“Mr and Mrs Darcy it is very nice to finally meet you,” Drake says kindly, offering his hand to my mother. She accepts the offer and they shake hands, my father stiffly shakes his hand when Drake extends his hand in his direction.
I introduce him to my brothers and their wives but none of them move to shake hands. We take our seats and my mother begins her interrogation.
“Camila hasn’t told us much about you, is Drake your name given to you by your mother or some sort of nickname?”
Really? That’s what she wants to know first? And why does she have to use my full name? She knows I hate it with a passion.
“My mother named me,” he answers shortly.
“Are you close with your mother? I always think you can tell a lot about a man by how he is with his mother,” she rambles on.
“I visit her every week when I’m home and when I’m not around I make sure she is taken care off,” he tells her.
We haven’t spoken about his family before so this is new information to me.
This softens my mother and she passes him the gravy unasked. A sure sign she is warming to him. The woman doesn’t pass around her made from scratch gravy to just anyone.
I nibble at my food while Drake tucks into his steak after accepting the gravy and coating his dinner in it.
“What do you do for work, Drake?” she asks, continuing her interrogation.
“I’m a courier,” he replies, once again shortly but kindly.
My mother sees she isn’t going to get much more from him so she smiles around the table and raises her glass.
“Let’s raise a glass to your father and wish him…”
What a shocker, she is cut off by the birthday boy himself.
“I’m more interested in this man our daughter has brought into our home then toasting to my birthday, Susan.”
I see her jaw clench as she tries to keep her mouth shut, she knows my father won’t stop until he has gotten out what he wants to say.
Drake tenses beside me and I put my hand on his thigh under the table. I give it a little squeeze hoping he feels my plea to keep his calm because my father is about to push his buttons.
“Aren’t you a little old for my daughter?” he asks, disapprovingly.
“Dad, he’s only two years older than me. There’s more of an age gap between Mark and Tanya,” I point out but he completely ignores me.
He keeps staring at Drake until he answers him.
“Cammie doesn’t seem to mind,” he replies around a mouthful of potatoes.
I don’t know how he can still eat, this is turning into a battle and the last thing I want to do is eat.
“Yes, well, Camila doesn’t always make the best decisions, especially when it comes to the company she keeps.”
Drake throws his fork down on the plate with a clang and gravy splashes onto the white table cloth.
I keep my hand resting on his thigh and rub soothing strokes down to his knee remembering how he jumped to my defence yesterday at the coffee shop.
“It’s okay Drake,” I tell him.
“That’s a quick temper you’ve got there boy.”
Great, so now my father is goading him. I don’t know how long I can keep him in his seat.
“Tell me, has it ever got you into trouble?” my father asks.
Please, please, please just lie Drake.
“Not in the last couple of months, the first night I got out of prison I met Cammie. She has become my reason not to go back.”
Why oh fucking why?
The table goes silent and you could literally hear my father’s temper about to burst to nuclear levels. While it is sweet I am his reason to stay out trouble, why did he have to mention prison at all?
“But,”
Oh God, adding with a ‘but’ is never good.
“If you call me boy one more time, I’ll make an exception for you,” Drake threatens and the gates of hell burst open and all hell breaks out.
I am left sitting in my seat while my father pushes his chair over in his haste to stand, Drake does the same and my brother’s move to stand next to my father.
Melanie rushes the children out of the room and Tanya sits beside me watching the scene before us.
Tears begin to roll down my cheek. I expected this and yet my silent pleas for it to be different were not heard.
Yelling and threats bounce over my head so loud it is hard to hear who is threatening who.
“That’s it! Get out of my house!” my father roars.
“I’m going,” Drake assures him.
“You are not to see my daughter again, do you hear me?”
My breathing comes fast and the tears fall harder. No, he can’t order that.
Drake moves around his chair and pulls mine out. I quickly stand in front of him so he can’t leave.
He holds my head in his hands and uses his thumbs to wipe dry my eyes. He leans in and kisses my forehead, his lips linger there a few seconds too long and my father yells at him to leave again. Drake ignores him and rests his forehead against mine. He stares me straight in the eye and I wait for his goodbye.
“I have a question for you.”
My chest is heaving from sobbing but I concentrate on his eyes and wait for him to speak.
“Do you want to leave with me?”
“She is not leaving with you,” my father yells, adamantly.
We both ignore him and I nod, yes.
“Go and pack a bag and I’ll wait here,” he says, quickly kissing me before turning me to face the door.
I should be torn between my family and the man I am falling in love with but the choice has been made and with little mental debate. I cannot and will not let him be pushed out of my life. Drake has shown more compassion and love in a mere two months than my family has shown me in twenty-three years.
I run for the stairs leaving world war four commencing around the table and try to think of what I need to pack.
Scanning around my bedroom I grab my old gym holdall and stuff what clothes I can out of my wardrobe and inside the bag. I shove all my toiletries and makeup in too and quickly look around for anything else I might need. Most of my belongings are already at the hotel we’ve been saying at but I still want to take as much as possible.
“You should hurry up. I’m worried your boyfriend is going to go too far with your father.”
I jump around to see my mother standing in the doorway. Her tired eyes are filled with sadness and it makes me wonder how she has put up with my father all these years.
“I’m sorry but I have to go,” I cry.
“I know, I saw your face when you thought he was going to leave without you,” she says, softly, “Promise me, you’ll be careful and look out for yourself.”
“I will.” I promise, finishing packing.
I go to pass her and back track and very briefly cuddle her. I don’t know when I’ll see her again and out of everyone, I have seen her try with me and I will be forever grateful she didn’t make me feel completely alone growing up.
“Go now,” she whispers, ushering me to the top of the stairs.
I don’t need to be told twice. I am halfway down the stairs before I see everyone has moved from the dining room to the hallway. My father and Drake are in each other’s faces and when I hit the bottom step, I force myself between them facing Drake.
This time I hold his face so he looks at me.
“I’m ready, let’s go.”
A hand clamps down on my shoulder and Drake pushes over me to shove my father back.
“I don’t care who you are, you don’t put a fucking hand on her,” he yells and pushes me towards the door.
I don’t look back to see how my father looked, Drake walks close behind me until we are at the gate.
“Maybe you should say goodbye, you don’t know when you’ll be back,” Drake begrudgingly says, stopping me.
“Who says I want to come back at all?” I murmur, not bothering to look back.
 
; It turns out it wouldn’t have made a difference, my father slams the front door shut and leaves me out in the cold like usual.
Drake takes my bag from me and throws it in the boot before coming around to open my door for me.
“I’m sorry that happened but I couldn’t stand by and take that for me or you.”
Placing my hand on his warm cheek I smile specially to show him that I am all right.
I see the curtain twitching and know it is time to go before round two begins.
As soon as the doors are closed and the key is in the ignition we are driving away and I quietly say my goodbyes to a life I have been dying to get away from for years.
He pulls over on the side of the road after a few minutes, parks up and turns the engine off.
He goes to wipe my tears away but looks surprised when he doesn’t find any.
“I expected you to be upset,” he says.
“I feel…I don’t know, free now I think,” I tell him, unsure of the right word to describe how I am feeling right now. “I don’t know where we go from here and I don’t care.”
He nods and takes my hand in his, he pulls it up to his mouth and presses his lips on my skin.
“I want you to know that I will look after you, you don’t need to worry about anything. I love you Cammie Darcy and I won’t let anyone make you cry again.”
I would go through tonight a hundred times over if I knew I would be hearing those three little words from him.
“I love you too, Drake.”
“It’s just you and me now, babe. Are you ready?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“In that case Camila, I’m taking you home,” he grins.
I groan out loud and hide my face in my hands.
“Please, never call me that again. I hate it,” I moan, making him laugh.
“Whatever you say, babe.”
He turns the key and the car roars back to life and the back tyres spin out as we pull back onto the road.
My excitement of freedom and the many possibilities of how my life will now proceed far outweigh any other thoughts as we drive out of town under the darkening sky with Drake reaching for my hand.
Chapter Four
I’m sure it should have taken longer than three hours to arrive here and maybe it would have if Drake didn’t put his foot down for majority of the journey. He didn’t even stop at the hotel to pick our stuff up, he said we’d get new. Arriving in London in the darkest of night will forever stay in my memories. The shift in buildings and roads compared to the town I grew up in was still alight and busy with people who should have been sleeping. A transformation that had begun the night I met Drake intensified the deeper into London we got. A buzzing excitement ran through me knowing I was about to step into Drake’s world and begin our journey together.
His flat is very small consisting of one bedroom, a very small box like living room, a bathroom with a shower cubical instead of a bath tub and a kitchen with only three units in it. Yet the place is meticulously clean and tidy. The furniture is new and simple. Nothing about the place feels lived in, then again he was in prison and then has spent the last couple of months with me. He didn’t give me long to acquaint myself with the place before taking my hand and showing me the bedroom and that is where we stayed till this moment.
“You’re quiet,” he murmurs, pulling the blanket higher around us.
“I’m just trying to take in everything that has happened,” I say, snuggling deeper against him.
“Do you regret coming here?”
“No,” I reply instantly, “I don’t know what’s in store for us but I know it’s better than staying there,” I tell him.
“Tell me about them, what did they do to you?” he asks.
I have never spoke to anyone about how my home life has made me feel, Lorna knew but only because she saw first-hand what it was like. Most of the time I didn’t think it was that bad, only when I needed reassurance I was loved. They were the moments when I received nothing that I felt the worst.
“They have never said the words but I was the mistake baby they never planned to have. Adam and Mark were all they wanted to have, I came along and ruined all their plans. The boys were at an age where my parents could start planning what they wanted but then they had me and when the boys grew up and left home, instead of gallivanting off on holidays they were still stuck bringing me up. My father never hid his frustration with me, he hated that I wasn’t a boy, he hated that I’ve chosen what I want to do no matter what he says. It’s funny because they didn’t have to say anything to make me feel like I was the outsider, it’s the way they were with me.”
“Sounds about right,” Drake mutters, breathlessly.
I lean up on my elbow to see he is straining to keep his mouth shut, the pulse in jaw beating exaggeratedly.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“It is so fucking wrong how they treated you like that just because you weren’t planned. They should be proud to have such a beautiful daughter.”
The fierceness in his voice startles me for a brief moment and when he looks me in the eye I can see the fury that I have been treated in this way.
“I used to get sad about it but I got over it a long time ago, and now I have you, that’s all I need,” I promise him, meaning every word.
“I was only at your parent’s house for a short time but in that time I counted eighteen framed photos of your brothers in the dining room alone, I didn’t see a single photo of you until I was waiting in the hall for you to finish packing and then I only saw one. They can go fuck themselves now I’ve got you, I’ll make sure you have everything. You’ll never have to feel like that again, I fucking swear it to you.”
I push away the bad feelings and brush my lips across his chest. “I believe you,” I whisper, making my way up to his jaw.
Apart from telling him my likes, dislikes and embarrassing tales from school and crazy times with Lorna, there isn’t anything left to tell him about my family so I mentally lock that part of my life in a steel box and push it to the back of mind.
This is my new beginning and I don’t want bad reminders ruining it.
“So, what’s the plan now we’re here?” I ask, focusing on the future instead of the past.
“Why do we have to have a plan?” he asks in answer.
“How we will know what to do next?”
I’ve always had a plan to my life, the thought of not having one scares the hell out of me.
He laughs and then replies, “We don’t, we’ll go with the flow and see where we end up.”
“As much as that sounds like fun, I need to find a job. I didn’t manage to pack much and I need more clothes.”
“And you’ll get them but you don’t need a job, when I say I’ll take care of you I mean what I say,” he says, seriously.
“I know you will but I have always made my own money, you give me everything I need by being with me, I don’t need your money.”
“I’m not going to argue about it, it’s my job to look after you and I will. End of.”
I choose not to press the issue any more at the moment, but we will be revisiting this conversation. I like the idea of being taken care of but I don’t want to be completely dependent on him. I would end up being my mother and that is one thing I have strived not to be.
“Okay, I do seriously need some more clothes, it’s getting colder now and I didn’t pack any jeans or jumpers,” I tell him.
“Anything you want,” he smiles, his body relaxing beside me.
My stomach rumbles and Drake’s follows suit seconds after.
“It sounds like we missed breakfast,” I giggle.
“Get dressed, I’ll take you out to eat.”
By breakfast I meant brunch looking at the time. It was already after eleven by the time we walked into the café just up the road from Drake’s flat.
As soon as the bell dings above the door all heads turn to stare at us. None of them look overly friendly, all
looking like we’ve walked in on something we shouldn’t have. Drake leads us to a table near the back by the kitchen and when we’re seated opposite each other, I see him nodding at people behind me.
I glance over my shoulder to see the people I thought were unkind are in fact known to Drake. It wasn’t him they were staring at, it was me.
“Hello handsome, when did you get back?”
My eyes follow the voice and see an aging woman making her way over to us grinning maternally from ear to ear.
Drake looks over his shoulder and he smiles warmly back at her.
“Hey, Marg. Got in late last night,” he tells her.
“What’s kept you away so long?” she asks, flickering quick glimpses to me.
She is the first person I have seen Drake be relaxed around, not that we have spent much time around other people when we have been together.
Her bright red hair is tied back in a bun and her face shows many years’ worth of laughter lines. The affection she holds for Drake is evident in the way she is looking at him and I already know I will like her.
“Marg, this is Cammie. Cammie, this is Marg. I’ve known her all my life and she is the one woman I know who can make a fully grown man cry just with her mouth,” he chuckles after he has introduced us.
“I’m not that bad lovey, it’s nice to meet you. Are you staying with our Drake?” she asks, turning her attention to me.
“She is, make it known. Excuse me, I’ll be back in a minute,” Drake answers for me.
He keeps looking over my shoulder and to someone at the window looking in.
He stands and heads out leaving me with Marg who hasn’t took her eyes off me.
I am desperate to squirm in my chair under her heavy stare but I stay still and return her stare.
“Drake is like a son to me and believe me, I’m about to run a risk of being cut out of his life if he thinks I’m trying to come between you, so I don’t say this lightly. If you’re in trouble and think Drake is your answer to your problems then you should go now because I won’t let you use him, do you hear me?”
Her voice has dropped to freezing from the warm tone she used with Drake and instead of being intimidated by her, I am furious.
“How dare you,” I snap, “I’m not with Drake because I need him to help me, I’m with him because I want to be, not that it is any of your business. Don’t presume to know me because you don’t.”