The One That Got Away

Chapter 2 Hot chocolate

Nola was always Julia's closest friend. They were put into each other's lives because they lived only a few houses away from each other. Soon into their meeting in grade school, Nola became family. And like family, Nola joined Julia's family dinners without a need for invitations. At that moment, Julia couldn't be more thankful for Nola's presence.

Nola and Julia sat side-by-side across from Julia's parents, Paisley and George, in a restaurant in New York. Julia's older brother, Caleb, and his wife, Genevieve, joined them for the family dinner. And a Rose family dinner wouldn't be complete without the rebellious baby of the family, Sadie.

The Rose family — plus Nola — sat in one of the fanciest restaurants in New York. There was a soft singing voice in the corner of the room along with a man playing the violin and a young woman playing the cello. Like their table, set in the centre, the Rose family was in the middle of everything. Despite her immense love for her family, Julia found her family's never-ending meddling to be their downfall amongst the high class of New York City.

Which was a perfectly suffice explanation as to way Julia found interest in forming crescent moons on the palm of her hand. While her parents blabbered about what was the latest gossip in the country club, Julia put on her good-daughters-listen-to-their-parents impression. However, she would trade that any day when she soon came to the altering revelation of how much talent her parents possessed in miraculously shifting the conversation from Mr. Young, a seventy something year old man that was cheating on his wife with a woman that was Paisley's age, to Julia's modeling career and her relationship with Vincent Black.

"So, Julia, how are things with you and Vincent?" Her mother portrayed to be interested in what her daughter was going to say but was too busy admiring the glass of red wine instead.

Julia noticed her mother's divided attention but payed it no mind as she replied with a stoic smile. "It's going great, Mom. As you know management is helping Vincent-"

"Oh but hon, you have to make sure it's helping you, too. You don't want to be going into this without benefiting."

Julia forced a nod in agreement. Knowing her mother, it was best to agree unless she was willing to engage in a three hour lecture about how Julia was wrong from every angle there was. "I know that, Mom. But... can't I just be doing it to help a friend? I mean, for all you might know, he can be making me very happy. Not everything has to be a deal."

As soon as the sentence left her slightly parted lips, she felt a tight grip on her naked thigh. She turned to her best friend that threw her a warning glance that read 'don't go into it'. Unfortunately, no warning glance can fix this. It's already been said.

Julia was a naturally a calm and collected person that had a tough and cool demeanor yet, nothing made her face run out of color than her mother's expressionless staring contest. If Julia could scurry out of the area, despite how her pinky is screaming in agony and her dress is itching to be scratched, Julia wouldn't have hesitated once to run out of the restaurar. Instead, Julia squirmed under her mother's stare. A breath of relief was released from Julia's throat as her mother laughed. A humorless laugh, yet still stood as a laugh.

"Oh Julia, you don't understand, do you? In New York City, especially for careers like yours and Vincent's, everything is a deal. No one wants to go into something knowing that it's not a give-and-take scenario. Do you understand me, hon?" Julia swallowed a gulp and nodded in hesitance.

Sadie glanced at her with sympathy and Julia replied with a simple smile. Although it was good enough for Sadie, it was nowhere near good enough for Caleb. Julia gave her older brother a desperate look that begged him not to push it any further. Both knowing their mother, this dinner wasn't going to end any better if he did. It was already miserable from the start.