Girlfriend’s Daughter

Bailey hung up the phone smiling, “Well three hundred dollars poorer I will be, but I know you are will be worth it Candy.” His mind drifted back in memory to the beginning of the month when he had the escort over before and how wonderful it felt when she had him in her mouth. The smile lost most of its luster when he looked over at a photo of him and his girlfriend on the desk the two of them shared in the living room of their two-bedroom apartment. Bailey picked up the framed photo seeing the two of them in the pool together happy. It had him swimming in the apartments pool only visible from the neck up, his blonde hair all wet, it was shorter then only down to the bottom of his ears. He had an open bright smile in the photo his eyes to Mandy who was jumping up in the water to catch the inflatable ball. His girlfriend was gorgeous standing three inches taller than his small five-foot six frame. Both of them had blonde hair, but hers was down to the small of her back when it was all wet like it was in the photo. He loved seeing her smile like she was in the image, her lips pink from her lipstick, and her blue eyes different from his green outlined in some waterproof makeup.

Bailey’s eyes drifted down to her bikini covered breasts and he thought of what happened later that night after the photo when he untied the back of her suit causing her D cup breasts to come free. She had shrieked playfully, turn around and smacked him before they made love on the kitchen table. He was getting hard thinking about Mandy and wished they had a healthier sex life right now, but he had to take the good with the bad. Knowing when dating a woman fourteen years older than himself she would be career focused, but at times it felt like she didn’t have time for him. The economy was rough and he hadn’t had a job for over a year, so when Mandy didn’t have time for him, he felt he needed to fill that void.

It hadn’t always been like this, when they started dating four years ago when he was twenty-one, he had a good job then working as a manager for his parents' store. But now they were gone, the business did not pass to him because they had to liquidate it to pay for the medical bills. Guilt seeped into his heart thinking of how comforting Mandy was to him when it all happened, she didn’t deserve him cheating on her like this. He thought about canceling the escort, but Candy was already on the way and he had already paid. Besides he thought, he really did need to get off.

The secretary dropped some files off on her supervisors' desk, “Here is the Clark account files you asked for Ms. Best.” The pretty brunette said before adding “Is there anything else I can get you before I take my lunch break?” Amanda didn’t say anything for a few seconds as she finished typing a line in an email. “We have plenty more to get done today, but you enjoy the small break before we get back to it. You know what they say, all work and no play is the only way to get promoted in a male driven work place.” The two woman laughed at the joke, that was more accurate than they wanted to admit.

“Ms. Best, are you sure you want to recommend me for your position if you get the district manager job?” April said her voice faltering a little being unsure of herself as she sat down at the edge of a chair most full of files and binders. Amanda stopped looking at her monitor screen and gave her secretary her full attention. “April, we have been friends for years. I appreciate you being professional, but really you can just call me Amanda when it is just the two of us.” She saw April nodding and open her mouth to argue the point, but Amanda didn’t give her the time. “Yes, yes, but what if someone overheard. You are a good friend and a fantastic assistant, April. I don’t know anyone else that works here that is willing to always try and put the company first. With that, and you helping me with my job for so long, you are the perfect person to replace me. One day though, you are going to have to put yourself first or you may end up like me old and unmarried.” Amanda gave a tight smile sad little smile.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Amanda, you have a man you love and he loves you. I have seen the two of you making out like you were teenagers before. Or are you forgetting when I literally dumped ice cold water on the two of you at that pool party you hosted at your apartment late last year. And stop saying you are old. You don’t even turn forty till next year!”

A genuine smile came to Amanda’s face, the type of smile that reaches your eyes as she thought back to that day. “We do have fun; Bailey makes me feel like a girl again sometimes, and we do love each other, I just imagined I would be in a different place when I got to this age. Married to a good man, with a child or two, instead I’m married to the job. Thank you for the pep talk and the good memory, April, and I knew I could get you to use my first name.” The smile still lingered on Amanda’s face, but it shifted to more of one that said “Gotcha” than one of reminiscing.

April scowled at her boss “Yeah, okay you got me. Well, I’m going to get out of here so I can be back before the regional manager comes in to say hello to everyone before our company picnic tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’m sure you will make the perfect impression on him so you can get this promotion. Besides, you have me to help you and you know I will do my best to help you Ms. Best.” April said the last part in a sing song voice before sticking her tongue out to her friend and mentor. “After all, if you don’t get promoted, I don’t get promoted. Someone old and wise once told me I have to put myself first sometimes in life.” April felt a bit cheeky and winked at her friend as she left the office. She could hear Amanda yelling after her, “Get out of here, I don’t want to see you for at least an hour!”

Standing and stretching her legs Amanda felt her stomach gurgle and wished she could have joined April for lunch, there was just too much to do on a Friday like today, maybe she could send April a text and get her to pick up a salad for her while she was out, she thought. Doing exactly that Amanda picked up the Clark file she was given and paced around her office hearing the click clack of her heels as she stretched her legs and read through the file before stopping to the side of her desk looking out the window to the world below. The blue sky without a few wisps of white puffy clouds in the sky it looked like a wonderful day and looked like promising weather for the company picnic tomorrow.

Derrick was walking through the building when he found the office he was looking for. He placed his briefcase down on the vacant secretary's desk. Looking down at the name plate he saw April Gates and figured the woman must be at lunch and how fitting it was that the gate keeper for Amanda Best had a name like Gates. The door to the office was open so he just stepped in say “Hello and good afternoon.” But got no response from the striking woman as she stood by a narrow floor to ceiling window she had in her office, looking down into a thick file. Derrick guessed she was to engrossed in the file to have heard him and took a second to enjoy the view of the lovely woman. She wore four-inch navy pumps, tan hose, a wrap dress that matched the shoes and a black three-quarter sleeved jacket, with her long blonde hair spilling over the back in loose curls. After taking her all in Derricks eyes lingered on her rear end briefly before clearing his throat to her get attention. “Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to see you for another hour.” Amanda said in a mock stern voice before she turned around and saw a man standing in her doorway. Amanda’s eyes widened in shock, while her cheeks blushed from embarrassment. The man in her doorway wore a charcoal grey tailored suit to fit his wide shouldered frame, a white crisp button up shirt and a deep blue tie. He had what looked like a day or two worth of unshaven hair on his face, both it and his short-trimmed hair had a salt and pepper look to them. The last thing Amanda noted and where her eyes lingered were his green eyes that matched that of her Bailey.

“Well, I could come back if you like, I would hate to be a bother.” Derrick said in a friendly tone, but only gave a small smirk trying to be playful.

Derrick could see recognition in her eyes she knew who he was and why he was here. He watched her face change from embarrassment to a friendly smile. Returning the smile Derrick thought it was cute how she blushed and enjoyed how inviting her red lipstick covered lips looked when she smiled at him. “Pardon me, I thought you were someone else. Please, please, come in and, umm, have a seat.” Amanda said as she walked behind her own desk to put down the file she was holding.

Derrick took in the rest of the office; he could tell she had been working hard keeping more than a few plates spinning in the air if all the file folders taking up the office chairs were of any indication. “Good, I would hate to be a person you were cross with.” Derrick said walking into the room to walk around the full office chairs to stand by the window Amanda was at when he came in, “We are on the same team after all.” He said giving a warm smile pointing to his tie then her dress. “We match and everything.”

The last comment broke the tension causing her to giggle. “So we do, what could I do for you Mr. Connors?” Amanda was returning the warm smile thinking how this man had a knack for bringing a calm to a situation though she mentally kicked herself for giggling like a school girl when a boy she liked flirted with her. Someone like this wouldn’t be flirting, let alone with her. Derrick Connors was older than her in his late forties and with his wealth, charm and looks he would have someone half his age with him. “Tomorrow being the company picnic, I thought I would come in a day early and see a few people, say hi that sort of thing. You were my first stop; I have been hearing great things about you. Thought maybe we could meet up with you tomorrow and discuss the future.” Derrick still had that same warm smile on his face as he looked from Amanda to her desk. It was cluttered with work, but to the side of her monitor was one of those photo booth three shot pictures. The image showed Amanda full of love and glee with someone else and written at the top of the photo was Amanda and Bailey and a little heart at the end. Leaning down he got a better look at the images, the first was Amanda sitting next to someone shorter with blonde hair much like hers but shorter and growing out who was a little shorter than her, both smiling to their fullest, the shorter of the two Bailey looked like they wore braces. The second was of Amanda pulling Bailey closer in a hug and kissing their forehead and the last had Bailey holding up a black and pink teddy bear before them like it was a prize. They were good photos and he wished he had something like that with his daughter.

“That would be lovely to discuss the company's future with you when you have time tomorrow.” Amanda thought how this could be her ticket to finally getting the promotion. She was looking forward to having a day off to spend with Bailey, the two of them seemed to be in a rut with her being so focused on work. He would sleep in and look for a job and then be off having a drink with one of his friends, while she would have to come into the office early, or work late and sometimes on weekends. When they had the free time together his youth and energy could make her feel young again and desired. Lately that hadn’t happened, and they have had more fights as of late. On the way to work this morning she had complained to her sister how when she asked him to clean up the apartment while he was home, he had said that it was both of their jobs, how he was spending all day looking for a job and while it wasn’t as difficult to apply to jobs all day than her work it took just as much time. How at least she got to work towards something like a promotion, he had nothing. Bailey might have had a point if he was even doing half of the chores around the apartment and one of the main reasons, she had started to work so hard for this promotion was for the two of them. Money had been so tight with only one income and recently Bailey had been spending extra money on job finding services that were taking a few hundred dollars for resume reviews and national search teams that she hoped would pay off. Megan had never been a fan of her dating such a younger man, and over this last year of him not working she had been extra critical of the man. Over the phone she didn’t even believe that was what he was spending their money on and said she would look into it at her own job at Serling Backgrounds a background search company. Megan annoyed her with that, she wanted to vent not get her worked upped on a witch hunt. With all of that spiraling around in her mind like a whirlwind she decided that it would be best for Bailey to not come to the picnic, last thing she needed was to cause his ego to flare up from her spending time with a handsome man and ignore him while right in front of him.

“I also have to bring my daughter, as you know being a single parent to a daughter has its own challenges.” Derrick said already taking note that Amanda didn’t have a wedding or engagement band on her finger. “You wouldn’t mind my daughter Candace being around us, would you?

Amanda had forgotten he had a daughter at first, but the memory of signing the condolence card eight years ago to go out to him and his daughter. “No of course not, I would love to meet Candace. Does she go by that or Candi?”

Derrick bit the inside of of his cheek a little “She goes by Candi, I can’t get her to change her mind, but at least we are to the point she doesn’t correct me when I use her proper name. You know how teenagers can be. Say when was this photo taken and will Bailey be coming?” Looking to where her boss was pointing, she saw the photo of her and Bailey. The photo was a good memory from a carnival the two had enjoyed together some years ago. “That was taken three years ago I think, Bailey doesn’t have the braces anymore and no Bailey won't be joining us this being a work function.” Best to not bring her boyfriend she thought echoing her earlier ones, but this time imagining Derrick, her a teenage girl and Bailey. “How old is Candy now?”

Giving Amanda a sour look “Candace is in the summer between junior year and senior year, but will be hitting eighteen the Monday after next. So, we will celebrate back home. Now you should bring Bailey with you, the four of us might just have some fun. This is a work hosted family event Amanda, not a work event.”

Feeling like she was being painted into a corner Amanda gave ground to her superior. “I will talk with Bailey about the four of us spending time at the picnic together.” She felt his hand gently land on her shoulder. “Perfect, Candance could really use the company of another girl around her age.” She could see his warm smile just showing a little bit of his teeth as his hand lingered. The blush from before crept back into her face her brain at first thinking he was complimenting her and saying she looked much younger. While Derrick saw the blush and winked at the younger woman before removing his hand and starting to make his way out of the office to see some others. “Candace doesn’t have many friends, and maybe the two girls can keep each other busy while we discuss work a bit.”

Amanda’s eyes were trailing Derrick as he left, his last words made her relive the conversation the two of them have had. He thought she was a single mother and that Bailey was her daughter. She opened her mouth to stop Derrick, to fix this, but he held up his hand. “Amanda, it has been a pleasure to get to know such a hardworking beautiful woman, we can talk more tomorrow. I have to be off.” The words she wanted to say were cut off, her rebuttal dying. The two of them had failed at communicating, and now all the hard work she put in could be undone because of a simple misunderstanding. Tomorrow was supposed to lock in the promotion not dash it all, maybe if she just said she was sick tomorrow she could get an opportunity to go out for a drink with him and he would be none the wiser that Bailey was her boyfriend not her daughter. April wasn’t around so she did what she always did when she felt stuck or needed to vent, she called her sister.

“Megan, you have to help me, I’m not sure what to do!” Amanda tended to be a calm woman and good under pressure. When Bailey’s parents' past on he had lost them both within a month of each other, they were sick but she saw the way they looked at each other. She was positive his father died of a broken heart when his Bailey’s mom died when the breast cancer came back. Not only had he lost two such important people to him in a short amount of time, but after his mom died, he lost his job when his father had to sell the shop they owned to pay for medical expenses. Though all that she was strong and she was calm, but now she was frantic. Amanda felt like one of the few things she really had in life was the career she built and just with one conversation she could undo it all. Megan for her part listened to the entire story and tried to make sure that her sister knew that not showing up with a daughter wouldn’t hurt her career.

“Amanda, listen to me and think about this. Showing up to a work event without your fake daughter will not hurt your career. Take from me, I raised a teenage girl and Becky never wanted to go anywhere with me at that age. It didn’t matter if I said she had to go or she would be grounded. That girl rather be grounded than to go somewhere with her own mother. Do you know how upsetting it is to have to bribe your own daughter to go out with you? I swear Gerald poisoned her to me when I got custody, and now I hardly see her at all now that she has started college. The girl started her freshman year with summer school just to get away early. Trust me when I tell you this.”

“That’s its Megan, that’s it! You are a genius!” Amanda figured out a plan on how to still impress her boss. “All we have to do is talk to Becky, we can bribe her to pretend to be my daughter instead of my niece for just an afternoon!”

“No Amanda, that is not what I was saying at all. You don’t need to bribe Becky; you can just show up and say my teenage daughter was acting like a teenager and didn’t come.” Amanda could hear just feel her sister letting out a long sigh even if she couldn’t hear it. “No, no this will work. You know how much I need this promotion and this is the best chance I have. The daughter connection could just be the thing to tip the scales. Becky and I get along fine, I’m sure she would be willing to at least listen.”

“Amanda, sweetie... Fine, if you need this that badly I will talk to Becky for you, but nothing more. I know you don’t have the money to bribe her, what about giving her a pair of your Christian Louboutin's?” Amanda only had to think about it for a second before agreeing. She couldn’t afford shoes like that anymore, in fact all the expensive heels she had were from Bailey whey he got a discount working at his family's store. “Great sweetie, I will go by your apartment in a little bit to go pick out a pair for her.”

“Wait Megan, you are going to go over to pick out a pair? You just want to have your pick of my shoes so you can have them, don’t you?” Amanda accused her sister already knowing Megan was going to have her way in the end. “Becky borrows shoes from me all the time, just like we did from our mom. It is okay for a loving mother to borrow a pair from her daughter from time to time. Now, I’m still not making any promises but even if Becky says no. Just remember you will be fine.”