Elf Wood: Midsummer Magic 1 | 🔮 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄 ✓

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐨

After leaving the Nexus, Danielle didn't have time to call her mother. Sheryl would be itching to know why a lawyer was trying to contact her, but Danielle could excuse herself from calling because she had to get back to work. It was her lunch hour, after all.

When she clocked out for the day, her phone started vibrating with rapid fire incoming texts from her mother. Before she could reach her car, her phone was ringing.

"Mom, I just got in my car. I will call you back when I get home and then we can talk." Danielle hung up and tossed her phone into the passenger seat. She hated to be so brisk with her mother, but if she didn't, then Sheryl would never give her room to breathe.

At her apartment, she took her shoes off at the door and walked back to her bedroom undressing as she went—eager to get out of her bra and the confining slacks that squished her tummy. When she was finally braless and in her PJ's from the night before, she went into the bathroom and brushed her hair away from her face before washing her makeup off. Besides her meeting with Mr. Baldwin, it had been a busy day at the Clinton Library and Museum.

Danielle was searching inside the fridge when the phone started to ring again and she inhaled a deep breath. I might as well get this over with. She thought as she slid the button on her phone and put it on speaker.

"Hi mom."

"You know, you didn't have to hang up on me earlier."

"Well, I'm sorry but I just got in my car and I wanted to get home." Danielle replied while taking a container of leftover spaghetti out of the refrigerator to heat up.

A small hmph sounded over the phone. Sheryl Flowers—she kept her maiden name because she didn't like the sound of Danielle's father's last name. Bleaky.

"I never understand why you sound so tired when you get home from work. It's not as if you are doing anything strenuous." Sheryl commented.

Danielle already knew where this was going—maybe if you did something for a living that required you to move around more you wouldn't be so fat—as if her job was what caused her to be overweight, and of course she had no reason to be tired because didn't she just read all day at work?

"I saw the lawyer." Danielle said, cutting in before Sheryl could compose her next insult.

"What did he say? Danielle, are you being sued? You know I didn't like the sound of that, Mr. Baldwin, when he called asking for your contact information. He was very snippy and short with me. I almost hung up on him. You get a lot more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

And you get even more with bullshit. But Danielle couldn't say that. Since she hit the age of twelve and started to gain weight, she learned that the key to a peaceful life with her mother was to keep her mouth shut and nod.

Danielle put the container of leftovers in the microwave and listened to Sheryl ramble on about how important manners were—not that Sheryl ever obeyed the laws of politeness a day in her life—while she gnawed on a piece of cold garlic bread. Danielle was starving after only having half a bear claw and a cup of coffee for lunch.

"He seemed like a very pleasant man when I met him. He told me that Great-Aunt Estelle passed away." Danielle made sure she'd swallowed before she spoke. Sheryl would have a cow if she knew she was eating, and God forbid—carbs. You know that isn't going to help slim your waistline a bit, Danielle.

"Oh, well, I guess that's something. Estelle must have been a hundred or something." Sherly mused.

Danielle was busy rolling her eyes when the microwave went off. Damn it. Now Sheryl would know she was stuffing her face for sure.