To Caress My Day

Twigs was set and ready for her second date with Seth MacFarlane. In fact, the young dancer was over the moon about it. It felt like ages since they saw each other in person, and Twigs was starting to feel like a ravenous beast every time she pictured Seth (which was a lot) in her mind. Simone became worried about her roommate when she began to notice that every time she mentioned Seth, Twigs would space out, and bite her bottom lip, or excuse herself to lock herself in her bedroom for thirty minutes. The girl was hooked in an unhealthy way and it was beginning to worry Simone.

Tonight Twigs had dressed herself into something simple but not too comfortable. Simone approved of her attire and was proud that her best friend was finally having a nice healthy relationship with her ‘boyfriend’. The two roommate hugged one another before Twigs headed for the front door in her black dress and heels.

“I’ll probably be back later tonight.” Twigs informed Simone as she opened the apartment door.

Simone playfully scoffed from her seat on the couch. “You better fucking not! Amira and I want your ass dominating that man in every corner of his house before you come back TOMORROW MORNING. I’m not playing, Tahliah. You need to get that man out of your system before you rape the mailman because his name is Seth too.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, shut up!” Twigs laughed before closing the door and heading downstairs to meet the cab driver that Simone had called for while she was dressing up. Unbeknownst to Twigs, her cab driver had been sent off by another man who intended on being her driver for this particular evening.

Right outside at the bottom of the stairs was a parked black Chrysler 300 and an elderly Hispanic man in a black suit under an umbrella. Twigs didn’t think nothing of it as she looked around for her taxi cab. Strange, my driver should have been here by now, I was practically up there for hours, she thought to herself.

The elderly man stepped forward and cleared his throat once he recognized the young lady by Seth’s detailed description of her. “Ah, you must be the woman that has bewitched Mr. MacFarlane. I am Mr. Guadalupe, and I will be your driver for this evening.”

Twigs tightened her long dark coat around herself as she stared down at the old man with curiosity. “Excuse me? Did you say you were my driver?”

Mr. Guadalupe nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

Twigs tilted her head in confusion. “I didn’t know he had a driver.”

Mr. Guadalupe chuckled. “He doesn’t, actually. I’m his gardener and handy man when he’s in need of me. I offered to be your driver tonight because Mr. MacFarlane was concerned about your protection from the media. He’s determined to keep you shielded from them, and it’s making him paranoid of who to trust with your safety. I volunteered to help him.”

Twigs stepped down the stairs carefully, stood in front of him, and crossed her arms. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? How do I know you’re not some desperate fan of his or some journalist? How do you even know I am your ‘employers’ love interest?”

Mr. Guadalupe took a moment to think before fishing in his pocket for his wallet, and handing it to her. Twigs felt kind of rude for looking through his personal information, but she had to know if this man was lying to her or not. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but his identification card confirmed his name, so he wasn’t lying about that. Her answer was hiding behind a few pictures of who she assumed were his kids; a picture of Seth with a newborn child.

“My eldest son had a little girl five years ago. Our little Jaqueline died from cancer two years later. She was taken from us so quickly that I keep that picture of her to remind me that she was here and that that joy that she gave us was real.” Mr. Guadalupe decided to share with her. As he told the story, his face became paler. No one should ever have to lose a child the way his son had.

Twigs watched him with tears glazing her eyes and a cold hand around her heart. If she didn’t feel worse for looking through his wallet before, she sure as hell did now. She handed him his wallet back and apologized profusely. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I feel terrible for having made you relive it. Please forgive me, I just feel terrible about this.”

Mr. Guadalupe held up a hand to silence her. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t know, and I don’t blame you. I don’t mind reliving it every now and then, despite the pain. I also don’t mean to rush you, but the drive is quite long. If you’d like to come back at a descent time, we’d better go now.”

Twgs nodded quickly. “Yes, yes of course. Thank you so much for taking the time to come by and give me a lift, Mr. Guadalupe.”

The old man nodded and shushed a few more of her apologizes before opening the car door and helping her in. Afterwards he got into the driver’s seat and got the car into motion. The drive was indeed a journey, but a pretty peaceful one at that. Twigs would have fallen asleep after a while if it hadn’t been for the nervous butterflies upsetting her stomach. The dancer rolled down her window to let the cool night air calm her flushed body at the result of thinking about Seth again. She couldn’t help herself. A part of her was eager to see him and the other half was nervous as hell. What felt like seconds of fantasizing about him, had turned into the entire car ride to his house. Before she knew it they were driving through black iron gates, and into a driveway. Twig’s eyes widen in wonder as she looked up at his incredible house. The structure was beautiful, and majestic at the same time. Vibrant green vines were crawling up the exterior of his home, and even had a few red flowers in bloom. The garden was alive with lush vibrant flowers too.

Mr. Guadalupe drove past a huge gorgeous towering fountain in the front yard to park the car in front of the doorway. Twigs sat awestruck in the back seat before the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted her train of thought. Mr. Guadalupe had opened her door for her without her knowledge, and was holding it open while trying not to rush her. He had a feeling with the way she was staring at the house that she would be sitting there all day if he decided against saying anything about it. Twigs flashed him an apologetic smile as she took his hand and allowed him to help her out of the vehicle.

The night air made her shiver as she looked up at the building. She knew Seth was a billionaire but WOW. The building had a lot of huge windows that were heavily draped just in case the paparazzi were to find them. The entire second floor shared one balcony while the third floor had only a small one. It was truly amazing.

Twigs slowly walked on the short flagstone pathway that led to the double cedar doors. The young dancer was impressed by the grand entrance doors. The windows looked to be a fine crafted glasswork and was complimented with wrought iron designs in the front. The door looked extravagant, and was already making Twigs feel like she was about to walk into a mansion completely made out of gold. Twigs looked behind her to ask the driver if she should knock before she noticed he had abandoned both her and the car in front of the house to go around back. Twigs turned back around to stare at the doorknob and let out a sigh. She doubt he’d hear her knock due to the size of his house, so maybe...

“I can press one of those.” Twig’s finger hovered over what she assumed is the expensive futuristic version of a doorbell. The paneled had twelve buttons with no labels on it, so she wasn’t sure which room she would end up ringing up. Deciding that she had no choice but to take a chance, Twigs clicked on each button and listened in for a response. In a millisecond, she got a response.

“Hello.” A strange but familiar voice answered.

“Twigs frowned. “Um, hello. Is Mr. MacFarlane there? This is…Pixie.” She said with a smile as she used his nickname for her. She wondered if that was his pet name for her or something. That was definitely something she’d have to ask him sometime.

“Oh shit, Uh hey, sorry. It’s me, Seth.” Seth apologized genuinely.

“Oh my gosh, hi! I didn’t know that was you. I couldn’t recognize your voice at all. You sounded completely different, but strangely familiar.” Twigs couldn’t stop blushing and grinning at the same time, even if she wanted to.

“Yeah, I was using my Peter Griffin voice. My housekeeper thinks it’s funny.” Seth explained, kind of embarrassed by it.

“Oh my god, that so hilarious! Don’t apologize, I enjoyed it too.” Twigs said, disregarding his apology.

“Good, I’m glad you like it. So I take it you’ve made it safely. Feel free to come inside and make yourself comfortable. I’ll be down in just a second.” Seth welcomed, before hanging up.