Broken Doll (Dandy Mott fanfiction)

Chapter 3

(Hey guys, I apologize for taking so long and for it being so short, but I've been sick for the past five days. This isn't the most interesting chapter but I promise I'll make up for that in chapter 4!)

I gazed up at Dandy, confused as ever. "Are you going to tell me what's going on or what, moneybags?"

He furrowed his brow, and leaned close to my ear as he softly spoke. "Mother insists that I bring a date to her dinner party. It's all her stupid idea - but at least for once I'm not escorting some ugly cow around the house."

Glaring at him, and trying to retain my anger, I carefully took baby steps into the living room where all the guests had congregated. I had never been around so many aristocrats in my life. My whole body clamped up in fear that I would ruin everything, and I knew if I were to fuck up, Dandy would make me pay for it later. Thankful to see Gloria's kind face, I tiptoed in my painful, pointy pumps towards her. Dandy wasn't far behind, as I knew he wouldn't want to socialize with anyone, judging from the way he had called the women "ugly cows".

Gloria attempted to introduce Dandy and I to some of the younger guests, whom I tried to put on my happiest face for. Dandy, however, was not amused. "Mother, can we just hurry up this dinner party already?" He said, impatiently waiting for his mother to escort the group into the dining room.

As we moved from room to room, I felt Dandy tightly grasp my hand. What was his deal? I was the one who was completely out of their comfort zone, and a nice meal for my standards was something that kept my stomach full. Regardless, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. Maybe he was an antisocial, pompous man-boy but I knew he was just as self conscious as I was around all these affluent assholes.

Surprisingly enough, Dandy did know how to be a gentleman when he needed to be. He watched over me the entire dinner, from pulling my chair out for me to quietly guiding me through the proper etiquette for a 5-course meal.

"You look absolutely lovely tonight, Lucille." He cooed, bashfully grinning at me. I couldn't tell if this was a game he was playing to appease his mother or if he had suddenly developed a boy-ish crush on me in the past few hours, but I decided to play along with whatever he was doing.

I was shocked when I genuinely felt flushed by his comment. Oh lord, how dumb I probably looked! I knew I had to cover up my weakness quickly.

"I guess your mother did a pretty swell job on fixing me up," I chuckled, lowering my voice to a whisper and leaning closer to him, "Taking an undesirable and making her into someone worth your time."

His smile faded a bit, but the admiration in his eyes remained.

"But you were someone worthwhile before, sweetheart."

He squeezed my hand and led me to the front door, where we were to say our goodbyes to the guests of Gloria's friends, whose names I couldn't remember. Throughout it all, I couldn't shake the questioning going on in my brain.

What kind of trick was this man playing? And worst of all, was I falling for it?