Second Chance Daddy

Prologue Welcome to a special holiday addition of the hit TV show, The Luxury Love Liner! We are looking for contestants to take part in this once in a lifetime show. Are you a single mother looking for love? And do you want the chance to win Fifty thousand dollars! Apply today! We have six successful, single men waiting to sail the seas and sweep you off your feet. You must be a single mother of a child under ten years old, and you must be able to travel along with your child between December 4th and December 25th. If you are selected, you will be legally committed to the full three week show where live content will be streamed to our social media accounts. You will participate in interactive challenges involving both parent and child, couple and group dynamics. The first week, we will pair partners via a lottery system, with the two remaining men forming their own team to compete, remember though, even though they will be paired together, these single hunks will still be out to impress you with their skills. After each week, there will be a vote where male guests, female guests, and children will choose who they most like spending time with. The results will affect the next weeks pairings. Then in the final week, you’ll choose your man! If he chooses you too, you’ll split the fifty thousand dollar prize and win an all expenses paid vacation to a tropical island to start your budding romance off with style! So, what are you waiting for? Take your first step into your happily ever after! We’re waiting for you. Elodie POV I carefully cut the pattern along the chalked line, the heavy dressmakers scissors sliding smoothly through the silk fabric. Across the small, living area, my daughter sits cross-legged on the floor. Her gaze is rivetted to some awful reality show that’s playing on the thirty two inch television, a moving in gift from my friend Sofia, when I moved into this apartment six and a half years ago, pregnant and alone. The television that despite me working every hour, I still haven’t managed to replace. Sofia currently sits across from me frowning at the drawing I mocked up as she drinks a glass of box wine, gave me at the kitchen table, a glass of cheap box wine in hand, frowning critically at the design sketch that I’m working from. ‘Yay!’ My six year old daughter, Callie cheers excitedly. She turns around, her face bright with excitable pleasure. ‘She picked Ronaldo! I hoped she would!’ I offer a gentle, distracted smile as I nod. ‘That’s wonderful, angel, but you really shouldn’t be watching that. It’s not really for little girls.’ Callie’s brow furrows. ‘Why not? It’s about romance, and that’s what the stories you read to me are about. Finding true love, that’s what this show is about too. Finding your prince!’ ‘She’s got you there El,’ Sofia comments, smirking over the rim of her glass. ‘Aren’t you here to help me?’ I retort pointedly. As a professional seamstress at a high-end bridal boutique in town, Sofia is supposedly here to help me pin the dress prototype together. Instead, she has spent the evening flipping through a fashion magazine and slagging off my client’s dress choice. Okay, its not great, but it’s her dress! ‘I am helping’ Sofia insists, eyeing me. ‘I told you that this dress is horrific and completely unworthy of your label to be inside of it! I cannot be more helpful than that El.’ I shake my head, and return to my task. I need to get this pattern completely cut out so I can pin the pieces together and send a photograph to my client. I need to make sure it matches her vision before I put it together properly and start the painstaking hours of hand beading the bodice with diamantes. This is a fast turnaround job, which is why I’m hunched over the kitchen table, working on it at seven at night, in my cramped one bedroom apartment. I hate working evenings. I want nothing more than to shut down my workstation and dedicate my full attention to Callie. But this particular client, just like so many of the others, is willing to pay a lot of money for me to create her a bespoke dress, to her exact specifications, all within a week. Honestly? I can’t afford to turn down the money, not if I want to get a real studio and staff and create a business where I can leave at night, every night. So here I am once again, working while our television babysits my daughter. ‘Mummy! You should do this!’ Callie announces suddenly. The excitement in her voice breaks my concentration, distracting me from the faint line I’m following. I look up to find her pointing eagerly at the television screen that has a vibrant commercial flashing across the screen. ‘What is it angel?’ I ask, setting down the heavy scissors onto the table. I walk around the couch and kneel down on the threadbare carpet beside the six year old. ‘The show! You should apply!’ Callie repeats, bouncing on her knees as she looks up at me with hopeful eyes. I frown, my gaze roaming over the advert that is pasted over the credits of the reality show, taking in the bronzed people drinking champagne on the deck of a fancy boat, beaming at the camera. ‘The Luxury Love Liner – A Special Single Mother’s Christmas Edition’ ‘Oh, no I don’t think so . . .’ I mutter slowly. A dating show? Oh, hell no! ‘Please mummy!’ Callie begs, cutting me off as she clasps her hands together desperately. ‘You could find your one true love! Then you won’t be lonely anymore . . .’ I freeze, looking down at her in confusion. ‘Why do you think I’m lonely?’ I ask slowly, turning my head to face her. My daughter shrugs, dropping her gaze to the floor. She traces absentminded patterns into the carpet pile with her index finger, avoiding my questioning gaze. ‘Callie?’ I push gently, ‘why do you think mummy is lonely?’ ‘Because you don’t have a husband. You are by yourself, and being by yourself is lonely,’ she mumbles. ‘Oh baby, I’m not lonely,’ I gasp, wrapping my arms around her small frame and pulling her into my chest. ‘I have you, and you are the best friend anyone could ever have. How could I possibly ever feel lonely with you in my life?’ Callie leans into my embrace, resting her head against my shoulder. ‘I know,’ she mutters, ‘but I’m not a grown up. I’m . . . not a Daddy . . .’ My throat tightens as my body stiffens, a Daddy, the one thing I can never be to my little girl. ‘You . . . you want a Daddy?’ I ask softly, my voice trembling slightly. Her father isn’t in the picture, he never was . . . Callie shrugs again, still refusing to meet my eyes. ‘Sometimes I think it might be nice,’ she admits. ‘My friends at school, they have Daddies. They come to watch their plays, and when we built dens, they all came to help . . . I . . . I had to join another Daddy and his daughter because I didn’t have one . . .’ she adds in a small quiet whisper. ‘Oh angel,’ I gasp, tightening my hold as she buries her face into my top. ‘I didn’t know you had a Daddy den building day. Why didn’t you tell me?’ My little girl sniffs, rubbing her nose. ‘I didn’t want to make you sad,’ she admits softly. ‘It always makes you sad when you think I’m upset.’ ‘I could have come’ I reply, a thick lump forming in my throat. ‘I would have come to do it with you.’ Callie shakes her head. ‘You had to work. You need to earn money so you can get your studio,’ she mutters. ‘And . . .’ she adds, before biting down on her lip, cutting off her words. ‘And?’ I prompt. ‘You’re not a Daddy’ she whispers, before burying her face further into my clothing so she can hide from me. ‘Oh baby,’ I sigh heavily, guilt crushing down on my chest. Callie looks up at me finally, her eyes shining with tentative hope. ‘But if you went on the show, you could find a boyfriend,’ she states quickly. ‘And maybe, he might want to be my Daddy and do the Daddy school things. Plus, there is a big prize for the winners! You could get your studio then, and Aunt Sofia wouldn’t have to come here and help you with your work in our apartment.’ She fixes me with pleading eyes. ‘Please?! It will be so much fun! It’s on a really big ship and you get to sail around all these pretty islands! We could spend time together without you having to work all the time. They even cook your dinner for you so you could relax and have fun! It could be my Christmas present!’ she adds. Guilt gnaws at my stomach. S.hit, how did I miss this? How did I not see how much my little girl was quietly struggling because she didn’t want to worry me? Callie turns toward the kitchen table, sensing me weakening. ‘You think Mummy should do it, don’t you Aunt Sofia?’ she asks loudly. ‘tell mummy that we should go on the show!’ I snap my head around to glare a fierce warning at my friend, but she doesn’t even look up from the drawing in her hand as she shrugs. ‘Sure sugar. Even if she doesn’t find a boy toy, it will be a nice vacation,’ she replies smoothly. ‘Don’t encourage her’ I huff, wondering how my stare isn’t burning a hole in my friend’s head right now. ‘Sweetie, when was the last time you actually took a vacation?’ Sofia demands? Her tone shifts to something more serious as she finally looks up to fix me with her own glare. ‘When did you last go anywhere with Callie that wasn’t the fabric wholesaler or the grocery store?’ ‘I . . .’ my voice falters. I have no answer for her. Truthfully, we have never been on vacation; I’ve never been able to afford it, every penny I make goes toward rent, materials, insurance and the thousand of other bills that need to be paid each month. ‘See’ Sofia shrugs, swirling the last of the wine in her glass. ‘But what about my client work? This dress . . . it needs to be finished this week . . .’ I fret, gesturing toward the silk spread out across the table. My friend raises an eyebrow. ‘And you will get it done, just like you always do,’ she retorts. ‘Do you have any other commissions lined up after this dress?’ she demands, knowing full well that I don’t, my schedule is clear, it’s how I managed to take on the current dress this close to Christmas when everyone else said no. I shake my head, chewing on my lip uncertainly. Sofia shrugs, taking down the last of her wine and setting the glass down with a decisive click. ‘Then you should apply. Hell, even if you don’t win, you could still enjoy the view of the hot daddy wannabees. Quite frankly, I’m worried your hoohaa is going to heal over from lack of use.’ ‘What’s a hoohaa?’ Callie asks curiously, her head shooting up to look between me and my best friend. ‘Nothing!’ I yell, quickly clapping my hands over my daughter’s ears as I glower at my friend, who bursts into a wicked, cackling laugh. ‘Are you serious?’ I hiss under my breath. ‘She is six years old!’ Sofia waves a dismissive hand, still laughing. ‘Please, it’s not like I said v****a!’ She fixes me with a steely look, ‘Just apply for the damn show, El. Make Callie happy and live a little, I mean, what are the chances that you’ll get picked anyway? There will be loads of thirsty women trying to get a spot.’