Holding back

Tricked by Violetta

"Come on dad, how long are you gonna keep this up?" Asked Violetta, bursting through my office door. I looked up from my business papers to see her sitting there with her arms stubbornly crossed.

"Violetta, what are you talking about?" I sighed. I put my papers down and sat forward, waiting for Violetta to continue.

"Dad, you haven't spoke to Angie in almost three days."

"That's what she wants." I sharply replied. "She wants me to leave her alone."

Violetta laughed and sat back in her chair. "Dad, you're so clueless! Women don't mean what they say when they're mad 90% of the time!"

"Violetta, you need to stay out of this. I'll talk to Angie in my own time, okay?" I said sternly.

"But dad-"

"Violetta." I warned.

She sighed before standing up and walking to the door, "if you carry on, we are both going to lose her." She cried before leaving my office, slamming the door behind her.

I froze in my chair. I didn't want to lose her. I've lost her once already. But I'm too much of a coward to go and talk to her, so I didn't. Instead I buried my head in the sand and continued to work.

10 minutes past and I was deep into my work when there was a knock on the door. "Come in." I replied, not taking my eyes off my work.

"...Violetta said you wanted to see me?" Came the awkward voice.

I slowly put my papers down to see Angie stood there.

Then my attention turned to the door that was quickly being shut by Violetta. Angie turned to see what I was looking at.

"Violetta what are you-" Angie stopped when she heard the sound of the key being turned.

"Violetta!" I shouted.

"Look, you can punish me later, but right now you two need to sort things out! I'm going out now, text me when you've sorted things and I'll come home and let you out." she shouted from the other side of the door.

"Violetta!" I shouted louder, but it was too late. The front door slammed.

Angie laughed a little and I shot her a look. "You think this is funny?" I asked.

She stopped laughing and looked me in the eye. "Well actually... yes. We got played by Violetta."

I decided to look at this from Angie's point of view. She was right, it was kind of funny.

I walked over to Angie and grabbed hands carefully. "Look, I'm sorry..." I said all serious.

She squeezed my hands and gave me a smile. That smile. I hardly get to see that smile. "No, you have no need to apologise. I know that what I did was wrong. I'm sorry." She said sadly.

Without a word I pulled her into a hug. The hug felt like it lasted a life time. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my shirt.

"I just... Don't want to return to the studio, German. I thought I wanted to. But I don't..." She spoke into my shirt.

We finally pulled away and I said "look, Angie. You don't need to explain. You don't have to go back, I was just trying to help you. I shouldn't have pushed you towards it." I admitted.

She smiled at me and I smiled back. Then we stood in silence for a while. Awkwardly.

"So..." I said, breaking the silence. "I guess we are okay now?" I questioned.