12 Chapter 11

 Daru and Phil wave their hands towards the departing Janice. She smiles and waves back, then, looking intently at Daru, she says, "Call me."

 "I will, dear. Have a nice day," replied Daru.

 Meanwhile, Phil, at the side, just looks at this with a bewildered face.

 When she reaches far enough, Daru turns towards Phil, "So what now?"

 "…," before Phil could say anything, his cell phone starts ringing, "Let me take this call."

 "Go ahead."

 Still with a dropped jaw and a frozen face, Phil picks up his phone and answers without checking who's calling.

 "Hello…"

 "…"

 "Claire, yeah, it went well. She… she bought the house."

 "…"

 "Fast, I know. Daru… um, Daru helped."

 "…"

 "I should invite him to dinner, but I think he would be busy."

 "It's alright; I can come."

 "Oh, you don't have to."

 "No, no, it would be wonderful. I would love to be a guest at your house."

 "Honey, yes, yeah, Daru is coming."

 "Bye… Claire, you know I love you so mu…" with his expression, it looked like Claire hung up before he could profess and remind her of his undying love.

 The Dunphy's invited him with the warmest welcome, well, except one.

 Luke looked hyped.

 Haley and Alex looked dolled up.

 And Claire looked happy too.

 'About the sale or to welcome me, it doesn't matter.'

 It was fun. The whole time, Luke had been asking him about the celebrities that he has seen and known.

 While he didn't want to bring out the main business that he does, he talked about the interactions he has had with them, other than involving drugs and sex.

 He talked about the parties, which seemed to interest Haley. "Can you get me to some of those parties?"

 "Sure, but I will be out of the circle for a while and just want to deal with some personal matters. Once I start something of my own, I will take you to one such party."

 That seemed to make Haley very happy.

 "I would also like to come." Alex jumped in, putting in her request too.

 "Absolutely, I'll take you too," said Daru with his brightest smile, while thinking, 'Damn, she is so cute, like a puppy looking for attention the cat is getting.'

 Soon, they sat down to have dinner.

 Daru asked Luke how his college is going.

 He talked about it having good grades, while still deciding his future. He said that he got selected for the college basketball team.

 "Oh, how is your cheerleading squad?" commented Haley, wanting to jump into the conversation. Not waiting for Luke's reply, she continued, "I was the cheerleader in my college."

 The puppy, not wanting to be outdone, "And I was the math champion of my college."

 As she was starting to feel embarrassed about her sudden outburst, she heard Daru say, "And I was mine too. Math champion, I mean."

 All the Dunphy's were surprised at that.

 'Didn't expect him to have a hot bod and brains.'

 'He is like me.'

 Thought Haley and Alex, respectively.

 The dinner continued with light conversation. Daru could see from the corner of his eye how Claire was picking up on her daughters' behavior.

 The light touching when passing something or taking something from Daru. The controlled laugh, sweet smile, throwing eyes.

 'With how her expression is, it looks like she doesn't see this more and thinks this would not lead to anything. Oh, how wrong you are gonna be, Claire.' Thinks Daru to himself.

 "Daru, thanks for the help with Janice today," said Claire as they were almost done with the dinner.

 "It's alright, I didn't do much." Daru clearly couldn't say that looking into Phil's eyes, but Claire doesn't need to know about it.

 "No, it must be. After all, this is the first time I have seen Phil sell a house so fast."

 "No, I have done it in the past. You know that one time…" It seemed Phil couldn't take that jab and wanted to defend himself, but by the end of his second sentence, he just stuffed food in his mouth and kept his head down.

 Claire gave him an annoyed and disappointed look.

 If only Phil had looked up, he would have seen the expression he fell for. [AN: Phil commented that Claire looks sexy when disappointed.]

 While having dessert, Daru's eyes catch a leaflet attached to the fridge.

 "Hmm, Yoga, who's taking the classes?" Daru asked.

 "Ah, that's something that I have picked… you know, to… unwind," Claire said not blinking, then rapidly fluttering her eyebrows, all while he circles her wrist at last to rub the back of her neck.

 'A bit dodgy,' thought Daru.

 "No boast, but I used to help Beyoncé with yoga." [An: the only celeb I could think of.]

 "Wow," exclaimed Luke.

 "I will tell you more about it later. I might have some pictures too." The last part he said in a whisper to Luke. Well, it didn't really matter if someone else heard it too.

 "You are the best." When Luke said that, Phil seemed so hurt, like the kid is gonna change his heroes.

 "How about I teach you?"

 "No, you don't have to."

 "Come on; aren't these yoga classes too expensive anyway?"

 Before Claire could get a word out, Phil put in his piece too.

 "Yeah, this would be a good idea. We could save money for that new high-tech TV."

 "Again with the TV, Phil. We don't need something like that."

 "Oh, come on, woman; you gotta advance with the time, or you will be left behind by the young, get it on with the new generation, grandma." Phil chuckled at the last comment.

 But bad for him, as he was the only one to laugh.

 With an awkward expression, he looked towards Claire, and this time he was lucky to see the face he loves.

 I guess his daughters just love him so much that they jumped into the conversation.

 "You know what, I wanna join too. So let's just have Daru teach us."

 "Me too." Alex not conceding any ground on the battlefield.

 Phil's heart almost melted with how the daughters looked after him.

 Oh, Phil, if only you knew.

 [AN: did you all not like the previous chapter?]