DARCY
Rolling over in bed, I look over at the clock and see it’s six thirty am. It’s Monday again.
I try to help my Mum at the weekends with Dad, it’s tough on Mum to try and juggle everything, so I try to help as much as I can – but she always tells me to go out and enjoy myself, but luckily for her I’m not much of a party person.
I don’t really like huge crowds and I don’t drink anyway. I got drunk once when I was sixteen; never again. I had the hangover from hell and it lasted for two days, I didn’t do it again. I went out of course but I didn’t drink, and now I have too much to do to deal with hangovers, too much responsibility, I’m only twenty-one but I try to see it as a positive thing.
Dad put me on the garage ownership papers on my twenty first birthday as a present, so I own fifty percent of the business. With Dad not being well, the place is mine, although I still need to sort the books, I haven’t tackled that yet. I’ll do it no time once I start.
I passed my maths GCSE’s with an A* and with my engineering I had to take maths on a higher level and passed those with flying colours too.
It’s just finding the time to sit down and sort through them. I don’t want to let my Dad down and even with his illness, I try to keep him involved with everything, like the day to day running of the business and casually just chat to him about it. Some days he’s really interested – other days he doesn’t want to know.
Those are the days that make me sad because it’s not him, Dad was always cheerful, making jokes; now, smiles are rare, and if he does they’re fake… he thinks I don’t know that he puts it on for me.
I push the covers off me, look quickly at my phone screen – nothing, wow I’m popular. I go into the bathroom and do my business, have a quick wash, brush my teeth and get dressed, ready to start my day.
Walking downstairs there’s no one here, that’s strange, Mum’s always down here. I put some bread in the toaster and switch the kettle on. I prepare my cup, pour the steaming hot water into my cup and breathe in the fumes as the water hits the coffee granules, I love the smell of coffee especially first thing in the morning.
I butter my toast and sit in the lounge to listen to some music while I have some time to kill.
“Turn this crap off, Darcy?” says Dad as he enters the room with his stick for support.
“Good morning Dad. I’m going to work in a sec anyway.”
“I’m glad you can go to work!” he tells me scowling. It’s one of those days… great.
“You know Dad, you could come with me, I know you can’t do anything but at least you’d be out of the house.”
“What use am I there, Darcy? I struggle to get up the stairs some days!” I pass Dad the remote controls, then ignoring his foul mood, I get up with my plate and coffee and head for the kitchen.
“Morning Mum. Where were you?” I throw what’s left of my toast in the bin and take notice that she doesn’t answer me. I drink down some of my coffee but it’s too hot. “I see Dad isn’t very good this morning then.”
“I went out to the bins.” She says shakily. She doesn’t really look at me, I know she’s been crying.
Without another word, I walk up to her, kiss her cheek, wrap my arms around her neck and hug her to me.
She sniffles and tells me to go to work, nodding silently I walk from the kitchen, kiss my Dad on the cheek and leave for work.
* * * * * * *
“Ugh, kill me now!” I say groaning and banging my head on the desk. It’s so quiet today but at least I’ve had chance to start on this paperwork. If things carry on like this one of the of the lads will need to be laid off, that’s something I don’t want to do. Getting up from the chair, I pick up my purse and take out a tenner. I need coffee.
“Guys, I’m popping to the coffee shop. Want anything?” Shouting no, I tell them I’ll be back soon and head out.
Walking into the coffee shop I see Adam sitting in the corner with a laptop. I wait in the queue until I can get served first and then I’ll go over, that’s if he’ll speak to me.
Ordering my cappuccino and double choc chip muffin, I wait at the end of the counter until they’ve finished then pass my drink over to me. I decide to sit in to drink it, to give my eyes a rest from figures and getting bog-eyed, plus the view is quite nice in here in all fairness, not that I’d tell him that.
He still hasn’t seen me so I take the opportunity to appraise him, light brown hair, a little floppy and he’s got a covering of stubble on his chin that’s thicker than it was last week when I saw him. He’s concentrating on his screen so I pick up my tray and walk over to say hello.
“Hey,” I stand at the side of him and wait patiently. He breaks his eyes from the screen and slowly looks up my body until he reaches my eyes, his eyes widen slightly when he recognises me.
“Darcy.” He holds up two fingers, “Give me two seconds,” he looks back to his keyboard. I watch him press some keys and shut the lid. “Sorry about that, take a seat.”
“Are you sure… I can sit somewhere else if you’re busy?”
“Not at all, well not now… just working,” he says with a coy smile.
Pulling the chair out, I sit down gently and stare into my coffee at the swirly pattern the barista has made in the froth.
“Soooo, how are you Darcy?” my eyes find his again, I’ve got his full attention.
“I’m okay thanks, how are you?”
“I’m good,” he nods as he answers then that little smirk appears. “No work or on a break?”
“Ugh, quick break, I needed decent coffee. I’ve been looking at the figures all morning, I think I may have square eyes.”
Adam leans forward as his eyes flit between mine, “They don’t look square to me, just as pretty as they were last time I saw them.”
I roll my eyes at his comment because it’s so corny, but I also smile a little to myself because hey, every girl likes a compliment and I don’t get many. Recovering from my little wobble, I look up at him. I’m feeling all kinds of nervous right now, like I’ve lost my protective bubble of the garage
“So, Adam, what is it you do?”
“I’m a writer.”
“Nice, no getting your hands dirty then.” I pick up my cup to take a sip and look over at him, he just grins at me and replies…
“Nah, my mind’s dirty enough, without getting my hands dirty too.” Raising his eyebrows up and down at me, I sigh at him and shake my head.
“Um, that money you gave me last week, you gave me too much. So, if you want to pop around to the garage, I can give you back what you’ve paid over.”
He doesn’t answer just watches me and smiles.