(Chapter 14) Something Worth Living For

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Chapter 14

“So, have you decided on a colour for your walls, or do you think we’ll be going with some wallpaper instead?” Eric asked as he pushed the cart – while Chloe stood inside it – down the aisle of a hardware store.

“I think we should paint it. Wallpaper takes the fun out of things.” She stated.

Eric grinned, “And the mess too.”

Chloe glanced over her shoulder at her father, sending him one of her innocent smiles, but as usual her eyes gave her intentions away.

Maybe Allison had a point when she said he was in for a world of craziness when he allowed Chloe to have full control over the decorations of her room.

Eric had gone over to their place to pick up Chloe as eight o’clock sharp, and just as he’d hastily arrived, he’d hastily left with Chloe in tow. His hasty retreat wasn’t so much because he wanted to get this morning of shopping over with; it had more to do with not being around Allison. And it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be around her, it was the fact that he wanted to be around her. This was very dangerous, especially for him, who was engaged to someone else.

He wasn’t the type of guy to cheat on his fiancé, and he knew neither was Allison the type of person to encourage it. Not that he was entertaining thoughts about cheating on Heather with Allison.

It would be easier to break up with Heather and go back to Allison, he thought, but quickly erased the thought at its disturbing nature.

Eric knew having thoughts like that was crazy. He was happy with Heather; he wouldn’t have asked her to marry him if he wasn’t absolutely sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Granted, things hadn’t been going so great since she got to L.A., but that was partially his fault for dropping the ‘I have a kid’ bomb on her. Of course, her inabilities to accept things for what they are aren’t exactly helping things either.

All he could do was hope that someday soon in the future, Heather would come around and try to make an effort.

“Paint it is.” he announced as he pushed the cart to the aisle with the paint.

There must have been hundreds to different colours that lined the aisle and Eric dreaded the thought of Chloe taking hours to decide on the exact colour she wanted. He could only hope that she was like her mom, who knew what she wanted and went after it.

“Have you decided what colour you want your walls painted?”

Chloe placed her forefinger to her chin in thought, “Hmm… not pink. It is way to girly.”

Eric chuckled, “Yeah, but I asked what colour you wanted, not what you didn’t want.”

“I know. I’m just letting you know that it can’t be pink.” She stated matter-of-factly.

 Eric just shook his head, “Well, I take your lack of answer as a sign that you don’t know what you want.”

“No, I know.”

“Well,” he offered, “what is it?”

“I was thinking black.”

Eric’s eyes grew wide with shock and had him stopping in mid stride, but when Chloe started to giggle, he narrowed his eyes at her.

“Nice, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Chloe just laughed louder. “How about we reserve the black for when you’re in your moody teenage phase.”

“The look on your face was priceless, daddy.” She giggled.

Eric couldn’t help but smile at the joy she exuded and even more so when she called him daddy. It was hard to believe that not so long ago she’d called him by his first name, as if he was just another stranger she met.

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