Still Here Loving You | ✓

| 09 |

Sipping my glass of water, I nodded along with whatever my dad was saying about his work. I was having brunch with my parents at one of our favorite restaurants after we went to church.

Ethan and Eloise couldn't join us since they were in the middle of their two week honeymoon somewhere tropical.

It's weird, you know? That my parents and I occasionally share stories from our work and all the things that go down with it. It's a little hard to get my head around that I'm a grown ass woman who's working and earning money when it was like yesterday that I was just crying over math homework in elementary school.

Time does fly fast.

Dad was telling us about the annoying hotel guests he had to endure yesterday which I can relate to because I have those types of clients from time to time. Some of them make me want to rip my hair off and force it down their throat. Quite violent but it's a price to pay for testing my patience.

Work has been the same. We wrapped up a party two days ago and now we're starting to plan someone's half birthday celebration. I don't know why it seems necessary to celebrate and throw a party for that, but who am I to judge? I'm just here to plan and make it happen.

I made a mental note to start ordering the materials needed for the event. The client chose to hold his half birthday in a very well-known country club and have a golf themed party. I know nothing about golf, but the golf course there has a giant pond in the middle of the course.

When I was there to make the reservations, it reminded me of the scenes in Modern Family whenever they were in the country club. Rich old people and golf carts were everywhere.

Natalie was there with me, and we joked about making an effort to strike up a conversation with one of the people there in hopes of finding a sugar daddy.

I was fixing the lower part of my dress that had ridden my legs when I could hear a familiar voice piped in from nowhere. My head gazed up to see that it was Lynn, and behind her was Gary and... Grayson.

I let out an unnoticeable grunt before smiling and greeting them.

Both of our parents were already in the middle of a conversation, laughing, like good old friends catching up. I waved my fingers at them when they said hello.

I don't know how and when we suddenly shared a table with the Martins, but we did anyway. My dad and Gary were at either end of the table. My mom was sitting across from me next to Lynn which left Grayson to sit next to me, how fun! I ignored his presence and fixed my hair while I'm at it.

Maybe also because I don't have enough courage to face him yet after that shameless thing I've done last time we saw each other.

I'm not saying I'm still bitter over that phone call that never happened, but I might be. The important thing is that I should focus on my goal about keeping distance and eliminating him from my life.

But somehow that's not happening at all. And yes, I'm throwing daggers at you, destiny and faith! Screw you, bitch! I'm not going to give in to whatever you have planned for me.

"Where are the twins?" I asked, noticing that they weren't there.

Grayson turned to me. "They're over at a friend's house."

I nodded my head, still not giving him much attention even though he was trying to make me talk to him. But I always answered shortly whenever he directed me a question or tried to talk to me. I moved my attention to my nails that need some serious care.

The restaurant was quite busy so it took a bit longer to have our order served. We ordered two platters of Caesar Salad and I was just shoving it in my throat. I love their salad here not because it's healthy, but because it's practically drowning in salad dressing.