Dotty Nolan is the daughter of director Christopher Nolan. The day before she and her father would be going to France to start the production of the film 'Dunkirk', she accidentally texts the wrong person after saving her friend's number in wrong. I...
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Dotty took a deep breath as she watched the houses roll by from the passenger seat of Fionn's car. Her knees bounced up and down the closer they got to his house. In her eyes, Fionn had it easy because he was already on Chris' good side as he already knew him. She was actually petrified to meet Fionn's dad, his brother and his sisters.
Fionn caught sight of Dotty's nervous movements and without saying anything his placed his hand on her knee and rubbed circles on it. He was sure that his family would love her, no doubt the girl would gush over her beautiful looks and hopefully his dad would be supportive, not that he is never not supportive.
It was the last turning now and they were driving down the street he grew up on. He pulled up at the bottom of the driveway where his dad and his sister, Maisie's cars are. He switched the engine off and turned to Dotty who kept her eyes on her feet.
"What's wrong, Dot?" He asked her softly unclicking his seat belt and leaning over to her.
She shook her head, "Nothing, I'm fine."
"You're worried about this aren't you? Look, we can turn around and go back to yours or you can come to my house, we don't have to do this right now. They will understand."
"No! I mean, no, it's okay. I promised you I would and I will. I'm just nervous." She looked up and smiled at him. Fionn took this as an opportunity to sneak a quick kiss in and he actually felt her nerves fade away once he pulled back.
"Let's go then, shall we?"
The pair got out of the car and Fionn took hold of Dotty's hand and led her to the front door. Using his key he let them both in and heard his other sister, Hattie, shout, "They're here!"
Fionn chuckled under his breath and dropped his keys on top of the shoe rack before leading Dotty into the kitchen where his family were situating. "Afternoon," He smiled, "This is Dotty, as you probably guessed."
His father stepped forward and greeted the blonde girl with a hug, "Lovely to finally meet you, I'm Tim."
"As it is you," Replied Dotty as Tim pulled away.
Fionn took Dotty's hand once more and turned to his siblings, "This is my brother, Sonny, and my two sisters, Hattie and Maisie."
"Great to meet you," Smiled Dotty and the two girls replied with the same but Sonny didn't reply until afterwards.
"How much exactly are you being paid to date Fionn, Dotty?" The man asked with a cheeky smirk on his face which made Fionn shoot him an annoyed look.
"Oh, cut it out, Sonny, Dotty isn't getting paid to date Fionn!" Exclaimed Tim, "Sorry about him, he's a big joker, Dotty, now Fionn didn't mention you were veggie or vegan or anything like that, so we're having a barbecue as it is a nice day, is that alright?"
Dotty nodded. "That's fine."
Whilst Tim went to set up the barbecue, Fiona led Dotty to sit down and the questions starting hitting them from his siblings.
"So how exactly did you meet?" Asked Hattie as she sipped her coffee.
Dotty glanced at Fionn to answer. "Well, we kind of met twice."
"How can you meet twice?" Sonny asked his brother. "Is that even possible?"
"I accidentally texted him and we continued talking, that was the first time." Responded Dotty, blushing.
Fionn nodded, "then about two days later she was spraying water on me. We didn't actually realise we were texting each other for a few months after that."
"Spraying water on you?"
"She works on the set of Dunkirk, Maisie."
Maisie "oh'd" and laughed, "so you are a makeup artist?"
Dotty shook her head, "I just do what I'm told, whether it's making Fionn look sweatier by spraying him in the face with water, sewing holes back up in costumes, cleaning up rubbish, handing out life jackets. I don anything to be honest."
Hattie furrowed her eyebrows, "so you're an intern?"
"No, Hat, she's the director's daughter."
"You're joking!" Exclaimed Hattie, "you're Christopher Nolan's daughter?" Dotty nodded. "And he knows?"
Fionn laughed awkwardly, "actually, he encouraged us."
"Welp. Okay." Snorted Sonny.
The conversation drifted to random topics and Fionn felt Dotty relax beside him once the 'interrogation' had stopped. He listened as his siblings and Dotty got to know each other and similar to how Dotty felt about him and her cousins, he was glad to see that they were getting along well.
He noticed his dad looking in from the garden window and he excused himself to join his father out in the garden.
"So, what do you think of Dotty?" He asked Tim as he handed him some sausages.
Tim smiled, "she seems lovely, Fionn. I'm still trying to get my head around the fact she's Christopher Nolan's daughter. She doesn't seem like a typical director's daughter."
"She's not, dad. Chris and Emma kept her out of the limelight, they wanted her to grow up as normal as possible and she did. Hardly anyone knows of her relation to them. She's so down to earth, dad, trust me. A little odd, but who doesn't like a bit of crazy in their life?"
Tim nudged Fionn, "with you, nothing is even not crazy! Your sisters and Sonny seem to love her."
"She has that affect on people." Fionn grinned, "me and the lads straight away befriended her because of it. She seemed so great and she is."
"I can tell. Does she eat cheese? I'm going to melt some cheese on the burgers like usual."
Fionn shook his head, "No, on foods like pasta bake and shepherds pie, yes. But on anything else not really."
"I've cheese on the garlic bread!" Tim exclaimed but Fionn cut him off.
"She has it on garlic bread too, don't worry."
Sighing in relief Tim, turned to his son, "thank God! I was worried then!"
"Dad, it's food, not something too serious!"
"I know, I just want to make a good impression." Stated Tim, flipping some burgers.
"That's funny, she was acting like that on the way here. She wanted to make a good impression. I told her not to worry, but, when does that ever work?"
Tim smiled, "well then, you tell her that we love her and she's part of the family already. I mean look at her, they're already talking about the most random of things!"
Fionn peered in the window and saw Sonny showing the three something on his phone and them all started to cry with laughter.
"Dad? Do you think mum would have liked her?" Fionn asked without taking his eyes off of Dotty.
Tim wrapped his arm around his son and pulled him closer, "she would have loved her. You've done good, Fionn, and we are all so very proud of you."
Fionn smiled, "I think I love her, dad."
"You do?"
He nodded, "she's amazing and has turned my world upside down, in a brilliant way. But do you think it's too soon?"
"Love has no rules or time limits. If you think you love her, then it doesn't matter how long it has been. If what you are feeling is love, then it is. Don't doubt yourself. Listen to your heart."
