I enter the cafe trying to put a mute over the ongoing bickering with my inner Devil who keeps asking me to play sick and return to Dan at this very moment!

 I see Emily and greet her with a "Good morning" which she reverts with her happy energy...

 However, as soon as her eyes land on my face she stops her work halfway and instead stares at me head to toe with knitted eyebrows.

 "Good morning again kid! Anddd what's got you shining extra bright today, may I ask?" She says wiggling her eyebrows excitedly. 

I know that lying is not an option so I decided to tell her about the little incidents from yesterday.

 "I ended up staying the night at Jan's place yesterday and...Dan might have asked me out this morning..." I whisper the last part with a blush after covering the quick backstory.

"God! I'm so happy for you!!" She says excitedly bringing me into a bone-crushing hug. 

"Sweetie, though I know this Dan person must be fine, still you have to be careful and let me know if you land in any sort of trouble... I'll kick that hottie's ass right away if needed!" she says switching to a motherly tone. 

'Arthur better be careful not to upset this lady!' I giggled to myself with the thought of a cowering Arthur!

With the short yet heartfelt conversation, we get back to our chores. After a few preparations, we changed the sign to 'Open'  and the day proceeded with the usual pattern of customers rushing in and out every few hours. 

My lunch, to my surprise, included stuff other than the regular sandwiches... It was a delicious meal of Choco-chip muffin, strawberry smoothie and some fried chicken, all being my favorites!

"My treat to mark your first step into the adult world, Sweetie!" Em had declared wiping the fake tears off her cheeks with one hand and placing the other on her chest... The scene was supposed to simulate one where Emily's daughter was getting married off!

 I thanked her and giggled at her little one-person play... and while doing so a thought crossed my mind,

 'Would it have been similar if Mum was still around???'

Emily treats me like her son and that always reminds me of my own mother... I feel so thankful, indebted even. Well, she has been even more lively after meeting Arthur which is great and I'm more than happy with the people in my life now with each passing day...

I look at the clock and it's around 5:30 already, so I'm debating on whether to call or text Dan since my shift ends at 6. 

After contemplating for a while, finally I decided to text and open the messenger on the new phone after some exploration. Three contacts display on my screen and the third one has my heart melting into a puddle...

1) Arthur

2)Jan 

My face immediately flushes the colour matching the heart on the screen! 

This guy is gonna make me go insane in the near future!!

 'Scratch it and write MY DADDY❤️ instead' my Devil says excitedly.

I shake my head to empty the thrash inside and start typing...

5:45 pm_ Me: Hey! It's me Alex... I finish by 6 pm.

.

.

5:45 pm_ My Love ❤️: Alright, I'll be there...

5: 46 pm_ My Love ❤️: See you soon Babe! 😚

 I smile at my screen like a lovestruck teenager... I don't know if I'll ever get used to him calling me ""Babe""... Plus the name he has bestowed upon himself is too much for me to handle although I like it a little too much, I know that my underconfident self would have never been able to call him mine!

 I might have saved his number as "Dan" or "Chocopie's Dad" most probably... 

 I was about to go find Emily when I almost jumped because the Goddess herself was already standing right in front of me, staring at my face intently, as if expecting some answers to her unuttered questions.

"Yes, Emy....he's coming to pick me up," I tell her shyly with a smile.

"Oh Great!" She says flashing her beautiful grin.

"Kid you might want to get changed already then..." She says nudging me playfully but stops suddenly.

"Sweetie, you sure he wasn't hiding in the changing room or something? Cause I can see a lover boy walking up to the front door right now and I suppose that one belongs to you!" She says raising her brows playfully.

"You sure are funny Em...." I was about to say when a familiar voice fell on my ears.

"Hey Babe!" 

I turned around at the source of the voice so fast that I almost felt darkness cloud my vision for a second.

(Yep the anemia thing that causes you to lose your balance momentarily is hella real!)

I see Dan walking up to me with some sort of bouquet in his hand.

"But I just texted you???" I enquire with wide eyes as soon as he stops beside me with a huge grin.

"Well..... Arthur had told me your shift timings already, and I wanted to see you in your work uniform so here I am!" He says still grinning with a little shrug as if it was the simplest thing for him.

 "Oh..." I say blushing and all this while Emy stands right behind me watching our interaction amusingly.

"Oh sorry! I forgot to introduce you guys... Dan this is Emily, she owns this place and Emy this is Dan....my.... boyfriend" My voice turns into a whisper towards the end as my face heats up to its maximum limit.

Emily takes a few steps forward with a wide smile to shake hands with Dan who is holding out his own to do so. He then hands her the flowers which consist mainly of beautiful blue hydrangea.

"Hello, Ma'am... This is to thank you for looking out for Lexie and my son" Dan says with a small yet genuine smile.

"No worries Sweetie, your son is an Angel and Alex here is like my son so you don't have to be thankful for anything. I'll be happy to have the lil Angel back here anytime..." Emy says admiring the flowers in her hands.

"Also thank you for the flowers...they are beautiful!" She says inhaling the enticing scent of the flowers.

 Soon they both grab seats as Dan sits beside me and Emy takes one across us. They come up with a few common topics of interest which include me and some other business-related quests and they chat as if they had always known each other...

 It brings a smile to my lips watching that Em had approved of Dan and he seemed to like her equally since he had some genuine expressions playing on his features.

 I take the chance to excuse myself and get changed out of my white buttoned-up shirt and beige trousers over which we had our coffee brown aprons with the 'BrowN~WavE Cafe' logo in the center which happened to be our uniform. 

Emily had found a brand new shirt and trousers of the needed colour which she informed me belonged to Max, but he couldn't fit in them and were discarded without use. 

Though the story was on point I wasn't totally naive and knew that Emy might have bought new ones cause they fitted me perfectly but, I preferred to seal my lips and accept the favour with gratitude making a note to myself to always remember the kindness...

"Sorry Sweetie, but Danielle won't be able to join you in there, since I have some dating rules to be discussed with this gentleman over here," Emy says winking at me as I'm about to disappear in the staff room, which makes my whole face turn bright red.

 Without wasting another second I nod and rush inside the changing room at the speed of light!

I change into the black hoodie that Dan had lent me and jeans from the morning, I quickly redo my hair tying it up tightly like I always do and rush outside not wanting to keep Dan waiting further...

 I walk towards the table where I had left the duo chatting happily and I'm about to run and grab the seat beside Dan when I hear them speaking in a low but serious tone which has caused me to stop in my tracks.

"I don't know what that boy has gone through but when I first saw him he was helping your son on my way to the Cafe... I was surprised when I saw him again at my place the same evening. He looked so lost and his eyes seemed filled with emptiness that day... I have a son you see who is a year older than Alex and it would shatter my heart to pieces if I ever find my boy in the same circumstances as Alex. So I made a firm decision to help him out in any way possible on my behalf... However, for the first time today, he had sparkles in those pretty eyes of his...and if the reason is you Danielle, I hope I never see the pain-filled hollow eyes of his again..."

Silence~

"If you promise me that you'd never hurt him, I'll allow you to be my Son-in-law!" Emy says breaking the serious motherly tone in her voice to a playful one.

"I promise you, mother-in-law," Dan says as he breaks into a smile of his own as he plays along with Emy by lifting one hand in the air and placing the other one on his chest over his heart as if taking an oath!

I was going to laugh at their cute banter but before I could register, tears started trailing down my cheeks... Regardless, not wanting to ruin the beautiful day, I took a few deep breaths and quickly wiped them off.

I abandon my hiding spot and finally walk towards them and I notice Emy indicating Dan ""the zip your lips sign"" to which Dan complies by throwing the imaginary key out of the window!

I didn't pry much into their antiques since I guess I heard most of it anyway.

 'Let's kiss him to death!!!' my Devil demands.

 'Let's do that when we get home' my Angel seconds the idea.

 'Well, not you too Angel!' I shake my head in denial however the idea seems too tempting to be shaken off... 

"Ready to go Babe?" Dan asks, to which I nod and give a final goodbye hug to Emy a little tighter than usual.

"Well honey, you have to return him tomorrow morning...or else I might have to raid that house of yours!" Emy says glancing between me and Dan.

 I nod giggling a bit while Dan gives her a two-finger salute answering in an army tone, " Yes mother-in... I mean Ma'am". 

"Emily or Emy is just fine Honey," Emy says satisfied with Dan's reply. She waves a final goodbye to us and disappears inside the cafe. 

We start heading towards Dan's car and he opens the passenger door for me and waits till I fasten my seatbelt. He then jogs to the other side and takes his seat.

"If you keep looking at me like that kitten, I'm not responsible for what comes next," Dan says grinning which causes me to immediately turn my face and start admiring the window view on my side with heat spreading all over my face.

'Told ya that Daddy is drool worthy!' my Devil laughs at me.

Uggghhh! 

I hear some rustling behind me followed by a clearing of throat...

 "Babe..." Dan calls out and I turn to face him.

My eyes hold a view where my BOYFRIEND (Yes that sounds so unreal!!)  holding a big ass bouquet of the most beautiful sunflowers I have ever seen! 

I admit it I'm a sucker for cliche things like this anddd he never fails to surprise me!

He hands it to me and leans in to place a quick kiss on my lips and then proceeds to stare at me with an unknown expression. 

"Thank you, Dan... They are absolutely pretty!" I say still staring at the flowers.

"Are you alright Babe?" He asks out of the blue causing my attention to shift from the flowers to him. He is staring at my face intently as if trying to decipher a code.

"Yeah..." I reply with confusion written all over my face.

"I know you heard us Lex, and it seems like you cried..." He says with concern as his thumb traces my lower lid

'Oh! And here I thought I was master at concealing my emotions' I sigh internally.

"I'm just happy to have met you guys, everyone of you."

"I don't even know if I deserve all of this..." I trail, avoiding his gaze trying to hold back another stream of waterfall threatening to break through my eyes.

"You deserve everything Babe... I didn't know falling for another person was even possible for me before I met you..." Dan says lifting my chin to meet my eyes.

"And trust me.... you're knocking down some unknown doors inside me 'cause watching you with Jan is making me jealous of my own son!" He says shaking his head while smiling to himself...

I'm still in my thoughts when Dan leans in to lock our lips which causes my mind to zoom into the present and then transfer to heaven almost immediately! 

His soft lips move slowly which causes a soft moan to escape my mouth, Dan takes this chance to explore my insides, his hot tongue playing with my own slowly... 

I open my eyes finding it hard to breathe only to find his eyes fixed on me with a smile already. He nibbles at my bottom lip and finally lets go with a last peck on my teary eyes which had shut themselves again in embarrassment.

"Let's get going Babe, Pup won't be happy if I keep you all to myself," he says grinning with a satisfied look on his face.

After some reluctance, I had accepted to stay at Dan's place so we finally hit the road towards our common destination...

Dan had held one of my hands all through the drive occasionally placing a kiss on the back of it, causing me to bury myself into the seat with a blush coating my entire face...

We reach home after about a half an hour drive and as soon as we enter, I'm tackled by a certain Fluffball, bouncing with excitement. He latches himself onto one of my legs like a cute baby Koala. 

"He doesn't even see me now!" Dan pouts faking hurt.

My cute little Chocopie, however, gets worried and breaks his hold on me to take a look at his Dadda, only to meet a tickle attack from him... We all burst into a fit of laughter as our baby squirms around.

Dan finally releases his prey and the Honeybear starts to run around the living room filling it with cute giggles.

"Jan is going to marry Lexie when he grows up...." The lil Bear says dashing towards me again.

But before he could reach me, he was blocked by two strong arms....!

🔹🔹🔹⚜️⚜️ヽ⁠(⁠*ﾟ⁠ｰﾟ⁠*⁠)⁠ﾉ⚜️⚜️🔹🔹🔹