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Call me crazy, but I don’t think daddy just simply heading to the store real quick was really his true intention here. I mean, the daughter’s boyfriend and the doting father shoved in one place all on their own?

No one was around to interrupt, and no one present to intervene. Mr. Collins might as well be twirling the trigger of a revolver by the way he was spinning Amanda’s car key around his finger in wait.

I know what he was trying to do, and he knows that I know too, and as such, we also both know that there was nothing I could do. I’m the boyfriend eager to please in this predicament, the hell was I gonna do-say no?

Whoosh the trigger twirled and spun... the hammer cocked back... barrel pointing forward... ready to fire...

Faintly, my stiff knees gave a crack, slowly rising to my feet.

“Sure, not a problem,” I responded as casually as I could. “I think I might know a couple of places that might sell-”

.....

“Actually!” came a voice sounding over the rush of water, and I turned around to find Mrs. Collins with her smile, twisting the kitchen faucet to a silencing stop. “Amanda, why don’t you go along with your father instead?”

“Me?” Amanda exclaimed. “Go? Why?”

It was then I finally discovered for myself that Mr. Collins does actually possess other forms of emotions too other than that lingering tight expression of dissatisfaction he always has on... gazing forward at his wife with a visible hint of confusion.

“You’re always in the office when she calls, you’ve only texted her three times in the last week,” Mrs. Collins added on to her statement. “Wouldn’t it be nice to spend some father-daughter time while we’re here? It’s only for a night, after all.”

Mr. Collin moved his head in the slightest of slant, with steady unblinking eyes actually deeply contemplating the decision.

“Oh my God-guys, seriously?” Amanda said, wedging herself right between them both. “You’re gonna treat my boyfriend like a tug-of-war game now? Take him from me, see who among you gets to have him alone for some time? Just what kind of dirt are you expecting to dig up from him?”

“Dirt?” Mr. Collins frowned. “I just want to get a drink.”

“And I just want to see you two bond,” Mrs. Collins innocently asserted. “Sure, that would also mean your boyfriend will be left alone on his own for a little while. But don’t worry,” She sweetly smiled. “I’ll make sure he’s in good company in your absence.

Both hands sprawling over across the table, Amanda huskily groaned the groan of a child unable at all to best the power of her parents.

Honestly... can relate...

“So, between me or your father,” Mrs. Collins playfully addressed her daughter. “Who is it that you would rather your boyfriend spend a short while with, hm?”

From the way despair so quickly extinguished the light from Amanda’s eyes, you’d think she was being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils to decide upon the fate of the world.

Nevertheless though, Amanda’s chair squeaked, as she rose to her feet, her decision finally made.

“I’ll see you in a bit, alright?” She softly whispered to me, pecking me lightly on the lips. “You’re plenty used to my bullshit already.” over my shoulder, her gaze veered, suspending momentarily, from daughter to mother sharing a knowing glance with each other. “You’ll survive her.”

Forgetting Mrs. Collins for just a moment, that little kiss she gave me has got papa bear over here clenching his palms. I think I might like him better when he was still reserved with his emotions.

“Come on then,” He urged his daughter with the stiffest of tones, turning away and walking already. “I really, really need that drink now...”

Amanda left my side and hurried on over towards her father’s, and with an endearing farewell and a hard scowl side-by-side that’ll forever be imprinted in my head, the front door opened and then swung close with a resounding click of finality.

Now here I was... alone with the progenitor of mischief herself. All of Amanda’s shrewdness.. stemming from this single woman’s influence.

This should be something, alright...

“So...” Mrs. Collins spoke, rubbing keen, eager hands together... a wide ominous smile hovering just right above. “I suppose you must be wondering what I’ve got hidden under my sleeves, aren’t you? Nervous? ”

“I trust Amanda’s judgment,” I said. “If she thinks I’ll fare a lot better staying with you than going out with your husband, then I’m sure I can handle it. Besides, after the way he looked at me just now... I’m rather inclined to agree.”

She chuckled at that, leisurely walking forward with a dainty stride.

“Try and excuse him if you can. After all, it still seems like only a few days ago when Amanda was just the cutest little girl nestling up on top of her father’s lap, bouncing her up and down... getting her to laugh... and now apparently, she’s snuggling up yours all nice and comfy. You see his side of the story now?”

“Never said I didn’t get it,” I said, stuffing my hands in my pocket, feeling the soft pressure of hers still pulsing around my palm. “Doesn’t make him any less terrifying though.”

“Nothing in the world is stronger than a loving father’s protectiveness,” then sneaking up close behind me, her voice practically ringing in my ears, Mrs. Collins muttered. “Except maybe, perhaps... a prying mother’s concern, of course.”

In reaction, I shambled forward a couple of steps, keeping a modest distance between ourselves... and even from afar, wearing an assessing look that resembled Amanda’s to a tee, she wouldn’t stop her intrusive observation of me.

“So...” I began, calmly breathing in deep.

“So,” She repeated back, brows raised, a quizzical smile forming. “So, what?”

“So nothing,” I said. “I’m pretty much under your mercy here. Whatever you do, whatever you say, I’m yours to command. Which I’m sure is what you wanted all along, right?”

“Accusations aren’t very flattering, you know...” She told me, turning away and walking in a completely new direction. “That being said... I’m happy you aren’t actually as dense as you look. Ten points.”

Ten points? What, I’m being graded now?

Ms. Mischief dwindled away with her words, instead taking a moment to wander around her daughter’s apartment, taking props out of shelves, and flipping through pages of her books, and the further she went out about her exploration, the more I had to batter my head to stop my eyes from deceiving me.

Seriously, she might as well be Amanda’s twin sister, albeit a little older.

“Ah, so this is where all the juicy gossip is hiding!” Mrs. Collins said, gleaming eyes striking gold as she whirled around towards Amanda’s idling desktop. “My darling daughter, a mini-celebrity... I still have a hard time grasping it when she told me about this little hobby of hers two years ago.”

Then she hovered her hands over the computer, and as soon as I saw the white glow flickering to life, and the click-clatter of a rifling mouse, I couldn’t help but feel a little concerned.

“Umm,” I stepped forward, treading carefully to not overstep any boundaries. “Amanda okay with you browsing through her things?”

“So this is where she streams herself?” She ignored me, landing herself on a random page after click-clacking her way through tab after tab. “The counter here-her followers? Last live, a day ago. Sixty-thousand viewers, wow...”

“Mrs. Collins...”

“Worried about breaches of privacy?” She briefly blinked at me. “Let me assure you, my daughter and I do not hide a single thing from each other. What she ate for lunch, what time she woke up today, she shares everything with me... apart from you, of course.” She added. “But I suppose you’re just the sole exception, hm?”

“If that’s the case, then why do you have to snoop around her stuff like you are now?”

“Not looking for anything incriminating. I’d just like to know what she’s been up to as of late... apart from hiding secret boyfriends, of course.”

“I think Amanda might have a thing or two to say about this, actually.”

“Indeed,” Mrs. Collins affirmed. “Which is precisely why I wanted her gone to begin with.”

I cocked my head at her. “Wait, so this is the actual reason why you kicked her out?”

“Not dense, like I said,” in a sideways glance, she smirked at me. “But also not too sharp. So ten points is all you get.”

This woman... once again, I can really see where Amanda inherited her scheming streak from.

“And this window here,” she went back to her search, a single mouse click bringing her to an entirely new place. “What is...? Oh... this is where she draws... and... oh my...” subtle until it wasn’t, that smile on her face grew wider and wider, as she leaned in closer towards a warm, white glow. “...my, my, my....”

Despite my reservations, curiosity got the better of me, and while trying to pass off as uninterested, I had a quick peek at the monitor... or so I had planned to. But the moment I laid eyes on the screen, I was completely fixated.

Mrs. Collins noticed me in the corner of her eyes, and she turned just slightly over to give me an amused look.

On the screen, on a white canvas, laid a rough sketch... a work-in-progress that looked to only had a couple of hours worth of effort invested into it... but despite the crudness of the illustration, there was absolutely no mistaking what it was I was seeing.

Bold outlines of long flowing hair, the half-etched frame of a woman stood in the center, radiating a smile so sincere, so heartfelt, I could feel her emotions pouring out of the image itself.

And the reason for all that joy, the source of her overwhelming happiness... lay kneeling out on one knee right across from her, raising partly-drawn arms out towards her to reveal the gleam and luster of a beautiful diamond ring.

Unfinished, unpolished... and yet despite that, a clearer, fuller picture than any other I’ve ever seen.

I looked at the woman again, feeling a tingling in my chest seeing the utter elation brimming in her expression, and then I turned back to the other subject in the portrait, kneeling there, presenting there... and as barebones an outline as it were... staring at it, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was staring right into my reflection in a mirror.

And giggling, smiling, it seems Mrs. Collins thought much of the same as well.

“If nothing else, I think she’s got your eyes just right,” She said, zooming further into the page, and darting her eyes back and forth between the drawing and me with scrutiny. “Yep, a bit of a slant. A bit harsh, glare-y... but strangely, very, very, gentle too...”

I just stayed silent, voiceless... the image pretty much usurped me of all the words that I could think to say there and then. All I could do was think, to wonder, and continue staring in awe...

With Amanda... she’s always been kinda whimsical and tight-lipped when it came to expressing her desires. She’s always so easy to please, that when it came down to it... it was a little hard to know what she actually wanted.

But seeing this now... was this really what she wants?

“I wonder though,” Mrs. Collins quietly, playfully mused, slowly swiping the screen over to the girl in the frame. “Just who could this lucky girl here possibly be?”

Once again, she chuckled.

“Not dense, right?” She asked me. “Care to take a guess?”