Accidental Christmas Miracle

21.

Miracle

"Yes?" I answered the phone.

"Hello, darling." Devin Winters answered me.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, Dad?"

The frown that was probably on his face could be heard in his voice. "I wanted to check up on you. Can't I do that?"

"You never just 'check up' on me." I deadpanned. "You always have something to say, so just say it. No use beating 'round the bush."

I heard a sigh come from the other end and then my father spoke again.

"Fine. I called to talk about the work situation."

I groaned. "Dad, there is no 'work situation'! I'm not coming to work for you or with you or whatever you say. I don't want to!" I had refused multiple times but it never seemed to get through to him.

Mom never did anything about it either, probably because she didn't know. She hates getting stuck in the middle of a family "squabble", as she put it. It made her apparently choose sides and she didn't want to hit either of our feelings, so she decided to stay out of them all.

Of course, my mother and I had our own spats about a variety of things but she knew when to stop pushing something. Unlike Dad.

"Darling, I just think it would be a great opportunity to-"

I cut him off. "Dad, no disrespect because I know that you and Mom spent a lot of time and energy to get the company where it is right now but, I want a different path." I tried to explain to him in a simpler way but it still didn't work.

"Like what? Honey, that writing hobby isn't going to work. You already got rejected how many times? Thirty times?"

I frowned. "Thirty seven times." I corrected him.

"Exactly, honey. You'll get nowhere with that little side gig of yours. You've already tried."

A pang of sadness spread in my chest and a seed of doubt started growing in my mind. I could feel myself giving up on the idea, loosening my tight clutch of my dream, being swayed by his words because they were exactly what I had been saying to myself.

I shook my head, trying to get the seed dislodged from my mind and spoke up. "No. No. No. I'm not going to listen to you convince me to give up on my dream. This is my life and I'm in charge of it. You may be good at convincing people to buy or invest or whatever you do for your stupid business but I won't let you sway me."

With that, I angrily hung up on him and took a moment to breathe and calm myself.

When I did, I tucked my phone into my pocket and walked back over to the group I was with.

Christi gave me a look, wondering what that was about and I waved her off. Hopefully she didn't overhear the conversation.

While my mom was the quiet one that handled most of one thing for the company, my father was the loudspeaker did the other half. As I had no clue how the company works, I am definitely not a great fit to be in the company.

However, as I am the only child, my father feels the need to continue and try to convince me to be a part of the company. He didn't normally get an answer he didn't like, so I guess that's one of the reasons for his relentless calls.

I sighed at the thought.

Meg gave me a look, her violet eyes all too knowing, probably figuring out what the call was about and slung her arm around my shoulder, giving me just the right amount of support I needed right now.

The girl with multicolored hair was the one that always made sure I stayed strong with my rejection of the position in the company. She knew that I never wanted that type of life, always sitting at a desk or whatever they do. However spontaneous she was - she was the one that always dyed her hair different colors and went for the guys she liked - she kept me grounded, as I suppose I did for her.

We walked side-by-side as we roamed around the rest of the festival, me showing her all the booths I liked and her showing me the ones that were still there from when she was there last.

Although I had a great time, I couldn't get my father's condescending tone at my writing out of my head and his disapproving voice was the last thing in my mind as I went to sleep.