Lost in Arcadia

Encounters (2)

Caught off guard, Kade wobbled. But he still managed to turn around and reach out just in time to hold the back of a little girl’s head, stopping her from falling to the floor.

“Woah there, my dude,” he cautioned as he stabilized her. In the process, he messed up her explosion of curls. “You shouldn’t be running around like—”

“Shhh!” the little girl hushed seriously in her babyish voice. “I’m hiding!”

“…Oh?” 

While the little girl in her adorable blue jumper was looking around nervously, Kade decided to err on the side of caution and assume she had been running from someone who meant her harm. He also looked around for anyone looking suspicious and asked conversationally, “Did you come here with your parents, little dude?”

“Mhm,” the little girl answered, now sounding distracted. Kade also heard the sound of crinkling plastic. “Just my mommy…”

“Okay…” said Kade, glancing at her. “Then why don’t we go and look for—”

The little girl interrupted him again by holding up a pack of candies. “Can you open this for me, mister?”

“Uh… let’s go and look for your mommy instead. Maybe she can—”

“No!” shouted the little girl, who seemed to have forgotten she was supposed to be in hiding. “Mommy doesn’t want to buy me gummies!”

Looking first at the child’s panicked yet determined face, and then at the pack of gummy bears she was holding, Kade understood what the actual situation was. He held back a snort of amusement and made his expression look serious.

“Well, if Mommy says no,” he told her as he casually started walking, “then I guess there’s nothing we can do.”

“But!” the little girl protested, following him without thinking. “But Daddy always buys them for me! He says it’s our little secret!”

“Shhh!” Kade cautioned, even bending down to look conspiratorially at her. “If that’s the case, little dude, then you can’t tell anyone about it. Do you want to get your daddy into trouble?”

The little girl’s eyes widened nervously. “N… no…”

Kade nodded. “Good. So do you think you can wait until your daddy’s the one shopping with you?”

After blinking her large eyes at Kade, the little girl looked down at the pack in her hands, seemingly torn. But in the end, she nodded sadly and held it up again to give to him.

‘Whew,’ Kade thought as he took the pack and placed it in his own basket. ‘Guess I just saved a youngster from becoming a thief.’

“This will also be our little secret, my dude,” he said with a wink. “Make sure not to do it again, you hear? Just ask Daddy to buy them for you next time.”

“Okay…” the little girl replied with another nod, obviously still sad. “But Daddy is in the hospital right now…”

“Oh.” 

Having reached the end of the aisle that led to the checkout counters, Kade turned, intending to bring the girl to a security guard near the exit.

“So your daddy is sick, huh? All the more reason not to get him into trouble. And your mommy must also be—”

“Sneha!” 

At the shout, both Kade and the little girl walking beside him jumped. They looked towards its source and saw a tall brown-skinned woman running down another aisle to reach them.

From training her worried and desperate-looking eyes at the little girl—who had promptly hidden herself behind Kade’s legs in fear—she looked towards Kade. Her expression instantly became vicious.

“Get away from her, you creep!”

Too taken aback, all Kade could do as she was reaching them was point to himself and repeat in disbelief, “Creep?”

In the same superhero-like motion, the woman swept Kade effortlessly to the side while her other hand snatched the little girl up by the waist so she could carry and shield her protectively.

But even though her daughter was now safely in her arms, the woman continued to glare at Kade, who had wobbled again before regaining his balance, like he was a threat.

And it appeared she wasn’t the only one. Other shoppers had been drawn to the commotion. From the corner of his eye, Kade also saw the approach of the security guard who had been stationed at the exit—the same one he had been heading to just now.

In that moment, it clicked to Kade what all of this looked like.

“No, no, wait,” he said frantically, holding up a hand. “This is a misunderstanding! That kid, she—she ran into me earlier—I was just taking her to the lost and found!”

“‘Lost and found’?” the woman repeated in outrage. “What do you think my daughter is, an umbrella?”

“No, I meant…” Kade noticed the guard quietly calling for reinforcement as he slowly approached. He tried to look at the little girl past her mother’s head. “Hey, dude, come on. Help me out here.”

The child peeked at him and hesitantly said, “But you said it’s our little secret…”

Amid the gasps of the onlookers, the woman’s eyes widened. Kade could sense that if she wasn’t holding her daughter, she would have attacked him then and there.

‘Right…’ he thought, feeling almost Zen-like as his disbelief was displaced by resignation. 

He had just spent the better part of his conversation with the little girl telling her not to get herself or her daddy into trouble.

Belatedly, he was also realizing that it was the worst thing for an untrusted adult to ask children to keep secrets.

He had really messed this one up.

‘Looks like it’s the slammer for me today…’

Just as Kade was preparing himself to get arrested for attempted k********g, the little girl reached for her mother’s face with both hands.

“Don’t be angry, Mommy…” she said in a sad tone, looking all sweet as she employed her natural coaxing skills on the defenseless woman. “I was going to eat gummies behind your back, but that mister said I shouldn’t, and then we went looking for you…”

Hearing her words sent Kade inwardly gushing in admiration. ‘What… what a smart kid! So smoothly done! I’m sure you’ll go places, my dude!’

But on the outside, he tried to maintain a serious expression that he hoped made him look innocent.

He had expected that more explanations would be needed on his part. However, that seemed to have been explanation enough for the woman. 

She sighed. “I was worried when you suddenly disappeared while I was paying. Don’t do that again, Sneha. You might not be so lucky in the next person you run into.”

“Okay, Mommy,” Sneha answered obediently, the picture of an angel. “Next time, I’ll just cry until you buy me gummies.”

Kade failed to hold back his snort of amusement this time. “Sorry,” he said quickly when both mother and daughter looked at him.

“No,” said the woman as she lowered the little girl to the floor. They approached him and she continued, “I’m sorry. For jumping to conclusions. And thank you for looking out for this little terror of mine. She must have been a real handful.”

Smiling down at the little girl who was giving him a triumphant look, Kade shook his head.

“Nah, she was all right,” he said. “I don’t remember much myself, but my parents would tell you I was way worse at her age.” 

Even though the misunderstanding had now been cleared up and the onlookers, as well as the guard, had all moved on with their own business, Kade still took care not to look suspicious again and kept his distance. 

He began to step away as he told Sneha, “You take care now, little dude. Don’t go running off anymore.”

Aware that Kade probably only wanted to put this incident behind him, the woman didn’t insist on keeping him and instead told her daughter, “Say thank you to this gentleman, Sneha.”

“Thank you, mister!” The little girl raised a tiny hand and waved at him. “Bye-bye!”

Kade chuckled and waved back. “Bye-bye!”

They parted as Kade went back to the aisles to continue shopping and the mother and daughter collected their own purchases. They were now bound to where they were temporarily staying.

Ignoring the looks of other shoppers who had witnessed what happened earlier, Kade smiled to himself while recalling his interactions with the cheeky little girl.

‘So cute,’ he thought dopily. ‘But “little terror” is too accurate. I wonder if my own kid would be like that…’

By the time he was getting his purchases, including the gummy bears, rung up, Kade had already wistfully decided—any child of his would likely be an even worse terror.

***

When Arden left the office, he had been feeling more tense than usual. He relaxed only after the elevator had reached the underground parking and he had safely entered his own car.

He took off his glasses and sighed.

That kind of attitude from his alpha coworker was within his expectations, and it was one of the reasons he hadn’t offered him any help until now.

Arden only did so for the first time today because Nate had threatened to quit.

True, even if he went through with it, Nate wouldn’t really be much of a loss to the company.

But Arden didn’t want the President to suffer any blowback because of it.

Ever since he had entered her employ, Arden’s only goal had been to make things easier for Paradis Harker, even just a little, in whatever way he could.

The last two days of this week had been the hardest he’d had to endure so far. Luckily, it took place before the weekend.

This meant he’d have the chance to decompress before Monday rolled around.

But first…

With a heavier sigh, Arden began to drive. 

He was on the congested highways for nearly an hour before taking a turn onto a road with much less traffic. This road led to a series of gated communities—ones where only the wealthy could afford to live.

His car, an old model from an “affordable” manufacturer, was stopped at one of those gates. Before a guard could complete her approach, Arden lowered his window himself and looked out.

“Can I help you, Sir?” the guard said in a chilly and unwelcoming tone. “Only residents or their visitors are allowed inside.”

Arden met her suspicious stare for a moment before asking, “Are you new?” Without waiting for an answer, he pulled down the car’s sun visor and retrieved an ID card that had been tucked in. He held it up in front of the guard’s skeptical-looking eyes and said, “I live here.”

As soon as she saw the surname printed on the card, the guard swallowed and didn’t notice anything else. 

Just then, her partner finished his business in the guardhouse’s restroom and saw what was happening outside. He lost no time pressing the button that would lift the boom barrier and allow entry, then called loudly as a form of distraction, “Welcome back, Sir Arden! You had a good week, I hope?”

“It was all right, James,” Arden replied with a small smile before returning his ID to where he kept it. “You?”

James let out an overly cheerful laugh as he approached his partner and clapped her on her stiff shoulder. “Had my hands full training this one, Sir,” he said. “Still a long way to go, I’m afraid.”

Arden spared the nervous younger guard a neutral look. “I’m sure you’ll both do just fine.”

With that, he raised his window again and drove past the gate.

“Am I…” the newbie began as she stared after the car, her voice shaking. “Am I going to get fired?”

Her senior sighed and shook his head at her. “No—and you should count yourself lucky. Take this as a lesson and tone down your snobbishness. These rich folks aren’t always what they seem.”

A time later, with the younger guard barely recovered from her screwup, another car approached the gate. This time, it came from inside the residential area. 

The classier and more expensive black car was more along the lines of what she had grown used to seeing around here. It didn’t even make her bat an eyelid anymore.

The driver of this car also lowered their window on the passenger side. When the light inside was turned on, she sucked in her breath.

The man inside looked so… pretty.

“You two have a good night,” he greeted.

“And you, Sir!” James replied cheerfully, waving at the man as he drove away. He then turned to his partner. “See what I mean?”

She shook herself from her distraction. “What? What do you mean…?”

“You didn’t notice?” James asked, equal parts amused and despairing. He thus slowly explained, “That man just now… that was also Sir Arden.”