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Fulfillment(20)

By:K.M. Golland


Regardless, I was no longer worried where she was concerned; I wholeheartedly trusted Bryce, and I had no doubts about his feelings for me whatsoever. I just didn’t trust her—that would probably never change—even if he had already set her straight. I realised that it still bothered me that she was alone in his office with him, because I kind of felt sick. But only because she was a lips-licking, devious, sneaky mole, and I hated her.

***

After we both managed to pry ourselves away from the office, Bryce had reluctantly taken a walk with Nate to McDonald’s to pick up our dinner. We had stupidly asked the kids to make the choice of what to eat and, of course, they chose that. I had to laugh at his efforts to not only eat the Mc Greasy Burgers he was not very fond of, but to also place himself in the vicinity of the Ronald McDonald statue he feared terribly. Maybe the curly redheaded clown was growing on him.

Charli hadn’t felt like going along with them as she had been a little glum since finding out we were going to the farm on the weekend for Easter, and unfortunately because of that, she would have to wait to see her dad. I had told her that she would see him on the Easter Monday, but this being the first time we would be separated on a celebratory day had obviously really upset her.

I wanted to cheer her up, so I scrolled through my iPod and put on one of our favourite Glee songs, turning it up as loud as I could.

Rachel’s version of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” began to play, and Charli’s eyes widened as a broad smile crept across her face. Grabbing her hand, I started to sing the first line in the song, emphasising she not ‘sit and putter’. This made her giggle, so I pulled her up to dance around the room with me.

She performed a pirouette on the spot and flung her arms out in an over-exaggerated move which made me laugh. My daughter had just as much of a love for music as I did, so I knew that getting her to parade around the living area with me, would surely lift her gloomy spirits. She happily followed me like a shadow, copying my moves and singing along to the Broadway musical song.

There was a part in the song that I knew was coming and it referred to a hat, so I quickly skipped to the beat of the music and grabbed my sun hat which was hanging on the hook near the entryway wall. As I sang the words ‘Hat, Sir,’ I placed it on her head and curtsied to her. Smiling, she returned my curtsy with one of her own and gracefully nodded her head.

I took off again but stopped abruptly after only a few steps which made her bump into my back. She looked a little stunned but realised I had done it on purpose so that I could tap my finger on the tip of her nose while singing ‘or freckle on the nose’. She responded to my nose tap by performing a cute little wrinkle and wipe of her own, then ran around me and stepped up onto the sofa with her arms flung out, mimicking a plane. I knew only too well what she had planned because this was not the first time we had danced and performed to this song. So, when she fell forward, I caught her and spun us both around in a dizzying circle. Pausing for the smallest of seconds, we gathered our bearings from my over-exuberant twirling.

While my head deciphered which way was what, I figured I’d remain in character, acting as if I was in the middle of a Broadway drama by draping my arm across my forehead, over-exaggerating my exhausted state. Charli laughed then joined in on the act and pretended to pat down my head and fan her hands at me.

Keeping with the dramatized theme, I sprung up unexpectedly and danced to the kitchen, grabbing an apple as the song mentioned ‘life was juicy’ and having to have a bite. I pretended to take a bite of the apple, but screwed my nose up at it and tossed to her. She completely missed the catch and the apple hit the floor and rolled away. Her smile faded to a look of shock and then ‘Ooops’. She is just so adorably cute.

I danced up to her, grabbed her hand and winked, then led her back into the living area as I knew our favourite part was coming. I snuck a glance at her getting ready for the move, and her excited face warmed my heart. We both stopped dancing simultaneously and pointed our fingers to each other like guns, shouting ‘BAM!’ As always, I let her imaginary bullet get me by faking a clutching of my chest and stumbling for a bit.

After a quick recovery and a few more spinning leaps, the song was about to come to an end where Rachel held the word ‘Parade’ for a long time. We both belted it out, raising our hands to our invisible audience and giving each other smiling glances to see who was going to run out of breath first. I noticed her suck in another breath while keeping her mouth open, pretending she hadn’t done just that. I couldn’t help but laugh while still holding the note, so I pointed at her accusingly making her giggle.