Chapter 5

I woke up around one in the afternoon from my sleep feeling a little refreshed and a lot better about my current situation. “Well she gets off at two so I need to get ready so she is not waiting long.” I say to myself as I get out of bed and head to the bathroom. Once I am dressed and ready I head out of the house and get into my car. Instead of starting the car up right away, I end up just sitting there with my hands on the steering wheel. I breathe in and out a few times to calm my nerves and racing heart beat before starting the car and heading towards her job. The place is busy which is expected since it is still lunch time. I walk in and order something to eat and then sit down and wait for her to get off. I see her out of the corner of my eye and she is staring at me smiling and then she leans over and whispers something to one of our other friends name Ida. Mrs. Ida is a ball of energy. She runs around that place with more energy than the kids that work there and has been working there for many years. She was the one who trained me on the register when I first started working here. That seems like such a long time ago but really it has only been a year. I sit and think that I really miss working at this store with my friends. Then I start to think that I left for a reason and there is nothing I can do about that now. I start to think about my real reason for leaving as I finish eating my food and realize that I should not have run away like I did. “Oh well it is too late for regrets. Now that you know what you’ve done wrong, fix it. She is standing right over there and you can talk to her about it on the ride home.” I take a sip of my soda as I try to get my thoughts in order for the way that I want to proceed with this conversation when someone taps me on my shoulder. I turn around and there she is looking as sexy as this morning and she also has that amused look on her face again. I can’t help but smile at her.

“Hey. Are you ready to go?” I ask her.

“I am almost ready. I have a few things left to do. Just wanted to come and tell you.”

“Okay. It isn’t like I’m in a rush since I am off today so I can wait.” I smile again. I find that I am smiling more often now. She smiles back and walks back behind the counter to finish her work the whole time talking with Mrs. Ida. Now I know she has to be up to something because she and Mrs. Ida are thick as thieves. I am close with Mrs. Ida as well but those two have known each other longer, and are a lot closer as friends. I wonder what the two of them are cooking up. It must involve me because they keep looking at me and smiling, then they go right back to whispering. I just shake my head and smile. Some things never change. About ten minutes later she walks back over to my table and says that she is ready to go. We tell everyone bye after she buys some food and head out to my car.

“Renee’, are you going to tell me what you wanted to talk to me about now?”

“Why are you so eager? What if it is something bad?” I give her a sly smile and turn back to the road. I see her start to smile and then hurry up and hide it but it is too late.

“I do not like surprises remember. I had to wait until now to find out and that drove me crazy all day.”

“You should not have let that drive you crazy. I didn’t let it drive me crazy. I was sound asleep.” Okay that was sort of the truth. It took me forever to get to sleep and when I woke up it was right there on my mind again.

“Yeah well I was up and my brain was working overtime trying to figure out what you want to talk to me about. Are you going to tell me now or what?” She seems to be getting irritated so I guess I should start the conversation now before she does lose interest in the subject. Then I get an idea.

“What were you and Mrs. Ida smiling and whispering about earlier?” She starts smiling.

“Why do you want to know? “

“I was just curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Satisfaction brought him back. Are you going to tell me?”

“Sure, just as soon as you tell me what you want to talk about. Did you really think I would fall for you trying to change the subject?” Damn. I honestly thought I could prolong this by getting her to talk about something else. “That’s what you get for trying to be sneaky. Just get it over with already!” I gather my thoughts and then just decide to lay it all on the table.

“Jay before I ask you what I want to ask you, there is something I need to know first.”

“Okay. What do you want to know?”

“A while ago you told me that you liked me and I wanted to know if that was still true?” That smile that I love came back to her face but she didn’t say anything for what seemed like forever. She just sat there and there was no emotion other than the smile she had on her face. This is getting ridiculous now. Is she going to answer me before I get to her house or what? Suddenly she turned facing me and took a deep breath.

“Yes. Renee’ that never went away. I just moved on with other people because you are not interested in me in that way. I respect that and am okay with us just being friends.” She looked a little sad saying that last part. I don’t like when she looks like that. It does something to my heart that does not feel good at all. Okay it is time to tell her everything.

“Oh okay. What would you say if I told you that what I said really wasn’t true?” She looked up quickly with a questioning look on her face.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what would you say if I told you that I was not telling you the truth when I said I wasn’t interested in you?”

“Why would you say that if it wasn’t true?” She doesn’t seem upset, but maybe it is the calm before the storm. I decide to keep on talking.

“I told you that I wasn’t interested because I was scared of the way I was feeling. I never felt like this before and staying away from you was working until I saw you yesterday. The feelings seem to have gotten stronger and I can no longer ignore them. We can get into all the details when I call you later but for now I need to ask you something before I lose my nerve.”