Rejection

Tim’s father and mother herded the children out of Derek’s car immediately after the driver stopped the car in front of their house.

Tim’s father gave Derek a knowing look and sceretive smile and Derek fought the urge to groan out loud. What the hell was wrong with the old man?

“Listen, Vanessa. Can we talk for a bit?” Derek asked Vanessa, who smiled at him, apparently having forgotten that she was mad at him earlier.

“Sure, we can. Let’s take a walk down the street,” she suggested.

Derek informed his bodyguard and driver that he was just going to take a walk down the street, and so he and Vanessa left. He wasn’t surprised when he looked back and saw that the man was trailing them at a respectable distance.

Before, he would have minded and would have told Jerome to beat it, but nowadays, after the ordeal he went through, he felt much better having someone watching him when he was out in public.

This reminded him that he had yet to convince Ava to let him hire a bodyguard for her and H