Promise

chapter 8

"We are here " I say parking the car. "I hope I like it" she says and I smile at her "you will" I say hoping she does so we can have icecream more often. As we head to the foor, my phone starte to ring, I quickly check the caller id, it was my sister so I quickly answer knowing I would only get her complaining later "hi em" I say after accepting the call. "Eli, are we are coming over for dinner tonight still" she asks sns then I remember, em was suppose to come over for dinner with maisey tonight. "Tonight isnt a good night" I reply not wanting to scare Avery "why not, I invited mum and dad too, they are looking forward to seeing you" she responded. Just great. I could always tell them privately that she was my daughter but I havent told her yet, that way they dont make any mistakes or treat her like a replacement, but shes finally starting to open up to me I didnt want to ruin it. "I'll ring you later, I'm busy now" I say and hang up, I turn my phone on silent so I cant be disturbed again. "Lets find a booth" I tell her as we enter. "How about there" she asks pointing to one by the window "perfect" and we go and sit down. I hand her a menu and grab one for myself "you can have anything tou want" I say and look down at mine. I eventually decided on a chocolate shake with a small chocolate and pecan sundae. "Have you decided" i look at avery and she shakes her head "there is just so much, the milkshakes look good though, I just dont know which flavour" she says and I chuckle at how flustered she was "how about a strawberry shake" I suggest and she nods "maybe just plain icecream, I don't want to start with weird flabours" I laugh as she scrunched her nose when she said weird flavours. "Not even chocolate icecream" I ask and she contemplates it. "I guess chocolate would be acceptable" I nod and close the menu, she copies and as soon as our menus are put back a waitress comes over "what can I get you both" she asks. "1 chocolate shake and one chocolate and pecan sundae, and 1 strawberry shake and vanilla and chocolate sundae" I order, the waitress scribbles down our order as I speak "it will be here shortly" and she walks away.
I look at Avery, maybe now would be a good time to tell her.
"So avery, how would you feel about staying with me for a bit longer than 2 weeks" I say losing the confidence to tell her I was her dad.
"I guess you seem nice so far" she replies but I could tell she was thinking about her word choices carefully
"That's good because I want for you to stay a while" i say. I mentally face palm myself, this sounded like i was going to adopt her which i wasnt.
"How long is a while" she asked. Maybe it would be better for me to adopt her, that way it wouldnt be so complicated "for as long as you want" I reply wanting it to be her choice
"ok" she smiles and I smile back. I had successfully done it. Now all what's left was to tell her she was my daughter, but i had to pick the right moment. First i had to find out how much she actually knows about her family, but I didnt want to upset her so i decided to mention it later. "Is there anything you would like to know about me" i ask wanting to be open with her. She nods and I wait for her to ask, I could see she was carefully thinking of what to say "the alley, what were you doing there" she asks and I take a deep breath. I knew this would come up. "Spencer was a very bad man and I was just warning him to stop being a bad man" I tell her and she rolls her eyes. Just by doing that, it showed she was starting to trust me. "You had a gun and you were talking about money, I'm not stupid, I just want to know how bad of a criminal you are" she said and i couldnt help but smile widely. She didnt call me sir and she spoke freely with me. "I think I'll leave that up to you to decide" I tell her, I hated the thought of her thinking of me as a criminal even if I was one.
Before she can ask again, our shakes and icecream were brought to us. The look of excitement on her face made me happier than before.

"Oh wow, icecream is amazing" she said as she took the first bite. I nod in response "it really is" I agree.

"If you're full, you dont have to eat it" I tell her after seeing she was struggling to eat the rest of her icecream, I had finished mine a little while ago and had been slowly drinking my shake. "Its so good though" she said and I smile, just spending time with her, I think I'd have kept her even if she wasnt my daughter. "I'll get you some icecream when I next do a food shop" I tell her and she smiles widely "really" she asks and I nod "of course and anything else you want" I reply. "Ok but I'm taking my shake with me" she says and I nod in agreement. The shakes already came in takeout cups which was good. "Wait here while I go pay ok" I tell her and leave to go to the counter to pay.

Avery
Icecream was amazing, milkshakes are amazing. Today was one of the best days I can remember. When we were shopping, elijah got me pretty much everything I glanced at, I felt bad about it, especially the electronics, he had already done so much for me and I felt bad knowing he was wasting his money on me. Before the icecream came he mentioned wanting to keep me for longer which I hesitantly sort of agreed to. I didnt know what to think of Elijah, he seemed nice but the alley meeting where he had a gun kept coming back to me. I know that once he discovers all my flaws he will take me back to the home. He was a billionaire, if he wanted a child he could adopt or foster someone much better than me, better yet he could easily have his own perfect child with some super model. I will just be a burden to him, a dark shadow cast over his perfect life. I felt my eyes starting to water and soon I was crying, I couldnt stop the tears.
"Hey, avery what's wrong" I look up and see him stood next to me. He crouched down till he was my level. "Please tell me what's wrong" he asks again. "You said you wanted to keep me" I start and he nods "dont you want that" he asks me so I continue "you will get rid of me when you see how damaged I am" and before anything else can happen, he stands back up and within seconds I'm bring pulled into a hug. The hug felt warm and comfy, I dont even remember the last hug I got and in that moment i let down my walls and hugged back but as I hugged I cried more, I just couldnt stop.