I Hate You, I Love You

Chapter 5: Gone

A day had passed with absolute radio silence from Dinah. I tried calling her, but got her voicemail. I sent text messages that went unanswered. Now that she was mobile again, it's possible she had gone back to work. Not wanting to bother her if it was work and not wanting to dwell on it, I chalked it up to her being busy with work assignments.

Around noon the following day I got a call from Normani inviting me to lunch. I took her up on her offer and met her at this amazing Japanese restaurant a few blocks from my apartment that served the best sushi. She was sitting in a booth near the front. "Mani, I'm so glad you picked this place," I said as I sat opposite her.

"I'm only here for the dessert," she said with a grin.

I flipped my hair. "Well, I'm getting the sushi dinner."

She laughed. "For lunch?"

"Obviously." I didn't even need to use the menu. I mean, the people here knew me by name. "Let's order, I'm hungry!"

Normani ordered the fried ice cream while I got the dinner that came with four different kinds of sushi and twelve rolls. My mouth watered in anticipation.

"How's work?" I asked as we waited for our food.

She rolled her eyes, sighing. "I had the worst client today. First of all, she came in with a terrible dye job she did at home, out of a box," she made sure to emphasis the word 'box.' "Then she has the nerve to tell me I don't know how to do my job after I corrected the problem."

"Are you serious?" I asked, shocked.

"Dead. Being the professional I am," she patted herself on the shoulder, "I told her if she was truly unhappy with it she didn't have to pay."

I gave her a high-five. "Congrats, Mani!"

"But I told her she wasn't welcome back in our salon before showing her the door," she smiled.

"You go! Other than that?"

"Girl, that was it. I took the rest of the day off." Her phone vibrated and she pulled a face. "So," she started, "can we talk about this guy that I apparently gave my number to at that art convention this past weekend?"

"When did that happen?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, but he won't stop texting me. I've told him I'm not interested. He's still trying, though."

"Just ignore him."

"I'm trying," she said, turning her screen off. "Anyways, I talked to Ally this morning while she was on her way to work."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. She told me Dinah went back home yesterday. She didn't feel comfortable staying with Ally now that she's back on her foot, or boot," she laughed at her joke. I laughed at the stupidity of it. "Her cousin picked her up yesterday."

I tried to act like I wasn't interested, but I was a little upset by that. She couldn't bother to tell me? I told myself I shouldn't be getting upset, we weren't together. Hell, we hadn't even gone on a date.

"Hello, earth to Lauren. Anybody in there?"

I looked at her. "Did you say something?"

"Our foods here!"

I guess in my distressed state I failed to notice our food being delivered. I popped a roll into my mouth, closing my eyes and humming with pleasure. Sushi made everything better.

Lunch was a fun distraction and the food was amazing, but I wanted to know what was going on with Dinah. I went home, turned on the TV and flipped through the channels before getting bored and checking my phone. No message from Dinah. No call from Dinah. I did have a missed call from a number I didn't recognize, though, but they didn't leave a message.