Modern singleparent Keith! AU
Halloween was the most pointless holiday Keith had ever known: he had never seen anything funny about it as a child, and even now, as an adult, he was annoyed by the children who kept ringing his house at 11 p.m. But his daughter Nat adored him. Natalie had had to stay with him for the entire period from his birthday to Thanksgiving that year, because her mother, not his ex-wife, had decided to ditch everything and everyone for a month and go on vacation to Dubai with yet another sexy divorced millionaire lover. It wasn't that Keith didn't enjoy Nat's company, but she was always silent and sullen towards him, perhaps because she had felt abandoned when she was entrusted primarily to the care of her mother, who could give her a lot of money, but would never fill the gaps of indifference that she reserved for her daughter.
This year, however, Keith was going to do things differently: he was going to use the month they were together to fix a pretty bad father-daughter relationship and start with Halloween, her favorite holiday. If Keith hated Halloween, Nat LOVED it: he often received emails from his ex-wife about payments for scary clothes and masks, and flashy decorations, but this year he was going to go with something different. In fact, this morning he had taken some well-deserved vacation time to buy a real pumpkin to carve with her, as soon as she got home from school.
He was walking back and forth between the rows of pumpkins, studying them carefully, looking for the perfect one, but they all had at least one flaw: that one was too small, that one was wormy, this one too pale, another one not ripe enough... It was a tough choice! And then, after 15 minutes of searching, he found THE pumpkin: beautiful, big and fat, shiny. He already imagined it, two carved eyes and a mouth, lit by the dim light of a candle, in the dark of the night, on the terrace, with Nat proud of their work and a huge smile. Yes, it was perfect.
He approached, he was so close, and yet, two hands grabbed it. Keith looked at the woman who had taken, stolen, HIS pumpkin: she was small, younger than him, but not too much, maybe she was still in college or about to graduate, shiny hair, light brown mixed with ash, ash-colored eyes, freckles, glasses, pale skin with a warm tone. She was pretty, without makeup, and with simple oversized winter clothes.
"Did you want it?": the woman asked, looking at him.
"No, you can keep it, it's just a pumpkin after all...": he sighed, surrendering to his fate. She also sighed, offering it to him.
"No, take it, it's just a pumpkin after all, you shouldn't even technically choose..." she shrugged.
"Well, actually every pumpkin in this field is different..."
"Wow, you're an expert? They all look the same to me...": she shook her head.
"No, but I'm just very observant. I was just looking for the perfect pumpkin for my daughter..." he blushed.
"Oh, your daughter will be happy, then. I'm more of a girl who has a good eye for systems and computers...": she nodded.
"You must be very smart, then..."
"Pidge, everyone calls me Pidge"
"Well, Pidge, you seem like a smart girl, I'm sure you don't need to distinguish pumpkins in life" : they chuckled: "I'm Keith, by the way"
She smiled and nodded, but her phone started to vibrate, she took it, opened it and then closed it again.
"I have to go now, Keith, but it was a pleasure": she picked up a pumpkin not far away: "I have some work to do, and I wouldn't want your wife or girlfriend to find me around..."
"I don't have either of those, so you can rest easy about that last one, Pidge...": he smiled.
"Okay, that's fine, Keith": she giggled, then waved her hand: "See you around, then..."
She smiled once more, looking at him, then she left for the register. Keith smiled too, feeling somehow different: usually with strangers it took a long time to open up, but instead, with her he immediately felt at ease. Perhaps the only person he had felt this way with was Nat, and once, also his ex-wife. Since they separated he had never dated anyone else and had not been in a relationship for years. He looked at his pumpkin again, turning it around to see if there were any dents he hadn't seen before, and found, to his surprise, a green business card.
"K-12 Math and Science Tutoring by Katie Pidge Holt"
With her phone number and email.
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