Chapter 6 - Bouquet of candy
During the next two weeks, Merle stayed over at the Beaumont Quarter apartment three times, and loudly declared each time how much he hated it -
Too small, too clean, too modern, too noisy, too many people too close, and no fucking yard (balcony and big busy park opposite didn't count for shit, in his opinion).
Andrea quietly suspected that Merle's blatant dislike for their little home had a lot to do with his time in prison which had fostered a strong aversion to small spaces, being hemmed in. But his preference for the outdoors, wide open expanses of nature, was also because of the way he'd grown up – a lot of time spent in the woods, hunting, fishing, camping.
The few good bits of his life amongst all the shit.
In their short time together, Andrea had learned a lot about Merle.
Although foremostly loud and loquacious, in the quiet hours of darkness when it was just them, naked and sated and vulnerable, he softened, opened up. He shared the struggles of growing up in poverty; the stories behind the scars on skin and soul left by parents that should never have been parents; the swinging spectrum of apathy to caged aggression he experienced during his incarceration; the drug-fueled and dangerous years that followed. All of this he related with nonchalance, just the facts of his life, but the one topic he had only touched on lightly but clearly ran deep and dark and painful was that of Daryl.
The jagged and unrelenting guilt he felt from leaving his little brother at the mercy of their father to fend for himself, only to return years later, finding him hollowed and viciously scarred inside and out, then leading that lost and impressionable young man down a dark and destructive path of substance abuse and lawlessness.
If Axel hadn't shown up with a lifeline, Merle hated to think where they'd be now.
If they'd even be at all.
Axel had proved to be a solid, positive influence in Daryl's life, the only person that, other than Merle, Daryl had ever looked up to. And Merle's biggest regret was that he himself couldn't claim to have had any positive influence on his brother, so in an attempt to atone for some of the damage he'd done, he'd cleaned himself up and got his shit together for Daryl, vowed to be better, for him.
And he'd been doing just that, doing real good, when something from his past had reared its ugly head and he'd bashed it right back down, and now he was going to pay the price.
A price that had become higher than just letting his brother down, because now he had Andrea too - and although him and her had talked about a lot of things, they hadn't talked about the fact that they were falling hard for one another, hadn't needed too.
They both knew it.
And that was making it all the more difficult to tell to her about this, to break her heart.
Yeah.
He hated this little apartment, but he was sure gonna miss its contents.
Sunday rolled around and Merle and Daryl were on their way to pick up Andrea and Tahlia so that they could take them out to the racetrack for a day at MotoAmerica.
"Why we always gotta hang out with them now?" grumbled Daryl in an attempt to counteract that stupid fluttering in his belly that was intensifying with every mile that brought him closer to seeing Tahlia again for the first time since her office.
"Why we gotta hang out with my woman? Coz I like her pussy a lot better than I like yours, Darlina." replied Merle lightly, tapping out an easy rhythm on the steering wheel.
Ignoring the dig, Daryl folded his arms moodily. "What, so just coz you get a girlfriend, that means I gotta put up with her prissy little friend wherever we go, now?"
Pulling up outside the apartment block, Merle rolled his eyes.
He had a lot of time for Tahlia. They had an easy friendship from the start - both quick to joke, slow to seriousness and difficult to offend. And though (to his detriment) Merle preferred to date women like Andrea – strong, stubborn, fiery - he thought that as his woman's best friend (and therefore a package deal), Tahlia was about perfect, and felt like he'd lucked out meeting those two, proudly telling them so more than once. So the fact that Daryl was still unnecessarily complaining about Tahlia was getting really old.
"Quit your bitchin' 'bout Tahly. Ain't foolin' no one but yourself."
"What's that s'posed to mean?!" bit Daryl defensively.
"Ya think I ain't noticed, but what ya say and what ya do 'round her are two very different things, baby brother. So, you just keep tellin' yourself how much ya don't like her." scoffed Merle smugly. "But that ain't what I'm really hearin'."
"I don't fuckin' like her." mumbled Daryl stubbornly.
He still wasn't having any luck with making that sound convincing.
With a snort of disbelief, Merle quickly typed out a message to Andrea to let her know they had arrived, then said wearily,
"Be a lot fuckin' better for everyone when ya drop the act and get over yourself and just be fuckin' normal 'round her. She ain't goin' nowhere."
"You are though." retorted Daryl meanly. "And then I ain't gonna have much reason to see neither of 'em after that. You even told Andrea yet?"
"I'm gonna!" Merle growled immediately, his eyes flashing. "Gonna tell her."
"When?" pressed Daryl. "Only got two days left. Runnin' outta time."
Smacking his hand onto the steering wheel, Merle barked, "Said I'm gonna tell her, so keep your damn mouth shut 'til I do!" He glared at Daryl, but only saw a young boy staring back, hurt and abandonment shining in his eyes, not for the first time.
"M'sorry." Merle said quickly, quietly. "For all of it."
Daryl just gave a terse nod and chewed on his lower lip. "I know. Me too."
Just then, Andrea emerged from the block and Merle plastered a grin on his face as she bounced happily to the truck.
"Hey, beautiful!" he greeted her as she leaned in his open window and pulled him into an enthusiastic kiss, both of them ignoring Daryl's noise of disgust.
When they finally disengaged, Andrea climbed in the back behind Merle.
"And hi, Daryl." she said sweetly, laughing a little at his disinterested grunt in return. "Tahly's coming, she just forgot something."
A moment later, Tahlia came bursting out of the lower door, and Daryl flushed a little when he caught sight of the item she must have originally forgotten – his shirt, folded neatly and tucked under her arm.
She'd only taken a couple of steps when a courier that had just left a calling card in a neighbor's letterbox yelled out to her and motioned for her to wait as he went to his van and returned with a massive, garish bouquet of flowers, beautifully wrapped and immaculately presented. Her mouth dropped open in surprise as the courier shoved the bouquet into her arms but then – Daryl was almost certain – a flash of annoyance passed across her face as she glanced at the card. Sending an apologetic look towards the truck as they waited for her, Tahlia held up a finger (one second!) before hurriedly letting herself back into the apartment to deposit the bouquet, then reappeared, jogging over to the truck.
"Hi! Sorry!" she announced in a rush of light perfume and morning air as she slipped into the seat behind Daryl. "Thanks for waiting."
"No problem, darlin'." Merle assured her as he started the engine. Then he tapped his cheek and leaned back a little as he pulled out onto the road. "Gimme some sugar."
Boosting forward, Tahlia pressed a brief kiss onto Merle's cheek, then shot a sly side glance at Daryl before shifting his way and quickly doing the same to him.
"Get off!" Daryl ducked away but not fast enough, and as he righted himself he could still feel the warmth on his cheek where her lips had caught him, burning like a brand.
Still leaning over the back of his seat, Tahlia snickered. "Always so happy to see me!" Then she dropped his shirt into his lap. "Brought your shirt back. But, for full disclosure, you should probably know that I slept it in."
"What?!" Daryl whipped his head around to glare at her, momentarily startled by how close their faces were, but then Tahlia dropped back to settle into her seat.
Struggling to keep a straight face, she held her hands up defensively.
"Only one time, I swear! And then I washed it. But… then I accidentally sprayed my perfume on it just now when I was getting ready, so… sorry. It smells like girl."
"Fuckin' hell!" bitched Daryl, throwing the shirt back in her face, while Andrea and Merle hooted loudly at his irritation. "Just keep it!"
Tahlia hugged the shirt to her chest and grinned widely at him as he shook his head and turned his back to her.
Catching her breath as she wiped her eyes, Andrea flicked at Tahlia's thigh.
"So?!"
"What?"
"That gigantic bunch of flowers? I'm guessing they weren't for me!"
"Sorry, baby!" Merle called. "Your flowers musta got lost in the post!"
Playfully clipping Merle's ear, Andrea raised her brows again at Tahlia. "Who were they from?!"
Wanting to see the expression on Tahlia's face to find out how she felt about this flower-giver, Daryl attempted to surreptitiously adjust the wing mirror to get a view of her, but stupid, observant Merle noticed and swiftly punched him in the leg.
"Shift it back."
Sullenly, Daryl did as he was told, and dropped his gaze to his lap, feeling slightly heartened by the weariness in Tahlia's tone when she said to Andrea, "Have a guess."
"Hmm… I don't know…" replied Andrea thoughtfully. "There's a lot of people it could be!"
Daryl's gut twisted sharply at that. At the thought of a line of guys vying for her, trying to win her over, stake a claim.
"There are not! Not at all!" Tahlia clarified quickly and emphatically, and whether that was for Daryl's benefit, he would never know. "They were from Spencer."
"Spencer!" echoed Andrea, wringing her hands theatrically. "He's such a sweetheart!"
Spencer. Daryl hated this man immediately.
"Who's this now?" asked Merle with interest, shooting a glance over his shoulder. "How come I ain't heard nothin' 'bout him before?"
"Because he's an idiot." supplied Tahlia flatly.
"He's absolutely gorgeous, and he's in love with you!" countered Andrea.
Daryl couldn't stop himself from looking back to gauge Tahlia's reaction to that comment, and belatedly tried to cover up his sudden move by hitching one foot up onto his seat, turning side on so that she was comfortably in his peripheral vision and he was no longer half-pretzeled trying to stare at her, being sure to ignore the knowing look that Merle had pinned on him.
"Pfft, please." Tahlia scoffed. "He's not in love with me, he's in love with my dad. He thinks that if he can get me to go out with him, then my dad will take notice of him and give him a job."
"Ha!" huffed Andrea. "He obviously doesn't know much about you and your dad, then."
"No, he does not." agreed Tahlia, her tone matter-of-fact. "And he doesn't know the first thing about me, either." She made a face. "Sending me flowers."
Figuring he'd better say something disparaging to cover up his interest in her love life, Daryl rolled his eyes. "Why don't that surprise me, Silver?"
"What's that?" asked Tahlia lightly, leaning forward a little.
Turning to look her in the eye, Daryl raised his brows. "Huge bunch of flowers that musta cost a bomb ain't even good enough for ya, huh?"
A small smile playing on her lips, Tahlia arched a brow back at him. "I love flowers, thank you very much, but I prefer them to be out in nature where they're supposed to be. Doesn't make any sense to me to pick them and then gift someone a bundle of dead plants."
Although Daryl found himself wholeheartedly agreeing with her point, he wasn't about to let her know that, so dug his heels in. "Well, shit. Course you're damn hard to please. So, what would be more to your tastes then, Silver? Let me guess… princess like you? Nothin' less than a bouquet of diamonds, right?"
Dropping her head back in laughter for a moment, Tahlia shook her head. "Diamonds?! God, Daryl, you have such a warped perception of me. Hell no! My tastes are way, way down the other end of the scale. I'd be more into… into… a bouquet of candy from the 7 Eleven. Now that's a bouquet that makes sense!"
"Candy?" Daryl almost smiled in surprise at her answer and the childlike sparkle in her eyes. Almost. "Weirdo."
And then Merle started banging on about the beer basket he'd received from work last Christmas and his voice reminded Daryl that there were actually two other people in the vehicle, not just him and Tahlia, and he quickly dropped his gaze and turned his back to her once more.
Next chapter isn't far away! Like just a few hours until I (sleep, then) finish it, promise.