Sincerely, Jaida

calista

Jaida

TomTom and Rose had stayed the night after lunch. They all helped cleaning up till Pops and Luke bid their goodbyes at six-thirty. With TomTom staying over, Rose and I had to push back our talk again.

Luke wasn't familiar enough to stay over and Pops had inventory to list at Reds.

The remaining of us had sidled on the carpet against the couch, watching Legally Blonde. Rose had coaxed us to watch it after stopping TomTom from sewing her ripped jeans. With the lights dimmed and the cold breeze fluttering through the open windows, each one of us tugged at the shared blanket with a tub of ice cream in hand. Rose had vanilla ice cream, I was slurping on cookies and cream and Tom Tom had almost finished his tub of mint chocolate. I always had their choice ice cream flavours in stock.

Morning came, TomTom had sewed Rose's jeans up and left after fixing us coffee. Rose left for her job at her sister's café and I locked up and left for my shift at Reds.

The week had flown by quick. By Friday, I had seven shifts covering up for one of the newbies. Two weeks in training, Nessie's sister got hit by a passing car while riding on her bicycle in her neighbourhood. I'd assured her that her place at Reds was in no danger and that she can take two weeks off since she was the unofficial guardian of the child. I'd also invited them over for Sunday lunch so I could meet Laila and so Nessie could relax a bit.

Xavier and I hadn't seen each other since Sunday, he had messaged me a few times over the week.

Beer girl

Would you rather have a horse head or horse body?

What's long, thick and hard as steel?

An exhaustion pipe

I hadn't answered to any of them. I don't know what we were and I didn't feel the need to dwell on it but this wasn't normal, not for me.

So imagine my surprise when he called coincidentally during my break at Reds. Walking outside of the building, I'd debated whether or not I should answer. Knowing it would be awkward not to, I'd taken a deep breath and pressed the green button.

"Hello?" I'd tentatively said. I could hear background noises of drilling tools.

"Well love, it's nice to know I'm not being ignored," he said in a heavy and gruff voice. He was slightly out of breath most likely, from his work.

"I've been busy. But, what's up?" I asked. I wasn't sure how well he'd take my lame excuse, so I needed to change the subject. "Anything I can do for you?" I added.

"Yes, mother had invited you over for lunch. Does Sunday work for you?" he asked.

Shit. I have Sunday lunch. Pops, Rose, Nessie, Laila and even TomTom had said they would come over. I'd stacked up on the alcohol front for the adults and juice boxes for Laila. "I'm so sorry but I have a lunch planned for Sunday," I said making sure he could hear sincerity within my voice.

A little light bulb sparked electricity above my head.

Wait. "Come over for Sunday lunch! I'm having family over and I'd love for you guys to meet them," I said excitedly knowing that Laila would have a friend her age there.

As I waited for his reply, I caught the eye of one of the servers through the window and nodded my head to the lightbulb above me. Once I was sure he understood, I focused my attention back on Xavier to realize he hadn't given an answer.

I opened my mouth to talk when I heard Cherie distinct, sweet and excited voice in the background.

"How sweet of her! Of course, tell her yes. You've been talking about her none stop all week, I don't think I could take it if we delayed it further," she joked.