It Started With Cake - A Gregory Gorenc fan fiction

Chapter 4 - The Father-Daughter Dance

Christmas lights lit up the trees like fireflies as Winter flicked the light switch on and I was able to see the whole of the garden more clearly. We were surrounded with flowers of different colours, shapes and sizes and there was an apple tree in the middle of the garden enclosed in a circular bench. Wow. Just wow. Winter dragged me to a gazebo at the farthest part of the garden.

“I want to dance here, if it’s alright with you.” She said as she faced me, her eyes gleaming with an inexplicable emotion.

“Of course, wherever is fine with me as long as I get to dance with you.” I’ll even dance on the sun as long as it’s with you.

The music from the function hall was a bit inaudible to where we were but we had to make do. I placed my hands on Winter’s waist as she placed hers on my arms and smoothed them up to my shoulders and we slowly swayed to “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. She looked me in the eyes, her emotion still unreadable. It’s like she’s searching for something in me, but what is it?

“Your eyes, they remind me of someone else’s.” She said, as if she’s read the question in my mind.

“Someone special?” I asked.

“Very. My dad. He had the same lovely grey eyes.” She said softly.

“Had?” I said, confused.

“He died when I was 12.” She replied.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I said.

“There’s no need to be sorry.” She gave me a small smile but I can tell that there was pain in her eyes.

“Are you alright?” I asked with a hint of worry in my voice.

“I’m fine. I just missed him a lot tonight.” She answered, forcing another smile. “This was his favourite place in the world. It’s his special place. Whenever dad disappears, we would always find him here tending to the flowers, humming about.”

She rested her head on my chest and snaked her arms around me. I wrapped my arms around her in return. It was all I could think of doing to comfort her. What else could I do? Say something, Greg! What should I say? Anything! Let her know she can trust you!

“Tell me more about him. Do we really have the same grey eyes?” I said, hoping that talking about her dad might make her feel better.

“Mm hm. When I was a kid, whenever we would have parties here at the hotel, he would take me here for the last dance and tell me that it was practice for our father-daughter dance on my 18th birthday. He would always say that he didn’t want to screw up on the actual dance. Yeah, he didn’t screw it up, but we lost him.” She said softly as she wrapped her arms around my torso and embraced me.

“What took him from you?” I asked.

“Aneurysm.” She answered, looking back up to me. “After his death, I realised all those father-daughter dances weren’t just practice, they were pre-dances for my 18th birthday. He knew that he was going to die any moment that time so he made it up to me before he lost the chance.” She added, looking down again making her hair cover her face.

Before I could respond, her shoulder started shaking. I let go of her and held her at arm’s length. I tried to see her face but she shook her head looking away from me. Then she started crying, like, really crying and walked towards the bench around the apple tree. Oh, jeez, what do I do? What do I do?

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked her as I follow her.

“I’m- I’m okay. I just need to vent out my emotions.” She snivelled, sitting down on the bench.