Hey There Delilah (Sequel to Not The Same)

Absence Makes the Heart Go Insane

"Remember when we used to sneak around on dates all the time?" Liam laughed with me at the memory. Right now felt like old times. We were at the cafe that I was now working in, past closing time, just talking. Fifteen years is a lot of time to make up. I was sitting on the counter while Liam was in a chair in front of me. To avoid unwanted attention, we left the lights off. It was pretty dark and quiet considering it was 11:30 pm. "Does Danielle know you're here?" I asked him.

"Why do you always bring her up?" He got serious.

"It's not like she's your wife or anything." I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, and it's not like I'm cheating on her or anything. We haven't done anything wrong except maybe lied about what we're doing and we kissed once but so what, she knows I'm in love with you and she always has." He spoke too fast to catch his slip up. My mouth parted slightly and his hand flew up to cover his mouth but he couldn't take back his words.

"Liam.." I mumbled. He took his hand away and looked off into a corner for a moment.

"It's not like you didn't already know. Everyone knows." 

"I can't do that again." I told him. "At one point you were my entire world but I can't let myself fall that in love wiht you again. There's just too much that needs to be figured out first. For one, when is everyone going to know that I'm still here." He sighed.

"Speaking of, Simon called me and Delilah into his office today. He said the media was getting too out of hand for him and wanted us to tweet about the situation. 

"And?" I got curious.

"I did. I said that they were all crazy and that I don't have a secret daughter or anything. Delilah got furious and refused to tweet and then she left. Simon said after she left to just let her go. No need to stress her out more than she already is." I thought of my daughter and how she must have felt in that moment. She probably felt like she didn't have a father anymore.

"Well, Liam, you have to think of her in that situation. Whether you realize it or not, your all she has. Well, we're all she has but she needs you a lot more than you'll ever need her." I wanted Liam to be a father to Delilah, even if I couldn't be a wife to him. I was never going to take her away from him again, even if they're not on the best of terms right now I have a feeling that they'll get closer.

"That's the thing, I don't know how to explain this and it makes me feel like absolute garbage but I don't feel like she's my daughter. My brain tells me that she is but I don't have that connection with her. I feel like she doesn't want me to be a part of her life because of it but I don't really know. When I look at her, I just see a girl that I know I need to be protective over but I don't look at her and see myself like I do when I look at my boys or my Delilah."

"She's your Delilah too." I pointed out, "She's also really busy right now. Maybe after this competition things will change." Liam tensed up a little and started to look uncomfortable.

"That's another thing that I need to talk to you about." I raised an eyebrow, questioningly. "I'm worried about her. Actually, everyone's worried about her. Even the other contestants. She's pretty much isolated herself from everyone. She doesn't even talk to Roman and Megan anymore." This was news to me, instantely, my worried mother instinct came out. 

"I'll talk to her." I promised. We sat in silence for a few moments, unsure of what to discuss next.

"I have a couple questions for you." Liam said. 

"Okay? Go ahead."

"Well you see," He stood and began to slowly pace around the room, "once you left, I started to become obsessed with the prospect of seeing you again. I literally would look for you everywhere I went, Starbucks, the mall, concerts, parties and I always just kind of prayed that I would find you one day, some place that I wouldn't expect." Even though he was walking around the room, his eyes never left me. "I came up with a list of questions I would ask you, if I ever saw you again."