Scarlett Lawson, or at least that was what she was called before. Before she was betrayed by some of the people she was meant to trust the most, placed in the worst predicament she could have imagined and sent away to a whole different world.
But no...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Scarlett Vanderburg's POV
"I don't know mom." I spoke into the phone. "We just got out of an extremely long meeting since the case officially opens in two weeks and we're going to be away the whole of next week. And besides, I don't think he wants to have dinner with three of his employees."
Calix looks at me, hearing his name. "Your mom?" He mouths and I nod. "I'll go."
I shook my head indicating that he didn't have to but he held out his hand for my phone which I gave him and he held it up to his ear.
"Hi Mrs Lawson." He pauses, and I can hear the faint chattering of my mother but it's too soft for me to make out the words. "Sorry, I mean Cassandra. And I accept your invitation for dinner if Scarlett decides to attend." My mother starts talking again. "Of course it's no problem, would you like me to bring you anything? Alright I'll see you just now."
He cuts the call and hands me my phone back. "You didn't have to."
He had met both of my parents and Meredith a handful of times when they came round the apartment but this is the first time we are having dinner at their place and the first time I'm going back to my parents' house after the shit show that went down last time.
"What part of me really doesn't matter, in fact I'm looking forward to it, don't you understand?" he said softly, with a small smile playing on his lips.
"You don't understand." I'm stressed. "Three of my siblings live at home, all three of them work for you. One of them has a major crush on you and hates me for breathing the same air as you. And my parents are going to start asking when we're getting married."
He pauses thinking through everything I had said and just when I think he's going to back out a smirk lifts onto his face. "If they want you to marry me does that mean they approve?"
That gets an eye roll out of me but I can't help but smile. "Of course that's what you focus on."
Calix walks closer to me trapping me between the kitchen counter and his body. His hands fall to my hips and he just smiles at me. We had been getting even closer after our long chat a couple nights ago, after I had let out all of my trauma he had a turn. He told me all about how hard it was to lose his dad and how he often struggled with feeling like he wasn't good enough. And how he felt abandoned when his mother and sisters moved across the world even though he knew it was better for them. And how he owed it to Silas for making sure he was alive everyday.
"Come on Angel, let's go to dinner."
♦
Calix gave me a look when I went to open my door. He had done that every time we had gone out somewhere together. He had never once let me open my own door. He said it was something his father always did and it was something important for him to pass on the tradition.
We walk up together, I glance down the street at the road I used to play everyday on, the tree I climbed and read books in, the swing set where I used to meet my friends. Calix grabs my hand and squeezes it when he sees me getting lost in my head.
