Chapter 3

       I was sitting up on the bed when Destiny came back in, carrying Anastasia who just woke up from her nap. Since the reason why I stopped by was to see Anastasia, Destiny handed her over to me and I couldn't hide the smile on my face once my daughter was in my arms.

       She smiled up at me as she started babbling and cooing. She was the cutest thing ever and there was no way I was going to choose anyone else over her.

       Destiny sat down beside me on the bed. "See that look she's giving you? That's how I know that you're an amazing father. She loves you so much."

       "And I love her so much," I said. "She's the greatest gift I could ever have."

       My cell phone beeped with a message, so I took it off of the nightstand and read the text. I sighed, placing it back on the nightstand without replying.

       "What's wrong?" Destiny asked.

       "That was Vanessa," I said. "She apologized and she wants to talk."

       "Oh," Destiny said. "Are you going to go talk with her?"

       "Yeah," I said. "I should hear what he had to say."

       "Okay," Destiny said.

       "Destiny..." 

       "Seriously, it's fine. She's... she's your girlfriend, after all."

       "I'm sorry."

       "Don't be. Really. I... I do still have feelings for you, Dan. I think I always will but that's why I'm not going to tell you what to do. All I want is for you to be happy and if being Vanessa makes you happy, I can't be mad at you. That would be selfish of me."

       The whole time, I avoided eye contact with her but as soon as she said that, I looked over at her. "What?" I asked.

       "I said I can't get mad at you for choosing who you date," Destiny said. "Even if I do have feelings for you. I know my feelings are genuine when I can't get mad at you for being happy with someone else. Hurt, yes, but not mad at you."

       "I have to go," I said, handing Anastasia over to Destiny before getting off of the bed. "I'll talk to you later, I promise."

       "Okay," Destiny said.

       Once I left Destiny's house, I knew exactly what I had to do. Destiny made it very clear for me.

       "Hey, Dan," someone suddenly said behind me when I was walking to the one place I knew Vanessa would be at, and the voice did make me jump a bit before turning around to see one of Destiny's best friends behind me.

       "How many times do you have to scare me like that?" I asked.

       "Probably as much as I can," Calvin said. "It's funny."

       "Not really, no," I said.

       Calvin shrugged. "So what were you doing at Destiny's?"

       "Well, she's the mother of my kid, so I would have to say visiting Tasie," I said.

       "Uh huh," Calvin said and I was trying my best not to slap him. He was too obsessed with drama and I could tell he was trying to scope some more. "So... Why do you look a bit flustered?"

       I ignored him and turned around, about to walk away but Calvin stopped me.

       "No way!" Calvin said. "Daniel, you whore!"

       "I don't know what you're thinking about, but that didn't happen," I said. "I just want to visit Tasie. That's it."

       "Oh, come on, you know I won't tell anyone," Calvin said as he started following me. "So, are you two back together?" When I didn't reply, he continued. "Wait... No, don't tell me you did what I think you did..."

       I sighed and stopped walking to look at Calvin. "I swear, it just happened. I didn't go to her house with the intention of... You know. She just made me feel better because I was feeling down."

       "Wow, you really are a whore," Calvin said. "So what are you going to do?"

       "Well, I'm about to go do what I have to, but you keep stopping me," I said. "And I would really appreciate it if you don't tell anyone."

       "Don't worry, I won't," he said. "While I do love drama, it's more for my own entertainment and not for gossiping with other people."

       "Sure it isn't," I said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."

       Calvin, thankfully, didn't stop me again. I loved him and everything, but he could be a major pain at times.

       Or every time.

       I got to the cafe, which was Vanessa's favourite hangout spot, and she was there with Courtney and Courtney's cousin Alex. When Vanessa saw me, she excused herself before getting up and walking over. "Hey," she said. "Did you get my message?"

       "Yeah," I said. "Can we talk now?"

       "Of course," Vanessa said, so we walked outside of the cafe to talk. "I'm sorry, Dan. I should have never told you to choose between me and Anastasia. I was just upset about you cancelling our plans. Can you forgive me?"

       "Yeah," I said, looking down. "But I... I kind of did something that you're not going to like hearing."

       "What is it?" Vanessa asked.

       "I, uh... I slept with someone else."

       "You... When?" Vanessa asked, her voice quiet.

       "Not to long after you told me to choose between you and Anastasia."

       Vanessa was quiet for a bit and I was too scared to look at her. I regretted cheating on her a whole lot because I did the one thing I promised myself I would never do, no matter what.

       Finally, she said something. And it wasn't something I expected to hear.

       "Well, I'm partly to blame," she said. "I did tell you to choose between me and your daughter, and obviously you would have chosen your daughter so it could have seemed like a break up. It's okay. Can we just... start over? Forget all that ever happened?"

       This time, I was quiet for a bit because I didn't know how to tell her the next part.

       "Dan?" Vanessa asked. "What is it?"

       Screw it. I just had to rip the band-aid off otherwise I didn't know if I could ever tell her.

       "I'm still in love with Destiny."

       "...Excuse me?"

       It took me all the courage I had to look at Vanessa. It wasn't hurt or sadness on her face. It was pure anger.

       "She gets me, Vanessa," I said. "She's the only one that gets me and she's the only one that actually puts my feelings first. You told me to choose between you and my daughter, and Destiny told me that as long as I'm happy, she doesn't care what I do, even if it means being with someone else."

       "Hold on a second," Vanessa said. "It was Destiny, wasn't it? You slept with Destiny because I made one small mistake!"

       "Telling me to choose someone over my own daughter isn't a mistake," I said. "You were only thinking about yourself and your feelings. Relationships don't work that way. We have to think about each other and what they want, not just what we want."

       "That's absolute crap," Vanessa said. "You're telling me that I can't make myself happy if I have a boyfriend?"

       "What? No, that isn't what I said. All I'm saying is that if you really cared about me, you wouldn't have been mad that I cancelled one time to keep the promise I made to watch Anastasia, and you would have never even thought about actually making me choose someone else over her. You knew what you were getting into when we started dating. I told you that I would have to put her first and I stopped doing that because of you, because you always demanded everything go your way and that I put you first."

       "You know what? I don't want to hear anymore of this," Vanessa said. "You want to still be with Destiny? Go ahead. But it won't last between you two. Once a cheater, always a cheater."

       She walked back into the cafe and I released a long sigh.

       Well.

       That actually went better than I thought it would.

       And since that was taken care of, I headed back to Destiny's house. I knocked on the door and when she opened it, she looked a bit confused. "Hi," she said.

       "Hey," I said. "Can I come in again?"

       She nodded and let me into her house. "You're back so soon," she said as she closed the door behind me.

       "Yeah," I said. "I broke up with Vanessa. I think. Or she dumped me. Either way, we're not together anymore."

       "Why?" Destiny asked.

       "Because I am still in love with you," I said. "And you made me realize that by telling me that you can't be mad at me if I still wanted to be with Vanessa. All you wanted was for me to be happy, even if it meant not being with you. But I do want to be with you. I really do."

       Destiny smiled slightly. "And I still want to be with you."

       I smiled back before cupping her face in my hands, then pressing my lips on her. She was the one. She definitely was the one.

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aww yay (even though dan cheated on vanessa smh)(then again, he has a hard time controlling his whoremones)

so there will be two chapters left. this will actually be a short story ahahaha. every time i say i'm going to write a seasonal short story, it ends up being at least 20 chapters long oops.