Who She Is

~58~

Alyx and Amaya's outfits^

Alyx's POV

"Alright, turn here, and it's right there on the left."

"Okay." Amaya does the turn and pulls up outside of Lily's. There's barely any people here, only two cars. It is still early. She parks in a spot and unbuckles, turning to face me. "Ready?"

"Yeah." We open our doors and climb out. I feel my jeans pocket to make sure my wallet's in there. Good. I lead her to the door of the restaurant and hold it open for her. She smiles up at me and slips past me, letting me get a whiff of her perfume.

She takes a seat at a booth, and I sit across from her. "You're such a gentleman, already starting this day off right."

"Because I held the door open?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." I thought you're supposed to hold the door open for ladies. I wasn't trying to get brownie points or anything.

"Hi, how are you two this morning? What can I get you to drink?" the waitress named Sandy says. She's an older lady that I've always thought was so nice. She lays two menus on the table.

"I'll get some orange juice." I mentally shrug. I like OJ, can't help it. It's my go-to morning drink.

"I'll just take some water," Amaya says, looking up at her with a smile. Sandy nods and leaves to get our drinks. Amaya grabs the menu and flips through it. "So, what do you usually get? I know you said the omelet, but what kind?"

"The ham and cheese one. It's plain, but it's so good. They make them really big here, too. I also get hash browns with it."

"Alright, I'll get that." A smile appears on her face.

Sandy returns with our drinks, setting them on the table. "Y'all ready to order? Or do you need a minute?"

"We're ready. We'll both take a ham and cheese omelet with hash browns on the side." I look back to Amaya. "Do you want anything else?" She shakes her head. "That'll be it," I inform Sandy. She grabs our menus and takes our order into the kitchen.

"Thanks for ordering for me," she says with a sincere smile.

"It was no problem. So, how was the rest of your weekend?"

She drops eye contact and takes a sip of her water. "Shitty. At least until I got back in town."

"I'm glad you made it back in time." And in one piece. I slept like shit Saturday night, worrying about her. And I didn't get much sleep last night because I was nervous about today. So, yeah, I'm kind of tired.

"Me too. I missed you." She props her elbows up on the table, resting her chin on her hands.

Likewise. I thought I was going to have more time with her Saturday, but she had to leave when I least expected it. "I missed you, too." I thought about her all weekend. I'm really happy that I'm able to be with her right now.

"What'd you do after I left?" she asks, her voice laced with curiosity.

"I watched a movie with my mom and played online with Wes for a few hours. I didn't do much Sunday. What about you?"

"You know what I did," she says, shifting in her seat.

"When you weren't... doing that?"

"Oh, um, not much. I slept in my car Saturday night, went to the beach Sunday morning, and drove back to Elaine's last night."

"You went to the beach?" I ask, curiously.

"Yeah, I was on the coast anyway, so I thought 'why not?'"