The Single Mother

Chapter 15- Talla Knight: First Date in Three Years

I turned around to face my Mum, who was pulling Sienna out of the bathtub, in a fluffy pastel pink towel. "We're going on a date tomorrow night a six." I blurted out, the excitement evident in my voice.

My Mum faced me, and her eyes, which were the same ocean blue as my own, were blazing with mixed emotions. I honestly loved my mother. Since the incident, she's been my best friend. She's been the glue that keeps me from falling apart. She's my rock.

"He so likes you!" She whisper-shouted, like a teenage girl would to her best friend, and her enormous smile displayed her dazzling straight, white teeth.

"Mum... I think we're still trying to become friends." I huffed, and knew that my cheeks, nose and ears were definitely pinker than Sienna's towel. "But..." I paused for emphasis. "Phoenix did say it was a date."

"Oh my God- Talla Willow Knight. That is amazing." Mum was no longer looking at me, instead her whole focus was put into getting my three-year-old dressed into her lilac purple satin pajama top and matching bottoms- something my parents bought as a present for Sienna, now that they were babysitting her more often.

I never realized how gorgeous my baby was. She had inherited majority of my rapists' traits, such as the strawberry blonde hair, the ivory skin tone and the hazel eyes, however she had my freckles flecked along her nose and cheeks and two perfect dimples. I've been told since day one, that she could be a child model, but I never believed any of the strangers, partly because the only clothes that I could afford to put my daughter in were second-hand from garage sales and because I thought they were being overly nice. Considering the fact that she's been staying with my parents for prolonged periods of time as of lately, it's odd seeing my daughter without a speck of dirt on her and in high-end fashion such as the sating pajamas she was wearing now.

"They're pretty pajamas Mum." I stated, as Sienna gave her a 'thank you' hug and waddled over to me to be cradled.

"Your Dad and I thought so too." Mum said over her shoulder, as she drained the bathtub and wiped up the mess on the floor with the dirty bathmat. "I was recently told that your Dad wanted us to look after Sienna while you and Phoenix got acquainted, so I went out and bought all these new clothes for her."

"Mum-" I began but was quickly cut off.

"I know what you're about to say Talla and I don't want to hear a word. Just because you have been 'disowned' doesn't mean that you have to have the burden of paying us for everything that we decide to buy for our granddaughter."

I couldn't say anything further due to the door to the bathroom flying open and my Dad marching in.

"You three okay? You've been in here for awhile."

---

"Mum? Are you sure this outfit is okay? I don't want it to be too girly if you know what I mean." I called as I stepped out of my Mum's walk in wardrobe.

I was wearing an apricot dress that had puffy sleeves ending just above my elbow. The dress was mid-calf length, and I was wearing black high-heeled boots.

"Ooh. My black denim jacket would go amazing with that." Mum commented as I gave a little twirl. "It would make the outfit seem a bit more casual and I think would take away from that girly factor."

I knew the jacket my mother was talking about because I bought one myself when I was 17. When I checked the mirror again with the jacket on, my jaw nearly fell to the floor.

I looked like I was 18 once again.

"Pretty." Sienna drawled when she saw me step out of the closet for the second time, which brought a grin to my face- the biggest compliment of my day happened whenever Sienna called me beautiful.

"Thank you, baby girl." I laughed and kissed the top of her head.

---

"So what movie do you want to see tonight?" Phoenix asked when we walked into the cinema.

It was still odd to see Phoenix wearing a floral button down shirt and a pair of kaki coloured pants- which was still formal but a lot more casual than his fancy business suits. However, I felt like I wasn't overdressed or underdressed standing next to him, which was something I had been dreading the moment I woke up this morning.

"I actually don't know. What's your preferred genre of movie?" I asked staring at the list of movies being shown tonight.

"Well... I hate horror movies and musicals." He replied, staring at me with his jade green eyes. I couldn't quite make out what the emotion in his eyes was, but I was yearning to know because I'd never seen him look at me like this before. 

"Okay..." I drawled out. "That rules out Candyman, A Quiet Place 2 and a re-run of Mamma Mia."

I could feel Phoenix's gaze burning through the side of my head. Why was he still staring at me? Did I have something on my face?

"What's your favourite movie genre Talla?" He asked. "I'm giving you the reigns tonight. Whatever you want to watch, I'll watch."

God. I can't remember a time when anybody asked me so many personal questions. In the last three years all the movies I've watched are re-runs of classic Disney films thanks to Sienna. Her favourite was 101 Dalmatians and mine was Lady and the Tramp.

I nodded my head, not taking my eyes off all the options for the movies tonight. None of the movies jumped out at me... until I saw the movie poster for the live action Disney movie, Cruella.

"Let's watch Cruella." I grinned, pointing at the poster with Emma Stone on it.

"I'll go get the tickets and some popcorn then." Phoenix said and walked over to the kiosk.

---

Phoenix and I hadn't said a word the entire movie. However, at one stage I did get extremely cold and scooted over in my seat closer to Phoenix for his warmth but then became self-aware at how close we were but didn't want to move over.

When the credits began rolling, Phoenix unexpectedly turned to me and muttered the serious words I wasn't expecting to hear tonight. "I found something out yesterday about our engagement and I think you should know about it."

---

I know in the last chapter I said I wanted to write the date in Talla's P.O.V. however, whenever I actually went to write the chapter I had some serious writers block and just couldn't get past it which is why I basically glossed over the date. So, to make up for my writers block I decided to add some DRAMA to the next chapter. 

Thanks for reading this chapter, if you enjoyed it please comment, vote, add it to your reading list/s and share it with your friends. Have a lovely morning/afternoon/evening/night and stay tuned for the next chapter.

-C.J. Todd