Will you be home soon? 3:14 PM
Zelda would wake up from her nap soon, and Blake needed to finalize her decision about dinner. Was she going to make tacos? Was she going to get ingredients and make something more complex? Would she take Zelda to the store with her, or would Kiefer be home? She'd probably take Zelda to the store with her regardless, but maybe Kiefer would come.
Do you want tacos for dinner? 3:45 PM
Her phone dinged back two minutes later. The first reply she'd gotten from him that day. Sure, babe.
It wasn't much, but it still brought her a smile. The slightest amount of validation like a sprinkling of rain on her garden. She didn't take much, just a small amount of nurturing to flourish.
<4 3:50 PM
When will you be home? 3:51 PM
He replied. A half hour. I'm finishing some stuff at work.
Chico, you're always at work :( 3:55 PM
No more replies. He unlocked the door at 4:37. Blake was in the process of cooling the meat already. Zelda hurried over to the door. Only so many people had a key, and all of them she liked. Not that Kaleb or Carla used their key. If they did, it was exclusively for house sitting, and Zelda was never here when that happened. That meant, of course, that this was papa. She latched onto his leg once he took his first step into the loft.
"Hey, princess! How's my favorite girl?" He spun Zelda around, a smile on his face. Blake smiled as she watched them. Her expression was soft, not the gleeful grin of her daughter. It was nice. Immediately Zelda pulled her father into a game. She wanted him to play with her kitchen set. More specifically, she wanted him to stuff toy foods into his shirt and pretend to have eaten them. It was a hilarious game, according to the nearly three year old. Absolute comedy gold. Blake had a few videos of it on her phone. The best part being Zelda's reactions to anyone's effort to play her game. In one video she lifted her father's shirt and looked in shock as the food was actually gone. Not realizing that it was just in his hand behind his back. They were precious together.
Blake was finishing off the meat and letting the oil drain off when Kiefer came in to greet her. A peck on the cheek and his phone out. "Isn't this hilarious?" he asked, grinning at her.
"Hm?" She took the phone from his hand, examining it. A picture, a meme. She gave a quick chuckle, before swiping to the next one. A picture of new ink on a client. She tapped out, seeing it was somewhere down at the bottom of a conversation with Mary Johnson. She saw the timestamps were all from the last half hour, before Kiefer put out his phone for it back.
"Funny," she agreed. "Nice ink also. Your employee?"
He shrugged, "Yeah, she's doing really well. I knew she had promise. She's kicking a...." he glanced over his shoulder at Zelda, who was sorting her toy vegetables. Quietly he finished, "ass. Totally. I said if she can hit the top for our quarter she might even get to ink me."
"Ooh, lucky," Blake said. "It'll be another twenty minutes I think and then everything will be done."
"Oh." He paused, frowning. "Uh," he checked his phone, opening up something else, "I actually have to go. Sorry, I didn't mention it earlier."
Blake frowned, feeling the hurt creep into her eyes.
"Lo siento, Blake," he insisted, making puppy pleading eyes. She sighed.
"If you have to go you have to go..."
"Thanks. Just put some away for me for leftovers. I'll eat them if I'm hungry later." He hurried off to tell Zelda goodbye before heading off without more explanation. Blake turned back to the food, dicing her tomatoes with a poignant lack of motivation.
YOU ARE READING
Beginning of the end
Short StoryBlake loves him very much. She has loved him for years. How can she not love the father of her child, her fiance? There are bumps and bruises along the way, but Blake is sure that in the end, when they get married, it will all be alright. It has to...
