Little Black Bird

There are three things Dani thought of when she met Michael. One, he was a spoiled, entitled brat. Two, he had no clue how to talk to women. And the third was that he seemed to get it all from his disloyal, cowardly grandfather. The same grandfather who had broken her grandmother's hearts all those years ago. Her grandmother Julie, told her the story every night before bed. About how William Callahan had swept her off her feet like a fairytale prince. How the two of them had planned to run away and leave their awful families behind. And how on the night they were meant to leave she waited for him only to be visited by his mother who informed Julie that he wouldn't be joining her and had chosen a life with the beautiful and rich Victoria Bishop. He had sent his mother to break up with Julie, too much of a coward to face her himself. She watched her grandmother pine for William Callahan all her life, heartbroken.

She knew Julie had expected to never see William again, and it was a shock to hear that he had just moved into the same nursing home Julie was staying in. Even worse, he was living on the same floor. So when she caught his grandson badgering the administrator because his grandfather wasn’t satisfied with his room and wanted to change floors. Dani knew old William Callahan must have figured out that Julie was there and he still was too much of a coward to face her. She told his grandson as much when she scolded him for being rude to the administrator Daren, who had become a good friend. Michael had looked confused at first, it had taken him a minute to realize who Dani was and who her grandmother was, and then he was accusing Julie of being the one who abandoned his grandfather. Three days had passed since their first encounter.

So why did she agree to meet Michael at the restaurant? She told herself it was the free meal. And she wanted to know more about the side of the story his grandfather had been telling all these years. Maybe she could get some closure for Julie to finally move on. But there was also something about Michael. It was like he was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One day he was a complete douchebag with no people skills, and the next he was a complete gentleman, charming enough to convince her to say yes to a date. And there was something in the way his eyes caught hers that made her think her first impression wasn’t the real him. Part of her hoped that was the case. The other part of her hoped hed prove her right and shed get to give him and his grandfather a piece of her mind for Julie's sake.

“Hey Danielle, thank you for coming,” Michael greeted her as she approached the table he sat at. He stood up and politely helped her into her seat. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you stood me up.”

“Can’t say I didn’t contemplate it,” She replied as she sat.

He sat back in his seat with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry for how I acted that day we met. It wasn’t one of my best moments.”

Dani picked up the menu from her table and looked through it silently. Michael watched her nervously, waiting for a sign to continue talking.

“Can we start over?” He asked innocently.

Dani looked up from her menu studying Michael's expression through narrowed eyes. “Only if you agree to tell me what you know about your grandfather and my grandmother.”

He grinned, flashing perfect white teeth and his blue eyes seemed to sparkle. He nodded, stretching an arm across the table to her. She returned his smile with a smirk of her own, and then reached out to shake his hand.

“Michael Callahan,” He reintroduced himself.

“Danielle Walker,” She replied. “But you can call me Dani.”

The waiter took their order, Dani ordering the filet mignon meal, and Michael the t-bone steak. They carried on small talk while they waited for their meal. When the waiter brought it to them, he served it with a bottle of merlot, pouring the perfect amount into two wine glasses and setting the bottle into a bucket of ice beside the table. They thanked him and when the waiter was gone Michael began.

“Okay, so let me start by telling you about myself,” He leaned in, his face becoming serious. “My parents were killed in a car accident when I was six.”

“I’m so sorry,” Was all she could think to say. Dani’s heart felt like it dropped. She hadn’t expected him to open up like that right away. She grabbed her glass of wine, and almost gulped it down. Had she known how deep this conversation was going to get, she would have asked for some whiskey.

“Thank you,” He nodded then he continued as they ate their meals. “I was raised by my grandparents up until my grandmother passed and then it was just me and my grandfather. He used to talk about a woman named Julie. He seemed to really love her, but according to him, he received a note from Julie on the night they were supposed to run away. He still has it. In the letter, she told him that she didn’t want to be with him anymore and would be leaving town on her own.”

Dani sat quietly, taking this in. This wasn’t the story she’d been told her whole life.

“You can see why I was confused when you mentioned that he was the one who never showed up,” Michael said.

“Why do you think they both have different recollections of what happened?” She finally asked after they both sipped on their wine.

“Well, you mentioned, that my grandfather's mother told Julie that he had chosen someone else?”

She nodded. “He was to marry Victoria Bishop.”

He thought about this for a second, looking slightly confused. “Dani, my grandfather was only married once, to my grandmother Eleanor.”

William never married Victoria, Dani noted. That would be a relief to Julie.

“Do you think William’s mother set the whole thing up?” Dani asked. It would make sense. According to Julie, Diana Callahan didn't like her and wanted her son to marry into money.

“That could be it, she was known to be very sociopathic and manipulative. She lied a lot.” Michael answered.

“So they never really left one another. They were both lied to.” Dani concluded.

Michael nodded. “We should tell them, maybe then they’ll finally face each other and patch things up.”

Dani agreed, taking another sip of the merlot, seemingly lost in thought. Michael studied her for a second. Then leaned in again, looking into her eyes.

“Why don’t we put this drama with our grandparents aside for a bit?” He suggested. “I’d like to know more about you.”

She blinked, snapping out of her thoughts, and smiled at him. “What do you want to know?”

He thought for a second, not wanting to ask her a boring cliche question like ‘what’s your favorite color?’ He settled with “What was your upbringing like?”

And now it was Dani’s turn to get serious. He’d opened up to her, so she found it only fair to do the same in return.

“Well, my grandmother married about three years after the break up with your grandfather,” She told him. “My grandfather died in the war and my grandmother had to raise my mother on her own. My mother passed away when I was a teenager and my father sort of buried himself in his work.”

“That sucks,” He said, his voice low and his eyes full of empathy, “I’m sorry.”

Dani shrugged, pushing her food around with her fork. “While he worked, I spent time with my grandmother. We became close.”

He gave a crooked smile. Both he and Dani realizing they had a connection in more ways than one. They continued talking for over an hour, learning about one another. Michael asked the waiter for another bottle of merlot and as they finished that one, they began to plot ways to help their stubborn grandparents patch up their relationship. But what they looked forward to the most, was continuing to fall for one another.