For the Restored & Hopeful

For the Heart Broken, Part II

*5 months later*

“Lily!” was what was shaking me out of the daydream I was currently having.

“Huh?” I shake my head and I find a man in front of me waving his hands in my face. “How can I help you” Never mind how he knew my name.

“I need those.” Pointing to a couple cans of green beans. I totally forgot that I was in the grocery store.

“Oh, sorry. Daydreaming.” I pushed my cart further down the aisle. “How do you know my name?” He points to my shirt. I glance down, and blush in embarrassment. I’m totally wearing my name tag from work. Wow, I am a total airhead today. I think to myself. I started to walk away when this guy, whoever he is, says,

“So you’re not going to ask me for mine. Kinda rude, don’t cha think?” he chuckles.

“Oh, sorry. What’s your name?”
“Oh, I don’t give my name out to strangers.” I made a face of confusion.

“Excuse me?” Was this a prank? Cause I wasn’t getting it.

“I’m joking. You ever heard of them?”

“Ha ha, yes.” I roll my eyes. It’s a good thing that he’s kinda cute.

“So what’s your name? Or are you not going to tell me?”

“My name is  is Jacob. But people call me Jake.” he stuck out his hand to shake it, I took it.

"Nice to meet you, Jake." He still had my hand. This is awkward. I quickly drew my hand out of his grasp and awkwardly looked away.

"Well, I need to get home, Nice meeting you." Okay, that was weird, I thought.

"See ya around." he says.

As I have my items rung up at the cash register, I couldn't help but wonder who this Jake was. I couldn't help but think of what it would be like to be his friend. 

*rrring* rrring* rrring* my phone vibrating in my pocket makes me jump. I get it out of my pocket to see that my mother is calling me. Probably to keep tabs on me now that I’m out of the house.

“Hello?” I act like I don’t know who it is.

“Hi, Lily. It’s your mother calling.” Does she not know about caller ID?

“Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing. Just wanting to know what’s going on with my favorite daughter.”
“I’m your only daughter.” I chuckle, as far as I know. Who knows, there could totally be a twin living in London. Just like the Parent Trap. Yeah, right.

“Whatever. Still my favorite!”

“Haha, okay. I’m good. I got a promotion at work.”

“That’s awesome! I’m guessing everything is working out well for you.”

“It always has” I chuckle. My life might not always be rainbows and unicorns, but I’m always blessed. “Everything works out for God’s good.”

“Yeah, okay. Start with the God stuff again.” Here we go again.

“I’m serious mom. God is always looking out for us.”

“Well I better go. Love you!” She hangs up before I could get in another word.

“Love you too, Mom.” I said as I hang up the phone. If there was a way for Mom to find some reason to hang up ASAP, just talk about the Bible or God. Works every time. I don’t know why she’s being like this all of the sudden. It started right around the time Dad divorced her because he found a younger blonde to flirt with, ten years younger to be exact. Ever since the divorce, mom has been a little off. Who knows what is going on in her pretty little head.

Since I’m an only child, I feel torn between mom and dad. They are no longer together and I have to be the messenger. “Tell your father…” “Tell your mother…” I roll my eyes at the thought of them not speaking to one another. I know there is no chance of them getting back together. That ship sailed a long time ago. Speaking of Dad, on my way home, I pull out my phone and dial the number for my Dad’s cell number.

…dial tone.

“Hello?” a man answered the phone, thank you I mumble to myself.

“Hey Dad!”

“Hey honey, what’s going on?”

“Oh nothing, on my way home.”
“Have a good day at work?”

“Yeah, I got the promotion! I start my new job on Monday!”

“That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you honey.”

“Thanks, daddy! How’s Kim?” The blonde that my Dad is currently dating that I mentioned earlier.

“Good.” That topic was always a gray area. There was an awkward silence for the longest minute of my life.

“How’s your mom?” he says, changing the topic to yet another gray area.

“Good.” I lie. What I really want to say is “Ever since you left her, shes been binde drinking and lying on the couch talking to the cat.” But all I can do is lie and tell him shes doing just fine.

“That’s good. Tell her I said hi.” I know he means well, but he doesn’t actually want mom knowing that we still talk, or that he said hi or even asked about her at all.

“Well, I’ll have to come over for dinner sometime. Talk to you later, Dad. Love you.”

“Love you too, Honey.” It breaks my heart he asks about Mom but I don’t have it in me to tell him the truth. When I got home, it was quiet. I loved the quiet. I don’t miss living with my parents, when they were together, that is. The house was never quiet. They were always fighting. And when they weren’t fighting, it was the awkward silence that filled the house. So it was never quiet.

When they told the family that they were getting divorced, I wasn’t all that surprised. Sure, I was sad, but not surprised. They were either fighting, or not speaking to each other. It wasn’t always like this, when I was a little girl, we used to have so much fun as a family. We would play games and decorate the house for Christmas and it was so much fun. Until I turned 18, we would always decorate the house for Christmas. But when I moved away for college, it was like they stopped liking each other. It was like they stopped being friends and they were suddenly strangers. One day, they were the couple that would do everything together and it was like they flipped a switch and they weren’t close anymore.

Shaking my head of the thoughts of my parents growing apart, I put away my groceries and put some food in Snow’s, my white ragdoll cat, bowl. Meowww. She comes out of nowhere, running up to me, rubbing her head on my legs, constantly meowing at me. “Hi, baby.” I pick her up and go into the living room. Purrrrrrr Purrr Purrrr. Was all I could hear, Snow purring in my ear. I plump down on the couch and finally relax. I slowly close my eyes and Snow leaves my lap to go sit down on her bed. Laziest cat in the world, I think to myself. That’s what I get for getting a ragdoll cat.

*buzzzz buzz* goes my phone. I open my eyes to see that I have a text from my best friend, Penny.

4:03p.m.

Penny: Hey, you wanna go to dinner at Ruby Thursdays?

My phone read.

4:06p.m.

Lily: Yeah, sure. What time do you wanna eat?

I replied.

Penny always great on timing. Myself, however, is a different story. I think I missed the day in school where they taught grace, good intuition, and timing skills. I missed all of that.

4:09p.m.
Penny: How does 6 sound?

Buzzz

4:11p.m.
Lily: See you then!

I sent back.

The lighting in Ruby Tuesday’s was perfect for writing, I thought to myself. I looked around the room while waiting for Penny to come. It hadn’t been ten minutes until someone had stopped at my table. I blinked out of my day dream to see that it was Jake, the guy from the grocery store. I scuffed a little while rolling my eyes, saying “Do you just like following me around or something?”

“Oh you know that you like seeing me around.”

It was then that Penny comes up behind him, taking off her coat and putting it on the seat, “Hey, Lily. Who’s this?”

All nonchalantly, I go, “This guy? Oh, I don’t know who this is.” I take a sip of my sweet tea, thinking I look like Taylor Swift or something. Penny gives me this look that says “What are you doing?” and I give her a look that says “Just go with it”. She rolls her eyes at me and sits down.

“I ordered you water, that’s what you wanted, right?” She nods.

I glance back over at Jake again and before I can even get a word out, he goes, “Oh but I think you should want to.” and slips me a torn napkin with his name and number on it.

“And tell me, please, why would I want to call you?” I pick up the torn napkin and toss it around in the air. He just smirks and walks away. I just stare back at Penny like we just witnessed a robbery happen.

“What in the hell…” I mutter finally.

“I think he liked you.” Penny laughs.

“You think so?” I sip some more of my sweet tea. I laugh and say, “Should I call him?”

***TO BE CONTINUED***