Remind Me...

Chapter 1 - A new town

“Here’s your change, Mrs Dee.”  I smile as I hand her the money before she puts it away in her purse. 

“Oh thank you Lilly.  I’m so forgetful these days that I’m likely to walk out the door without remembering the pay you for the nails!  You have a good day, dearie!”  The old lady gathers her jacket from her husband’s hand.  “Come on Herbert!  We’ve still got to do our grocery shopping and the kids are coming at 3.” 

Herbert dutifully follows his elderly wife outside after waving to me.  “Coming, dear.” 

I smile as I watch them leave.  Such a lovely couple and still so much in love.  In the month that I’ve been working as a substitute shop assistant/bookkeeper for the owner of the local hardware store in the beautiful town of Prince Albert, I’ve come to like it here.  The people are down to earth and friendly, everyone knows your name and stops to chat, and on Saturdays like today everyone ventures to the town’s main road to visit the local coffee shops and do their shopping. 

Though the town is small – only 1 traffic light and 2 stop signs, for goodness sake! - it seems that many of the young people who work in the city during the week, come home to this friendly place on weekends.  Not that I blame them.  If I didn’t only have 3 months left on my substitute contract, standing in for someone on maternity leave, I could see myself living here.  The fresh air and beautiful scenery was good for my soul.

I sigh as I think about the life I left behind in the city.  I wonder how my mother was feeling and decide to give her a call tonight.  She was the reason why I left my financial studies and started working away from home at the tender age of 20. 

My biological father left us when I was small and I’d always thought of my step-dad John as my father.  He was a wonderful man who treated me like his own daughter and I still miss him every day.  After he died in the line of duty as a police officer, my mom was left to raise my baby half-brother by herself, but her health has been deteriorating to the point where she is not able to work as much as she did before.  She tried to hide it from me, but after spending the Easter holidays with her and little David at home, I saw the truth of the overdue accounts and confronted her with it.  She tried to talk it away, saying she could cope, but I knew her too well.

So I decided I needed to help her financially and gave up my studies.  She protested, of course, saying I had to use the money John left me for my studies and not for paying her bills.  He wanted me to study, I know that, but he wouldn’t have wanted the love of his life to suffer the way she has been.  At least there was some money left over after paying the bills, for her to go to the doctor’s again.  We need to find out what is making her sick.

My aunt Joan owns a temp agency and I’ve been working for her the past year, being placed wherever there’s a need for a temp with financial background.  As I am young and have no family of my own, I’ve been kept busy, meaning a steady flow of income being sent to my mother to help her out.  At least aunt Joan and the agency takes good care of me.  I’m sure they’re already lining up my next contract after this one. 

I was a straight A student at school, with bookkeeping as one of my favourite subjects.  Being naturally quiet and reserved, people tended to classify me as a bit of a nerd, so I could never boast an active social life.  In a way, my new adventures away from home have given me a chance to step out of that shell I had unconsciously built around myself.  I’d already cut my normally long, dirty blonde locks down to my shoulders and I like the feeling of being able to wear it loose.  My light blue eyes still sometimes hide behind my new, more modern glasses when my contacts irritate my eyes.  I dress more modern these days too, though I tend to wear more jeans in my line of work than anything else.

On the advice of my mother, I’m trying to be more open and spontaneous and enjoy life more.  “You never know what will happen”, she said with a sad smile on the day I left.  “Escape your cocoon, honey.  It’s time!”

I keep in constant contact with her and my brother Davey, as well as my best friends Sasha and Gail, via email.  Gail is much more bubbly than me and studying to be a pre-school teacher at a college a few towns over from Prins Albert, while Sasha, being the overly colourful gay friend that he is, studied to be a hairdresser and went to go work on a cruise liner for 9 months.  His contract will be finishing the same time as mine and he has been sending both me and Gail hoards of pictures of all the fun he’s having. 

I hear the door’s bell jingle again and quickly snap out of my thoughts as I notice the young man stepping through the door.  He smiles at me before heading to the back of the store to speak to Sam, one of our sales assistants.  I can feel the heat on my cheeks and the quickening of my pulse.  Oh Lillian, stop it!  I chastise myself.  He’s a customer… so what if he’s gorgeous with his dark hair and makes your knees week.  He comes in here every week.  Chillax!  You’ve seen good looking guys before!

I serve another customer while trying to catch a glimpse of him again.  From what I’ve picked up from the Saturday gossip fests in town, I know his name is Daniel and he works for his father on an olive farm just outside of town.  He comes into the store most Saturdays though, to buy things related to woodworking, leaving me to wonder what he’s working on.  Since there’s not a lot of eligible young men around, Daniel’s being pursued by every mother who has a daughter out of high school.  So far he’s has been able to dodge most of them.  Either he’s not about to be caught in a net not of his own choosing, or he’s not into girls.  Being a female who can appreciate a nice face, I kind of hope he’s just outsmarting the moms.

“It should be here next week, Daniel,” I hear Sam speaking to him as they walk towards me.  “I’ll ask Lilly here to let you know as soon as the wood arrives”. 

My heart jumps as his eyes meet mine and he smiles directly at me.  Ok, what was that?

“Thanks Sam,” Daniels answers Sam while not taking his eyes off of mine.  Wow, he has the deepest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

“You have my details, um, Lilly, is it?” he asks with a smirk. 

Damn, I was staring.  I quickly compose myself and reach for the client contacts book.  “I’ll check,” I say before turning to the right page.  I turn the book towards him.  “Is this right?”

He moves to take the book from me and our hands touch.  I quickly retract mine and wait for him to check the info while I fiddle with my nails.  He smiles while reading the page, as if he knows something I don’t.   “Yup, it’s right.  I’ll be waiting for your call then.”  He smiles at me and I can’t help smiling back.  “See you around, Lilly.” 

I watch him leave the store and get into his truck, before I pull my attention back to the customer waiting to be served.