"Your strawberry-banana smoothie, made from the freshest of strawberries and bananas," I said setting the glass down on the table before taking the seat opposite the ocean eyed girl.
"Thank you," she smiled and I couldn't help but widen my smile in return.
We sat comfortably for a bit while she tried her smoothie and I snacked on the fruit I had gotten myself.
"This is really really good," she said with a laugh.
"That's because I made it," I boasted and laughed.
We fell back into a small silence as we continued enjoying our refreshments. I wanted to come right out and ask why she'd left so suddenly that night. I wanted to know why I haven't seen her in two months. But at the same time my brain reminded me that I pretty much had no right to ask these things. We had danced together for roughly ten minutes. It's not like we even really knew each other. I forced the questions to the back of my mind so that I wouldn't make a fool of myself and in the midst of all this thinking to myself, I hadn't noticed she was staring at me with a quizzical expression.
"Sorry," I said with a nervous laugh. "I kind of got lost in thought for a minute."
She laughed but I didn't expect what came next. "No, I'm sorry."
I didn't understand why she was apologizing, and my facial expression must have shown my confusion.
"I'm sorry I sort of led you on that night and that I left without any explanation," she said, her eyes never leaving her smoothie glass.
"You don't need to be sorry," I began. "We just danced, it isn't like you had any commitment to me," I laughed lightly.
"I know, but, I mean…I hated that I had to leave so abruptly," she sighed.
"I'm sure it was more important than a dance with me," I offered.
"It was important," she began and glanced up at me, "but I…it…I didn't want to stop dancing with you."
I felt my cheeks redden. Why would she not want to stop dancing with me? Had the past two months bothered her too?
"Here, I'll buy you a smoothie and I'll explain what happened," she said getting up.
She walked to the counter and had Victoria make me a smoothie. I didn't feel right having her pay for it but she insisted and when she returned she pushed the smoothie into my hand.
"Now I'll explain what happened," she smiled. "Oh and I got the boss woman over there to extend your break. I told her I needed to talk to you about something important."
I smiled and glanced over to the counter catching Victoria's eye and mentally reminded myself to thank her later.
"Well, it obviously started when my friend came up and dragged me away from dancing with you," she laughed lightly.
2 months ago. (Heather's Point of View.)
"Naya what the hell is going on?" I half yelled as we exited the front doors of slice.
"Apparently Dianna has gone and gotten completely drunk at the apartment because her jerk off boyfriend cheated on her," she seethed. "She texted me begging for us to come home."
I felt bad for Dianna, I did, but I can't say I was happy about leaving Slice. We took a cab back to the apartment and headed up to make sure she hadn't drunk herself into oblivion. Once inside, we found her curled up on the couch crying with a half empty bottle of Absolut vodka and The Notebook playing on the TV.
We spent most of the next few hours listening to her talk and consoling her whenever needed. As any friend would do, we spent most of the time telling her she didn't need him and that she could do better.
"But, I thought he really cared about me," she cried into Naya's shoulder as I rubbed her back.
"I know Di, but he doesn't deserve your time or tears," Naya replied wrapping her arms around Dianna.
She finally fell asleep and Naya and I decided to head to our own beds and let Di stay on the couch. I'd gotten changed and cleaned up for bed when I heard the annoyingly distinct sound of my Marimba ringtone ringing. I couldn't imagine who would be calling me at 3 in the morning and I debated ignoring it, but I decided to dig my phone out of my purse in case it was important.
I finally found it and glanced at the screen to see that it was Taylor, my ex-boyfriend. I didn't want to answer, because I figured he would just be drunk and act dumb but something told me to answer so I did.
I didn't expect to hear what was coming through from the other line. I had only ever heard him really upset a handful of times but this seemed different.
"Mom has cancer," he half whispered as if he was telling something he didn't believe.
"Taylor, I'm so sorry," I said, because it was all I could think of even though I knew exactly what he was feeling.
I was actually really close with Taylor's mom. She was always like a second mom to me and she treated me like family.
"Just…can you come to Arizona for a few days? She wants to see you. She asked for you. And they aren't sure how bad it is yet, but they're starting chemotherapy, and I just don't know what to do and I know you hate me but I just need someone who understands," he cried into the phone.
"Taylor I don't hate you. But I can't..." I began but quickly but my heart broke when I heard him whimper into the receiver. "I can't be sure when I'll get there, but I'm going to sleep for a little while and then I'll pack and get on the next flight."
"Thank you so much Heather," he whispered.
We hung up and I layed in my bed and silently cried as the weight of the situation hit me.
24 hours later I was sat next to Lisa's hospital bed. We were alone in her room and she held my hand tightly as if I'd leave if she didn't.
"I want to thank you for everything you've ever done for this family," she began and I felt hot tears sting my eyes. "But most importantly I want to thank you for what you've done to Taylor. He hadn't made the best decisions before you came along but when you did he became a better man. Now I know that it didn't work out, but that doesn't mean we don't still care about you. I just want you to know that I appreciated everything you've done."
She squeezed my hand harder and the tears finally started falling down my cheeks. We talked awhile about recent happenings and she was interested in how my life was in L.A. I left around an hour later and went to spend time with my mom at her home. I ended up asking Taylor to have dinner with me, mainly because my mom begged me to. We talked a bit and remembered all kinds of memories about our relationship and talked about his mother. It felt good to talk to him like friends, but I had a feeling he would expect more than I could offer him
"I spent the next few weeks busying myself with work and I pretty much stayed cooped up in the house because I was so emotionally exhausted and all. That's why you haven't seen me around," she explained. "But I got a call a couple of days ago from Taylor saying the chemo was working so it took a little weight off of me. I had planned on going back to Slice this weekend to see if I could find you, but it looks like fate intervened."
I smiled at the fact that she had wanted to see me again.
"I'm sorry about your friend, and your ex-boyfriend's mother. I'm sure the last few weeks have been hard," I said sincerely.
"It's okay, things are looking up," she smiled.
I smiled back at her and felt something flutter inside me but I was soon interrupted by the sound of Victoria's voice, "Hannah I hate to interrupt but we're getting a little busy and I need your help."
"Okay I'll be right there," I said sadly.
She walked away and I was left alone with Heather yet again.
"I'm sorry but I really do need to help her," I apologized.
"It's okay, I need to get going anyways," she said gathering her things but then stopped and glanced up at me. "I don't really know what's going on in this head of mine, but I really don't want to wait until this weekend to see you again. And there are some things I want to talk with you about, so I was wondering if maybe we could go get dinner and talk or something so we can maybe get a grasp on things?"
I smiled at her because she was cute when she rambled. "That sounds good, how about Wednesday? I get off work at 7 so we could go to dinner afterwards."
She smiled and agreed that Wednesday would work. We finally exchanged phone numbers and she left soon after. I went back to work though my mind wasn't really focused on the customers. I wasn't sure what to make of the situation with her and her ex-boyfriend. I didn't know how to take it and I knew my mind would over analyze it until it was confirmed or denied by her. I couldn't wait for Wednesday. Sure it wasn't a date, but still. I was nervous as well because she said she wanted to talk about things and I really wasn't too sure what things she'd want to talk about.
My mind continued to race as I served customer by customer. I was snapped out of the happy yet confusing thoughts by a familiar voice.
"What can I get you?" I had asked before bending down to pick up some napkins I'd dropped.
"I'll have whatever smoothie you recommend," the voice replied.
I snapped back up as Victoria walked up to the counter to serve the next guest but we both stopped in our tracks and were met with the all too familiar face of my ex-girlfriend.
Well there you have it readers! More plot twists! Be sure to review the story. I haven't had many reviews so I'm not too sure how many people are interested in this story. If I don't have more people interested, odds are I won't continue the story. So if you like it, spread the word and REVIEW!
