11. Asher
Chapter 11
Asher
“ Come on, sweetheart.” I stretched out my hand toward her as she ran toward me and grabbed my hand. “ Are you ready for our date?”
“ Yup ! What are we doing today?” she asked as we swung our hands together, and I smiled.
“ It’s a surprise.” I pretended to zip my lips as we walked down the road to the first location for our father-daughter date. It was incredibly important for me to have dates every month because my daughter deserved everything in the world.
She had to learn from me how a man was supposed to treat her, although I preferred her to never come across a man, nor ever even think about it!
“ Hmm , does it have marshmallows?” she guessed, and I shook my head.
“ Nope !”
“ Clothes ?”
“ Nope ,” I sang, and she huffed.
“ Daddy , give me a hint!” she cried out.
“ We’re here,” I laughed, as I pointed at the door.
“ Oh !”
“ We’re way overdue for a manicure,” I said as we entered the nail salon, and she jumped excitedly. Anne loved getting her nails done.
“ Daddy , can I get a bright color this time?” she asked, her hopeful eyes gazing into mine.
“ Anne !” I looked up, noticing Brooke , who was sitting down getting her nails done, waving with her other hand.
“ Brooke !” Anne took her hand out of mine and ran towards Brooke , hugging her waist.
Why was she everywhere?
“ Oh , I love your nails,” Anne commented as she looked at Brooke’s hands. “ Daddy , can Brooke choose my nail design?” She looked at me desperately, and Brooke raised her eyebrows.
“ Yes , sweetheart,” I agreed, and they started conversing amongst each other in hushed tones, and I sat down to wait.
“ Are you here for your ten o’clock appointment, Asher ?” the woman who often did my nails asked me, and I nodded, pointing to Anne who stood close to Brooke as if they had always been friends. “ I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
“ Thanks , Sasha ,” I said as I looked out the door, noticing one of the tenants from the building loitering around. Perhaps he also wanted to get his nails done.
“ What do you think of purple with yellow flowers?” Brooke asked my daughter, excitement in her tone as she suggested nail designs to Anne . I preferred a clean trim and a simple buff and shine; so did my daughter most days, but since she saw Brooke getting her nails done with a French tip, she, too, suddenly wanted a design.
Brooke , ugh.
“ I want mine to look like yours,” Anne said in a small voice, and Brooke laughed softly as she pushed my daughter’s blonde locks away from her face.
“ Tell you what, if you get the purple nails with yellow flowers today, I’ll bring you here and then we can get matching sets next time,” Brooke bargained, and my daughter looked at her nails longingly before she caved in. “ And we can also do our toes together.”
“ Pink ?” Anne asked, and I didn’t miss the shock in Brooke’s eyes as she nodded; did she not like pink?
“ With glitter, too!” Brooke added, and Anne giggled, agreeing with Brooke’s suggestion. As much as I didn’t like Brooke , I was glad that Anne enjoyed her company and that Brooke was so nice to her.
She could’ve dismissed my daughter or acted shrewd toward her, but Brooke actually welcomed her and had become someone important to Anne . Although I had never allowed Brooke to stay with Anne unsupervised by me or Granny Elise , it was clear to see that Brooke and my daughter had formed a close connection.
Anne squealed at something Brooke said, and I looked out of the window again, noticing the guy from our building still standing there, pretending to be on his phone as he leaned against the parking meter.
What was his name again? Nile something; was he waiting for someone here, or was it just a coincidence?
“ You can come now, Asher ,” Sasha called for me, and Brooke looked up from her phone that Anne had borrowed while they sat together; they were probably watching the superhero cartoon that Anne was obsessed with.
Anne was sitting on her lap, and I was worried that Brooke might be uncomfortable, but when she saw me, her lips lifted up into a snarl, and she rolled her eyes, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds.
The woman had issues.
I sat down beside Brooke’s table, and she gave me a stiff nod as a greeting before she turned her attention back to Anne . I had every reason to believe that Brooke hated me probably as much as I disliked her.
I didn’t hate her as much anymore because she was great to my daughter, but that didn’t mean that I liked her; I had just downgraded my hate to dislike while she upgraded her dislike to hate. And I was okay with that.
“ Did you find your keys?” I asked her, as I gave Sasha my hand, and she began cleaning my somewhat clean nails, prepping them for my usual.
“ No , I even went back to the bar, but the bartender said he didn’t find any keys when he was cleaning up,” Brooke explained, and I stared at her. “ I was the last one to leave,” she added embarrassedly .
“ Did you visit Thomas ? Maybe someone in the building found them.”
“ Yeah , and nobody found my keys, so he had to give me his extra key, which I was fined for, by the way.”
“ The fine makes sense; you were irresponsible,” I nodded, and she rolled her eyes.
“ It was one drunken night!”
“ Two ,” I corrected, and she shot me a look. I knew that Anne wasn’t paying any attention to us because her focus was glued to Brooke’s phone.
“ One , and I wasn’t drunk the night of the fire,” she argued, and I shook my head.
“ I’m not talking about the fire, Brooke . It wasn’t your first time returning home drunk.” I noticed the way Sasha and Brooke’s nail technician gave each other a look as they listened to us disagree about how many times Brooke had come back home drunk.
“ I wasn’t drunk the first time. I was a bit buzzed, but I didn’t make a noise that day, nor did I lose my keys.”
“ But you did curse me out in the hallway when I had just returned from work,” I reminded her, and she huffed, rolling her eyes.
“ You don’t think you deserved it?” She threw my exact words back at me while her nail technician took a picture of her nails.
“ Touché ,” I shrugged, and she smirked as she got up from her seat and placed Anne comfortably on the center of the chair.
“ Are you leaving?” Anne asked, sadness laced in her tone, and Brooke pouted, her wavy hair bobbing as she nodded.
“ Yes , I have to go out and meet my friends.”
What friends? The one that rejected her for her best friend? Was she still friends with them?
“ Okay ,” Anne responded softly, and Brooke smiled.
“ But when you get back from your date with your dad, I’ll be home. So come show me your nails, okay?”
“ Okay !” Anne was happy that Brooke would be home by the time of our return. I had no idea why Anne loved Brooke so much.
Brooke was odd.
“ Be good; see you later,” Brooke gently ruffled Anne’s hair and walked toward the receptionist desk. “ Sasha , can I talk to you for a second?”
Sasha’s gentle assault on my hands stopped as she looked at me for permission to get up, and I nodded. They talked together, both facing the doors so I couldn’t exactly read their lips.
Out of sheer curiosity, I looked out the window and noticed that the tenant guy had left. Hmm , perhaps he was just waiting for someone.
Brooke smiled as she waved once more, leaving Anne and me behind for whatever her next engagement was.
The woman was really odd.
I’m pissed!
Anne couldn’t stop laughing as we walked back home after our dinner date, where I had actually contained my anger because my daughter had to be showered with praise like the princess she was.
However , when I remembered that we were finally heading home, my anger had been revived for that scornful woman who lived next door.
Oh , she was so problematic; I couldn’t wait for my payback.
How was I going to get her back? What she had done was extremely childish, and I knew it was her response for me calling her a desperate option, but I wasn’t lying. As attractive and sexy as Brooke was, she still wouldn’t be my first option to go for.
I actually had some sort of respect for her, and I thought I wanted her to leave—actually, I wasn’t so sure anymore—but what I knew for certain was that getting involved with her would only lead to trouble.
“ Daddy , they’re not so bad,” Anne stifled her laughter as we walked into the elevator.
“ Sweetheart , they are terrible,” I grumbled as I looked at my freshly painted yellow nails with smiley faces. Yellow nails and smiley faces! The best part of it all was that one nail had glitter on it.
I should’ve noticed something was wrong when Brooke left the store cackling after her light-brown eyes met mine. Terribly wrong. Even though Sasha should’ve asked me to confirm my neighbor’s crazy nail design suggestion, I still tipped her and her staff generously because my baby girl loved her nails.
Sasha apologized profusely and mentioned how Brooke convinced her that I was cool with the idea of colored nails.
I wasn’t!
“ No , they’re pretty. Just like you, Daddy !” she complimented as she kissed my hand, and I smiled. Even though I was a traumatized jerk, I was truly blessed with an angel!
“ And nobody is as gorgeous as you are, princess!” I picked her up and kissed her cheek while she squealed, begging me to put her down. “ I love you.”
Even though I wasn’t the best father around, I made sure to remind my daughter that I loved her more than anything in the world and that she only deserved the best of the best.
That’s what her mother would’ve wanted.
“ I love you.” She pecked my nose and I smiled. “ Can I show Brooke my nails?” she asked upon seeing Brooke’s grey, vintage door.
“ Yes , absolutely.” Ughh !
I put her down and knocked on Brooke’s door; we heard her response almost immediately, and Anne suggested that we both put our hands up so that Brooke could see our nails immediately.
I wanted to cut off my hands.
Brooke opened the door, revealing herself in her oversized pajamas and her brown hair tied in a bun at the top of her head, with her glasses riding low on the bridge of her nose.
Her eyes immediately noticed my nails first, and she bit her lips to stop herself from laughing as she kneeled down and took Anne’s hands in hers, cooing over them.
“ Oh , my gosh, Anne ! These are so pretty!” Brooke gushed as she studied the nail art. “ I think I should get these done next time; do you like them?”
“ Yes ,” Anne answered, suddenly shy as Brooke showered her with compliments over her amazing choice of nails even though Brooke had done the choosing. “ Daddy doesn’t like his nails.”
My daughter is not a snitch; she is not a snitch.
Brooke swallowed her laughter and looked up at me from her kneeling position. Yeah , yeah; this shit is funny to you, isn’t it?
“ What ? How could he not like them? I think they match his personality,” Brooke teased, and Anne , oblivious to the meaning, nodded her head. “ Tell us, Daddy , why do you hate your nails?”
I know I had said that Brooke would be a desperate option, but something about the way she said ‘ Daddy ’ while kneeling somewhat aroused me. She was taunting me.
“ I don’t hate them,” I gritted out as I clenched my fist, and Anne shook her head.
“ But you said they were terrible,” she reminded me, and indeed, I thought so. I needed to go buy some acetone.
“ I was wrong; I love them,” I forced myself to say, and Brooke looked away, trying to hide her laughter. “ They’re the best nails I’ve ever gotten.”
“ Yay ! He likes his nails!” Brooke and Anne gave each other a high-five, and I knew right then and there that if these two were ever up against me, I would always lose.
“ Daddy , can I watch TV with Brooke ?”
“ Sweetheart , it’s almost bedtime.” Those damn eyes always made her get her way. “ Are you okay with that, Brooke ?”
That definitely caught her off-guard because she thought I would never allow it to happen, but if Anne was going to be around Brooke so much, I had to develop some kind of trust for her.
“ Yeah ,” she breathed out as she took Anne’s hand in hers. “ I’ll bring her back when she falls asleep.”
“ Thank you,” I said earnestly, and Anne squealed as she ran into the apartment, and Brooke smiled.
“ This is a test, right? To see if I’m able to take care of Anne on my own?” I smiled as I waved and walked to my apartment, ignoring Brooke’s nervous calls.
Yeah , that ought to teach her a lesson.