The Boy I Married [hold]

06 ⎮ You Remember Me?

When morning rolled around, mom decided to make breakfast for us all. Last night was tense and this was her way of breaking that wall. The three of us conversed all night about the steps I'd been taking to keep the roastery open. At first it was nearly impossible to get them on board with the fact that I wholeheartedly believed that Jacob and I could turn the place around. It took hours convincing to get them to finally accept an inkling of faith in me and this decision.

Dad remained upset about my inadequate responsibility communicating with the one person all my decisions were supposed to run through. My husband.

He still believed in the male being the absolute head over everything and even though there were some aspects of that mentally that I agreed on, my marriage to Justin wasn't like that. And still, as much as that excused appeared to be the justifying factor, guilt lingered. I wouldn't tell dad that. He had an awful need of making sure people knew he was right whenever he talked about situations he had lived through. Nonetheless, he was.

At some point last night, dad even managed to convince me to call Justin today to let him know about it in it's entirety. Mom told me that if he did end up getting upset, it was his right. Men naturally have a spirit of guidance and they want to be the ones to provide for their family. 

Justin always had a habit of doing extravagant things for me. There was absolutely nothing he would deny me and for him to find out that my faith in our marriage was futile enough to hide a secret account would devastate him. I contemplated waiting until after renovations started so then there would be no way I could back out of the deal, but I would never be able to live with myself if I manipulated Justin that way. Now it was something I couldn't keep to myself anymore.

The line to Justin's phone went straight to voicemail. He must've forgotten to charge it after the afterparty of last nights show. I knew once he noticed my missed call, he'd be sure to call me back as soon as he was able to.

Mom had already had a plate of breakfast made for me one the table when I made my way downstairs. Breakfast was amazing as usual. Our conversations were kept short and then the three of us went our separate ways.

Balzac's was empty again when I talked in. Jacob was slouched over the counter with his phone in his hand, mindless scrolling through whatever seemed more entertaining than standing in a vacant coffee shop all day.

"So about the renovations," I drug on. He locked his phone and placed it face first onto the counter. "We're going to have too hold off for a second. Last night I realized I kinda jumped the ball on the whole situation without even considering what my husband thought about me investing." He looked at me with worry on his face. He probably assumed the deal was off. "This doesn't mean I'm backing out. Once I've given my word on something, honoring that word is important to me. We will just hold off a while until I get the okay from my husband to move forward."

Jacob nodded his head and walked over to the other side of the counter to take a seat. 

"Oh wow!" He sounded genuinely surprised. His surprisal sparking my interest in his interest with what I had just said. "You're married?" He butted in before I could even ask him what the shock was about.

A sharp exhale escaped my mouth. Was me being married so hard to believe?

"Yes." I laughed. "I am married."

He quickly picked up on my tone change and held his hands up in conversational defeat. His mouth hung agape for a few seconds until he corrected himself.

"Yikes. That did not come out the way I was intending it to. What I meant was it's crazy to see someone from your childhood that's married. When you're a teenager, marriage is like the determine factor of growing up. That's all I meant by that. You've found your person. I think that's nice."

Jacob must have noticed my expression because he laughed. 

"Someone from your childhood? I don't recall ever meeting you? My husband and I used to come here all the time and not to toot my own horn, but facial recognition is on of my specialties. I never forget a face. I don't remember seeing you around town when I was a teenager." 

He gritted his teeth together. "Ouch," he chuckled. "Well, either way, I remember you. From the moment you walked in, there was something oddly familiar about you. It was wracking my brain all day yesterday trying to figure out where I knew you from. My cousin Keith and I used to be close but then, kerplump."

"Oh God. You're kin to Keith?" The distaste spitting from my lips. "What a nightmare he was," I paused. "Sorry. That was rude of me."

Jacob shook his head. "I remember the two of you dating and it ending in a complete disaster. My dad ended up finding out what he and Ashley did and he forbade me from hanging out with them anymore. I was closer to him than anyone else in my family. We were like brothers until he turned into the nightmare." He shrugs.

"Geez, I feel like a dick."

"Eh. Honestly, managing this place and working here has taken up most of my time so I didn't even notice the time slipping away before me." He slides his phone closer to him. "It's good to know that you're happy now.  The last time I saw you, you weren't."

"I wasn't? What do you mean?" 

His face reddened like a roaring volcano. He was embarrassed about something.

"I, um," he chuckled nervously. "It was a while ago you came into the shop. I had never seen you before but everyone was talking about you back then. You were new and people were really interested into that about you, I guess," he shrugs. "You were upset about something. Keith and I were serving that night and you sat at my table. Stupidly enough, I was too much a wimp to go over there so Keith and I made a deal that I would do two extra tables of his for a month if he did it. So he did. Another guy came in and he seemed angry too. Keith ended up liking you after that. I pretended for months that I wasn't upset that Keith dated the first girl I had a crush on."

Silence hovered over the room for a long minute. Jacob getting more embarrassed by the minute long seconds eating up the strained conversation.

"You had a crush on me back then and I never knew who you were? I found that extremely hard to believe."

Jacob laughs again and walks back behind the counter.

"In my defense, I was extremely ugly back then," he laughs "Plus, senior year for me was spent staying in the background most of the time. I distanced myself from the entire class."

It wasn't his intention, but for some reason, I ended up feeling worse about the situation. I caused a strain on him and the one person he felt close to. Not to mention, I didn't even notice who he was. 

"Well." I smiled to him. "At least we know puberty really did a number on you when it did decide to finally show up."

He laughed at my joke and almost instantaneously, the mood in the room shifted.