The Professor's Daughter

For the next few days, Maria and Leighton plodded on in much the same way.

Leighton would go off to work in the morning, eating his two slices of toast every breakfast; one with peanut butter, one with marmite, and Maria would pull a face as he lavished on the spread whilst spooning up her cocoa pops. Then Leighton would go off to work and Maria would tidy away the breakfast things, she had notified the University that she wouldn’t be attending for the week.

During the day, she would go for a walk or complete some of the work that Leighton had brought back for her. Sometimes she would visit her mother, sometimes daily, sometimes every other day. There was a small part of her that felt guilty for not visiting as often as she could but Anne’s condition did not alter and Professor Ludwig was always in the same position by her side.

Maria doubted that he went home that often which was something she was grateful for, that way he wouldn’t know for certain that his daughter wasn’t living there at the moment. Because she visited during the day, Leighton didn’t go with her but sometimes he would take her there and wait outside in the evening.

Those were the times when Professor Ludwig would raise his head and furrow his brow at the young man that accompanied his daughter but never would he inquire further.

Her mother was who Maria talked to instead, whilst her father retreated back to the apartment to shower and change his clothes, she told her about Leighton and how he was being so kind-hearted to her. How she was unknowingly developing these feelings for him that she’d never felt for anyone and the frustration she was put through at having to keep it quiet.

That part was difficult, there were so many times when she wanted to just tell him or ask him about their ‘situation’ whether it was over the dinner that she’d spent the day preparing or whilst they sat on the sofa afterwards, Maria reading a book and Leighton grading his student’s papers. But every night she would go back to the bed with the engulfing sheets and he would roll out the spare duvet and kip down on the sofa bed, neither sure of what was quite going on.

And of course there had been the case of the ominous phone call, Maria hadn’t plucked up the courage to tell or ask Leighton about it because she truly didn’t want to find out. If he did have a ‘special friend’ then he didn’t let on about it and there were no signs of a female influence in the apartment, plus surely Leighton would be a lot less adamant about Maria staying put.

He even offered to accompany her back to her family’s flat that evening to pick up some more clothes for when she started back at school the following week. Once he got back from the university, he changed into some jeans and a shirt and jacket and Maria followed him out to the car.

“Just here?” Leighton asked.

“Yeah before the bus stop.” Maria pointed and he swerved into the space outside the steps. She peered up at the building with it’s murky peeling paintwork and the plank of wood boarding up one of the downstairs window.

“Do you want me to come up?”

Maria turned back to Leighton with a surprised expression. Surely no sane person would walk Burton Street willingly.

“You really don’t have to.” She replied.

“Don’t be silly, Mia, I want to help.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car, walking around to Maria’s side as she exited in a daze.

“Did you just call me ‘Mia’?” They headed up the steps.

Leighton did that thing where you give a small laugh and smile at the same time.

“I guess I did. Sorry.”

“Don’t be, my grandmother just used to call me that, that’s all.”

Leighton nodded and held the door open for Maria, who didn’t look down as she went up the stairs.

“Did you lock the car?” She asked.

“Yes, I did.” He said in a voice that made Maria feel like she was a little ‘unstable’.

“You can’t be too careful around here.” She babbled as they arrived in front of the door.

“I guessed that.”

“I can probably manage it actually, why don’t you just wait down in the car? I won’t be too long.”

Leighton reached out and steadied the girl with a hand on her arm; he bent his head a little and looked her straight in the eye. He saw the apprehension in her gaze.

“Maria, I’m coming in with yo-“ His phone choose that exact moment to buzz in his pocket. “Sorry.” He mouthed. “Hello? Oh. No, just like normal.”

Maria quickly let herself in and pushed the door to behind her. After checking that he wasn’t going to trail her in, she placed the key on the hook and pulled off her coat before looking up at the apartment.

She hadn’t been home since before the trip to Rostock.

And it showed.

The cushions on the sofa were sunken in and splashes of some liquid or other adorned the arms of her father’s favorite chair. Flies buzzed on the window sill whilst others lay dead and long gone. The drapes either side looked murkier and grubbier then they had before but maybe that was just because Maria had become accustomed to Leighton’s luxurious apartment.

Stupefied, Maria stepped through to the kitchen. It smelt exceptionally stale and the cold made her skin prickle. The bin had overflowed and tins were strewn around the base in an attempt to keep things ‘tidy’. The fridge on closer inspection held some creamed milk and a moldy chunk of cheese, whilst the sink was flooded with mugs and glasses.

In the corner, the old radio that her parents had danced to back in Germany was droning out white noise.

“Maria? Sorry that was my-“

Maria twisted the dial and the radio was silenced. She turned slowly back to Leighton.

“Maria?”

Leighton stepped over a crumpled newspaper and pulled her closer. He ran a hand down her back and tried to soothe her.

“Hey, it’s ok. It’s nothing serious.” He repeated again and again.

“I shouldn’t have left him, Thomas. Mum’s in hospital and I left him to take care of himself.” She mumbled into his jumper.

“He’s a full grown man.”

“But he always had Mum, he doesn’t know how to cook, or what day to put the rubbish out. She did everything for him. I should have realized and stayed.”

Leighton pulled back and tried to make Maria look at him properly.

“You weren’t to know, not properly. Ok?” Maria nodded and wiped at her eyes as she looked at the picture of their wedding day on the fireplace. “And anyway if you had been here, taking care of your father, then who’d have been taking care of you? Eh?”

Maria smiled as Leighton ran his hands up and down her arms.

“How come you’re always right?”

Leighton grinned. “I just can’t help it really.”

Maria slapped her hands down on his chest, gripping the lapels of his jacket in a joking manner and resting her head back on her hands. Leighton’s hands went back to keeping Maria close, he breathed in her apple-y smell and held her in the silent room.

“Did you manage to get your stuff together?” He asked in a low voice.

“Not yet. Are you sure it’s ok for me to stay a little longer?”

“Of course, as long as you need.”

Maria nodded and pulled her head back to look up at Leighton who in turn gazed back down at her.

“Thomas?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“What’s going on?”

“We’re collecting some more clothes, I thought we agre-“

“I mean between us.” Now seemed as good a time as any. “What’s going on between us? Is there even an us?”

Leighton’s face crumpled and his eyes turned intent.

“Do you… want there to be?”

“I didn’t think it would be possible.”

“But do you want it?”

Maria nodded her head slowly. “Very much so.” Leighton broke out into a mighty smile and his arms held Maria differently already. As if now he could actually hold her as he’d always wanted to. “Do you?” She asked but she already knew her answer.

“Well, I guess so.”

Maria wound her arms up around his neck and reached up to rest her forehead against his, taking in the little lines around his inky eyes and the grin on his face like he was a teenager again.

“I ask if you want to be with me and you only ‘guess so’?” She teased.

“Well maybe a little more then that.”

Maria laughed, uncertain how everything had quite happened so quickly and in the middle of her messy kitchen.

“What happens now?” She asked.

Leighton sucked in his lips briefly. “We take it slowly.”

“Slowly…sounds good to me. And the fact that…”

“That part I’m yet to decide upon.”

“I guess we have to keep it secret. I like secrets.”

Leighton grimaced. “Then don’t hate me.”

Maria in response turned serious, how could things go wrong already?

“Why?”

“My sister invited us over for Sunday lunch and I sort of said yes.”

“Your sister? I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“Adele. And I think you might have spoken to her a couple days ago.”

Maria let out the breath she’d been holding in and laughed as she let her head fall on Leighton’s shoulder.

“A sister. You have a sister.” She must have sounded like she was crazy but the relief was a little too much. What threat was a sister to her loving Leighton?

“Yes, she said she’d phoned in the week and someone had answered… quite peculiarly.”

Maria peered up and smiled guiltily.

“I hadn’t been expecting her call.”

“I don’t think she’d expected you either. I know I certainly didn’t.”

Neither could help the overwhelming smiles or the happiness that sparked between them. What had…?

How did…?

It seemed neither could explain it either but that didn’t prove a problem as they stood starry-eyed and completely wrapped up in each other. The practicalities could wait. For now.