The Carlidia Renaissance- Cable Girls Reimagined (LCDC)

Chapter 8

Carlos's POV

My brow creased in confusion, but I was intrigued nonetheless. The journey in Francisco's car seemed long since I had to lay down flat on the back seat so I'm not spotted, staring at the car roof. I don't know how much longer it was until his voice rang faintly in my ears "We're here." He threw at me a black bundle of fabric which I then made out to be a black zip-through hoodie with pair of darkly tinted sunglasses buried in the centre of it.

After I put on my 'incognito outfit', he led me out of the car and into a block of apartments. We went up at least 3 floors before we finally stopped at the foot of a door. As I was taking off my sunglasses, he said to me "You might want to brace yourself for this. I didn't know if this would be a good idea, but you have a right as her father."

My body shuddered in realisation that I was going to face my daughter, at long last. Hearing her voice on the phone fairly recently after 8 years of absence had lit in me anew a hunger to be close to her, to get to know her, and here Francisco was, putting his faith in me once more.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I embraced him tightly, and whispered "Thank you." to him. He returned my embrace willingly, and after a few seconds he grasped me tightly by the shoulders "Me and Lidia actually never had her refer to me as her father, so she knows about you. But tread carefully with her, please." he finished. I nodded, resolved to make a good impression with her. After choking up on the phone last time, I spent more time than necessary reimagining that moment, what I could have said, what I could have done. And now is my chance to make amends.

He then knocked on the door, and it was opened by Marga, with a small bump on her stomach which indicated that she was pregnant. She looked at me and then said to Francisco "Are you sure he's ready for this?" He smiled at her and replied "No, but I believe in him."

"Guys, I'm standing right here" I point out, my face blank. They laughed, and she let us in.

The apartment was small, and furnished quite simply in a minimalist fashion. "Eva!" Marga called out "There are some people want to meet you!"

A door opened, and in came a girl with dark brown hair wearing a pink floral dress, and upon seeing her at last my eyes started to water.

"Francisco!" she cried happily and hugged him happily. "Hello sweetie, there's someone who wants to meet you."  he told her, pointing in my direction. Her small oval face then turned in my direction.

"Hi" I said to her, as I crouched down facing her. She was more beautiful than I could have imagined.

She noticed me and slowly made her way closer to me "Hello. Marga said that today we have a special visitor. My name is Eva, what's yours?"

"Carlos" I say. "What were you doing over there?" I ask her gently as I point to where she came from.

"I'm having a tea party with my dolls, do you want to join us?" she invites me excitedly.

I nod, and take her little hand as she led me to a small table. After introducing me to her dolls and making some conversation during the tea party, she then declares it finished, finally putting her dolls to sleep. She then turns to me and scrunches her face up in thought and then asks me a question.

"You look familiar. Are you my daddy?"

I'm taken aback by her question, and look towards Francisco and Marga for guidance. My heart warmed at seeing Francisco nod subtly.

I look back into her chocolate brown eyes "Yes." I tell her with a smile.

She then launches herself at me, and I hug her back tightly, squeezing my eyes shut as a tear ran loose. Within the euphoria I felt, I wished that the moment would last forever, not wanting to let go.

*** Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did while writing it! Okay so now about the recent news that Cable Girls is going to release its final 5 episodes of the show next July- you might be wondering how it affects this book. The answer is not much really, my plan is still to update regularly and to stay with the same ending I envisioned, but it does prompt me to work on finishing this book before the episodes air. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you guys know. Feel free to vote and comment what you thought about this chapter!- B***