AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I won’t,” I assure her with a grin.
“You seem happier than I’ve ever seen you, Bianca.”
“I am,” I answer without hesitation. “I’m really happy.”
A smile blooms on her lips. “Does it have to do with the gorgeous suit who stopped by a few weeks ago?”
I see no reason to avoid this discussion since Vivi already knows that I’m crazy in love with Roman. “Everything to do with him.”
“Good.”
I glance at the envelope she dropped on my desk. “I should open this.”
“In private,” she adds. “I’ll shut the door on my way out.”
“Thank you.”
She hesitates briefly. “It’s inspiring to see your happily-ever-after playing out. It gives me hope that somewhere in this vast city, there’s a great guy just waiting for me too.”
“There is,” I say with conviction.
“I believe you.” Her face brightens. “One day I’ll find him.”
I have no doubt she will.
As soon as she clicks my office door shut, I rip into the envelope that Georgie and Dora addressed.
It’s obvious that the pencil-written letters on the front of the envelope came from two different hands. One has a more precise grasp on the shape of the letters. The other has a more carefree approach.
I haven’t spent a lot of time with Georgie and Dora, but I watched Georgie take her time writing her name on the picture she colored two nights ago. Dora grabbed a blue crayon and scribbled her name with a flourish of her hand.
I peek inside the envelope to find a handwritten letter and two colored pictures.
One of the pictures looks like it’s a red and blue polka-dot daisy with missing petals. The other is a striped daisy with yellow leaves.
Georgie signed the first. Dora’s signature covers the stem of the daisy on the second.
Their dad wrote the note.
Your company is requested for dinner at our home.
Tomorrow. 6PM.
Bring your smile.
Under Roman’s handwriting are scribbles that I take to be XO written over and over with different colored crayons.
Tears fill my eyes as I hold the note and the drawings close to my chest.
I glance at the picture of my dad on my desk as a lone tear falls down my cheek. “I found him, dad. I found the man who will take care of my heart forever.”
Months before my father died, we were picking daisies in the field across from our apartment building when I started plucking the petals and reciting, “he loves me, he loves me not,” over and over.
My dad stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. He crouched down with his shoes sinking into the soft soil, and he told me when I was all grown-up, I’d find a man who would take care of my heart forever.
He smiled as he said that once that happened, I wouldn’t need a daisy to tell me he loved me. I’d know.
“He loves me too,” I say to the picture of my dad. “Roman loves me too.”
***
“Are those cupcakes?” Dora screams as soon as she spots the white box in my hands. “Did you bring cupcakes for Georgie and me?”
I look toward where Roman is standing in the middle of the living room. He has Georgie in his arms. I can tell she’s been crying. Her tear-soaked cheeks are as red as her eyes.
“Is everything all right?” I tentatively ask as I step into the foyer, shutting the door behind me.
“I…I fell…” Georgie sobs. “I wanted to answer the door when you knocked, but I fell.”
“Hard,” Dora chimes in.
Roman kisses his daughter on the cheek before she slides to the ground. Her small hands tug at the hem of her blue and white patterned dress.
“Daddy brings us cupcakes on Saturdays,” Dora says. “Today isn’t Saturday.”
I nod. “It’s not, but your dad told me it would be okay if you had one after dinner.”
“One each?” Georgie asks quietly. “I get one, and Dora gets one, Binanca?”
My heart feels like it swells inside my chest whenever I hear her say my name. “One each. I also brought some stickers.”
“Stickers!” Dora twirls in a circle, sending her dark hair flowing around her head. “I love stickers.”
I tug the package of stickers I found at a shop near my office out of the purse slung over my shoulder. “I thought you could share.”
Dora takes them from my hand. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Georgie echoes from where she’s standing. “I like your shirt, Binanca.”
I glance down at the yellow T-shirt I’m wearing and the jeans I put on as soon as I got home from work.
“It matches my skirt,” Dora says, pointing at one of the brightly colored lemons on the green skirt she’s wearing.
She’s topped her outfit with a heavy blue sweater, and the addition of red tights makes the entire look adorable.
Dora rips open the package of stickers, yanks one of a puppy free, and slaps it in the middle of her forehead.
