by M. Clarke
Seth picked up his watch from the counter. “Shoot. I need to get going too. Sure.”
After we exchanged numbers, I stepped out. Right before I closed the door I said, “It was nice running into you.”
CHAPTER 7
Seth
I hated being late, but I was late, as usual.
“What took you so long?” I heard Elijah’s voice. I slid into my chair next to him with my head down, so I could pretend I hadn’t just arrived.
I looked up to greet everyone, and that’s when my eyes locked on Josie sitting across from me. We were both in shock, again.
“Seth, this is my friend Josefina. Josefina, this is my friend Seth.” When I heard Lexy’s voice, I shifted my eyes to hers, and then back to Josie. Now it dawned on me that Josie was Lexy’s roommate, the friend she’d mentioned.
“It’s nice to meet you.” I pretended it was our first time, but Josie ruined it.
“Oh, we already know each other.” She said it so casually that Lexy was surprised too, as were my other friends at the table. I assumed the round of introductions was done before I got there.
Elijah looked confused. “This is the waitress from Karina’s? The girl that you told me might be the one that flipped you off?”
I took a sip of my water, hiding my embarrassment. Way to go, Elijah. Now she would know that I was thinking of her.
“Yup, that’s me,” Josie said with a proud smile. God, she looked like a million-dollar picture with her lips curled like that. I wanted to taste her lips, and I was doing it in my mind. “I flipped him off. Had I known it was Seth, I would have given him both of my fingers.”
We shared a round of laughter at her comment.
“How do you know Lexy?” I asked Josie.
Josie ran her fingers through her hair and sat up tall. “I went to high school with Lexy. We hung out with a group, but we weren’t that close. We ran into each other again after we went our separate ways, but it wasn’t until a summer ago that we started to keep in touch.”
“How do you know Lexy?” Josie asked, shifting her eyes to the waitress that came to our table.
“We went to college together.” I turned my attention to Lexy. “Lexy thinks we’re good friends. I let her think we are.”
“You mean…I let you think we are.” Lexy frowned, then gave me a big smile.
The conversation stopped as the waitress took our orders, resuming again when she had left. I listened to the small talk among friends that took over the table. Once every few seconds, when I had the chance, I stole a glance at Josie. I could still recall her cute sixth-grade face, but now it was blending in with her adult one.
It was so strange to see her after all these years, and it seemed as though those years hadn’t passed. It was like I’d just seen her yesterday. Through all those passing years I’d thought about her here and there, wondering what had happened on the day she never returned to school. I remembered feeling heartbroken. I was even mad at her. But as time went by, thoughts of her never faded, but only blended with the other memories.
“How do you two know each other?” Lexy broke into my thoughts.
I opened my mouth to speak, but then stopped when Josie looked like she wanted to tell the story. Her lips spread wide and her eyes twinkled against the light.
“Seth and I were sixth-grade sweethearts,” she cooed, sounding proud to tell the story.
Alex leaned into Elijah. “Oh, how cute. How long were you dating?”
I didn’t know why Josie looked at me. Maybe she didn’t know the answer. She had forgotten?
“It was at least six months.” I glanced at Josie to confirm the time. How the hell was I suppose to remember how long we held hands? It was a long time ago.
“You remember?” Elijah asked.
“I’m good with numbers. Sixth grade, six months. Stick to the same number and you can’t forget,” I chuckled, fibbing.
Thank God, the food came. Again there was a short lull when the waitress brought our food, but we continued on talking as soon as she had left.
Lexy took a bite of her salad. “What did you do when you were going steady in sixth grade? Did you hold hands? Did you kiss?”
I rolled my eyes, taking a bite of my steak. Why did girls want to know every freakin’ detail? Wasn’t knowing the fact that we had gone steady enough?
“I kissed Seth,” Josie confessed with a giggle, twirling her fork into the noodles.
“Oh my God! How cute!” Lexy squealed. “Was Seth a good kisser in sixth grade?”
“Did he even know how to kiss?” Elijah teased, sipping on iced tea.
Laughter rumbled from our friends. It seemed like everyone was honing in on our conversation. Great!
“He didn’t. I kissed him.” Josie winked at me. “We just held hands after lunch, but that was about it.”
“Looks like things don’t change much,” one of my frat friends commented, chuckling.
I tossed a napkin to the end of the table after I had wiped my mouth with it. “At least some of us kissed a girl.”
“Burn,” my other friend said. That ended there.
“Anyway,” Josie continued, “I hadn’t seen Seth since sixth grade.”
I wanted to ask her why she didn’t tell me she wasn’t going to come back to school the next day. Why she had left me with a broken heart. All these years, I felt like there had to be more to the story, because she wouldn’t have just taken off, especially without saying good-bye. But now wasn’t the time to ask.
“What happened?” Lexy asked through a mouthful of vegetables.
“Nothing much. I had to move. And that was the end of Seth and me.” She made it sound so nonchalant. I knew it was only sixth grade, but hearing her sound like it was nothing tugged a little at my heart.
Alex shifted her conversation from the other group and turned to us. “Do you live around here, Josie?”
Josie nodded. “I recently moved back here. I had rented a room in a house, but was able to get out of that arrangement, thanks to Lexy. I’ve been her roommate for a couple of days.”
Alex’s eyes met mine. I didn’t know why she looked at me when she was talking to Josie. “That’s great. That means we’ll get to see more of you. You can join our group of friends. We do a lot of things together.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. I kept quiet for a bit while Lexy and Josie talked about their friends from high school while eating their meal. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that Josie was actually here. My mind drifted to one of my sweetest memories of her.
“Hey, Seth,” Josie greeted.
I stopped and turned. The sound of her voice alone made my heart beat in a frenzy. “Jo—Josie?” I stuttered her name. I wanted to run and hide somewhere. Her presence made me nervous and excited at the same time. Standing with two of her friends as she smiled at me so big, I wondered what was up.
Josie’s hair passed her shoulders in two perfect, never-a-strand-out-of-place braids. Her jeans looked like they either got dirty before lunch or needed to be washed. But it didn’t matter; she could have been covered with dirt and I would still have thought her beautiful.
“What’s up?” I slightly raised my chest, trying to look cool. She’s just a girl, I thought. Looking over my shoulder, my group of friends I’d just left in order to use the restroom were staring at us.
“Do you like me?” she asked without hesitation or sounding nervous.
“Uh…of course I like you. You’re one of the sweetest people I know.”
“No. I mean—do you like me like you would a girlfriend? There’s a rumor going around that you do, and I wanted to know if it was true.”
It was the moment that could destroy how I felt about her. Having a secret crush and admiring her from a distance was one thing, but if she didn’t like me in return and told me to buzz off, that would have an impact on me. Josie didn’t have a good reputation, only because she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Clearly, she
didn’t have a problem speaking to guys.
I took a deep breath and decided to tell her. It was going to be my once in a lifetime chance. “Yes. I like you, more than just a friend, but you don’t have to like me back. It’s not a big deal. Everybody likes somebody. People have crushes all the time. I’m not going to be sad about it if you don’t like me back. In fact, I really don’t care.” I think I said a mouthful. I was rambling and I had no idea what I was saying.
“Seth!” Josie raised her voice, probably to shut me up. Giving me the biggest smile and with her fingers hooked around her belt loop, she said, “I like you too, and more than just a friend. You want to be my boyfriend?”
My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. If I continued to leave my mouth open like that, I was going to swallow a bug, but I didn’t care. I would swallow any bug just to hear her say those words to me again. I stared at her, questioning. No words would come out. I tried to say something, but all I could do was continue to give her a shocked expression.
“You’re so cute, Seth.” She giggled and so did her friends. With that, she grabbed my hand and led the way.
“I have to use the restroom,” I told her, feeling like I was gravitating off the ground. Was this really happening? And what a stupid thing to say after she had told me I was cute, but I was too baffled, tongue-tied, and I really needed to pee.
“I’ll walk you there,” she said, waving to her friends she had left behind to be with me.
Just before we were behind the building and out of their view, I craned my neck to see my friends holding the same expression as me.
“Seth, Seth!”
“Yup.” I broke out of my thoughts and shifted my attention to Lexy.
“You didn’t answer me. Didn’t you hear a word I said?”
“Sorry, I was thinking of something.”
“Oh.”
I knew that tone. It was the same tone everyone used when they thought I was thinking of my dad.
“Anyway,” Lexy continued, “I made reservations at the campsite for next weekend since Monday is Veterans Day. You can come, right?” She turned to Josie. “Can you get off from work?”
Josie smiled at me. My heart thumped mercilessly. Damn! I had to learn how to control that around her. She was making me feel hot all over.
“I’ll make sure to get that weekend off,” she replied.
I looked at my empty plate. When did I finish my meal? “Sara is back in town. I can ask her to keep an eye on things. I’ll let you know.”
Our conversation was cut short when a few girls walked up to our table. Crap! I had forgotten I’d invited Tammy and her friends to our dinner.
“Tammy.” I stood up to greet her. “You’re here.” I tried to sound excited, but I wasn’t. I was surprised they had shown up. At first I was flattered, but never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to see Josie again, so now I wasn’t as interested. If Josie wasn’t there—what was I thinking? It wasn’t like we were going out. We weren’t back in sixth grade. For all I knew, she could have had a boyfriend.
“You remember my friends, Shelly and Regina?” Tammy asked.
“Of course.” I smiled at her friends.
Elijah twitched his brows at me with a grin. It was his way of letting me know I had done well. After the introductions went around the table, the waitress pulled over a small table and chairs next to ours so the girls could join us.
“Did you want to order drinks or dinner?” I asked them.
“We already ate,” Tammy said. “We wanted to stop by to see you and invite you and your friends to our summer party.” Tammy handed me a flyer. “Hope you can make it.” She glided her hand down my arm.
Her flirtatious manner wouldn’t have bothered me any other day, except it did today. Josie was the reason. I had no idea how Josie could control me like that without even a look or saying a word, but she did. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t glanced my way since the moment the girls sat down next to me. Why did I care?
I turned my attention to Tammy and her friends. Since I had invited them, I had to be a good host, but I was a terrible one.
“Do you live around here?” Tammy asked.
“I’m just visiting for the summer.”
“Then you don’t live in this city?”
“I do.”
Tammy let out a giggle, looking confused.
My answer was curt, but I didn’t care. In fact, I’d only heard parts of the question she was asking. I was shifting my attention back to Josie’s conversation any chance I got, especially when I thought they were talking about me or our past. It was rude of me, but I couldn’t help myself.
CHAPTER 8
Seth
I woke up to find Sara in Mom’s bed. They were both sound asleep, facing each other. Seeing a Kleenex box and tissues above Sara’s pillow, it seemed like they’d had an emotional pillow talk. It put a smile on my face though. I was happy Sara was home. Hopefully, she could help Mom through the grieving process, because I wasn’t sure if I was any help.
I headed down the stairs to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat. Seeing the dog tag where I’d left it, I shoved it inside my jeans pocket. I made a mental note to myself to keep it in a safe place. Grabbing a box of Lucky Charms cereal, I poured some into a bowl. Opening the fridge, I took out the milk carton and then watched milk stream on top of my cereal.
“Good morning,” I heard a voice say.
My heart leapt out of my chest and slammed back in. Thinking about Josie and the dinner conversations last night, I was in a zone. “Sara. Make some noise next time, will ya?” I slammed the refrigerator door after placing the carton back. My tone had been a little bit harsh. I didn’t mean it to be, but I was annoyed at myself for being so stupid around Josie last night, not to mention being rude to the girls that had gone out of their way to see me.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Sara commented and held a spoon in front of me. With her hair disheveled, she wore a white tank top and blue jean short shorts. I hoped that was her nightwear and not day wear.
I wanted to say something about her dressing so skimpily, but I decided to leave that talk for another time. “Thanks,” I grumbled, feeling bad. Ruffling her hair, I took the spoon out of her hand and sat down to eat. Doing something she would be irate about was my way of apologizing to her.
“Don’t touch my hair,” she squeaked, and tossed her arm over her head.
“You need to brush it anyway. Sit,” I commanded, shoving a spoonful in my mouth. The cold milk streaming down my throat was just what I needed. “I need to talk to you.”
Sara pulled out a chair across from me. “What about?”
“I need a favor. My friends are planning a camping trip this coming weekend. I would like to go, but—” I took another bite. Looking at the clock on the microwave oven, I realized I was going to be late if I didn’t hurry.
“No worries. I’ll play grown-up and take care of the restaurant and the auto shop.”
“Really?” I chewed.
Sara leaned back into her seat with her arms crossed. “Yes, really. You don’t think I can do all that, you do? Who do you think was helping around here during the weekends while you were out West?”
“Mom and Dad never told me that.” My heart stung to think of Dad.
“That’s because they didn’t want to make you feel bad. And it really was none of your concern. I mean, we don’t talk about every little detail.”
I shoved in the last bite, wiped my mouth with my hand, and took my bowl to the sink. “True. So, you’ll cover for me?”
“What are little sisters for?” She shrugged. “I already told you I would.”
“Thanks.” I leaned my back against the cabinet. “I’m interviewing people today for the manager position at Mama Rose. Hopefully, I will be able to find someone that will meet our expectations.”
Sara got out of her seat to grab a banana. “Good luck with that, and I hope you find someone fast. Don’t for
get you also need to train this person.”
“I know,” I sighed. “How do you think Mom is doing? I mean, it hasn’t been that long, but…I don’t know. I just want to make sure she’s fine before we all go our separate ways. You know what I mean?”
Being that her mouth was full, she nodded.
I looked at the clock again. “Anyway, I better go.”
Sara swallowed. “I think she’s doing the best she can. It’s going to take some time, Seth. In fact, it’s going to take a long time. They’ve been married for almost twenty-five years. How do you heal twenty-five years of memories? How do we?”
“I know,” I said quickly and embraced her when her eyes became glassy. I’d been so worried about Mom that I had forgotten about Sara. “How are you holding up?”
“Just holding on,” she muffled into my shirt. “It’s less painful when I concentrate on Mom. It’s never going to be the same without Dad. Christmas, Thanksgiving, his birthday—everything. It’s going to suck. I guess time will help, but not completely. I don’t think you can ever heal. I think it just becomes bearable.”
With my arms still around her, I rubbed her back. “We’ll pull through together. I’m here for you if you want to talk, okay?”
“Okay. Together,” she repeated.
I kissed her forehead. “I really have to go now. First interview is at ten. I’ll bring dinner home from the restaurant. Spend your day relaxing with Mom.”
Sara pulled away and wiped her eyes. “I’m taking her to the spa, then I’m taking her out to dinner, so no worries.”
I smiled. “Perfect. Have a good day.” I grabbed my wallet and car keys, and headed out the door.
Mama Rose was not busy, as expected. The breakfast rush was over by the time I got to work. I could clearly recall the time my parents bought this place. Mom didn’t want to stay home when we were in school. Having a restaurant gave her the flexible hours she needed to take care of us after school.
