Page 48 of Derek

Her connection with him deepened with each passing day. They spent weekends wrapped up in each other’s lives, barely spending a moment apart, and were at Club Indigo either Friday or Saturday night and sometimes both. They would text and talk during the week, and she looked forward to their easy banter. A couple of months into their relationship, Sonja had finished the paperwork she had brought home from the café when she heard the chime on her phone and saw a new message from Derek. She pulled it up immediately, eager to see what he had to say.

8:48 pm:How was your day, babygirl?

Sonja started to type and changed her mind. She dialed his number instead.

“Kiriakis,” he answered, giving his typical abrupt greeting.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hey, babygirl, good to hear your voice.”

Sonja smiled. It was good to hear his voice, too. “The funniest thing happened at work today. I thought you’d like to hear about it instead of reading it.”

“You know I’m always up for a good story. Do tell.”

“Someone performed anupgradeon the walk-in cooler. Every time the door opened; it started playing Rihanna singingUmbrella. Turned out that our chef hates the song. Everyone was baffled until I had one of the dishwashers climb up and poke around at the top of the doors. Seems someone had put a blue-tooth speaker just inside the door and hooked it into the switch that controlled the lights.”

Derek laughed. “Somebody there is pretty smart. Did you find out who did it?”

“Not for sure, but my newest busboy is a student at UMKC and is studying electrical and computer engineering. He also impressed me at the interview as having a good sense of humor. He was conveniently off today, but he worked until closing yesterday. Fortunately for the sanity of the chef, the dishwasher managed to disconnect the speaker without any problem.” Sonja couldn’t help giggling at the memory. “It was really funny. I had the hardest time keeping a straight face while it was happening. I’ll be talking to him tomorrow. I think he’s enough of a straight shooter that he’ll admit it if he’s responsible.”

“You’re a good judge of character. I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Derek said.

“What was your day like, Daddy?”

“The usual paperwork, committee meetings, and frustrations, precious. You don’t want to hear about that.”

“Sure, I do. You listen to me when I’m complaining about work. Why shouldn’t I listen to you?” Sonja asked.

Derek agreed, and by the time he had finished telling her about his second meeting, Sonja started yawning audibly, andDerek chuckled. “See what I mean? It puts you to sleep, too. Time to head to bed, babygirl.”

Sonja pouted, glad he couldn’t see her face. “I like talking to you.”

“I like talking to you, too, but you have to get up early in the morning. No more stalling. To bed with you!”

“Yes, Daddy. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, babygirl.”

They had just disconnected when her phone chimed again.

10:23 pm:Go to sleep, baby.

10:24 pm:Aahh, I’m not tired, Daddy. ‘Upside down face’ emoji

10:25 pm:You will be once you go to bed. Love you, baby.

10:26 pm:Love you too, Daddy. ‘Smiling face with heart eyes’ emoji, ‘face blowing a kiss’ emoji

Sonja connected her phone to the charger on the nightstand and picked up her tablet. Dressed in an oversized t-shirt, face scrubbed clean, and teeth brushed, she was ready for bed.

Snuggles was already settled in his round bed by her pillow. She got under the covers and checked that she had set the alarm on her tablet. She started to put the tablet on her nightstand and remembered she wanted to check if her favorite author had shared the release date of her latest book. What Derek didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. She tapped the Facebook icon and clicked‘Cherise Sinclair: News and Discussions!’Browsing the posts, she was disappointed. No news yet. What was taking so long?

She was about to put the tablet down and go to sleep when she noticed that someone had posted a new video of their kittens. Sonja tapped the screen to start the video.

Oh, my, look at that cute little face…

5:29 am:Good morning, Daddy.

---