Wednesday, 72 hours till the debutante. Olivia was nervous, the clock was ticking but it was not just the debutante on her mind this time. Eli had invited her to his house for dinner for the first time and that also meant that she would be meeting his parents.
Avery seemed to be in a state of shock since she told him the news that Eli and her were now dating. While Edmond pranced around the house teasing and pranking poor Avery every chance he had.
It was almost time for Eli to pick her up but she was too nervous to stay in one place, she paced endlessly around the foyer. She figured that a quick stop in the kitchen for a glass of water would calm her nerves but what she saw instead made her feel worse.
Avery was leaning against the kitchen counter, absent-mindedly holding a tall glass of milk while Edmond took the chance to add drops of food coloring to his milk "Your highness when will you drink your milk? Are you just letting the temperature of the room warm up your milk for you? Or can your humble servant help you drink the milk.... mouth to mouth..." he purred, with a cotton swab in hand and a straw in another.
"Dad?" Olivia asked cautiously. Edmond's eyes flashed as he jumped away from Avery. "Princess, you startled me!" he hissed. Olivia gave him an apologetic smile "Sorry, I didn't mean to but why hasn't dad gone back to his usual self yet?" Edmond closed the distance between Avery and himself. "Princess you don't know the half of it! When he's here by himself he sits on the steps and starts to cry."
Olivia's heart broke from Edmond's words. She walked up to Avery and touched his arm. "Daddy?" the sensation made him flinch, he blinked a few times before he looked at Olivia's face. "OH! Livy did you call me?" he asked innocently.
Fear struck through Olivia's body, her nose started to scrunch up, her lips trembled, while her cheeks balled up, her breathing was starting to pick up and she tried hard to fight back the tears that wanted to spill out of squinted eyes.
The conditioned fear made her body reacted suddenly as she remembered how her father acted when he lost his wife all those years ago and now he was starting to act the same way but now the only difference between then and right this instant was a glass of milk and not a glass of hard liquor.
Avery saw Olivia's pained face and dropped his glass of milk. The cup shattered on impact while the liquid and food coloring was sent flying outwards in every direction. "Livy..." he said as he raised his hand to touch her face. Olivia flinched, she turned her head down to the left and took a step back afraid of what he was going to do next.
Avery froze his hand mid-air momentarily. The hurt, the pain and the anxiety she was displaying before his eyes had now become his own, he knew that she never got over what happened those months after her mother passed away just as he too could never forget.
He knew no matter how much love, attention and help they got, there was always going to be a small part of her that would never allow her memories to be erased, it would always be engraved into her heart. He was reassured time would heal them both but the truth was time was cruel for never allowing Olivia's heart to fully heal and even cruller for never allowing him to forget.
"Hey... hey... princess, its ok..." Edmond said as he moved slowly towards Olivia with his hands raised in the air, trying his best to not step on the pieces of glass that had now occupied the floor. Olivia calmed her breathing as she looked at Edmond.
"Honey, nothing bad is going to happen... I swear, your dad is a little shocked that his baby has grown up so much that's all." he said soothingly as he wrapped his well toned arms around her trembling body. "No one here is going to hurt you." he made sure to enunciate every word with conviction.
Olivia shoved her face into his strong chest and nodded in agreement. Once she was completely calmed down she peeked from Edmond's pecs and looked at her father carefully. Avery had gone paler then before, he rubbed his forehead as he contemplated what to say. Seeing him at a lose for words made Olivia feel more reassured of Edmon's words.
She felt a little bad for never being able to get past the trauma of her childhood and she needed to let him know she was ok. That they were ok "Daddy..." she called from within Edmond's embrace.
Avery lifted his head when he heard Olivia call out to him, he tried to hide his watery eyes. "Daddy?" she called out once more, he couldn't hold his feelings anymore and dropped his head towards his chest as he walked forward towards his family, stepping on the accumulated shards on glass on the floor before wrapping his arms around the both of them.
"I'm sorry... so sorry. I promised you I was never going to that man again... but... I was slipping back." he muttered. "Edmond is right I need to realize you are growing up and your not going to be my little girl forever..." he said as small tears started to fall downwards.
Olivia looked at her father's face "I'm always going to be your little girl... mom's too" she said gently as Avery sniffed. Edmond was the one who broke their happy circle of love. "Ok no more or you'll be helping me clean up the mess my face will be making!" Edmond shouted "Speaking of messes though I should probably get that glass cleaned up before someone gets hurt." Avery said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"DAD!" Olivia shouted as she pointed to her father's feet. A small pool of blood was starting to form while his socks were already stained a dark red. "No worries, no worries princess! Nurse Edmond can help his highness. You got a dinner date to go to right? Now get a move on!" Edmond said as he poked her cheek.
Olivia looked at her father, as Avery returned a small smile. "It doesn't hurt... and if it's bad I will call you before we go to the hospital." he tried to say in his most cheerful voice "Besides no one is better then Edmond when it comes to patching up wounds." Olivia looked at Edmond and gave him a small nod "I owe you one." before she turned away and headed her way towards the foyer.
Moments later she ran into Eli already waiting for her in the foyer. "Eli! You're here already. We should leave right away." she said in her most cheerful voice. Eli reached out to grab her hand and pulled her closer to him. "Hey is everything ok?" he asked with a worried face. Olivia immediately dropped her head not daring to raise her eyes to meet his. "My dad got hurt..." she whispered.
"Where is he." he asked her a little too loudly. She raised her head slowly and showed him a conflicted face. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do or what she wanted to say. "Where is he." Eli asked a little more sternly. "Kitchen." she answered with teary eyes.
"Let's go to him then." he said with determination "Eli what about dinner?" Olivia tried to protest as he dragged her towards the kitchen. "Your dad is important to you right? My parents will understand why we are late so lets make sure your dad is ok before we leave."
"Thank you..." she muttered.
.....
Olivia kept thinking back to how amazing Eli was. He knew right away something was off with her and tried to get her to talk. She couldn't help but smile as she remembered watching him trying to learn from Edmond.
While Edmond tried his best to explain different ways to give someone first aid when you have a limited amount of supplies. Edmond stitched her fathers feet as he gave Eli more pointers on what someone could use if they didn't have a needle or thread, while Eli only nodded to his words.
"Eli..." she called out, breaking him out of whatever thought he had. "Mmmh?" Olivia felt the car slowing down to an almost complete stop. "Come closer I want to tell you something." she said shyly. Eli leaned closer as the driver announced their arrival to the Estate. Olivia took her seat belt off, closed the gap between them and gave Eli a quick kiss on his lips. "Thank you again" she said before jumped out of the car leaving a frozen, blushing Eli behind.