A Chance At Love (2)

Drake

“Candice, I am begging right now” 

Drake was on the phone with his co-worker’s assistant since his decided she would be sick on the one day he needed her most. Well she didn’t decide that but it was a little too convenient for her to be sick on the one Saturday he had asked her to be at work to help him with a project.

“Drake, I can’t. I am babysitting right now”

“Candi please, you can bring the kid with you”

“Does Mr Franklin even know you are exploiting his number one assistant?” Candice teased knowing that she might give in to Mr Graham’s pleas for help.

“Man Frankie is cool, enough with the excuses, you helping me or not?”

“Fine, I will be there however under two conditions, number one, Dom and I need to be fed and secondly, he is not much of a fuss but he needs to be entertained” Candice negotiated to which Drake accepted and they both agreed that she will be at the office by noon.

Drake was a senior architect at his firm, the project he was currently working on was what he needed to finally make partner and have his name on the wall of the company that he had worked so hard to be in. He joined right after college when he was approached by his mentor Mr Franklin to be one of the young and fresh associates of that year. Soon Drake became a valuable asset of the business and moved out of the “associates’ hub” to a small office not far from his boss, it wasn’t much but it was a step in the right direction and now he was aiming for a corner office with a view of the city below and his name on the wall.

Drake and Candice were not the best of friends but they were friends within the office and if his assistant was not in the “mood” of assisting, Candice was always his go to for help. She started working for Mr Franklin a year before Drake and therefore knew how the man worked, it just made sense to Drake to go to her for assistance and also she was very good at her job.

He went over her conditions in his head and figured the food would not be much of a problem, they could always order in the real question was on if he could keep the unknown kid entertained while they worked. He didn’t even know how old the baby was in order to find age appropriate entertainment. He figured his niece would be enough entertainment and a few board games and toys spread on the boardroom floor.

“Uncle Drwake, when friend coming?” his little 3 year old niece asked from his office floor, she was a beautiful little girl with a head of wavy curls and pretty caramel skin. Rae did good with this one, he thought to himself.

“I am not sure honey, but he or she should be here in a few minutes” he said as he looked away from his computer screen to look at the clock it was 5 minutes after 12 and so he still had hope of Candice coming

“Why you say he or she? You don’t know if it’s a girl or boy?”

“Yes Gabby, I don’t know if it’s a girl or boy” Drake answered which prompted a curious and confused expression from Gabby,

“Why” Gabby asked as she made her way to her uncle to sit on his lap to inquire about this new and mysterious friend she would be getting’

“I also have not met your little friend yet princess” he answered to entertain her little mind, might as well take a break before Candice get here.

“Why?” the little girl asked not understanding

Drake cussed underneath his breath, he really hated when she started with the “Why” questions, they could go on and on at any given point and direction for an undefined amount of time until she was either satisfied or distracted “Because Uncle Drake is meeting him or her for the first time too”

“oooh, I hope it’s a girl so that we can play tea party” she said with a little gleam in her eyes,

“What if it’s a boy?” Drake asked a little curious at her choice

“Then we play tea party but he must not touch me because boys have cooties” she said with a disgusted look on her face. Drake laughed at her response and tickled her until she had tears in her eyes

“Princess Uncle Drake is a boy, does he have cooties too?” Gabby answered instantly with a yes which prompted Drake to fake being hurt and she scooted closer from her position on the edge of the table to hug and comfort him “Im sowwy uncle Drwake”

“A kid looks good on you Drake” their embrace was cut short by Candice walking in.

“MISS CANDICE!!!” Gabby screamed and broke free from Drake’s embrace to rush to her ‘miss Candice’ that always provided her with candy whenever she was visiting the office with her uncle.

Candice bent down on her knees so that she could hug the little girl, “Hi superstar” she greeted “Look Miss Candice brought you a little friend that you can play with while your uncle and I work” she motioned behind her to the little boy who was hiding behind her legs. 

“Gabby this is Dom and Dom this is Gabby” she introduced them to one another

‘Nuh uh, Mommy say my name Nick. I am Nick Gabby” Dom corrected his auntie’s mistake, Candice laughed while rolling her eyes,

“I'm sorry, my mistake. Gabby this is Nick” Candice fixed her error but she was too late as they had already run off to play in the boardroom “Be careful!” she managed to instruct before they disappeared completely.

“He is too adorable, what was that about?” Drake asked curious of the little exchange that happened a few seconds ago.

“Oh that, his full name is Dominic and his mother hates it when I call him Dom so she has been teaching him to say his name is Nick when he is meeting people to avoid that nickname from sticking with him” she laughed remembering how many times her dearest friend has scolded her about her child’s name.

“That is funny, anyway let’s get to work, this proposal is not going to make itself”

“Hello Mr Graham, how are you? I am great thanks for asking” Candice retorted sarcastically at his rudeness

“I'm Sorry, Hi cupcake, how are you” Drake got up to hug her.

“Yeah whatever, let’s work” she quickly dismissed his attempt at being cute. The two of them were at it for most of the afternoon only taking a break to attend to the little children and then back to work again. Candice was helping him draft his proposal of the new shopping mall that was going to be built in downtown LA, it was a new area that most people were interested in developing and Drake’s firm had got the first contract to develop and when he was chosen he was determined to make this one count. He had recruited Candice to help with making the portfolio and presentation more appealing. He was no doubt good at what he did and everyone knew that. It was making it more presentable, appealing and easy to explain that was kind of a hurdle for him and that is where Candice came in. She was the only person who was able to take his vision and make it as beautiful and inspiring as it was in his head and put it into power-point presentation. He truly treasured her for that and had been making jokes about poaching her from Frankie ever since she first helped him 6 years ago.

The concentrated quietness was interrupted by the ringing of Candice’s phone, she quickly picked it up seeing who was calling her.

“Hey Nic, you already here? What time is it?” she asked looking at the time, The person on the other end of the line must have responded with the time and a yes as Candice quickly replied that time had slipped between her hands and that she was on her way to fetch them downstairs. She didn’t even say anything to Drake, just grabbed her access card and darted out the room while still on the phone. Drake figured he needed a break from his laptop and headed to go check on the kids. When he got to the boardroom he found Gabby and Nick happily playing with the toys without any fuss and decided to join them. He grabbed a car on the floor and joined the kids playing cops and robbers, Gabby as the overbearing officer that was hot on their tail.

Drake quickly tired from the game and asked them if they were hungry, they both screamed an enthusiastic “YES” which made him laugh out loud

“Ok, what would you munchkins like to eat?”

“PIZZA” “Chinese” they both replied and looked at each other deciding which sounded better than the other

“Chinese” “Pizza” they responded simultaneously again and they were even more confused as they wanted to eat the same thing and but just couldn’t decide which one it would be.

At this point Drake was on the floor laughing “Ok how about we get both?” he asked waiting for their reactions a collective scream of “YEEEESSSSSS” was heard throughout the office. 

Excitement was in the air as they were all jumping up and down at the prospect of eating both pizza and Chinese. Drake included.

“What is all the excitement about” asked a feminine voice that Drake did not recognize but little Nick instantly knew. There at the door stood a vision of perfection. The face of the woman who had been haunting his thoughts ever since he briefly met her last week. He had always wondered what he would say to her when he saw her again and would practice in front of the mirror. All of that went out the window when he finally laid eyes on her. He was blatantly staring at her and he was not shy about it. He started his intrusive stare from her feet noticing her black, yellow and grey Jordans, the tight fitting black leggings that seemed to be painted on her skin and the simple white vest with a black jacket that was tied around her waist. Her hair was a beautiful wavy mess that was left to run wild on her head and she had left her face bare, with just lip gloss and eyeliner to finish her look. She really was perfection.

“Mommy!!!” Nick ran towards his mother successfully breaking Drake from his trance, he got up the floor and picked up Gabby and made his way towards the reunited family. They continued to stare at each other as if they were the only people in the room. Candice noticed the staring and felt she needed to at least introduce them to each other before they did the nasty on the very floor of the boardroom, she cleared her throat to get their attention 

“Where are my manners, well babe this is my annoying co-worker and sort of boss Dr-“

“Aubrey” Nicki answered for her before she could even finished. Candice had a confused face on as she was not aware that her friend knew her co-worker. She was definitely going to ask her about it later.

“Ok…Aubrey” she put emphasis on the name to make them both know they were not slick 

“this is Ni-”

“Onika” Drake finished for her as well and now her mind was reeling at when and how they could have possibly met

“Ok one of you better say something before I start cussing in front of these kids” Candice said while giving them both a side-ways glare, they both chuckled and Nicki decided to let her out of her agony.

“We briefly met when I was rushing to go pick up juicy man from mom that other night we went speed-dating” Nicki explained, at the sound of his nickname Nick bounced up and down on her waist making his mother tear away her gaze from Drake and look down to him. 

“Look mommy, I make new friend, her name Gabby, say Hi Gabby” Nicki couldn’t help but smile at this cute request and extended her arm to greet Gabby.

“Hi Princess” She greeted and Gabby was instantly taken by this beautiful lady just as much as her uncle. Nicki motioned for a ‘hi 5’ to which she happily accepted.

Candice accepted that answer but that did not mean that she wouldn’t probe further when she and Nicki were in private. “Anyway Onika, as you put it, came to pick up her son, the mighty champ here Dom” she smiled as she looked at Dom. Drake in the meantime was in a trance and had not said anything as he was still in a trance and was only taken out of it when he heard that Nicki was not staying longer than what he would like.

“Um, the kids and I were just looking forward to go order some food” he stated nervously while rubbing the back of his neck and looking directly at Nicki. Before Nicki could respond to try and find a way out of staying for lunch Dom and Gabby were already chanting for the Pizza and Chinese.

“Oh wow, you two babies must be really hungry to be excited over food like this, Candice let me find out you are starving my baby” Nicki laughed.

Lunch was ordered and served with the adults mostly entertaining kids and taking a break from work on Drake’s part. He was not even doing much of the entertaining – watching Nicki interact with the two children was entertainment for him. She was so nurturing and caring to both of them it was amazing for Drake to witness Gabby warm up so easily to a new face and he loved every second of it. He even went as far as imagining Nicki playing with their own kids but he scolded himself for being too forward with the thoughts of a woman he barely knew.

He returned back to his office to finish up for the rest of the day. The proposal and model was due in two weeks’ time and he had hoped to be at least done with the theory part of it today and then that would leave him with two weeks to build the model to his specific perfection.

He was basically done with the rough draft on which Candice was going to work on for the presentation, she too was done and it was a matter of finalizing the original copy and making sure it was ready to be put in front of Frankie to approve and then, and only then, to the hands of the client to review and hopefully accept.

Drake tried his hardest to not pay attention to the sounds of the woman’s soft laughter that captivated him from the first time he heard it. It kept playing over and over in his head like a sweet melody on repeat. What made it even worse is that he could see her laughing face with her deep dimples on display even though she was in the next room. Her dimples looked like cute openings he constantly wanted to poke every time they appeared. It didn’t help him much that Nicki was in fact in the next room laughing and playing with the kids. He finally gave up and packed up for the day to go and join them in the boardroom before they had to leave besides it wouldn’t hurt him to see her face one last time before they went their separate ways.

“Uncle Drake” Nick took off running towards him alerting everyone else that Drake was indeed in the boardroom. He ran and stood in front of Drake with his hands up motioning for him to pick him up which Drake gladly obliged to.

“Wassup little man?” Drake inquired

“Mommy, Gabby and Aunty Candi are ganging up on me” little Nick responded with a cute little pout

“Oh word? What are they doing to you?”

Little Nick moved forward to Drake’s ear and used his hand to cover his mouth so that the girls would not hear what he was saying “They say that me and Gabby will get married and have children but I don’t want children because I am a children” at this point Drake was trying his hardest to keep in the building laughter due to two reasons: 1. Even though he tried to cover his mouth with his hand and hide their conversation, Little Nick was not using his whisper voice and the girls could hear every word that he was saying and 2. His reasoning for not wanting to get married was probably one of the cutest things Drake had ever heard.

“Don’t worry little man, no one is getting married on my watch, I got your back ok?”

“Ok” Drake made a fist so that they could dab and little Nick did the same to complete their little handshake and seal the deal of Drake protecting him.

As this was unfolding Nicki could not believe how easily Nick had taken to Aubrey, her child was friendly but he was never that friendly, it warmed her heart a little because she was sure he would never allow her to date again with the way he was always cranky whenever a man tried to talk to them on the street.

It was now Nicki’s turn to admire the man before her in all his glory. All of his features seemed to hit her all at once as if she was seeing him for the first time. His grey sweats hugged his muscular legs loosely and Nicki could tell he was a boxer briefs kinda man as even though he had the ‘thirst trap pants’ on his underwear did its job to conceal the animal that was in a deep sleep in his trousers. His simple black t-shirt was hung beautifully over his torso and by the looks of how it wrapped around his big arms and chest it would take only one swift movement for it to rip from his upper body, not that Nicki would complain if it were to happen.  

“Nicki? Girl what you over there blushing about, Gabby and I have been trying to get your attention for the longest now?” at the sound of Candice’s voice Nicki quickly got of her musings.

“Oh nothing, just thinking about something” Nicki explained which was not a complete lie

“Uhhmmm, I think I know what you think about, I see you looking at them grey sweat pants” Candice teased a little too loudly much to Nicki’s dismay fearing Aubrey could have heard her.

“Candice you better shut your mouth, I am not playing with you!” Nicki shrieked

“Yeah, I bet you want Mr Graham to play with you doe, don’t you bad gyal?” Candice smirked

“I wanna play with Mr Grawam too” chimed in Gabby, this innocent statement caught both Nicki and Candice off guard and it sent both of them on floor with laughter.

“Uh uh, I cannot with you two girls, I need to get my baby and get out of here, you two are too much” Nicki laughed while wiping her tears and getting up to tidy up the boardroom and pack up Nick’s stuff.

“Don’t leave Nic, we promise to be good, don’t we Superstar?” Gabby happily nodded her head trying to convince the pretty and funny lady to stay longer

“Awww, I’m sorry baby but I have to get going so that I can get Nick to see his grandmother tonight before going home. Tell you what if you want I can bring Nick to come play with you sometime, how is that?” Nicki asked with hopeful eyes as to not break up their new friendship

“Yes! I love that aunty” Gabby then turned her focus to her uncle and shouted “Unwcle Dwrake, pwease give Aunty Nicki you phone number so that I call Nick and play with him”

"Ok baby” Drake let go of little Nick and made his way to his mother

“Oh so that is the ‘in’ move now? He asked her with a sly look on his face

“I am sorry, I am not following” Nicki replied with a squint trying to understand what he meant

“Y’now, the ‘in’ move? The currently popular way to get people’s numbers without blatantly asking for it?” Nicki smiled but before she could defend herself Drake continued “look I can give you an 8 for ingenuity but using a little girl for personal gain must be illegal somewhere” they both chuckled at this

“No, it is not even like that, I was going to ask for it myself so that I can set up this play date as her request but I guess she got a little excited at the prospect and jumped the gun a little, besides it is not like you can deny a little girl her wishes, now can you Drake?”

“You see, I would have believed your little speech if it wasn’t for your last remark, now I know for sure that you want some of this” Drake stated confidently flirting

“Boy if you don’t hush your mouth” Nicki laughed “are you giving me this number or not? Think about the little hearts you will be breaking”

Nicki flirted back, while handing him her phone. This was all new to her and she had mentally asked herself what exactly she was doing but her mind couldn’t answer so she just rode the wave and decided to face the consequences later

Drake smiled and put in his number and saved his contact with a heart against it which earned an eye roll from Nicki. He handed it back to her and their hands lingered against one another as they both felt that shockwave pass through them for the second time since they met. The caught each other’s gaze for a moment before Nicki pulled her hand back and said her goodbye’s to Gabby, giving Drake a chance to bid farewell to Nick as well.

“Don’t forget to call” Drake nervously called behind them while brushing the back of his head. Nicki looked back past Candice who was walking her out and smiled at his shy demeanour

“It’s for the kids, Aubrey” she confirmed just as she walked out

Just for the kids.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AN: Hi everyone, here is the second part of the story, I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will be posting something else on Sunday night for the Dricki Everlasting fortnight so please be on the look out for it. Again I really hope you guys enjoyed it. I repeat - comments are not mandatory but they will be appreciated. XOXO