Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Maddy

M y dad looked like he might be about to puke. I'd never seen him so nervous. He was the one who was always confident, always telling me everything would be okay—not at all like the anxious man staring out of the window.

"Dad, it's going to be fine. I'm sure I'll like her."

His head whipped in my direction. "Don't know what you're talking about."

Watching him frown, I walked over to him and held out my hand. "Take my hand, Daddy," I said the words he always gave to me when I was upset or worried.

Without thinking, he did just that but when I giggled, he shook me away. "I'm fine, you idiot."

"You're the idiot," I scoffed. "Getting so worked up to point of nearly passing out."

"I am not." He returned his gaze to the window, and instantly his back stiffened. When his hands linked at the back of his neck, I knew Maya had arrived.

Placing my hand on his back, I patted it gently. "Breathe, Dad."

He blew out a breath. "What if you don't like her?"

"What if she doesn't like me?"

He turned to me and frowned. "Then she's not the person for me. Anyway, she will. What's not to like, you're like me?"

"Exactly!" I jumped back to dodge his hand that I knew was going to tickle me. "Want me to let her in?"

"No, I'll go." He pulled his shoulders back and left.

Waiting for them to come back into the room my own nerves hit. Dad was clearly smitten by Maya, and I didn't want to let him down. I was genuinely worried that she wouldn't like me because if she didn't, I knew it would upset Dad. As much as he liked her, I knew that I was the most important person in his life. The pressure to be perfect for him was making me feel a little sick, too, but I hoped that I'd masked it from him.

Having no more time to worry about it, the door to the lounge opened and Dad led Maya into the room. My instant impression was how beautiful she was and how jealous I was of her hair. Long, thick, wavy and shiny hair was what I aspired to have. As for her clothes who knew that a brown flowered smock dress would look so good with thick tights and brown Dr Marten boots? She had the sleeves pushed up to show off an armful of bronze bangles, and I made a mental note to try and find some for myself.

"This is Maddy," Dad said throatily, dragging my attention away from Maya.

"Hi." I gave a little wave.

"Hi, Maddy. Great to meet you." Maya tucked her hair behind her ear and took a half step forward. She hesitated for a split second but then opened up her arms and pulled me into a hug. She smelled lovely, too, and I knew I had my new female crush, style-wise at least. I just hoped that her personality was as gorgeous as she looked.

"Lovely to meet you, too." I looked over her shoulder at my dad, not before noting how great her extra-large hoop earrings were. He was almost bouncing on his toes, desperate to know whether Maya and I were going to hit it off.

We pulled apart, and Maya took a step back, glancing at Dad over her shoulder. "She looks like you."

"Gorgeous then," he stated with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes, but when his shoulders dropped I was glad to see that he'd relaxed a little bit.

"I really don't know what you see in him," I muttered.

Maya laughed and shrugged. "I think maybe I was drunk."

Dad grinned, and I knew that I already liked her. Unless she was the best actress in the world, or I was the most stupid person on the planet, she seemed lovely, and I was glad for my dad.

"So," he said, sounding tentative again. "Do you want me to show you your room?"

I wanted to laugh, loudly, because I doubted whether she'd stay in her own room. Especially, not if the way they were looking at each other was anything to go by.

"If we have time." She looked between us. "What time is the table booked for?"

"We have time," Dad told her. "We have an hour at least before we need to leave."

"Then, yeah," Maya replied with a bright smile, "you can show me my room."

As they disappeared up the stairs, excitement spiked. I loved that Dad was finally going to get some happy. And, yes, maybe Maya staying over might have seemed quick, seeing as they'd only just met, but I wasn't worried. It felt right.

Just as I wondered whether I should follow them, my phone rang, and I was shocked when I saw it was Zak.

"Hiya."

"Alright, gorgeous."

Instantly, my face split into a grin, and I felt butterflies. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to check you were good."

"Me?" I asked.

"I knew you were nervous about meeting your dad's new girlfriend. I wanted to check-up on you. Make sure you're not freaking out."

My hand rested over my thudding heart, and my cheeks ached from smiling. "I'm fine. She seems nice."

"She's already there?"

"About five minutes ago."

"And?" he asked with a chuckle. "Does she really meet your approval, or are you just being nice?"

"No, she meets my approval. She's lovely in fact. Or at least she seems to be in the short time I've spoken to her." I looked over to the door to check that I was still alone. "She's gorgeous, Zak. I can see why Dad likes her."

"What was she like with you?" Zak asked, as a door closed in the background. "Sorry, just shutting Amelia out."

"Aww don't be mean to her."

"I'm not, she keeps asking me about Taylor Swift, and I have no idea what to say."

I gasped. "You don't know anything about Swifty. I'm appalled."

Zak groaned. "Ah shit, not you as well."

"I think maybe Amelia and I need to educate you."

"No, you're alright thanks. I'll stick with Stormzy."

"Ugh, how do I live with that?"

"What?" he asked, his laugh resonating deep down the line.

"That my boyf—" I instantly stopped myself just in time. "That you're a rap boy."

"I'm sure you'll cope."

I breathed a silent sigh of relief that he hadn't picked up on my slip up. "But to answer your question, yes, she was lovely with me. Gave me a hug, said she was pleased to meet me and said I looked like my dad."

"That sounds good. Sounds like she seems nice. Although, you looking like your dad makes me feel like I might vomit."

"I hope you think I'm prettier than him."

Zak's laugh trailed off. "Much prettier. Gorgeous, in fact."

The butterflies started up again and I wasn't sure what to say. I went for, "I'd better go before they come back from the bedroom."

"From where ?" he asked, shocked.

"He's just showing her the spare room," I told him, rolling my eyes. "You and your dirty mind."

Zak laughed and I had a sudden desire to see him. "Want to come over later?"

"Won't it be late?" he asked, and I could detect a hint of excitement at the idea.

"Well, I'll call you when we're back and you can decide then." I bit down on my lip, waiting anxiously.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe persuade them to skip dessert."

More relief flooded through me at his idea. Surely it meant that he wanted to see me later. He wouldn't say that if he didn't want to, would he?

"I'll call you later, then." I tried to make it more like a statement than a question, conscious of sounding like I was desperate.

"Definitely," Zak replied. "Speak to you later."

"Okay, will do."

"Oh, and Maddy," he added.

"Yes."

"It's okay to say I'm your boyfriend, because I am."

As my heart thudded loudly in my ears, I barely heard Zak say goodbye. All that I could think of was the fact that I was his girlfriend.

It was official: my dad was halfway to being in love. In fact, he might already have reached the point of no return. It was the way he gazed at Maya, a bit like she was made of twinkling diamonds, and he couldn't quite believe it. To be fair, she wasn't much less obvious in her feelings for him either. I could honestly say that not everything Dad said was hilarious, but Maya appeared to think it was. Her laugh had tinkled like a little bell all evening.

They were quite sweet, really. At first they'd tried desperately to not appear too besotted with each other, avoiding eye contact, talking mainly to me, but I wasn't fooled. Within ten minutes Dad had moved his chair closer to Maya's and they were holding hands on top of the table, stealing glances at each other and being generally cute. It didn't even induce sick in my mouth—they were so adorable.

"So, you want to be a social worker," Maya said, her little finger linked with Dad's while her spare hand held onto the stem of her wine glass.

"Yes, I do." I glanced at Dad who already had a raised eyebrow. "I'm planning on doing my degree from home. Open University."

"My friend did her teaching degree with the OU," Maya replied. "She said it was great, loads of boozy parties at Summer School."

"Shit," Dad groaned. "And there was me thinking at least if you didn't go away, you would never end up in A&E with alcohol poisoning."

"See, Dad, there are benefits to staying at home. I only end up getting my stomach pumped once a year."

"I still think Edinburgh or Lancaster are the best options," Dad said with a sigh. "I hear their emergency departments are top notch."

"You don't want her to stay at home?" Maya asked.

I rolled my eyes. "We've been having this battle for months," I told her. "He wants me to have the full uni experience, but I want to stay at home."

"She thinks I can't cope without her." Dad cocked an eyebrow making Maya giggle. She'd giggled a lot during the last hour or so.

"And do you think you can?" she asked him.

"Of course I can," he scoffed. "She's the one who can't even make decent scrambled eggs."

"Dad, who would get you out of bed on time for work if I wasn't here?"

He narrowed his eyes on me and then grinned. "Maybe you have a point."

I turned to look at Maya, and my breath hitched. She was gazing at both me and dad and her eyes were glistening. She'd told me that her mum and dad lived in Scotland and that she missed them, so maybe that was what had made her emotional.

"What about you, Maya?" I asked. "Where did you go to uni?"

"Sheffield. Not the best for my course, but," she laughed and shook her head, "believe it or not, I didn't want to leave home either."

"See." I pointed at Dad. "Not everyone wants to go away to Uni."

"Exactly." Maya laughed and nudged Dad in the ribs. "Not everyone wants to leave their dad."

"Don't encourage her." The smile that he gave to her was as gentle as I'd ever seen him give. It was just like the ones he gave to me when I was worried, or scared, when he wanted to reassure me. He'd give me that smile and then say, ‘Take my hand.'

I didn't want to spoil their moment, but suddenly I felt like I shouldn't be there. It wasn't exactly a private moment between them, but it was obvious they were both falling quickly for each other, and they should have been able to do that without me ogling them.

"I'm just going to the loo," I told them.

Dad's eyes tore away from Maya's and met mine. "Do you want a desert, sweetie pie?"

I almost told him my favourite, brownie's with ice cream, but then remembered that maybe Zak might come over.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Maya?"

She shifted in her seat and licked her lips before shaking her head. Dad blew out his cheeks, and I realised that the private moment was fast approaching. Me disappearing for a few minutes would be good for them.

"Just get the bill, Dad," I told him. "If we fancy anything we've got some ice cream in the freezer."

Dad swallowed and then cleared his throat. "Good idea."

As I left them alone, I would have put money on Dad creeping across the landing later, and it made me smile. I was happy for him, and even if he and Maya only lasted a short time, he'd experienced something with someone who was more than just a hook up. He deserved that because it was time he thought about himself for once and maybe me going away to uni would be good for him, too.