In The Bleak Midwinter | T Shelby

EIGHTEEN - RED AGAINST WHITE

"Calvin Young? As in the actor? In the West End?"

Kaia was grinning ear to ear when she finally told her father and Bonnie about the gentleman she'd been spending time with.

It was the week before Christmas and Kaia had spent every single day she had free with Calvin, and most evenings after work. He was living down in London but couldn't bare to tear himself away from Kaia and put distance between them, and so he was living out of a rather exquisite hotel suite that was more like a small house in Birmingham.

They'd been to shows together, been out for fancy meals and spent Sunday afternoons taking long walks by the locks and having wine tasting sessions. Kaia was loving her job, her days seemed to fly by now when she knew she'd be seeing Calvin as soon as she was finished with her shift.

Kaia Gold had finally changed. She walked past man after man, many of whom would try to speak to her, offer to buy her drinks, and she was simply not interested. Her days of one night stands were officially over, being more than content with returning home to the same man every night.

And what a fine man he was.

"Yes, him. Please don't embarrass me, this is important, alright?"

Calvin was coming over to the Gold household for dinner that evening after persistently asking Kaia to meet her family. She couldn't quite believe that he was real, nobody had ever taken so much of an interest in her before and she never even dreamed of bringing a man home to meet her father.

"Alright, alright." Aberama held up his hands in surrender and carried on preparing the meal.

Kaia was pacing around the coffee table taking deep breaths, muttering things to herself under her breath as Bonnie sat and watched, shaking his head with a grin plastered on his face. He had never seen his sister like this before and truthfully, he never thought he would. Kaia had never been the warmest of people and Bonnie wasn't sure than any man would be able to handle her temper and her fire. If he was honest with himself, he thought that perhaps the only person that would've been able to get close was Thomas Shelby. Only now, Kaia was different. She was welcoming and kind, her eyes were friendly and she laughed and smiled more, pointing out the happier things about her day like songbirds in the trees or the colour of the sky when dusk came. It was a welcomed change.

The way her head snapped up when the knock at the door came was as if she'd heard a gun being fired in the front room. Her face looked panic-stricken and her eyes were wide as she flickered her gaze between her father and brother.

"Be nice, alright? Just..." she sighed, "Be nice. Please."

Both men chimed a 'yes' in response as she walked over to the door. She smoothed out her trousers and her shirt, straightening the pendant around her neck before pulling the door open.

Bonnie watched from the sofa as his sister spoke to Calvin on the doorstep for a moment before he eventually stepped inside and the door closed, trapping the cold outside.

He was a tall, incredibly handsome and slightly intimidating man with a killer smile and a dashing dress sense that even Bonnie admired. He rose to his feet and held his hand out to him.

"I'm Bonnie. It's nice to finally meet you."

Calvin shook Bonnie's hand, "The pleasure is all mine, Kaia talks about you a lot."

"Can I take your coat?"

Calvin passed his coat to Bonnie who hung it up on a hook by the door. He watched as he nervously hung around by Kaia's side, clearly just as anxious about the whole evening as his sister was.