Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
But first, we needed to bring her home.
“Well, I remember when she got her tonsils out,” Tallon huffed, crossing his arms. “She made me be her servant for a week, even after she got better!”
I laughed, remembering the time. All of us had been bossed around by Dahia during that time. She could be quite needy when she was sick, but I was actually looking forward to it. I was just grateful she was alive, and that I could hear her voice again.
“I miss her,” I smiled to myself, sadly.
“Don’t worry. She’ll be home and bossing us around in a few hours,” Tallon reassured me before slurping the rest of his cereal up without a spoon.
“You’re a savage.” I shook my head at the display. No one else I knew ate cereal by slurping it like soup.
“Haters gonna hate,” Tallon shrugged, wiping his mouth of the milk on his sleeve.
I rolled my eyes, used to his antics by now.
“Breakfast is ready!”
A maid I’d seen a few times came in with a huge smile, carrying plates of food. The few that followed her quickly set up the dining table and the smells of breakfast hit my nose all at once.
I was so distracted watching the food that I didn’t see the figure approaching me from behind.
“I apologize for being late,” a low voice said and I jumped in place, spilling my coffee on my hand as I faced the intruder.
Giovani stood there and he glanced at my hand worriedly but luckily, the coffee had cooled enough. I wiped it away with a sheepish grin as Giovani fully stepped into the kitchen.
“What’s up, Cuz? You’re never late,” Tallon said with a grin. “Have a little too much fun last night?”
Giovani rolled my eyes, and I stiffened, taking a sip of my coffee to distract myself.
“No. Now, come on. Breakfast is ready,” Giovani nodded toward the table, taking his seat stiffly.
Tallon and I exchanged a glance before sliding off the barstools and taking our own seats. Despite having just devoured a bowl of cereal, Tallon was quick to dig in, while Giovani took his time selecting dishes.
Silence fell between us–not awkward, just uncomfortable like something that needed to be said wasn’t being said. It felt like what I would imagine having dinner with your divorced parents would feel like.
“So,” Tallon said between bites of bacon, “is Alessandro coming down?”
“I don’t know,” Giovani said, coldly, not even glancing at Tallon.
I kept my eyes firmly on the basket of muffins in front of me, sneakily grabbing one and slowly peeling the outer layer like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
I wasn’t going to get involved in this, not again.
Giovani ate in silence while I took small bites of my muffin. Tallon looked at each of us with a weird glance before leaning back in his chair. Time passed slowly, like when you were in math class and all you could do to pass the time was to doodle.
If I listened hard enough, I was sure to hear the ticking clock above the doorway.
Once my muffin was gone, I decided I was done with breakfast. I was already excited and now with the awkward mood, I wasn’t feeling very hungry at the moment.
“I’ll go see what’s up with him.” Tallon’s chair scraped on the floor as he got out of his seat. He took off upstairs, his feet pounding on each step like he was running for his life.
I didn’t blame him.
I glanced at Giovani with a frown, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Gioani sighed. “Just didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
Looking closer, I noticed the light shadows under his eyes, barely noticeable, but they were there.
“Why not?” I asked.
We had stayed up a little late, but not nearly to the point of being this exhausted.
“I was making plans for Dahlia’s return all night,” he said, relaxing into his seat. “She won’t be able to walk upstairs unless she wants to tear her stitches, so I asked the maids to move her stuff to a room on the bottom floor. But I know how Dahlia likes things, so there was quite a bit of moving needed.”
I sucked in my breath. It had only just hit me once he said it, but he was right. Dahlia had stitches in her stomach. She couldn’t be walking up and down the stairs. It just hadn’t occurred to me. Our rooms had always been close together.
I was anxious at the thought of Dahlia not being down the hall from me, not being close enough that I could rush to her side in an instant if I needed to. When we were kids, whenever one of us had a nightmare, we’d sneak into the others’ rooms to sleep.
It was dizzying not having her there anymore.
I nodded, trying not to let the disappointment show on my face.
Luckily before Giovani even noticed, Tallon appeared in the doorway, breathing heavily with a terrified look on his face.
“He isn’t in his room. Alessandro’s gone!”
My heart dropped to my feet.
Not again… please, not again, I begged.
“Did you try calling him?” Giovani asked, alarmed.
“Yeah!” Tallon nodded. “But he didn’t–”
He fell silent as his phone began to ring, and he frowned at the screen, hitting accept before placing the phone near his ear.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he nodded a few times, saying, “Hmmm, okay, got it.” And then he hung up.
Silence fell between us before Tallon looked up at Giovani sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
“Yeah, that was him. He’s already at the hospital,” Tallon laughed awkwardly as Giovani glared at him like he was an idiot.
“Don’t scare me like that.” I breathed a sigh of relief, falling back into my chair. My heart was racing from the near-scare, thinking that yet another of my precious friends had been kidnapped.
My heart just wouldn’t be able to take it.
“My bad,” Tallon shrugged.
Giovani rolled his eyes as he pointed toward the front door. “Just get in the car. Now.”
“Sorry!” Tallon called out before ducking behind the wall. The door slammed shut not a few seconds later and both Giovani and I sighed.
Startled, we both glanced at one another and then laughed.
