The Way Love Changes You; Book One: Love's Firsts

23/XXIII: Dinner with Her Family

~Avella~

Saturday, September 21, 2019

I went into work kinda early this morning. I dreaded it, but I was so glad that Racine was there to keep me company. She didn't get off until I did, which made it even better. I mean, I work at this huge farmer's supermarket called "Beans and Things" as a cashier, and so does Racine, and it's not that hard of a job. The only thing that does make it hard is rude customers, which is very rare here.

Anyway, it was about to be 11:00AM, which was three hours before I was gonna be off the clock for the day. Business was steady for once, so at that time, I didn't have any customers. Neither did Racine, and she was excited to talk to me so she hopped on over to my register.

"So, how's you and this girl I still haven't seen?" she asked. "Do you have any pictures or anything of her that I can see? I wanna see what she looks like!"

"I only got one pic of her, but it's a selfie we took when we went out to lunch for the first time. Wanna see it anyway?" I reached for my phone in my back pocket, but I wasn't ready to take it out until Racine said yes, which I'd known she would.

She looked at me like I was crazy. "Do I look like—HELL YES, GIRL! Show me!"

I took my phone out, unlocked it, went to find the photo, and showed her the photo of me and Indy. Racine's eyes grew wide seeing Indy.

"Oh wow! I know her!" she said.

"Wait, you do?" That left me curious.

Her smile grew. "Yeah! Before she graduated, I used to take some music classes with her and her brothers. Now I'm just taking them with her brothers. We still keep in touch though! She's been tellin' me that she was crushin' on a very sweet and very hot wom-...wait...SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT YOU! OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

My face was burning up after I heard those words. "Sh-She called me hot...?"

A look of disapproval casted upon Racine's face. She wasn't a fan of what I said. "Have you ever looked in the mirror? Girl, you're fuckin' drop dead gorgeous! I have to say, though, that words can't express it because, like, you are just so fuckin'...ugh! And you're finally dating someone who is unbelievably cute? Even hotter! Y'all are gonna go places! I'm so happy for y'all!"

She gave me a hug. "So how long has it been since y'all been together?" she asked.

"It's been almost three weeks!" I answered. "We're hoping to make it last for a very long time."

Racine smiled at me. "It's amazing to see couples stay for the long haul. Y'all being in it for the long haul is just so wholesome. Y'all have, like, a very wholesome vibe that can make anybody's day brighter. I dare anybody to kill it and separate y'all."

A customer came into my line when their groceries rolled up on the conveyor belt, but I didn't see the customer. However, the items I saw were vegan. That kinda excited me, seeing that there are more people in this city who either are vegan, vegetarian, or on a restrictive diet, or just trying new things. I saw plant based Alfredo sauce, plant based meat crumbles, vegan cheese, fettuccine noodles, spinach miso salad mix, so many things!

I was busy scanning each item and bagging them up until I heard, "Avella?!" That sweet voice sounded so familiar that it had me frozen in place. I turned around and was almost stimulated when I saw her.

My cariño, Indy Serenity.

I went for a hug because I missed her for a couple days. She missed me too by the tight squeeze of her hug. I kissed her cheek instead of her lips because I didn't want to get caught by management.