"Are you sure you want to be Bob the tomato from Veggie Tales?" I wrinkled my nose as we stood in the middle of Party City. Avery nodded her head quickly. I sighed. I enjoyed seeing her so excited, but the idea of her being the male tomato from the movie series she was obsessed with was too much for me. "What about this pretty dress right here? You could be Cinderella, a princess!" I exclaimed, trying to spark her excitement.
"Megan, I really wanna be Bob!" She squealed. I smiled. She had finally gotten out of the stage of calling me "Miss Megan" and now was just happy with "Megan." I liked it better.
"Okay, okay," I sighed. "Fine, you can be the vegetable for Halloween. I mean, who in their right mind would want to be a princess?" I muttered to no one in particular as I continued to push our cart through the party store. Avery threw a few different things in the cart to buy with the costume.
"Oh, weren't you aware? Vegetables are the new trend," I heard a voice come from behind me. I frowned, wondering who had butted into my conversation. As I turned around, I met a very nice pair of emerald green eyes. A smile formed upon the mysterious man's lips and a hand reached out towards me. "Sorry, my daughter wanted to be Larry. I understood the whole vegetable thing so I thought I would share my own situation. I'm Chad."
"It's fine," I smiled. "I'm Megan." He smiled down at Avery who now looked incredibly confused.
"I'm Avery," she muttered and cocked her head to the side. Chad knelt down in front of her with a big smile and put his hand out for her to shake.
"It's very nice to meet you, Avery. I'm Chad," he smiled warmly. Avery seemed quite comfortable with him and a little smile found its way upon her lips. "You know, I was just headed out to pick up my little girl and take her to McDonald's for lunch. Would you and your mommy like to join me?"
My heart nearly stopped at the "M" word. I closed my eyes and bit my bottom lip, just waiting for the tears to cascade down Avery's cheeks and her tantrum to start. "She's not my mommy." She said simply and the smile fell from her lips almost as quickly as it had come.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he muttered and then glanced quickly between me and Avery. I wanted to beat this man. I wanted to take him outside and beat him. I would just have to beg him not to open those beautiful eyes because then he would make my knees weak. Why did he have to mention the whole mom issue? I knew he hadn't meant it, but still. I had worked so hard and gotten so far with Avery, I didn't want it to be ruined.
"Avery, honey, let's go," I muttered and started pushing the cart.
"No, wait!" He stopped us. I sighed and turned back around. "Listen, I didn't mean any offense to that comment. It was stupid of me to assume." Why did he care so much? "Let me make it up to you. Let me take you and Avery to lunch?"
In most scenarios I would be petrified by now that this man was some kind of ex convict, but his eyes pulled me in. Plus, that smile was something I couldn't resist. Besides, McDonald's was a public enough place. If he pulled a gun or a knife we could always scream loudly and find help. I sighed and smiled back at him. I felt something different in my stomach...then again, it could have just been hunger pains.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Soo sorry for the wait! Hopefully it'll let up a bit now. Yesterday I got my acceptance letter to the University of Central Florida [YAYYY!!] so now I'm not so stressed to be filling out college applications 24/7. Hah. Please review? No promises, but I'll try to have more out tomorrow!
