Daddy's Little Princess

“Francesca, get back into bed!” Oliver boomed, it was almost ten o clock. Francesca was determined to be disobedient this week it seemed. Oliver had just settled down, watching TV and his daughter was continuously running out of her bed, into the bedroom and giggling by the doorway, she knew she knew she shouldn’t be awake.

“Daddy!” she squeals, as Oliver picked up, frustrated. He laid her back down but Francesca cling to his neck, and it made Oliver lose his patience even more.

“Francesca, tomorrow, I’ll tell Jamie you can’t watch TV or go to the park. Now let go, and get into bed.” Oliver warns. Francesca lets go immediately at this threat and shimmered into her covers. Oliver tucked her in, stroked her head and calmed himself down.

“Princess, please go to sleep…Daddy’s tired.” Oliver pleaded softly. Exhaustion was getting to him. Francesca sighs softly, knowing she should.

“But, I can’t.” she whimpers. Oliver sighs, he wasn’t in the mood to play tonight.
“Try, close your eyes…” Oliver instructs, Francesca closes her eyes and Oliver hums the song that usually did the trick.

Eventually, she drifted off and Oliver left the room, pulling to door closed behind him. He walked into the kitchen, seeing the mess and knowing he should start cleaning up. Luckily the phone rang.

Oliver picked it up quickly, he didn’t want Francesca to wake up again. “Hello?” Oliver says, turning the television off, there was no chance he could watch any now, he had missed over half the programme.

“Ollie, it’s Jay.” Oliver’s best friend, Jamie said.

“Jay, it’s ten…” Oliver yawns.

“I know, sorry but I just need to tell you I can’t look after Francesca tomorrow…” Jamie says apologetically.

“What! Jay, I haven’t booked her in nursery tomorrow…it would be too late now.” Oliver says furiously.

“I know, I’m sorry. I just remembered.” Jamie says quickly.

“What’s so important?” Oliver demands, annoyed more then ever now.

“I, um…I’m going out with my new girl.” Oliver was use to Jamie’s Casanova ways, but this was beyond it. Jamie promised Oliver he would look after Francesca every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and now he was twisting the rules.

“Jay, I can’t take tomorrow off. I need this money man, you know that.” Oliver tries to persuade.

“I know, but I just started dating her and she wants to spend time with me, I can’t do that with a kid around.” Jamie explains selfishly.

“Jamie! You have a responsibility, and you’re blowing me off for a chick!” Oliver knew he was pushing it, but his anger and patience had long gone. He knew what he said was wrong.

“Hey! It’s not my responsibility, it’s yours Oliver! I’m helping you out constantly, as a favour all the time. I didn’t get my girlfriend pregnant in high school Oliver so don’t turn this on me. If I want to go out with my girlfriend I can, so either grow a pair or you can fuck your free babysitting services. I’m sick of it!” Jamie snaps angrily, and before Oliver could reply with a witty answer, he hung up.

Oliver grips the phone tightly, unaware he could break it easily.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” he hisses quietly. He throws the phone on the side and clenches his fist, desperate to punch something. Jamie's word cut him, he instantly felt guilty for doing that to him, but he couldn't help but feel furious also. Jamie was meant to be his best friend, yet he was pointing fingers. It's not like Oliver wanted this...

Oliver was at his lowest point, as he lied on the bed, face down in the dark. It was almost midnight now. He couldn’t sleep, no matter how much he tried. He was close to desperation tears, as he couldn’t understand why he felt like this, he felt constantly alone.

He needed help, he needed….someone.

--

The next day, Francesca was innocently unaware of her father’s mood. Oliver had rung Rosemary up and inform her of his situation. Rosemary told him to take the day off, she didn’t need him anyway. He wasn’t getting paid either.

Oliver was in an awful mood, he had fallen out with his best friend and he felt like crap and to top it off, he just lost a days wages. Francesca was determined to cheer him up.

She had locked herself in the bathroom, taking her best crayons, all different colours. Oliver had fallen asleep on the sofa. Francesca was sitting crossed-legged in the bathroom, drawing the best picture she could of her Daddy and herself.

It wasn’t the neatest obviously, she coloured out the lines, the human features were out of proportion and mostly unrecognizable but it was thought that counted. After about an hours of work, Oliver had woken up and searched the flat.

“Princess?” he calls softly.

He heard giggling from the bathroom. “Frankie, what you doing?” he asks worriedly, tapping on the bathroom door.

“Daddy! Don’t come in!” Francesca shrieks, laughter echoing around the room.

“Why not? Princess, tell me what you’re doing…” Oliver asks, his panic rising. Their was cleaning stuff in there, and his razors in the cabinet. He doubted she could reach that high, but you never knew with Francesca.

“Daddy, it’s a secret!” Francesca shouts, and makes a shushing sound. Oliver smiles, relaxing slightly.

“Okay, hurry up princess.” Oliver says, and he decides to wait out, in case she hurt herself. He leaned against the wall, sliding down slowly, his feet touching the opposite wall. He sighed, tilting his head back and stared up the ceiling, which needed to be repainted.

He could hear scribbling and Oliver hoped to god she wasn’t drawing on the walls, he would be furious.
“Princess?” Oliver questions again, and as if it was the magic word, Francesca unlocked the door, which Oliver mentally decided he would take off as soon as possible. Francesca appeared shyly from behind the door, her blonde curls were natural today, merely left down as Oliver was too tired to put it up for her. She looked adorable, beautiful as always Oliver thought.

“What you been doing?” Oliver asks curiously, chuckling slightly at the cheeky girl’s face. Francesca opened the door full and Oliver saw the crayons scattered on the floor, and paper. He sighed in silent relief.

Francesca shuffled forward, stepping over Oliver’s right leg, she kneeled in between his legs, her little cotton bottoms were falling off. Oliver leaned forward, picking Francesca up, and pulling her trousers up. He then sat her between his legs, her small body against his stomach as he was much taller then her.

“What you got there Frankie?” Oliver asks, seeing the folded piece of paper in Francesca’s hand. Francesca looks up, her brown eyes staring into his.

“It’s a picture Daddy, to make you happy again.” she says brightly. Oliver stared at her, momentarily shocked as how she knew he wasn’t happy. Was he that obvious?

“I am happy Frankie..” Oliver insists. Francesca rolls her eyes and holds the paper up to Oliver’s face, and he takes it, chuckling as the paper hit his face. He opened it in front of them both, and his smile widened as he saw the mysterious looking blobs, colours splashed all over the place.

“It’s beautiful Princess…” Oliver says, not wanting to break the little girl’s spirit. Francesca smiles proudly, her infectious giggle escaping her lips. She leans back against her father.

“That’s you.” she tells him, pointing a tiny finger at the largest blob of brown, blue and black. Oliver nodded, resting his chin on his head, watching as she traced the scribbles with her hand dreamily.

“And that’s me Daddy, and Barbie too.” Francesca says happily, pointing to the small blob of pink, purple and yellow. Right beside it was a tiny circle of what appeared to be orange, that was Barbie apparently. Oliver also noticed, big ‘X’s on the page and ‘O’s which represented hugs.

“Wow, look at us.” Oliver says brightly, even though it wasn’t recognizable, he loved the picture nonetheless.

“Do you like it?” Francesca asks hopefully, looking up again. Oliver laughs lightly.

“I love it, Princess…I’ll put it on the fridge yeah?” Oliver says and Francesca gives a big, toothy grin. Oliver kisses her head, multiple times, breathing in her addictive scent. He couldn’t explain it, but he loved it.

Francesca moves out of his grasp, getting onto her knees again, sitting on her legs. She placed her hands on Oliver’s knees.

“Daddy, don’t be sad okay?” Francesca says innocently. Oliver smiles meekly. He looks at his little girl, her adorable smile, her twinkling eyes and her slight, tiny dimple in her left cheek.

“I’m not sad anymore, Princess. Thank you for this lovely present.” Oliver says genuinely. Francesca shuffles forward, throwing her arms around his neck.

“I love you Daddy.” she whispers, kissing his cheek and resting her head on his shoulder. Oliver immediately wrap his long arms around her, hugging her gently.

“Love you too Frankie.” he murmurs, kissing her warm head. After a second or so….

“Daddy?” Francesca asks, pulling back.

“Yes, princess?” Oliver replies, smiling.

“Can we go to the park?” she asks hopefully. Oliver sighs, it was too cold for the park today and he didn’t have the energy in him to go to the park.

“Not today princess…” he begins, Francesca immediately looks disappointed.

“But, how about we go out for lunch?” he offers and Francesca immediately grins, standing up.

“YEAH!” she says, jumping up and down excitedly. Oliver chuckles and pushes himself against the wall, and slowly got up.

“Good, go get your coat then.” he says, watching as his daughter ran off to find her coat and shoes.

Without knowing how much, Francesca had genuinely cheered Oliver up and his hopes risen slightly, as a surge of love overwhelmed him as he watched his daughter eat her chicken nuggets that she had asked for. They were in a restaurant, not fancy but it was definitely better than a café.

Francesca was growing so quickly, as he watched her chew on another nugget all by herself. He can remember feeding her the bottled milk. Soon she would be all grown up, going off to school and it was time that Oliver took the time to enjoy these moments because, they would soon pass and he didn’t want to regret missing them, unlike his ex-girlfriend who didn’t seem to care at all.