"It's ready!" Charlotte, Eric's wife cat Eric's househimed as she pulled a cake tin out of her oven and beamed at me. Kerrick, Kaleb and I were spending the evening at Eric's house with after he invited us. Earlier I decided to give his wife a hand in the kitchen while Kerrick and Eric were sitting out front talking and the boys were playing in the living room."My Eric and Nathan love chocolate," She laughed while putting the freshly baked cake on a cooling rack.Charlotte was petite and had pale blonde hair unlike her dark haired well built husband and son, but she had a radiant smile and bubbly personality that made her very likeable. "How about Kerrick and Kaleb? What flavor cake do they like?" She asked while looking over at our boys playing."Um well," I said smiling at her eager curiosity. "Kerrick doesn't eat cake, he's Diabetic and Kaleb isn't very fond of sweets.""Oh!," Charlotte exclaimed before blushing with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." "It's okay," I laug
"Thanks a lot for stopping by, I'll see you tomorrow!" "Of course, Delancy, I'll be sure to come again." Warmth and weariness filled my chest as I watched the last customer for the day leave. I went back to the cash register, yawned, and stretched tiredly but I couldn't complain because I knew it was due to all the work I did. "Dad, we should close up now." "In a minute." He answered. I sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder but he didn't budge from what he was doing. It’s past closing time and all our customers are gone." "I know, just give me a minute." "What are you doing?" "Writing." He told me monotonously. Curiosity picked away at me and I peeked over at what he was doing. He was indeed writing something in a brown leather book he had on the counter but that only made me more curious about what it was. "It's... About me?" I realized this after leaning in closer and taking a glimpse at his writing. "Yes, but It's just a little something." He confirmed. "Why?" I in
"Delancy!" I heard my father shout, running up the staircase. "What's wrong?" I replied a bit startled as I dropped my hairbrush and ran up to the doorway. "Come here, you'll never believe this!" He continued trying to hide the growing excitement in his eyes. "What's going on?" I asked again while tying up my bathrobe but instead of a reply he grabbed my hand and pulled me down the stairs with him. "Delancy look at this!" He smiled while taking up sheet of paper off the counter. "It's a loan document," I said a little puzzled while narrowing my eyes at it. "Read it!" he continued his smile brightening by the second. "Well...It says our debt is paid in full." "Yes!" He laughed unable to contain his excitement. Understanding this, I also gave my father a warm smile. "Oh I see, we've finally paid off one of our debts." To my surprise, he shook his head and smiled even brighter. "Delancy, I haven't told you this but," he smiled then took back the document, "this loan was the fin
Something was different about today. I wasn't sure what but there was something different, nonetheless. A week had passed since the debt on the store had been paid off and everything was running rather well. Daniel had even started working with us though it was only to make up for the things he broke in the store. I was leaning over the counter, looking at all the passing faces. As strange as it was, I couldn't help thinking that there was something more I should have been doing. "Delancy?" "Huh?" Victoria. "Oh Tori, I didn't hear you come in." She blinked back at me surprised before she sighed and gave me a nod. "I guess you were busy working..." Her voice trailed off in disappointment as she looked over my shoulder at the stacked shelves. "I guess you're always busy." "Don't say it like that," I said, my voice sounding like a plea. "It's not that I don't have a choice. It's just that-" "Delancy, we were supposed to go out today. You, Sam, and I. Don't you remember?" "I d
"This can't be happening." My father murmured while putting his hand on his head. "It's okay," I said trying to comfort him as I stood by his side. "No, it's not." "Dad," I whispered, looking down at him sitting on the floor with a bottle of liquor in his hand. "Please tell me you haven't been drinking again?" He turned to me gravely and shook his head. His sadness was infectious when he smiled at me. "Why? Why now?" Unexpectedly tears welled up in his eyes and for the first time in a long while I saw him cry. "Why did this have to happen?" Solemnly, I knelt beside him and smiled "We didn't lose the store," I said reassuring him "It was just a little fire." "No." "Yes, it was," I didn't know how the fire started but my father had told me that the circuits in the back had overheated and it had caused the wires at the back of the store to catch fire. Luckily my father was skillful enough to unplug the wires upstairs before the fire could spread everywhere. Currently, there was m
"Delancy you're not serious are you?" "Dad I-" "Has everyone lost their mind today?" He said walking over to the table and sitting back in his chair until he was staring at the ceiling. "Delancy, how could you even think I would consider something like that?" I hadn't thought of it before, but I saw now that my father's pride was at stake. He worked tirelessly to provide everything he could for us and accepting help now wasn't something he was going to do. "It was already so strange and insulting that Charles came and said that to me in my own house but now what you're saying just isn't right." Hurt filled his voice and he seemed so stressed and frustrated. He even looked like he had aged a little over the few days. "Dad, he can help us if I-" "Delancy, I know we have problems, but I told you I would take care of this. There's no need to say meaningless things." "Dad-" "I don't want to hear any more about this!" He snapped and got up from the table before slamming the door be
"Hey Delancy, do you think we should put an ad in the newspaper for the store?" "Maybe," I shrugged. "I suppose it could bring in more customers. "Yeah, I guess it could." My father said flipping through the newspaper. I slouched against the cash register, trying to pull myself together because I didn't want him to know how tired I was. The store was busier than usual today, but I felt no enthusiasm towards it even though I was glad it had reopened and was running much better than before. "Ahh yes, the newspaper!" Daniel smiled while leaning on the broom he was sweeping with. "If I could get in there everyone would know me!" My father huffed at him before flipping to another page. "Delancy, can't you see me in the papers one day!" "Yeah, the obituary." my father cut in just as the store bell rang. "Samantha?" I said realizing that she was the person who had come in. "I didn't know you were coming?" "Delancy I heard that some crazy ass is telling everyone that everything's hal
An hour or two must have passed from the time I was sitting next to the wall waiting to meet the man I was supposed to marry - or at least it felt that long to me.Knots were continuously tied in my stomach as I every strange face that passed me I expected to be him. It was nauseating and tiring to sit around and wait for him because, in all honesty, I didn't know what to expect. My father had only mentioned once that he was older than me - three years to be exact but that was all I knew."Are you the girl who's engaged to Mr. Matthau's son?"I almost didn't hear the question as a thousand thoughts stirred my head, the nauseating feeling I had worsening."Ye-Yes." I stuttered as I looked to my right at the woman in pink who had taken a seat next to me. Her face was plump and pinched but it was cheerful and welcoming, her voice nice and soothing like a mother's."I'm surprised that a young lady like you would be getting married so soon. I must say, it's quite admirable that a girl of y