𝐍𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬↠The Rookie

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓮

"I'm not drinking," Florentina pushed the bottle of wine away from her glass as Tim attempted to pour it in.

He stopped for a minute, looking from her to the wine back to her, trying to figure out if this was a trick she was pulling on him to test him, "You sure? Because I can pour this in here and you can tell me if you're lying."

"I need to cut down," Florentina told him, fiddling with her fingers and not looking up at her friend.

He sighed a little, she was definitely struggling with something, he could see it in her eyes. "Okay, if you really want to cut down, then you cut down."

"My dad called," She revealed, her face unreadable.

His eye twitched slightly as he heard that, clearly this was a sore spot for her, "And what did he call about?"

"He wanted to meet up, to talk," Her gaze remained on the table on which she was tapping her nails upon.

"What did you tell him?" Tim asked, his tone now carrying a bit more empathy in it as he was trying to understand her feelings about this better.

"I just hung up the phone," She lifted her thumbnail to her mouth, biting on her acrylic nail out of habit.

He was silent for a few moments before he sighed and asked, "Do you think that hanging up on him was the right idea?"

"Well he didn't care much for talking when he was smashing my face into the kitchen counter," Florentina bitterly chuckled, "He's had nothing to say for nearly two decades, so why now."

He stared at her for a few seconds before he replied, "Are you going to meet up with him?"

"No," Florentina admitted, taking a drink of her Cola.

Even though he knew that she wouldn't be able to see it, a hint of relief slipped into his face as he heard her answer, "Good."

"What did we do to end up with shitty dads?" Her gaze remained distant but on the chestnut brown table in front of her.

"Some people probably just shouldn't be fathers," He sighed, thinking about his own father before speaking again, "I know that for a fact."

"He said that he wanted to pay for my wedding when I eventually get married," Florentina admitted, her tone barely above a whisper.

His ears perked up for a second, this was a strange thing to mention out of the blue, "He wants nothing to do with you for so many years and suddenly he wants to pay for your wedding?"

"Got the cheque in the mail this morning," Florentina blinked, her chest slowly rising with even but slow breaths.

He shook his head, trying not to sound as exasperated as he felt, "You're not thinking about accepting it, are you?"

"It's twenty grand, Tim, twenty thousand dollars for a wedding that I've not even met the groom for," She pursed her lips, picking around her cuticles.

"That's just him trying to manipulate you," He told her straight, "Your father will probably always try to use his money to gain some sort of control over you, and I don't think you should fall for it."

"Do you know how much it'd make up for Mikey's college fund?" Florentina spoke up after a few moments.

He sighed, she was right, it would definitely cover a huge sum of money for the boy's college fund. But even then, it didn't make the situation any easier, "But you understand what taking that money would mean, don't you?"

"Maybe I made it worse in my head," Florentina tried to justify, "I'm not dead."

"You're not dead," He agreed, not even considering arguing with her on this, "But you did have a rather shitty childhood, and you're still dealing with the consequences of that."