A Dance in the Dark (Book 1)

Chapter 7

Rosélina hardly saw Eliot in the next two weeks. Mostly because they were always busy with exams.

Rosé's wrists were begging for help with the number of essays she had written. One more essay, she repeated to herself for the tenth time. Even typing, her wrists were on the verge of collapsing and stopping working for good.

Sometimes Rosé would meet him in the kitchen for no longer than half an hour, to help each other revise, where even Hanna and James, the other flatmates, would join. But today, the house was empty.

It was impossible not to notice when the house was empty. Hanna listened to loud music and walked around her room. James spent most of his time cursing at the people he played online games with, and Eliot was always in the kitchen or the living room, cooking and eating while watching his TV shows.

She had taken one of her exams in the morning, leaving her with the rest of the day off, so she decided to visit her father.

The journey was long.

Rosé confirmed the address her father had sent months ago on her phone and according to the app, there were fifteen minutes of walking left. She couldn't be more grateful. Taking the underground and buses with strangers was a different experience every time, but a car was out of reach for a university student living in London.

And in a few minutes, there she was. Standing in front of her father's house.

Rosé didn't know what to say. Hey, did you forget you have a daughter? Or who knows hi, I was worried and came to visit you. All the ideas seemed stupid. Rosélina was not even supposed to be practising the conversation

It was her father she was going to talk to.

Rosé knocked.

No answer.

She rechecked the address, so she knocked again and only on the third attempt, a man answered the door. He was the blond-haired underground man who had stared at her.

She froze. Her arms were prickling with goosebumps, as a shiver ran through her spine. "Hi... My father lives here. Tom, Tom Johnson. Is-is he there?"

"Tom Johnson?" asked the man, looking her up and down, with a frowny expression. "I didn't know he had a daughter. He never commented on it." His voice was deep, speaking in a great RP accent. "He said he never had children. Were you adopted by any chance?"

That took her by surprise, leaving her speechless for a few seconds as the questions hung in the air. Who was he to ask that kind of question? So many in one go.

Her nervous expression twisted into a contorted mask of frustration and disbelief. "Yes! I'm his biological daughter, and could you please tell him to call his daughter back? Thank you!" Rosé answered. Her voice cracked with suppressed fury despite her efforts to maintain composure.

Rosé came down the small flight of stairs, heading down the street again.

"Don't you want to come in and wait for him?" the man suggested behind her looking at the watch on his wrist. "Usually he's home by two."

Rosé, for a second, felt tempted but accepting to enter a stranger's house was unethical.

"I can't but thank you for the offer." She tried to think of a good excuse. "If you could tell him that I came by it would be great," Rosé replied half insecure, playing with her rings, watching them tremble.

How could someone make her feel so insecure and inferior? Few could have this effect on her in a simple conversation.

"C'mon! It must have been a long journey to see your father. He might be on his way home." He said approaching Rosé who stepped back bumping into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Rosé turned coming across Mr Watson behind her trying to find his balance. "Mr Watson? What are you doing here?"

"Miss Johnson!" he said, looking surprised. "Well, my office is nearby and, if my memory is not failing, I have a session with you in a few minutes, don't I?" His eyes, faded with age fixed on her, waiting for a response.

"Yes. I-I think so."

"Well, would you like to join me? I'm getting old, it's good company." She nodded feeling a strange sensation of emptiness in her heart. "Great! How was your day? And what about the comfort zone we talked about?" he asked slightly pushing on Rosé's back so they would start walking.

"Trying."

"Too worried?"

"Not much." Looking back at where the house was, a man with dark hair was leaving the house and crossing the street. Rosé could not see his face but accompanied him until he entered a Chinese restaurant.

"Rosé?"

"Yes?" Rosé answered, almost tripping over something on the floor.

"Look where you are stepping."

<3

"Earth calling Rosélina," Mr Watson called again. Rosé wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying. She was distracted thinking about her father and the man who answered the door.

"I'm sorry."

"How was the moon?" He held the same old clipboard. "That's where you were, isn't it?"

"No." She answered, "The moon is a mess. I managed to destroy it too." she joked with a shy smile to add a little humour to the comment. "Now I'm on Jupiter,"

Or maybe not.

She couldn't help checking her phone every five seconds, waiting for a call or a message, and considering returning to the house again some other day. The man had confirmed that her father lived there.

"You seem a little upset, Miss Johnson," Mr Watson noted. "Did something happen?"

Countless things are happening. "No... Yes. Maybe the exams or the fact that I must wake up every day and live. It's exhausting," another half-truth. That's how she had come to answer people.

"It is," Mr Watson answered. He left his clipboard aside and took a deep breath, clasping his hands together. "Living is exhausting if you choose to run through life. Perhaps you should live in the moment. Tomorrow might not come and what a waste would today be if that happened."