"Okay, so what happened at work?" Aurelia asked me. We were sitting in this nice restaurant out to dinner. It was finally just the two of us. The week consistently to me being Eleni's personal maid.
It was mostly my fault though. There was a park that was a block away. One of the days we went to the park and there were so many kids, the parents noticed me so it wasn't a fun experience.
My backyard was big enough so I bought her a swing. Then I decided to redecorate my movie room with the input of the child, she was more indecisive than me.
"Alright, so after they got the warrants, they called me. Said they were making their way to the office. So I had the board meet. Then they came and arrested them. I've never seen people cry so hard." I laughed. She gave me a look. I cleared my throat. "Sorry." I continued on with my story.
After they arrested them they had a detective come and talk to me about the money they were stealing. They were working on getting it back. Tomorrow morning they were booking them. After that, the trial would start.
"So that's what happened. That's why I'm extra giddy I guess."
"I would be too if I was you." She smiled. Our food came and we fell into a comfortable silence. The occasional comment about random things. I ordered us another champagne bottle. "Remember when we were here last time? We were here with different dates."
"Yeah, I figured we make new memories here."
She raised a brow, "Are you sure you want new memories? Because from what I recall you and your date had a lot of fun." I smiled awkwardly.
Irene. The girl I went on a date with. "Do you want to make memories? because you and what's his face seemed to have fun too." I played along.
"I mean you're right, but we didn't end the night having sex in the bathroom."
"Yeah well..." I didn't have a comeback. "That was before you," I mumbled.
"I know, baby," She laughed. The nickname made my heart flutter. "I was just messing with you. I'm guessing that was the last date right?" I nodded taking a sip of my champagne.
"Yeah, wasn't my type." I smiled. "So, what's the plan after this? Wanna go back to mine?" She frowned a little. "Or we can find something to do. Not a big deal." I said reaching for her hand.
"I want to but I can't." She frowned more.
"Oh, why not?"
"I promised Meena that I would come over and help her pack."
"Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have assumed that—" I started pulling my hand away
"No, baby," She reached for my hand, "I want you to assume, I like that you assumed, just not tonight, Cherie." She looked into my eyes. "I'm sorry."
I felt kind of bummed, but I wasn't about to ask her to break a promise to her best friend for me.
"It's fine. I'll just go over to my sister's and get Eleni. I feel like I leave her there a lot." Aurelia laughed.
"Okay. I feel bad though, I should have told you before, I honestly thought we were just getting dinner and then calling it a night." She frowned again.
"We have all the time in the world, relax."
*****
I took my jacket off and hung it up on the rack. "Gaia!" I called out. There was no answer. I called her a couple of more times and again there was no answer.
I heard Gaia's raised voice in the backyard. It confused me because Jesse and Gaia were not the type of couple to argue, especially in front of kids.
"Hey? Is everything." I stopped what I was saying because... "Val," I said breathlessly. I hadn't seen her in like 6 months. "What are you doing here?" I asked. "What is she doing here?" I asked whipping my head to Gaia. "Why are you here? Why the hell are you here?"
