coloured knobs and placed small blue green glass tiles on the back splash to add a punch of colour.
Her brother sat on the island on one of the four stools with his glasses perched on his nose. The pen in his hand hovered over the newspaper. As she had suspected he had stopped at a fast food restaurant. She saw an egg McMuffin on the counter next to him.
"Hi Vis" she dropped a kiss to his left cheek. Viserys Targaryen had moved from dragonstone a few weeks before she closed the deal on her new house. She and her sibling grew closer ever since her parents and elder brother passed away a couple of years ago in a tragic plane crash. They only had each other now. So the bond between them was even stronger than ever. Viserys was a few years older than her but was always protective about her.  Fortunately the transition was not difficult for him and he had a few friends in the area and Daenerys had plenty of room in her four bedroom house to accommodate him.
"Moring" he mumbled, engrossed in the paper. She wondered why he even bothered to wear his glasses since he always looked over them instead of through them.
" What do you have there? The classified?" Daenerys reached for the jug of coffee.
"Mmmm..I'm trying to see if I can find an appartment."
Daenerys had halted mid air. "Find an appartment?" She stared at her brother's bent head. His pale silver hair exactly like her own was cut short. "What for?"
"To move into. Ofcourse." He looked up at her frowning as if she over looked the obvious.
" But why would you need an appartment. You live here with me."
"I know. But I can't live here forever. Your a woman now. You need your privacy." He lowered his head again and circled one of the ads.
Daenerys grew silent. She put the coffee mug down. She had no idea her brother intended to move out. " I don't know why you would want to leave. There's plenty of space for the two of us. You practically have the second floor to yourself."
Viserys set the paper aside and took a bite of his sandwich. He chewed slowly and then swallowed, watching Daenerys who leaned against the counter.
"Your twenty five and unmarried. Do you think having your brother live with you will increase your chances of getting a husband ? I don't think so."
Daenerys sighed heavily. Not this conversation again. "I believe you want to move out because you think it will prevent me from getting a husband. I told you already I'm busy with work, and I don't need a husband. I can take care of myself. This isn't the 1940's. Women don't need to get married to have a secure financial future. We get that for ourselves nowadays."
"You're busy with work because you don't have a husband. " Viserys said. "Once you get a man in your life it will change your whole perspective."
"Why don't you let me worry about that?"
"You're obviously not worried about it. Someone needs to or you will end up an old maid."
Viserys took another bite of his sandwich oblivious to the shaft of pain slicing through Daenerys at his carelessly spoken words. Being twenty five and single was apparently not very practical according to Viserys. Sometimes he behaved like her father, but Daenerys never did tell him m anything because he was the only family she had left. And he took it upon himself to be more like a father figure to her.
She turned back to her brother, taking relief in the comforting Aroma of her coffee. "Marriage isn't for everyone." She said in a flat tone.
"Is that your way of telling me it's not for you? " her brother asked. "Because that's the dumbest thing I have ever heard and ur quite a clever girl."
Her brother's brutal honesty was legendary among the Targaryen family. Without their parents around to tame his tongue, his frankness was downright lethal. Daenerys knew better than to be offended. He spoke his mind like he always did.
She poured a mug of coffee for her brother. " All I'm saying is, you don't need to move out in order for me to find a husband, okay?" She pushed his coffee mug in front of him and sat down on the stool in front of him and picked up her own mug, cradling it in both hands. Fortunately a mouthful of sandwich kept him silent a little longer. "I want you here" she told him looking into his eyes.
Viserys shook his head. "No can do. You need your privacy and so do I."
Daenerys head snapped back. "What do you need privacy for?"
"What do you mean, what do I need privacy for? " Viserys sat up straight and puffed out his chest. " I'm a man. I have needs."
" Oh no don't. I don't want to hear this. Gross Vis."
"I'm in my thirties. I'm not dead."
Daenerys lifted hef jand up palm out to stop further discussion on the topic. "Got it. Got it." Few siblings would be comfortable having this discussion with each other, but she was not one of them.
" Do you think your the only one who wants to have sexual relations? Well your not. I like sex too. It's not like I don't imagine what it's like to be with somebody again and as long as my organs still function I want to use them."
" Vis I don't want to know anything about your......ummm....sex life." Daenerys shook her head.
" I don't see why not. It's normal and it's healthy."
Since he persisted in this line of conversation, Daenerys decided to put a stop to it. She leaned towards her brother and looked him in the eye.
"Viserys" she began in a soft voice. " If you don't stop talking about sex I'm going to take the rest of your egg McMuffin and the bag it came in and stuff it in your mouth."
Silence prevaded the room as they stared at each other. Long seconds passed before they both erupted into laughter.
" I can't believe you'd threaten your brother like that" Viserys said laughing so hard, he brushed a tear from the corner of his eyes.
Daenerys rested her palm against her brother's cheek, "you're a horrible, horrible man" she said with a smile "but I don't want you to leave. You didn't fly all the way down here only to move out after a few months. You're welcome to stay as long as you like."
Viserys lifted his hand and flattened Daenerys palm against his face. " I know sugar plum, but you do need your privacy. And it breaks my heart to see you let that...."
"Don't" Daenerys pulled back, jerking away from her brother. She definitely would not have that conversation with him. For some reason her family could not accept she moved on. Sure the past hurt scarred her, but it didn't define who she was today. It only made her stronger.
She slid of the stool and set her cup on the counter. She stared out the window down the street and watched the neighbours son get dragged behind his collie. It looked like the dog was taking the child out for a walk instead of the other way round. Any other the time the sight would be enough to make her laugh. Despite cutting off her brother's words, the heart wrenching agony of painful memories filled her chest. She swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth. Why did he have to bring up the past.
"I didn't mean to upset you."
She didn't want to think about the past hurt, but her brother brought the memory to the fore front. She always did her best not to think about what had happened. "You didn't. I'm fine." She lied.
Another child from the neighborhood went over to pet the collie. The two children began to jump and run around, playing with the energetic dog. It hurt to think she was always destined to watch other people's children playing and running. Never her own.
"I'm not so sure. In the three years since your break-up, I've never heard you mention your dating anybody else."
Daenerys poured the remaining coffee down the drain. *Your worried about nothing. Yes it was hard at first. Eight years is a long time to be with someone and then find out...." Her voice faltered. She swallowed down her pain that posed a threat to her composure. "Find out he got a nineteen year old girl pregnant. In future if you have any questions ask me, I'll tell you the truth. And the truth right now is I don't have time to date." She doubted her brother believed the words anymore than she did.
Work distracted her and kept the hurt and disappointment at bay. On a self imposed sabbatical from men, she decided she wanted to be alone for a while because she needed to heal. She needed to get tougher so she would never ever hurt again like she had been in her last relationship.
No one was allowed to mention the name of her ex-fiance. All her friends and family knew to refer to him as simply "he" or "him". It was ridiculous to still feel so much pain, but sometimes when she was all alone, it was like a wound that wouldn't heal, no matter how much salve she put on it.
Her brother's voice lowered to a whisper "you're letting him win you know."
"I'm the winner" Daenerys tore her eyes from the scene outside the window and turned to face her father. "He did me a favor. Without a relationship to distract me, I worked hard and dedicated myself to my job which I hadn't in a way before. Look at me now." She spread her arms wide, to indicate all she owned and accomplished. "Three years later I have everything I could ever want. I have a beautiful home, a mercedes sitting in the driveway and a great career. I'll be making partner soon. Partner, Vis, at one of the top fifty venture capitalists firms in the country. That's quite an accomplishment for a twenty five year old woman. And I did it all by myself without a man."
Viserys nodded. He wouldn't look her in the eye. "I'm very proud of you." He said. Then he picked up his news paper and started looking at the classifieds again.
****************************************************
Daenerys fell heavily into the chair in the corner of her bedroom which served as a makeshift office. She sat there staring blindly at the computer screen. She had work to do but she couldn't concentrate. The brief conversation with her brother played on her mind.
After the humiliating end of her last relationship, she had been so crushed and demolished, she'd lost interest in dating. Well she dated but never seriously. She was only serious about work. She held every man at arms length. And they knew right up front that next to her family, work was the most important thing in her life. Period.
The time and energy put into her career had paid off... unlike putting her time and energy into a dead end relationship.
Daenerys turned on her computer and the screen flickered to life. She should thank her ex for helping her to focus on her career. Sure it hurt. Spending eight years with a man. Only to have the relationship die because of infidelity, was a bitter pill to swallow. Looking at it objectively, she got off lucky. What if she married the jerk, had kids, and end up having her life interwined with his, only to find out later he was a liar and a cheater ?
"Calm down Dany" she said to herself.
He actually did her a favor. Maybe one day she would look him up and send him a thank-you card.