The Untitled Job

-11- New Sides

I heard a buzzing noise on the table as I was waiting for the cupcakes to bake. It's way too early for it to be my alarm for the cupcakes so I go and pick it up.

From: Daniel | 4:56 p.m.

Look, you wouldn't listen to me earlier but I really do owe you an explanation. Maybe another time though.

I set my phone back down on the table and wait a couple of minutes before the alarm goes off, telling me that the cupcakes are ready. I get them out of the oven and turn it off. I get each one off the baking try and put them on a cooling tray.

"Tay Tay...cakes are ready to ice. Do you want to help me?" I shout into the living room. I hear a pitter patter of feet running in my direction. We ice the cupcakes in no time at all but before we can have some I make sure to tell the kids that they can't have any until after we've all had tea. I grab one of the cupcakes and run upstairs to try and find Daniel's room. I narrow down my search to two doors. Taylor's has her name on, so does Aidan's and I know where the bathroom is so one of the others must be Daniel's and the other must be Madison's. I knock on the first on the left and hear movement inside. The door swings open and Daniel's eyes widen once he realises that it's me. His bewitching eyes make me forget how to function until I remember I have a cupcake in my hands.

"Okay Danny Boy, right here in my hand I have a cupcake that your cute little sister made with me. You can choose to either let me smother it over your face or you can help me cook tea and eat this and possibly another one?" I pull off my best puppy-dog face I can but my petulant smile gave away that he had no choice in the matter and that he would have to go through both.

"Lexi, don't even think about it. I can read you like a book." He turns to run back into his room and slam the door on my face. I stick my foot out to keep the door open and hear a crack. I see Daniel and a peeved expression etched onto his face before a haunted one takes over. He runs straight back to the door to check if my foot is okay. I take my chance and shove the cake right into his nose as he reaches me. He grabs a hold of the cupcake and starts to eat the remainder.

"Oh no you didn't," he said with an essence of sass in between bites, "you better hope that foot is okay so that you can run away right now." My mischievous side quickly disappears before my own haunted expression makes an appearance. I decide to stand my ground and stand directly in front of him, squaring up to him as I do. I fix my eyes onto his only to see a glow in his eyes.

"If that's how you want this to go then by all means. But not until we have that talk I mentioned in my text or were you ignoring me again?" I sent him a quizzical look before taking him up on his offer.

"Fine. But make it quick, I meant what I said about making tea. The kids need to eat before they overload on sugar." He nods before stepping out of his room, moving me out of the way and then closing the door.

"Will we ever be able to talk? You talk to Josh and Ty all the time in school. What? Am I not good enough to get any chance to talk to you?" My expression must have given away my shock before he has the same look on his face. He avoids eye contact with me before I turn his head back towards me to get his attention.

"You can talk to me, I just didn't think you wanted to. I've known Josh and Ty for years, and I mean years. Look, please can you come and help me and we can talk about this later?" He fixes his eyes on me as he lets the words sink in before nodding and leading me down the stairs. We walk past the living room, checking on the kids as we do. They are peacefully watching TV together.

"Do you have enough ingredients in the house to make a chicken and bacon pasta bake, if there's no bacon then just a chicken one?" He starts to rummage around a few different draws and cupboards. He gets out some tinned tomatoes, pasta, chicken breasts, and cheese.

"I'll chop the chicken if you can boil the pasta for me," I nod along with what he says before he continues, "Measure out 120g of the pasta from the bag, which should be enough." I do as I am told and start to boil the pasta. After cutting up the chicken he puts them in a separate saucepan and starts to cook them. He then adds them to the saucepan of pasta before adding the tinned tomatoes. I move out of the way and start to grate some cheese to add as a topping. When I've turned back around he's put the ingredients in a lasagne dish and nudges me to put the cheese on top. I sprinkle all of the grated cheese on top of the pasta and chicken evenly before Daniel puts it in the oven to leave it for 20 minutes. I set a timer on my phone and start to clean up. By the time I've finished Dan's left the room and isn't in the living room.

To: Daniel | 5:34 p.m.

Thank you for helping. If I don't see you before I go then I'll be at the social tomorrow for karaoke night, I know the boys are going so if you're going with them then I'll see you there, don't be afraid to speak to me. Enjoy the food.

A few moments after I've sent the text I hear running down the stairs. I turn around to see a sulky Daniel in the doorway.

"What do you mean by 'enjoy the food', you're not staying?"

"Well I'll be going when your mum gets home from work, I won't be staying for tea this time. But will I see you tomorrow then or were you just ignoring me?" I tease by quoting what he has said to me a couple of times.

"You can count on it. I'll be with the boys so you can actually talk to me when you talk to them, if you notice me this time." His piercing and playful eyes stare directly into mine.

"This time?! What do you mean by that? I definitely noticed you when you were on stage singing a Shawn Mendes song, which was beautiful by the way."

"Shit. You know the song?! I didn't think anyone would know it yet. But no, I was on about when you were singing Guns 'N' Roses with your friends, and killing it."

"Of course I know the song, I wouldn't be a true fan otherwise, plus I have the album," I said with a light laugh, "Oh, you were there then?" he nodded, "With the boys?" he nodded again.

Click. The sound of the front door caught our attention. Daniel went to drag the kids away from the TV and to say hello to his mum while I got the pasta bake out of the oven. I set it on the side and got out 4 bowls. I evenly dished out the contents so if there were any leftovers from any of the bowls then it would be easy to know who could eat what if they wanted to finish it some other time. I walked out of the kitchen and saw Madison being cornered by her three kids. I laughed to myself until I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me and drag me to their group hug.