Reunion at Mega Corp

Today had been a lot, between meetings, the surprise early arrival of Derrick and the rollercoaster of news he brought. It all felt like a mixture of good and bad that couldn’t be pulled apart to tell what was what. On her desk were a dozen roses that in the light of the sun through her large window behind her desk had already started to open and fill the room with their scent. That was one massive clue to something wonderful that happened today and as she looked at her phone she wasn’t sure what the pictures meant to her other than that both Bailey and Candi were adorable. The first image was of Bailey that she must have gotten Candi to take, because she was standing by the fountain at the mall. She stood with her pink heeled feet together, standing up straight and her head tilted off to the left just slightly. The back of her right hand was facing the camera, she held it up next to her cheek to show off her newly painted long pink nails and the other hand flung to the side as if asking everyone to look at her. The new haircut looked so very cute on her, Amanda thought. Though she didn’t consider how it would make Bailey look a little younger. She was not going to like that, but she did choose to get the haircut so maybe she would.

The haircut was a test to see if what Meg said was true, that she chose to get her lips and eyelashes done. That could still have been true, Bailey thinking she didn’t look girly enough and wanted to make sure she didn’t get caught. Though the next image seeing Candi with a shorter haircut, made her wonder if the young Miss Connors had a hand in how Bailey looked. Bailey was an adult, even if she didn’t look like it, or act like it really. But if Candi insisted on getting her own hair done, she might have done hers too. The test didn’t seem to prove anything, other than how cute her daughter was. For Candi’s picture she was much closer to the camera, touching her cheeks with her index fingers, one hand upside down as she smiled making the cutesy face. Her own haircut was much shorter than her hair before and she looked a little older. The part that made her really smile was seeing she was wearing the necklace she had gotten her for her birthday. Thumbing back to Bailey, she saw Bailey was wearing hers as well. “Precious.”

With Derrick back already, she had already texted the girls telling them to park the car and come inside. She was looking forward to seeing Candi’s expression when she saw her father and she would be happy with their destination for dinner. When she had asked April to get a reservation for them she had come back ten minutes later. “No reservation needed, tonight the four of you are going to Sweet Tomatoes.”

“The salad buffet?”

“Mr. Connors mentioned how he hasn’t eaten well while he was gone, and you enjoyed it when it was just you and I.” Amanda had also mentioned that she was taking them out to dinner and knew this place wouldn’t break her pocketbook. ”Also next door is a place to play mini golf for the family, and in the plaza behind Sweet Tomatoes is a nice bar called the Chilled Mug. Just in case you want to send the girls off to play while you and Derick have some alone time.”

“I am not going to go out on a date with Derrick and leave the girls like that.” Everyone seemed to have the same opinion, an opinion they were happy to push on her about who she should be with. Derrick was… well he was amazing, but it couldn’t last with him. Unless she picked up the job he offered, but after lunch he had told her if she wanted the job or not. She should attention the week long executive training, it already had to be paid for with the short notice. If she stayed put having that under her belt would make her much more desirable to the company. She wasn’t going to split off from the girls when she would have to be out of town for the next week on such short notice. She was leaving tomorrow for the wedding and then wouldn’t be able to be back home to attend the training. She still felt nowhere near ready to say if she would take the position or not, but it would be foolish to pass up the executive training.

April shrugged at the rejection. “Whatever you do, try not to worry about deciding anything today. It will wait and you deserve to enjoy yourself.” April knew Amanda worked well under pressure, but she seemed **** to separate herself from the leach named Bailey. Taking the director position would be more than she knew her friend ever dreamed of, and she would be able to pursue her other dream. Amanda deserved to have a career and a family. That and she knew if Amanda did not take the position she would have to choose between staying here with her friend, or getting more connection and pay with Derrick. She knew it was a selfish feeling, but she was allowed to want good things for her friend and herself.

“OOOHMYGODDADDY!” Candi yelled when she saw her father standing in the lobby. She ran as fast as she could in her blocky heeled booties, throwing herself at him to give him a hug.

“OOF” Derrick let out an involuntary breath as his daughter crashed into him. “It is good to see you too, Candace. Mind letting your old man breathe a little?”

Bailey watched on as Candi squeezed him tighter, shaking her head no to the question. He was a good father or at least was in this moment Bailey thought, seeing him hug her back with a large smile on his face. He looked a little tired, but holding her seemed to bring a little more life into him. “Welcome back Mr. Connors. I umm wasn’t expecting you till like later.”

“Yeah, I thought I would come back early so I could spend the evening with three beautiful princesses. Though I think I’m the one more surprised with seeing the two of you.” Pulling himself out of the hug Derrick held his daughter at arms length to get a good look at her. “Candace you look…”

“Beautiful, mature, ready to take on the world?” She said with a large toothy grin as she moved from one foot to the other, hardly able to contain her excitement.

“I wasn’t going to say mind reader, but maybe that should have been on the list.” He laughed happy to see her again and held her in his arms. Her haircut reminded him of how her mother looked when they first met and he knew she would be so happy seeing their princess now. So confident and genuinely happy. On the flight to Nevada she was smiling, but he knew her heart was in it, but her now. Like this, he knew the memories she forged would stick with her for the rest of her life.

“Now look at you Bailey! How is it you look more like a princess every time I see you? Do you think I could get a hug from you too? Maybe something a little less suffocating.” He said, giving a wink to his daughter.

A princess, why is it always with the princess stuff! Bailey’s mind raged like a creature stuck in a cage. He didn’t want to give dErRiCk… a hug, but it was an opportunity he wasn’t to pass up, but still couldn't help mocking his name mentally. With a sweet smile Bailey strode up to him, leaping the last few steps as he thought. Request Denied! Before wrapping his arms around the mans chest and squeezing with every muscle as tight as he could. This man would crush him handedly in a fight and that was before he had lost muscle mass, but he wouldn’t do anything to a sweet girl who just wanted to hug.

Letting out a gasp of air Derrick had to take a step back as the teen girl latched on to him. “Wow, maybe instead of getting ballet lesions we should have you try out for football.” He laughed, looking up to catch Mandy’s eye. Bailey transitioned from the proper Mr. Connors, to Derrick and calling him Daddy like his little girl. He couldn’t have a relationship with Mandy without one with Bailey. She seemed to take to him like a duck to water and ever since he protected her and promised to keep her secret he couldn’t help, but feel the same connection to her. He wanted to protect the girl and part of it really might be because her and Candace looked so much like they could be sisters. Candace had the same blonde hair as her mother and his green eyes, traits both the girls shared and it reminded him so much of his deceased wife. It didn’t hurt him, but it made him happy.

He thought about that a lot when the girls sent him the photos of them in his new shirts Bailey had gotten him and it made him happy. Then it made him wonder if he liked Mandy because she looked similar to his past wife. If he was with her just because of the resemblance he would have to call this off, it wouldn’t have been fair. Though while he thought of what he had when he looked at the girls, the more he thought about it. He had never thought of her while looking at Mandy, she was her own person. A strong and wonderful woman. He truly hoped she would decided to take him up on her offer.

“Maybe you can like let go and we can go?” Derrick released the girl who had just assaulted him with a hug, giving her a wink as he straightened himself back up to his full height.

“Im told there are plans for dinner, and while I was not a part of this plan. I do approve of the subject.” Derrick looked over at the tall blonde still standing by the door. She looked wonderful in her low cut, sleeveless black blouse, burgundy skirt and tall black heels. He had wrapped her in his arms and kissed her hungrily when he arrived and couldn’t wait till he had a private moment with her to do it again.

“It was decided we are eating at Sweet Tomatoes and then going to play a little mini golf.” The smirk on her face and raised eyebrow told Derrick she was waiting to see if she argued, but after the conversation with April it wasn’t a battle he wanted to take up. At least the place had endless soup along with the endless sadness.

The responses were as she expected them more or less. Candi smiled and clapped her hands together rapidly to show her approval. Bailey made a face and stuck out her tongue and Derrick shrugged his shoulders in surrender. “What's with the face? How can you not like playing putt putt golf!?” Candi asked while poking Bailey in the side. The **** causing Bailey to slap her hand away with both of his in case she was going to continue her tickling attack.

“You like know I didn’t do that for the golf. Salad is not dinner, I used to have a shirt that said so.” Candi waved her hand dismissing the argument as not being valid.

Derrick leaned closer to Bailey, putting his hand on her shoulder and leaned closer to her ear. She had her back to him after he had let her go for the hug. “I have not forgotten about my promise of the Brazilian steak house, we must bide our time.”

“Bide your time for what?” Amanda asked, hearing only part of what Derrick had said to Bailey.

“Victory, bide our time for victory. After dinner I think it will be us omnivores vs you herbivores.” Reaching up, Bailey touched Derrick's hand, his instinct was to push it off. Fighting off that instinct he left his hand on his for longer than he would have liked.

“No one wants to talk about Dinosaurs Daddy.” Candi said in a voice that made it apparent this was not the first time she had said such a thing to him.

“Team T-Rex vs Stegosaurus. Roar!” Derrick said making imaginary claw attacks in the air while he showed his teeth and bit an an imaginary foe.

“Did you just say roar instead of roaring?” Amanda’s laughter filled the small room not able to contain herself with his ridiculousness.

Picking up his suitcase Derrick took in her beauty one more time. “I didn’t think you spoke dinosaur, so I wanted to make sure you understood.” He couldn’t see Bailey’s reaction, but he noticed Candace rolling her eyes at him, even if she was smiling. She claimed to have outgrown her love of Dinosaurs, but he knew better. No one outgrows Dinosaurs.