Perfect

Chapter Six

-AVA-

  Clearly the cake was too much for Emma, as she went through a sugar rush for an hour and then completely crashed, falling asleep on the window sill of Perfect Desserts, where my step-father had put cushions and blankets having learnt from previous experiences of her crashing from sugar at the shop.

  At the end of the evening after shutting the shop, I carried Emma all the way home. We live only a few blocks down, so it only took a couple of minutes to make our way back. Some would describe our place of residence as the 'rundown' house at the end of the street, AKA the house nobody really wants, but when you're a single mother whose only source of income is working in your parents' bakery which only recently started becoming successful, it was everything to us.

  I turn the key in the lock and gently pushed the door open with my hand, walking in. I place the keys down into the bowl on the side and close the door as quietly as possible, trying not to wake up my sleeping daughter. Rory the teddy lion hung from her hand as her arm fell down my back as I carried her up the stairs.

  I gently lowered her down into her bed, and tucked her in. She stirs slightly but calms down after I place Rory in her arms, and she was back again drifting off into her dreamland.

  I lean down, planting a sweet kiss on her forehead before walking out of the room, closing the door behind me.

  Just as I had made my way out, my phone begins to ring in the back pocket of my jeans. I'm quick to answer just so the ringtone doesn't wake Emma, so quick that I didn't even take notice of the caller display.

  "Hello," I answer in a whisper, slowly walking away from the door and only begin to talk normally when I was a fair distance away where I knew I wouldn't disturb Emma. "Ava Perfect speaking."

  "Hello," His middle class, husky accent is undeniable. Of course it was Alex. Who else would it have been? "So now I definitely know it's your actual number."

  "All this teasing," I smile as I sit myself down on the sofa, one leg over the other. "It's like you're trying to compensate for something."

  "Well I'm only trying to get into your good books."

  "And what could you have possibly done to get into my bad books?" I ask.

  "Yeah, because someone as amazing as you would be remotely interested in someone like me."

  "Well I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

  "Yeah, I guess you are." I can sense he was grinning by his tone of voice. "And I'm also calling to see if there was a chance for a second date."

  "We haven't even had a first one yet."

  "Yes we have," He reminds me. "I'm still sticking with that being our first date."

  "If I recall correctly, it is what you're telling our grand kids, right?"

  "Definitely," We laugh at our quick banter, reminding ourselves of a year ago. "So, how about Friday night?"

  "I'm going to have to call my child minder to see if she can do Friday," I consider the pros and cons of the possible date.

  Pros are that it's Alex from a year ago, the guy who caused me to blush and made me feel beautiful by just looking at me.

  The cons, he's Alex Darkbloom, and I'm just a random working class single Mother. There are too many things that indicate to us never working out.

  But then again, life would be boring without taking chances. Even if it's not a serious thing, and it ends when it does, at least Alex made me feel beautiful. The last person to do that was Tyler, and that was well over 4 years ago. Even though we stayed together until Emma was 2, I realised that Tyler and I were over years before that. "But even if she can't, I can just call my Mother, she loves having Emma round."

  "Brilliant," I can tell his smirk again from his voice. "Pick you up at 8?"

  "From where, you don't know where I live?"

  "I have my sources," I raise an eyebrow even though he can't see me. "Yeah, I appreciate the fact that that did sound super creepy."

  "Aha," I laugh, shaking my head at his adorableness. "Pick me up at 8 then."

******

-ALEX-

  Hanging up the phone led to me punching the air at my own achievement. I just managed to get a date with Ava Perfect, the possible girl of my dreams! I have been waiting a whole year for this. Words can't describe how happy I was.

 It is then when Poppy ran into my room, clutching the colouring book in my hand. I look at her shocked, as I always told her to knock before running in. There were a few incidents where Poppy had run in, and let's just say I had a few visitors around.

  However I didn't really care about her not knocking after I saw the look on her face.

  "Whoa Pops, what's wrong?" I ask, showing her my hands so that she can grab hold of them. When she did, I gently pulled her over, and sat her on my lap. What had sudden happened in the past few hours for her to turn like this?

  "I forgot to say thank you to Emma!" She exclaims, causing me to chuckle out of relief. "It's not funny Alex! I feel rude!"

  "Hey," I use my hand to wipe her tears. "Poppybear, you didn't forget to say thank you," I tell her, causing her to look up to me, red eyes and a runny nose. "You said thank you, but you were so happy about the cake I think you forgot that you did say thank you."

  "Are you sure?" She asks, leading me to nod in response.

  "But if you want to make sure you did say thank you, I'm seeing Emma's Mum on Friday, you could go and have a sleepover with Emma if you want." Poppy gasps at my suggestion. "I'll have to ask Emma's Mum first, though, yeah?"

  "Oh please persuade her! It'll be fun, my first sleepover!"

  "I'll have to ask our Mother if it's okay as well," I remind Poppy, who sighs in response, knowing what a mountain that will be to climb. "Don't worry; I'm very good at persuading people."

  "I love you, Alex."

  "Love you too, Poppybear," I look down at my little sister. Situations like this make me resent our family even more. Our Mother had drilled this obsessive need to be perfect (excuse the obvious pun) into us from such a young age that Poppy started crying just because she thought she didn't say thank you to someone, and it made her feel rude. What 4 year old has to think about stuff like that? It's so sad. I even remember when I was her age, being exactly the same. None of us in this family have ever been able to just be kids.

  As I continue to look down at her, she begins to yawn. "Right then, it's back to bed for you then, its way past your bedtime." I stand up with her in my arms, and threw her over my shoulder, causing her to burst out laughing.

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Much love as always!