Oh, Dakota

16- Nothing At All

I found a dress at the back of my closet that was really cute and kind of fancy, but not too fancy. It was crème colored with a black lacy vest over the top part and then I matched it with nice black heels. My hair was pretty much dried, so I curled it in thick, fancy curls and kept it all tame and together with a matching crème colored bow in the back. My hair was so thick, though, that it took a really long time to curl it, so as I was pushing the bow into place, there was a knock on my bedroom door.

“Yeah?” I called, hurrying towards it just as the bow snapped into place and my door swung open to reveal my dad, standing tall and all protective-like.

“Your date’s downstairs.” He informed me gruffly.

I smiled innocently at him because it was clear that he wasn’t very fond of the idea of me going on a date- especially not with one of his players- but he was putting up with it just as Owen was. “Thank you,” I chirped.

“You better tell me if he doesn’t respect you,” He told me, following me down the stairs.

“I will, Daddy,” I laughed. “But you know that he won’t do anything bad. Mostly because he’s petrified of you and Owen.”

“As he should be,” My dad nodded, continuing to follow me all the way to the open front door where Todd was standing in the doorway in a nice black suit.

“Hello, Sir.” He greeted my dad with an anxious smile, unable to hide his fear of my dad.

“I can smell fear, Ziff.” My dad informed Todd, crossing his arms across his chest as if to look even more intimidating. My dad was athletic, so he was still muscly- well, for an old man, he was kind of muscly, like a bad attempt at a body guard or something, so he did look pretty scary to most people. Todd included, obviously.

“Um, I’m aware,” Todd muttered, making me giggle because I found it so hilarious that Todd was afraid of my dad. I mean, it was understandable, but still really funny at the same time.

“Daddy, we’re gonna go now,” I interjected, deciding that Todd had enough of my dad’s awkward torture methods. “I’ll be back by ten.”

“I know you will,” He nodded, still giving Todd this weird intimidation stare like he was a momma bear or something.

“Right,” I sighed, walking past him out the door to where Todd was standing and then I took Todd’s arm in my hand and led him away from the front porch.

“I can smell lies too!” My dad called before shutting the door to the house, but I knew that he was still watching through the small window that was on the door, thinking that he was being discreet but I knew him too well to not know that he was still watching.

Todd opened my door for me and I giggled a thank you, stepping into his car and waiting for him to take is seat in the driver side.

“So how’d you get last minute reservations at The Iron Lion?” I wondered curiously, trying to keep the conversation off of my awfully invasive father.

“My uncle’s a chef there,” He told me, subtly but not so subtly taking my hand in his over the center console. I thought that I was going to be nervous, going on this date with Todd, but I was incredibly relieved to find out that I wasn’t nervous at all. I mean, it was Todd, the guy that I’ve known for almost my whole life, so there really was no reason to be nervous, but I’ve just always read in the books and everything that the girl is always nervous during the first date.

“Oh, yeah I remember you saying that before,” I nodded, remembering that he had told me that once.

“Yeah, well I’m his only nephew, so he tends to pick favorites,” Todd informed me with a small smirk.