Serendipitous Saturation ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 2 - First Date

Her hairs in pigtails shook from side to side, a pout on her face. She shoved her hands into her front jean pockets as she stared at him.

He nodded seriously as he sat at the end of his bed facing her. "You don't like the colour?" he asked, pressing his fingers down his silver satin tie.

Aadhya narrowed her eyes at her father as she stood opposite him. She moved further between his legs and began to untie the knot in his tie, her small fingers working furiously to loosen it. He grinned at her and started to quicken the process along by helping. "That's the third tie you've made me change, young lady. Now, the next one you pick I'm wearing it whether you like it or not afterwards."

She moved back a step and raised a mocking eyebrow at him. Even at five years old she knew she had him wrapped around her finger. "No tie, daddy," she told him.

"No tie, eh? But I told you I was going out for a special dinner."

She shrugged, climbed up into his lap and began to play with the doll in her hands. He held her tight and kissed the top of her head, rocking her gently. "With whom?" she asked as she moved the arms on the doll up and down.

He stammered, "A-A new friend, I told you that already."

"Is it a lady?"

He bit the inside of cheek. "Uh, yes, it is as a matter of fact. How'd you figure that out?"

"You're wearing a suit. And you smell different. Nicer."

He laughed. The expensive cologne he'd put on especially was obviously a good choice.

She looked up at him, her big brown eyes the same colour as her mother's peering into his blacks. "What's her name?"

He blinked twice, caught by the likeness to his late wife more and more the older she got. "Riddhima."

She nodded slowly then shrugged, settling in his arms again and playing with the dress on the doll. "That's a nice name. I think I'll name her that."

He smiled at the brown haired doll in his daughter's hands, one of her many Christmas presents. "Yes, it is a nice name, isn't it? I think it'll suit her," he agreed. Although the pink dress that adorned the plastic creature in her fingers he never imagined his Riddhima wearing. His Riddhima? Was she? Would she be? A nervous breath escaped him and he got up from the bed, taking his daughter with him. He swung her around quickly like an aeroplane and she giggled in response. "Again!" she screamed. He laughed at her most favourite word lately and he made another circle with her before placing her standing on the carpet, holding onto her arms for a moment in case she was dizzy. Before she asked for another spin he said to her with a smile, "Go check on grandma, Aadhya, make sure she's not on the cooking sherry as she's looking after you tonight. I'll be down in a minute."

Aadhya, used to his jokes about his mother by now, began to giggle again, pleased to have been given a part in the joke. He heard her bolt down the stairs like a tiny elephant. Her voice faded as she called out to Maya Singhania beneath him, "Grandma, are you drinking sherry? Dad says..."

He chuckled and gathered up the ties strewn on the bed and placed them in a drawer in his dresser. He looked at himself in a long mirror beside it. He smoothed down the jacket of the navy three piece suit he wore with matching white shirt. He opened the first two buttons of his shirt then ran his fingers through his hairs at the front so they settled off his forehead. He shrugged his shoulders. It was the best he could do. He thought again of the woman he'd met two nights prior on Christmas Eve, those piercing brown eyes of hers and those adorable dimples, meeting her the best Christmas present he'd received in years. His stomach flip flopped at the thought of seeing her again.