Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.
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Jarrod Gooney sits in the restaurant and looks around. It was a pleasant enough place: the windows offered a view of the beach and the setting Miami sun, the place was clean enough and the food was okay – not quite the deep fried stuff he was into, but the chips and burger had been acceptable.
Fiddling with his napkin he looked at the restaurant's patrons. He wasn't too sure how much he was enjoying 'retirement'. Getting out of the game had been good for his heart, but he found wandering aimlessly about doing 'normal' things perennially boring, and in all honesty he had had enough. It was like he had been forced to go to those bloody AA meetings: he got to Step 3 and then had thrown the list into the bin.
This time he'd lasted three months.
He don't know what made him turn to the door this time when they swung open – as it did incessantly – but when he took in the sight of the short buxom blonde that entered with a little blonde girl resting on her hip, he was glad he'd looked. Smart enough to know that making a scene will only draw unwanted attention to himself, he simply contented himself with shifting in his seat and watching the duo closely.
As they moved into his path and headed to a table several down from him, he could hear the woman gently chiding the child for gripping her hair. 'Hey sweetheart. Let's leave Mommy's hair alone okay?'
Holding up his menu, he conspicuously peered over the barrier and saw her arrive at a table in the corner, politely greeting the man seated there. From the reaction of the man, it would appear that the child's presence had not been expected.
As he wondered what Bo Leach was up to these days, the waitress came to his table with his coffee and blocked his view. Barely acknowledging it's arrival, he waved her away with a frustrated shake as he tried to see the woman and child once again. The waitress' slowly departing form blocked his favoured image for some time longer, and that meant when the restaurant door swung open once again, he saw a flustered dark skinned man come through. Thinking there is nothing to be seen he turned away, but his head flew back around when the same little blonde girl he had been watching gleefully ran the length of the room with a shout of 'Daddy!' The little blonde girl was swung up into the dark skinned man's arms and firmly kissed and hugged.
It had been some months since he had undertaken an operation like this. But as he looked at the man approaching the blonde woman – Wife? Partner? – and leaning down to give her a kiss, he decided that perhaps now was a good time. Stuff being normal, he wanted back in.
And this family ripe for the picking.
Taking a few sips of his scalding coffee, he watched the man leave the woman at the table and take the little girl with him as they left the restaurant. Slamming down a few bills onto the table, not caring that his coffee was nowhere near finished, Jarrod Gooney stood up and made his own swift exit.
It was time to play Happy Families.
Shading his eyes against the harsh Miami sun, he quickly spots the dark skinned man walking very slowly down the path away from him, his body tilted to the left as he leans down to hold the hand of the little blonde girl who she sets the pace beside him.
Flipping his phone out and holding an imaginary conversation in order to stall time, he flipped the phone shut when he saw the dark skinned man swing up the little blonde girl into his arms and approach a car. Seeing the dark skinned man fiddling with his car keys, he made his move.
Getting closer, jealousy bubbled within him as he saw the easy and loving manner between father and daughter, he plastered a smile on his face as he nonchalantly stepped up next to the duo. 'Cute kid.'
The dark skinned man's head turned around to look at him with a small degree of confusion mixed with considerable pride.
'Thanks.'
No. Thank you.
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Coming Up: Wylie.