Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 28

EAVESDROP

It came as no surprise to Noah when her phone rang on her lunch break the day after the dinner with her dad.

It also came as no surprise to Noah that the caller ID indicated it was her dad calling.

Noah was sitting in the break room at work, eating the sandwich that she had brought while she busied herself on her phone, usually by texting Harry whenever he could reply on his own breaks. Noah took her breaks later than her coworkers, so she was usually the only one in the break room whenever she ate lunch. A lot of her coworkers went out for lunch, too.

With that being said, Noah was able to answer the phone as she knew there were no coworkers around to disrupt as she spoke.

"Hey, dad," she said once she had pressed the accept button and brought the phone up to her ear.

"Hey, peanut. How are you? You at work?"

Noah glanced up at the clock on the wall above the sink to see that she had twenty minutes left of her break. "I'm alright, how about you? And yeah, I'm on my lunch."

"Nice, nice. I'm doing okay, as usual," there was a brief pause as Vincent thought of what to say next, "I wanted to apologize again for what Cindy said yesterday. I hope Harry didn't take anything to heart. And, please let him know that I really enjoyed meeting him and I think he's a great guy... and I'm glad that you two found each other."

The genuine tone in Vincent's voice made Noah unconsciously pout in response, feeling her eyes slightly tear up.

"Thank you, dad. I appreciate that, honestly. And I'll be sure to let Harry know. I'm glad I found him, too," at the end of Noah's sentence, she took a bite of her sandwich and let her eyes trail to the TV on the wall that was playing some random channel.

Vincent was happy to hear that Noah didn't hold much resentment for what happened the night before, but he still didn't feel as though he had said everything he wanted to say.

"By the way, I really spoke with Cindy last night. She said she'll apologize to you and Harry in person whenever we next see you two. And, she said she won't make comments like that anymore. So, I guess we'll see what happens in the future."

Noah had little to no hope that Cindy would actually apologize, let alone stop making those comments. They had become such a regular thing that Noah didn't think there was any changing them at that point.

"Yeah, we'll see. Thanks for talking with her, though. I know I never mentioned them before, but those comments have been going on for a while."

A deep sigh was heard as Vincent rubbed his eyes in frustration. "I figured. I'm sorry, peanut. I... I don't really know what to do about it but I'll talk with her again."

Before Noah could respond, there was some commotion on her dad's side of the call, so her dad spoke up, "Noah, I've gotta get back to work. I'll talk to you again soon, okay? Enjoy the rest of your day and say hi to Harry for me."

Noah's heart warmed at her dad's obvious inclusion of Harry, signifying that he had accepted Harry as a part of her life now.

"Will do, dad. Have a good day. Bye."

The phone call ended after Vincent said his own goodbye, then Noah went back to eating her food properly. As she chewed, she opened up her texts and went straight to her conversation with Harry.

Noah: my dad just called to apologize for yesterday. he said he talked to cindy and she said she'd stop with the comments and apologize in person. i honestly doubt it but i guess we'll see. anyway, i miss you. how's training going?