The Way Back | ✓

8.2

note: if you thought the last chapter was uneasy, buckle up people, the next chapters are going to be even rockier! 

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Andrew did not want to go back to Porte Orlands.

He missed Aurora's voice. It wasn't the same over the phone. He got to hug her, kiss her, rub her head even though she found it annoying and constantly told him to quit it, but she always said it with a goofy smile so he knew that she wasn't truly annoyed.

He missed his daughter and having her beside him made him never want to leave here, never want to go back to Porte Orlands.

"I know it's been just a week," Aurora said, smiling up at her father, "But I missed you."

"Ba missed you too," he smiled back, ruffling her hair again.

"I didn't miss you referring to yourself in third person," she shot back, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Ba is very much offended."

She giggled, flopping back down on the couch and leaning against his arm.

"This is a very boring movie," she said, her tone disappointed.

"Really? We watched it before and you loved it," Andrew said, looking down at his daughter whose eyes were on the television.

"Movies after lunch on Sunday felt much better. I miss London too."

Andrew frowned. This, his daughter moving away, was what had consumed him this entire week. London had consoled him, advised him even, and pushed him to be with his daughter and leave his pettiness behind. Had he, for one second, stopped to think that Aurora moving away affected London too? Andrew knew how much London cared for Aurora. He could see it in their interactions. He should have asked her how she was doing, how she felt, but he had been selfish.

She even told him to say hello to his daughter on her behalf but all thoughts of everyone else flew out the window as soon as he saw his daughter after that long drive.

"She said hi, by the way," he told Aurora now, both of them sitting quietly and not quite enjoying the movie as they did when they watched it with London.

"Tell her I said hi back. And hug her for me," Aurora said, looking up at her father.

Andrew nodded, smiling at her. They went back to watching the movie, no more words exchanged. He'd spent the whole day with her. He got her ice-cream from Baskin-Robbins, after making her promise that she wouldn't spill that detail to her mother of course, and then they went to the nearby park. They went to Nandos for a late lunch — she wanted ice-cream first and how was he to say no to her when this was the first time he was seeing her all week?

The two of them got back home, not quite exhausted yet. He played with her in her room, closing the door so Talia wouldn't bother them, and now they relaxed, ending the day with a movie.

She must have been really tired, for he could hear her light snoring already, having dozed off on his shoulder. Smiling, he picked her easily off the couch and carried her to her room. She was getting heavier, barely fitting perfectly in his arms anymore. It made him both happy and sad to see her growing up. He only wished that he could be there to witness it all. Instead, he lived miles away, and the distance was already killing him.

After he lay his daughter down and kissed her forehead goodnight, leaving the door to her room only slightly open, he returned back to the living room to find Talia putting down blankets and a pillow on one of the couches.

"Talia," Andrew greeted as he approached her. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Talk or argue?" she challenged, raising a perfectly done eyebrow at him. "Simon is waiting for me so if you want to argue I really don't have the energy—"

"Can you just spare me ten minutes? I'll be out of your hair after lunch tomorrow," Andrew pleaded, sitting down next to the sheets Talia had placed for him.

"Fine," she agreed, sitting down next to him. She patted her hands down her cotton pajama bottoms, her new shiny ring glinting as the light hit in in the perfect angle, right on cue to dazzle, as if to remind Andrew that she was moving forward — with his old friend and his daughter, while he was only just beginning to move forward but was losing his daughter.

"You're upset with me," he started. "Why?"

"You show up unannounced," she explained. "I had plans this weekend with my family."

"Aurora is my family too," he argued, but it was feeble.

"So? I didn't know you were coming over this weekend. I gave you our address and everything you needed to know. But you usually call or run things by me first. You showing up on my doorstep without any warning is rude," Talia said, looking angry, on the verge of breaking into an argument. But her daughter was in the house. Her husband-to-be was in the house and she didn't want to go scaring him off, Andrew thought bitterly, which was why she didn't quickly combust into loud yells as she usually did.

Yelling was actually quite characteristic of her.

"You told me I could come on the weekends," Andrew reasoned.

"You didn't call, Andy. How many times do I have to say that? I didn't actually think you were going to come this weekend," Talia said, huffing like she was done with him. She promised him ten minutes, she couldn't go anywhere yet.

"Aha! So you do admit that you didn't think I'd come this weekend. You moved to Ipswich to make it harder for me, didn't you?" Andrew pointed out but again his argument was weak.

"Andy, you didn't call," she stressed each word. "All you had to do was call."

"Oh, so you're saying that if I called and came by this weekend you wouldn't have any problem with me seeing my daughter and spending some time with her?" he questioned. It was his turn to raise a daring eyebrow at her.

She sighed. "That's not what I said."

"Exactly." He looked at her side profile, her eyes refusing to meet his. Taking her hands into his, he gave them a small squeeze and asked, desperation clear in his voice, "Just stop, Talia."

She looked at him. Her eyes said she knew what he was talking about but her facial expression remained stoic. "Stop what?"

He shoved her hands away, releasing a frustrated breath as he ran his hand through his hair. He tried to talk to her so many times. So many goddamn times. But nothing went through that thick skull of hers. Her stubbornness was something that he has once admired because she always stood her ground when she believed in something strongly but as of late he was seeing that her strong headed-ness was not all that positive. That attribute refused to let her see her shortcomings, her mistakes. She barely ever listened.

"We agreed to joint custody. You moving away has made that very hard. Honestly, it looks like you deliberately moved just to put distance between me and Aurora so that you could make me out to be a bad parent. It's not a competition, Talia. This is our daughter."

"That's right," Talia shot back, standing up. "She is our daughter. So put in the effort to be a good parent."

"You know I'm giving this my all," he argued, getting onto his feet as well. "How about you? You seem to be putting little to no effort."

She stared hard at him and if looks could kill Andrew would certainly be on the floor, writhing in pain as the life sucked out of him. "Would you look at that? Your ten minutes are up."

"Talia!"

"Goodnight Andrew." She walked away briskly, disappearing out of the living room and leaving him cold, alone and very much angry.