Realistic Romance

-6-

"Sorry, guilty as charged. I wanted to introduce you to other faculty that you haven't fully met yet. Accompany me?" Daniel held out his arm to Tanya awaiting for her approval. She turned back to look at Talia.

"Go, I'll keep this one occupied." She winked at Ace resulting in a small chuckle. 

Tanya took a deep breath and looped her arm around Daniel's before they walked off into the crowd. 

"I mean it, you know. I'm grateful you could come tonight." Daniel's voice was soft voice sounded like a considerate father. Tanya glanced up at him to see the kindest smile she had ever seen a man give her, but she couldn't make the words of gratitude come out through her lips. They approached a small gathering that consisted of two young men and three women laughing and drinking cocktails. 

"Hey, Boss-man, great party. What was this party for again?" One of the females asked, completely ignoring his companion on his arm. 

"A welcome party for Tanya here; making her feel welcome. Tanya, this is Debra Moore from accounting." 

Debra gave her once over before giving her a fake smile, sneering at her through batted eyes. "Pleasure."

"I don't remember getting a welcome party." The flamboyant remark came from the man to the far right, draped in a purple snake skin suit. 

"Favoritism shouldn't be allowed in the office." Another female with a pixie cut chimed in before taking a small sip of her drink. 

"Well, then it's a swell thing that I make the rules then, huh? This gentleman is Tom Harring, and this young lady is Crystal Martinez who are both in marketing." 

"She's not even that attractive to have her own party. I'm kidding of course." Long blonde hair made the group seem like mere groupies compared to her, her short skirt made Tanya squirm in discomfort. 

"I'm sure, Ms. Devereux." Daniel rolled his eyes before introducing her as Marlina, one of the front desk receptionist. 

Tanya unlatched herself from Daniel and walked off towards the front door. As she reached for the doorknob, Daniel gripped her arm. 

"Sir, I appreciate the gesture of this party. I'll see you on Monday morning." She told him and without so much as a glance, walked out of the building. 

~~~~

"So, what happened to her to make her so..."

"Isolated from everyone? I'll tell you what I think happened if you buy me a drink first." She flirted. 

With a shake of his head he led her to the open bar. "Two martini's on the rocks." He awaited for her to start talking. 

"I wanna say it started with our father. He was in our lives one day and then wasn't the next. Literally, his shocking proclamation of being done with this family put all of us in a tailspin, especially Tanya. Her first words were 'Dada' and he was all she ever wanted, more than me and our mother. After he left, Mom went into dark hole, became a drunk and killed herself behind the wheel."

"How old were you two?" He asked invested in the story. The bartender handed them their martini's. 

"Thanks. We were only 10. The days got worse, Tanya stopped talking altogether. She entered middle school and everyone was so cruel to her. They made fun of our mother's death, called her unwanted due to our father leaving. I know this is cliche to say, but it killed me knowing I didn't protect her." 

"Why didn't you?" The question wasn't filled with resentment or anger, it filled with pure curiosity. 

"God, this is so embarrassing, but I didn't want to end up like her. I let them so I wouldn't have to deal with the same bullying." She took a long swig, taking in half of the contents of her glass. "When we reached high school, her isolation got worse. She stopped coming to school, she became scared to come out of her room to eat, so she became anorexic. Our aunt tried everything to get her out of whatever funk she was in, but nothing worked. She stopped trusting us completely. That was when I took charge, I worked my way into her heart, earning her trust back and I've been taking care of her ever since." 

There was a long moment of silence until he finally broke it. 

"That's no way of going through life." His voice raspy. 

"You're telling me!" She let out a loud guffaw before finishing her drink. "It's sweet what Daniel is doing for her, but no matter what he does, he'll never be able to lift her out of that hole. Bartender, I'll have one more please!" She twisted in her chair to face him before saying, "Now that you bought information from me by alcohol, tell me about you. Married? Single? Complicated?" 

As he took a breath in to answer, yells sounded near them, calling for Tanya as both of them perked in Daniels direction. Talia noticed Tanya racing out of the doors with him following close behind her. 

"Shit!" Talia shot from her seat and joined the race after her.