A hopeful smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he nodded about five times when she asked about the bet-money again. “Not a penny.” he insisted.
Mark felt like he finally breathe properly again once she took the flowers from him. Taking a deep breath he allowed himself to hope that this meant that Karma would give him a second chance, to let him prove that he was only 30% douchebag and would even fight down those 30% for her. When she began to talk he’d just wiped his damp hands on his pants and looked at her, and with every word he watched drip from her lips his smile grew and showed some of his teeth.
“Yes? You mean it, you are up to look past my horrendous mistake and give me another shot at proving I’m a decent bloke?” he asked. “Thank you, you won’t regret it. As in, that’l never happen again.” Then he knelt down and waved at Elliot who’d taken interest in him. “Hey there, buddy. Having fun over there? Just hanging out, huh?”
Karma almost laughed when he nodded eagerly about not taking any of the money. Her mind went briefly to finding a vase at home before she smiled again at the young man before her, stepping a bit to the side to allow her son to get a good look at Mark. Elliot smiled a toothless grin up at the man, babbling cheerfully, not even giving the blue flowers a second look.
She giggled a little when Mark wiped his hands on his pants. It was cute that he was nervous, and by god, he was even cuter when he smiled. It made her smile back. “Yeah.” She responded, nodding. “I’ll allow you to prove yourself.”
Mark’s interactions with Elliot were so precious. It made Karma happy to know that someone was totally okay with the fact that she had a son. For some reason, her gut wanted her to assume that people would be cruel, but so far, it hadn’t been too bad. Elliot babbled and reached out to Mark as the young man spoke and Karma chuckled, carefully putting the flowers on top of the baby bag she brought along. “We were swinging. He loves the swings.” She stated before inquiring of Mark, “D’you wanna give him a push?”














