Chapter 12 #2
“They have never approved of what I am doing. They thought that this was something I would grow out of, that I would do something worth being proud of like my other siblings.” She drew in a shuddering breath, and all Candy wanted to do was pull her into her arms. “My father said that he pitied me. He checks on me because he is worried about me, because he thinks that, one day, I will stop being able to provide for myself because everything that I have worked for will fail.”
“Votra,” Candy whispered, squeezing her hand.
She couldn’t imagine how that felt. Her parents had always been her most stalwart supporters–even when Candy was sixteen and decided that her big ambition was to be a tattoo artist, her father made a vow that he would be her first client.
It didn’t end up happening, of course, and the world was better for it.
But her parents would never tell her that.
Votra cleared her throat just in time for the server to return for their orders. Candy ordered something called braised Medran bluefish and the server respectfully dipped away and left them to their conversation.
“You’re not going to fail,” Candy said once the server was out of earshot.
“I know.” Votra concentrated on her glass of water now. “And I think that is part of what makes this so frustrating. I wish that they wanted to celebrate with me. But they did not decline because they were busy. They just… do not want to come.”
Anger that Candy didn’t deserve to feel flickered in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t know Votra’s parents, and right now, she really didn’t want to. But she couldn’t understand how they could be anything less than proud of her.
“That’s not fair.” Her eyes stung with tears, and she tried her best to withhold them. Votra didn’t need to comfort her. “That’s why you’re nervous? Because they’re not gonna be there?”
“I always imagined what it would be like, to release my work into the world and look out at all of the people supporting me and see my parents standing there. I imagined they would be there, cheering the loudest, because they always did when I was little. But having that confirmation that they will not be there….” A tear rolled down Votra’s cheek, and that was nearly enough to bring Candy to tears, too.
“I apologize. I did not mean to get this, um, worked up about this.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Candy said. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Is your family coming?” Votra asked.
“My uncle and his husband are. My parents and my sister are still on Earth and I don’t think they have any interest in traveling out here, but I know they’ll be calling me on the day of the party.”
She wished Votra could meet them. They’d love her–especially her dad. Her own throat grew tight, and she took a drink of water in the hopes of loosening it. “I’d love for you to meet my uncle and his husband, if you’re okay with that.”
“I would love to.” Votra gave her a watery smile and pulled her hand away from Candy’s as their server returned.
She was pretty sure her uncle Lochlan would love Votra, too.
He was a pretty good judge of character.
There had been many occasions where Candy had brought friends home that Lochlan immediately disliked–to an extent that was acceptable to dislike a child, of course–and Candy never understood him until inevitably, a few months down the line, said friend did something to hurt her. He was always right.
She was lost in her daydream of Votra meeting Lochlan until white-hot pain burst across the exposed skin of her thighs. Candy let out a shriek of surprise, grabbing her linen napkin from the table and immediately mopping as much sauce off her legs as she could.
“Gods, I am so sorry,” the server spluttered, picking the plate up off her lap and scrambling to rescue her from the hot food.
Everything seemed to happen in a blur, but the one thing she could make out was Votra leaping from her seat.
“It’s okay,” Candy said thickly. “I’ll take care of this if you could just get me another one, please.
” It took every ounce of her self control to keep her voice level, to keep herself from bursting into tears.
“O-of course.” The server abandoned his mission of clearing the food off her lap and scrambled away. Candy brushed the remainder of the food off her and onto the floor. The sauce left trails of irritated red skin along the length of her thighs. Damn, it had smelled so good, too.
“Come here, let me help you.” Votra was already by Candy’s side, hooking her arm around her to help her up. “Are you alright to walk?”
“I think so.” Candy’s throat was tight, her sinuses prickling with unshed tears. God, she was really not good with pain. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.” Votra’s words were sharp but not unkind. “You did nothing wrong.”
This wasn’t how she wanted today to go. The morning had felt so… perfect, with the exception of Qaed’s interruption. She just wanted a cute lunch date with Votra.
“Can I please take care of you?” When Votra forced Candy’s gaze to meet hers, her knees immediately went weak, and it wasn’t because of how much they hurt.
“...Okay.”