Snowflakes and Second chances

CAR FIX

I tap on her message and laugh humorlessly at it's content trying to understand how jobless she had to be seeing as she was still up by this time, making the task of trying to bug my life her priority.

'Jacob tells me you've leeched off him enough to finally leave, let it better be that your decision remains unchanged. A gold digger like you will never be good enough for my son, I don't want to see you come crawling back for mercy and especially not at my house now that he's home.'

I didn't see the necessity in her texting me, it made zero to no sense as to why Jacob's mother felt like she needed to remind me of something she had never once shut up about and that was her unmasked hatred for me.

Pettiness had to be something that ran in their family, I roll my eyes and block her contact on my phone, plugging it in and setting it down on the nightstand as sleep gradually takes me, the thought of what if Jacob had come back with Rita haunting me through the night.

The next morning, Mandy and Julian stop by to join us for breakfast, and we all leave together after.

I tag along with that seeing as the best I could do to assist him would be helping out at the diner in any way.

Deciding to make it consistent as I indeed couldn't spend everyday inside doing nothing, I get properly acquainted with all the staffs and get a rundown on how they operated.

The place was a lot different than I remembered, in a good way, though.

Anyone could see just how much hard work dad had put into the place, from the renovations, to the eye-catching decoy and well trained staffs, business was going relatively well from what I could tell.

And yet, the homey feel it always had been still maintained with many of the first original designs remaining unchanged.

I smile as I catch sight of the bell that jingled whenever a customer came in remembering how we had all painted our choices of flowers onto it before dad had hung it up for the first time.

Good memories like that had gradually begun to fade from my mind, and it was heartbreaking to see that every other thing that went wrong following my mum's abandonment stayed unmoving.

The place keeps buzzing for the rest of the day as people pour in and out of the diner, the distraction of working serving as a much-needed escape for me from any unwanted thoughts and I happily bury myself in work.

“Darling? I'm going to need you to head on home for me, I'm expecting someone over to help me check something out, and I forgot to leave the key.” Dad comes up to me as I and one of the waitress's Nina make small talk.

She was on break and everyone was currently attended to, so we were keeping each other company. Excusing herself, Nia walks away to give us privacy.

“Oh okay, I'll take the truck yeah?” I confirm to be sure if maybe he had another option or idea for me.

“No, on the delivery guy's taking something over to neighborhood after ours, he'll give you a ride. I require the truck to run a few errands. And oh Amelia? You don't need to come back, I'll lock up here.” He explains, and I nod taking off my apron as he hands me the house keys.

As I hitch a ride on the delivery guy's bike, something about the way my dad was trying to hide a smile as he asked me to go home and help me do something was kind of suspicious.

Knowing him, he definitely had something planned, and now I was curious to see what it was about.

I thank the guy as he drops me off, and I walk the rest of the short distance up to the house squinting my eyesight around the neighborhood to see if anything looked odd.

As I near the door, I hear shuffling around the side of the house and I frown confused. What sort of surprise was dad planning to drop on me?

Creeping over to the garage that was surprisingly open, I take in the unfamiliar car parked just outside, and I don't know if I should go ahead and head inside or call dad to ask if his visitor was meant to have anything to do with our garage.

Why was the garage open in the first place even? My mind begins to go to the possibilities of it being a burglar maybe, and I start getting nervous as I drag my feet closer to the entrance and peek my head in.

A startled Yelp escape me as I collide with a solid body stumbling back. I'm about to fall, my footing lost from the unexpected collision but much to my luck, a hand grabs at my arm pulling me in.

It's the cologne that clears my confusion and panic before I even look up and when I do, my eyes meet Sebastian's.

We were standing so close our noses were almost touching, and I find myself replaying our little moment in the kitchen that night, my face immediately flushing red as his hand remains on my arm.

“Are you alright? Sorry, there didn't see you coming in.” He says shaking me off the daze and I take a step back and breaking his hold on my arm, in need of space between us to think straight…God forbid I did anything stupid.

“Oh sorry I was trying to be careful in case it were an intruder.” I joke and he begins laughing.

“That's not advisable, how about next time you go get help first if it were an intruder? It's not like I doubt your kickboxing skills though.” He teases and I find myself laughing off the awkward bubble I felt around not knowing how to act around him with all the tension around.

“Oh and yeah, your dad mentioned his old car the other day, Julian still sucks at anything engine related I had spare time on my hands, so I came to try to give the car a fix. He gave me the keys, so I let myself in thinking you'd be at the diner.” I ohh in understanding and snicker as my dad's plan becomes clear.

“My brother's lack of interest in cars remains unchanged I see. Thank you so much for helping out, I think I'll leave now and let you continue-” I stop talking as he reaches out holding my hand.

“Seeing as you're here already, why not just stay? I'm a bit bored and having someone to talk to would definitely make me work faster. Please?” He gives me a killer smile to top off his innocent request and I really want to protest but can't find it in me.

He had taken time out of his day to come help dad out and was asking if I could stay and him company, nothing but hanging around while he worked… there wasn't any harm there, was it?

Seeing as we weren't strangers, and I wasn't particularly busy or preoccupied in any way, I nod with a small smile, his hand still holding on to mine softly.