AFTER THE ENGAGED couple's shocking announcement, Mom left to go pick up paperwork from her office, or so she claimed, while the rest of us stayed home. Brenton and Alex were playing a stupid zombie murderer video game with each other in the living room while the rest of us sat on the couches in silence.
"You guys are going to help us plan the wedding, right?" Niko asked warily. At this rate, I was sure the boy would be sprouting grey hairs within the week with how stressed he had been.
"Of course we will," I assured him.
Brenton paused the game to look at me. "Who's we?"
I gave him a stern look. "Are you really trying to go down there, Wilhelm?"
He rolled his eyes. "Fine."
Alex glanced between us confusedly. "Why do you always give in?" he asked Brenton.
"Don't test Dani," Brenton whispered loud enough for us to hear. "She's crazy."
I grabbed the nearby remote and threw it at his head.
Brenton dropped his controller to protect his face, narrowly missing the remote. "See, I told you!"
Ignoring my idiot brothers, I smiled at Niko and Vanessa. "Don't worry, we've got your backs."
"You don't understand how much this means to me," Vanessa said. "With Daddy in Barbados, all of the planning pressure is on us."
"Her dad is also getting married," Niko piped in. "For the fourth time..."
Vanessa shot him an unamused look. "Keep this up, and I'll be looking for my second husband quite soon."
The more I got to know Vanessa, the more I was beginning to think she would fit in with us just fine.
~*~
"Daniella?"
"Five more minutes."
"Goodness, Daniella!"
"Three more minutes."
"Daniella Evangeline Parker, get up this instant!"
Slowly, I opened my eyes, blinking a couple of times to adjust to the sunlight. God, why was the sun so damn bright? I stretched my arms above my head, letting out a yelp when I saw my mom standing at the foot of the bed. At least this time I didn't have a half-naked boy under the covers with me.
"What time is it?" I groaned.
"Your first day has hardly begun and you're already late," Mom chastised. "I left clothes for you in the bathroom. Be showered and dressed in ten minutes."
Crap, I forgot about the stupid job.
I hobbled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, dreading the day that awaited me. Alex was already inside brushing his teeth so I dragged him by his ear out, locking the door behind me. I simultaneously brushed my teeth and showered before changing into the clothes Mom left for me. Hideous couldn't even begin to describe this trash. It was downright atrocious. I changed into the white blouse and matching magenta blazer and skirt, not even bothering to look at my reflection. I didn't need a mirror to confirm what I already knew: these clothes were a fashion disaster. I rapidly applied my makeup and tied my damp hair into a bun. I grabbed my cell phone off of my nightstand and went downstairs to see Mom waiting for me in the front foyer.
"You can eat something at the office, let's go."
The drive to her office was silent, not that I minded. I had almost fallen asleep when my mom shook my shoulder, waking me right back up. I followed her inside the building, awkwardly smiling at the people we passed.
"Madam Mayor, here's your morning coffee," a man said as he handed my mom a coffee cup.
"Thank you, Steven," she said without looking at him.
"Actually, it's Stefan," he corrected. When Mom turned to look at him I started silently praying for the poor soul. "Steven is great, too." He scurried off before she could do any damage.
Mom took a sip from her coffee and then grimaced, handing me the plastic coffee cup. "God, I hate hazelnut. Take this."
"What do you want me to do with this?" I asked.
"Drink it, of course," Mom answered in a tone indicating she thought I had just asked the most ridiculous question. "You're hungry, aren't you?"
I had to mentally calm myself down and stop the irrational part of me from snapping at my mom in her workplace. I quietly walked behind her, occasionally thinking about how terrible it would be if I accidentally spilled my coffee and she slipped on it.
She stopped in front of a glass door and gestured with her chin for me to go in. "This will be your office. Mine is on the second level, but if you need me please page Paige."
It was way too early in the morning for this. "Huh?"
"Paige is my secretary," Mom explained. "If you need something, page her. For today, I want you to go through all of the letters and emails we have received from all environment stakeholders in Stone Creek."
"Can't I do something more fun?" I asked.
"No," she answered in a snippy tone. "You will focus on the environment portfolio today and make summarized briefings on their requests which you will then fax to me so I can prepare for my meetings with these stakeholders. Until then, don't embarrass me."
I watched my mother walk to the elevator and get inside. The elevator doors had just shut when I turned around to walk into my office. No less than a second later did I hear the unmistakable sound of bone against glass as I walked right into my door. The people around me either didn't notice or didn't care because no one reacted, which was fine by me. I just wanted to do damage control before this could get worse. I cupped my nose with my hand, feeling the blood trickle down as I searched for the nearest bathroom. I was looking around frantically, not watching where I was going, and I crashed into someone's back.
"Dani?"
Of all people, it just had to be Holden Rollins.
He gasped when he saw my bloody nose. "That wasn't from me, was it?" Not waiting for a response, Holden ushered me down the hallway and to the nearest bathroom. I went inside and quickly cleaned up my injury. Minus the bloodstain on the collar of my shirt, I was practically good to go. Holden was waiting for me when I got out.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
He held up an envelope in his hand. "I have a special invitation for the mayor from Stone Creek Café."
I raised my eyebrows in curiosity. "You had me at café, go on."
He chuckled. "Business has been going really well, and my dad has decided to expand. It looks like we're turning into a chain."
"That's amazing!" I told him, and I truly meant it. Mr. Rollins put his blood, sweat, and tears into the café, and it was great to see his hard work paying off.
Holden grinned. "The grand opening is happening at the new location in Cedar Grove in August. It would have been sooner, but when my dad found out about the wedding he wanted to do the grand opening after. You know how he is with wanting to end summer with the biggest event."
I laughed at that. Classic Mr. Rollins.
"Anyway, we're hoping your mom can come for the ribbon-cutting ceremony," Holden continued. "You guys are all invited too, of course."
"We'll be there!" I exclaimed.
Holden's smile contorted into a look of disgust. "Your nose is dripping again."
I cradled my nose with my hand before my blood could stain more of my clothes. "I should go deal with this."
He waved me farewell. "Try not to injure yourself."
No promises.
~*~
The rest of my workday went by agonizingly slowly. Thankfully I had no more run-ins with the wall, although that would have been a hell of a lot more interesting than taking notes about environmental issues I couldn't care less about. My main takeaways were littering was bad and we were all doomed. Putting my boredom aside, I zoomed through the tasks Mom had assigned me and finished up on time. I faxed the documents to my mom and got ready to leave. Today wasn't too bad, and I supposed it beat sitting around all day thinking about James and Leila.
I was surprised to have not heard from him since the dinner when he came over. Aside from the one text message he sent, James hadn't called or visited since. Since my mom was my ride, I called a cab and was dropped off at my house.
God, I really needed to get my licence.
I changed out of my repulsive outfit and exchanged it for a light blue wrap-around crop top and high-rise black denim shorts. I took my hair out of the ridiculously tight bun that was giving me a headache, running my fingers through my waves as I let them down. No one else was home, so I stayed in my bedroom and sat at my desk. I turned on my laptop and video called James. If he was too busy to call me, then I was going to ensure he made time.
A grin found its way onto my lips when James' face filled my computer screen. "Hey," he said with a lazy smile.
"You won't believe the day I had," I began as I recounted the first day of my new job and my embarrassing accident.
"It's not that bad," James assured me.
"You're kidding," I scoffed. "I had a nosebleed from ramming my face into my door! I even have the battle scars to prove it!" I held up my stained blouse for him to see.
"Trust me, you'll be..." His voice trailed off as he let out a yawn.
"If I'm boring you to sleep, just say so," I teased.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, it's just been a really long day."
"Oh, okay." Ignoring the sinking feeling in my chest, I tried to keep the atmosphere cheerful. "What'd you do today?"
James rubbed his eye tiredly. "I think I'm going to turn in early if that's fine by you."
"I guess so," I muttered halfheartedly.
"I'll talk to you later," he said, completely oblivious to my tone. James hung up before I could say anything. Letting out a sigh, I was about to close my laptop but I paused when I heard the ringing of the video calling app. My excitement turned to confusion when Holden's name popped on my screen. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone other than James but I answered the call anyway.
"Who's there?" Mr. Rollins' face was way too close to the camera that I could only see his nose hairs.
"You have to hold the camera away from you," his son chided in the background.
Mr. Rollins did as he was told and moved away from the camera, a grin on his face when he saw me. "Parker number three! How are ya, kid?" His jolly voice and exuberant energy could make even the grumpiest person smile.
I heard shuffling as Holden took the device from his dad. "Dani, you love food, right?"
I eyed him skeptically. "Sure..."
"Perfect, then settle this for us," Holden said. "We want to introduce a dessert pizza to the menu, but we can't agree on the same thing."
"Tell him my idea is better!" Mr. Rollins yelled in the background.
Holden rolled his eyes. "She needs to hear your idea first, Pops."
"Check this out!" Mr. Rollins stepped into view holding his dessert pizza. "It's caramel apple pie!"
"So original," Holden grumbled.
"What's your amazing idea?" I asked.
Holden beamed into the camera. "Get this, s'mores dessert pizza but you assemble it yourself! We'll prepare the graham cracker base, and each table will get, like, one of those little stoves where you can cook your own food, and we'll give marshmallows, and chocolates, and..."
"Who's going to pay for these fancy stoves?" Mr. Rollins demanded.
"And who's going to pay ten dollars for an apple pie from you when they can get it at the gas station for a buck fifty?" Holden fired back.
I weighed in my opinion before things could get ugly between father and son. Mr. Rollins didn't take criticism of his cooking lightly... Niko learned that the hard way many years ago when he worked in the café's kitchen back when he was fifteen. Let's just say Mr. Rollins could hold a grudge and to this day, Niko was still banned from ordering seafood at the café.
"Why not both?" I suggested. They looked at me like I was sprouting horns from my ass. "Like why not make a whole dessert pizza menu?"
Mr. Rollins stroked his moustache as he contemplated my idea. "I'm intrigued, keep talking."
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, you could offer brownie pizzas, cookie pizzas, cinnamon roll pizzas, any dessert pizza really."
Mr. Rollins was quiet and I watched him in anticipation. "I... love it! You should be my consultant instead of this oaf." He nudged his head in Holden's direction.
"Yeah, yeah, you're hilarious, Pops." Holden waved him off as his dad disappeared to probably explore more recipes. "Got plans tonight?"
I shook my head. "Not unless you count my date with my couch and TV."
"Why don't you come down to the café and brainstorm some more dessert pizza recipes with me?" he offered.
"I don't know..."
"I'm sure your couch and TV will understand," he joked.
"Fine," I caved in.
~*~
"It's all in the wrist," Holden said.
"I'm trying!" I argued, throwing the dough a bit too high. It flew up and stuck to the ceiling. My head snapped to Holden, scared of his reaction, but he surprisingly laughed. After coming up with a dozen dessert pizza flavours, we got hungry and Holden offered to teach me how to make a real pizza. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
"Put one hand palm up and spin the dough with it," he instructed. "Then make your other hand into a fist, and catch the dough on the back of that hand. Just keep repeating that, but don't toss the pizza too high this time."
I did as he said, and surprisingly I got the hang of it. Well, I did for a bit. I got distracted by the buzzing of my phone and dropped the dough.
"Dani!"
"Oops."
He picked up the rolling pin and smoothed over a piece of rolled-up dough. "This is your last chance. I'm too hungry and don't have the patience."
As Holden rolled away, I scooped up my phone from where it was sitting on a nearby counter and I looked at my notifications. It was a text from James.
You still awake?
So now he wanted to talk to me? What happened to him going to sleep? I turned my phone off and walked back to Holden, who handed me the dough.
"Remember, it's all—"
"In the wrist," I cut him off. I picked up the dough and held one hand palm up as I lifted and spun the dough. I tossed it not too high up before catching it on the back of my other hand's fist. I continued doing this a few times, tossing the dough higher than the last.
"I got to document this momentous occasion," Holden said. He whipped out his phone and filmed as I tossed the dough. "Here you can see the one and only Dani Parker —the same girl who struggles to pour a bowl of cereal, might I add— teaching us how to make pizza," he narrated. I laughed at how lame he was, but that didn't stop him and we spent the rest of the evening perfecting our pizza-making skills.