Chapter 5
1224 Words
CLEO DAWSON
I didn’t need to think twice. I was obviously interrupting a very heated makeout session and other than the fact that the sight was breaking my own heart, I was probably being a nuisance to Ash.
“What the f**k are you doing here?”
Before he could curse at me one more time, I pulled myself together and immediately turned, rushing towards the door to leave the room. As I did, I heard him curse again then utter a few words to the girl on his bed before following me.
“Crap,” I muttered as I tried to quicken my steps, fully aware of his presence behind me. “Don’t follow me. Please don’t-“
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?”
Before I could run any further, I felt a strong grip around my arm immediately spinning me around to have me face Ash.
“Right, it’s you.”
I swallowed and sent my gaze to the floor, not daring to even look up at him. He was still almost naked, the only piece of clothing doing his nakedness a favor being the boxer shorts he had on.
“What are you doing here?” He demanded, unbothered at the fact that I wasn’t even looking at him. “I don’t remember my mum inviting you over.”
“Well- I-“
“Look at me and answer my question.”
I swallowed and slowly looked up at him, finally taking in how different he looked from the night I first met him. He still looked good though. Almost a hundred times better despite his hair being disheveled and almost no clothing on. He had the perfect body with chiseled abs and heavenly-
“Chloe?” He interrupted my thoughts and i immediately bit my lip, realizing the wild turn those thoughts were about to take. “What are you doing here?”
“What? I-It’s Cleo,” I managed to pull myself together then quickly reached for my backpack to take out the purse. “Um, your mum left this at our place the last time you guys came over. So um- I- I- my dad asked me to come drop it over.”
“Oh,” he seemed uninterested as he stared at purse in my hand. “She forgot something? Oh, please.”
“What?”
“You didn’t have to come all the way here for that,” he replied me. “It’s just a purse.”
“It seemed important.”
“Well if it was that important she wouldn’t have forgotten it at your place.”
“What? Well-“
“Besides she could have just waited till tomorrow to collect it,” he let out a scoff. “What was the drama necessary for?”
“What? Tomorrow?”
“Didn’t you hear?” He gave me a quick glance and shook his head. “There’s to be another sick dinner tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Ah I guess I’m not the only one with a nonexistent relationship with my parent,” he said with a mocking chuckle as he finally collected the purse from me. “At least we have one thing in common. We’ll make great siblings, don’t you think?”
My stomach churned at just the mention, reality hitting me with another harsh blow. Immediately, I took a step away from him and before he could say another word to me, took to my heels and ran down the stairs and out of the house.
I couldn’t trust myself to stay even a second longer in the same space with him after what I’d just witnessed. We were so different from each other. Our worlds were miles apart. It was all wrong. So wrong.
Luckily, he didn’t follow me until I’d successfully ran out of the house. My knees felt weak, my guts threatening to spill and I was suddenly glad I allowed Johnny drive me.
“Hey, Cleo,” he said the second he spotted me walking out of the house. He had now stepped out of his car, leaning on it as he obviously waited for me. “Was Beatrice home? Hey, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I obviously lied like my heavy breathing couldn’t be heard even a mile away. “Um, no. She wasn’t home. Her son, Ash, was. So um- I dropped it with him instead.”
“Oh, Ash,” he nodded. “He stays at his uni dorm though. Why was he at home? He-“
To make out comfortably with his girlfriend?
I bit my tongue as I tried to control myself from lashing out and saying some things I was definitely going to regret.
“Can we just go home?” I interrupted Johnny as he went on about the attributes of Ash I was suddenly not interested in. “Please?”
“Oh,” he finally noticed he had been talking too much. “Oh, sure. Come on, get in.”
Silent awkward rides were getting more frequent and as much as I didn’t want to, I found myself getting used to it. It was the perfect opportunity to focus on my thoughts and also realize that for the first time in ages, another man lurked around my mind when I was in the same space as Johnny.
We finally got to my home and with the excuse of having something to urgently get back to, Johnny dropped me by the gate and refused to come in. I was actually glad he wasn’t coming in and even more glad when I stepped in and saw my dad already waiting for me seated on the couch.
“Cleo,” he called out to me as he spotted me. “You’re back. Beatrice had to step out for something urgent and I kept on trying to call you to inform you but you weren’t picking your calls. How did it go?”
“Oh,” I muttered, remembering I hadn’t checked my phone in a while. “I didn’t know you were calling. Also, I dropped it with Ash instead.”
“Oh, that’s great then,” he seemed relieved. “At least your visit wasn’t completely futile.”
“It wasn’t,” I replied him. “I also got the chance to find out you’re planning another dinner with them.”
“Oh, Cleo,” he rose to his feet to take my hand in his. “Did Ash tell you that?”
“Does that matter right now?”
“I just never get the chance to tell you these things myself, do I?” He said with a hint of disappointment in voice. “I’m sorry, Cleo. I know all these must be a lot for you to take in. It’s happening so suddenly and-“
“No, it’s fine,” I quickly cut him off, unwilling to have that conversation with him out of fear we’d end up taking about Ash. “I’m really fine.”
“Cleo-“
“Another dinner, right?”
“Yes,” he replied with nod, the corners of his lips slowly stretching into a smile. “Tomorrow night. And this time it’ll be just us a family without Johnny. Just the family.”
Family. Great.
Just great.
- Writer
