The Daddy Club | 5sos au

The 'D' Word

Calum

My jaw clenched as I stood, frozen, in front of the guy standing staring back at me, an unitersted look on his face. He couldn't have been much older, maybe Ash's age. His age didn't matter, what did matter was that when I looked down I caught sight of my daughter clinging to his leg. My heart was literally getting ripped out of my chest at the sight before me.

Who was he and why was he near my daughter?

"Can I help you?" He was smiling at me. He had no idea who I was. Maybe if he looked down at Talia he would know. She looks more like me then she does Becca.

"Calmum!" Talia squealed, her hair was in a tight bun on the top of her head, Becca somehow managing to calm to the curls. She was already for ballet with her little white leotard and light pink tutu on. Right now this is when she looks most like Becca. I remember when we were still dating their was photos of Becca at about Talia's age all over the house looking exactly the way she does now. She looked so cute and so happy. And that was another break in my heart. Here I was, standing in front of this other man, expecting to take my daughter to her dance class and she doesn't even know i was her father. She still referred to me with my first name and I want her to stop. I need her to stop.

"Hiya squidge." I manage to reply back quietly. I was hoping that she might run into my arms now and give me a hug or something, but she keeps clinging onto the other man.

"Cal..." He says slowly, coming to realisation.

"Calum." I nod at him, folding my arms over my chest. "It's Calum."

"Jamie," he raises an eyebrow and eventually holds out a hand for me to shake. "I know who you are."

"I should hope so." I let the words tumble out of my mouth before I can even think about it. I quickly smile and grab Jamie's hand to try and show that I'm not trying to start anything here, just making conversation.

"Yeah," Jamie's handshake is firm, strong, he grips my hand a little too tightly but who knows if he meant to or not. "Bex told me all about you." He releases my hand and smirks.

"You call her Bex?" I ask, just trying to fill the space with something other than an awkward silence.

"Yeah, yeah." Jamie repeats. "So I should probably get her." Jamie says to me. "Tally, sweetheart," he crouches down to talk to her and my stomach twists. "Wait here with him." He doesn't look at me again when he walks back into the house.

I watch Jamie walk away. I was right. I was so right and Becca never cared to mention any of this to me. She never bothered to tell me she was dating someone, no she never told me she was living with someone. She's in the same house as my daughter, she has this man living with my daughter and she didn't think to say. She just completely forgot that I might want to have a say in this. How long has she been with him? How long has Talia known him? Who exactly does she think he is?

"Calmum!" Talia squeals again, getting my attention back to her. "Look, look!" She pleads for me to look down at her.

"Hey," I say softly to her, crouching down like Jamie did. "What you wanna show me?"

She giggles and does a quick spin on one of her feet. She uses her other foot to keep herself spinning and raises her arms above her head. She spins a couple times before beginning to fall towards me and into my arms.

"What a good little dancer you are!" I tell Talia, picking her up off her feet and holding her securely in my arms. "You miss me?" I ask Talia quietly. I genuinely want to know. I want to know if I'm replaceable to Talia, Becca seems to think I am.