"So..." Derek said to the toddler standing in the middle of his living room as the door clicked shut behind Matthew, apparently at a loss as to what to do with the child now that they were alone together.
As if sensing his hesitation, Celeste screwed up her face and started wailing.
Derek immediately blanched. "No, kid, no!" he begged, "Please don't cry! Help me out here..." He moved to pick her up, but she batted his hands away and waddled out of his reach. (If that hurt his feelings, he tried not to let it show.)
Then, instead of pleading for her parents or even Emily, Celeste begged for the last person Derek expected... "C'yde!" she demanded. "Wan' C'yde!"
"Clyde!?" Derek repeated, personally offended, before realizing he wasn't about to convince a toddler of anything through logic. "Pshhhh," he said instead, "We don't need him – we can have fun on our own, right?"
Celeste did not seem convinced. Fat tears clung to her lashes, making her look incredibly pitiable.
Scrambling to think of something that would appeal to the child, Derek glanced about the apartment in a panic...until his gaze landed on the TV. "Hey, kid, you want to watch TV? I bet we can find some stupid Disney movie or something..."
Derek was feeling pretty smug.
Celeste had stopped crying as he turned on some mindless cartoon movie and seemed to be at least tolerating his presence.
(Why Matthew insisted that parenting was hard, he'd never know...)
Apparently, though, he'd made one grave error...as he quickly discovered when, on-screen, a rather fearsome looking fish attacked.
Celeste shrieked in terror, running to hide from the terror on-screen.
"Finally," Derek huffed at the knock on the door. Celeste had only been his responsibility for all of an hour and a half, but he was already thoroughly exhausted and ready for a good stiff drink (among other things)...
He flung the door open, words poised on his tongue, ready to lie through his teeth to Emily about how easy it was to take care of a kid...only, it wasn't Emily.
Blinking, stunned, for a few moments, Derek struggled to form a coherent thought.
Celeste, though, didn't have the same problem. "C'yde! C'yde!" the toddler sing-songed merrily, waddling towards the newcomer, arms outstretched, making grabby motions in search of his attention.
Clyde lifted her into his arms, balancing her on his hip as he righted himself to face Derek. "Needless to say, you were expecting someone else," he said, a slight smirk on his face.
"Emily didn't tell me you'd be picking up the baby," Derek said rather than respond directly. He didn't quite understand why he felt the need to justify himself when he'd done nothing wrong, only knowing that Clyde's smug smirk made his blood boil.
"She had an emergency at work," Clyde replied. "If that's all...we should really get going." He gestured over his shoulder for emphasis.
Derek nodded. "Sure. Bye, kiddo," he said, waving to Celeste who seemed to have long since forgotten his presence.
Clyde tickled the girl's ribs. "Say bye-bye to Grandpa," he prompted. (Whether he knew the moniker irritated Derek or not was unclear...)
"Buh-bye," Celeste echoed with a little wave.
As Derek watched the other man walk away with his granddaughter – her little arms wrapped around his neck in a fond embrace – he couldn't help but wonder what Clyde had done to win her affection...
Wandering the aisles of the toy store, Derek felt rather dazed and entirely out of place – he hadn't been in a toy store since he was a kid...he had no idea what kids liked anymore. And he wasn't all that good at picking out gifts in the first place – he usually just had his assistant pick them out for him.
This was different though... Maybe it was wrong to try to buy Celeste's affection, but it was the only idea he had that seemed at all likely to work. (It was becoming pretty obvious that he wasn't going to win her over via conventional methods.)
Heaving a frustrated sigh, he ran a hand over the back of his head.
(He could already see Emily roll her eyes and hear Matthew's scolding when he showed up with toys for the child...but when had he ever cared about their opinions anyway?)
He was startled from his dumbfounded decision-making by shrill laughter as a little girl dashed past him in squeaking sneakers.
"Kimberly!" a woman scolded, chasing after her. "If you can't stay beside me, you have to sit in the cart!"
Ignoring her mother, the child reached for the Barbie on the lowest shelf with a conspiratorial glance at Derek.
Figuring the little girl had to be close to Celeste's age, Derek knelt down beside her and asked, "Is that the best Barbie?"
She nodded eagerly, showing it to him with a proud smile.
Her mother caught up to her then, flashing Derek an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry," she murmured, scooping up her daughter. "Kids in a toy store, you know?"
He laughed, plastering on his most charming smile. "She's a cutie," he said. "Takes after her mother..." He winked, trying to be subtle as he checked for a wedding band on her hand.
Normally he would have avoided a single mother like the plague, but he was starting to reconsider now that he had a kid – and a grandkid – of his own (he didn't want to seem like a hypocrite afterall). Besides, setting the kiddos up on a playdate was the perfect pretense for a little one-on-one time...
"So, shopping for friend or family?" the woman asked with a nod toward the nearby cart.
"Oh, umm...well," he stammered, worried that she might be put off by the truth. He sighed, spit out the truth, "My granddaughter, actually... But I have no idea what kids her age like. Maybe you could help me out?"
She grinned. "Are you sure you're not just making up an excuse to talk to me?" she teased.
"I would never!" he insisted, pretending to be offended. Then, with a smirk, he added, "It's just a perk."