Hope: You don’t have to. I’ll walk.
Heath: I don’t want my girlfriend to walk.
Hope: It’s fine. I don’t mind.
Heath: I fucking mind.
Hope: I just don’t want my parents to see you.
Heath: I’ll park around the block.
Hope: Okay, if it’s not too much trouble.
Heath: It’s not.
Hope: I finished the book you gave me.
Heath: What did you rate it?
Hope: Five stars.
Heath: Why five?
Hope: Because it was perfect.
Heath: Here I thought perfection doesn’t exist.
Hope: That’s because you haven’t met Jack.
Heath: For fuck’s sake.
17
HOPE
Next day,it’s lunch time and Marie and I are out to get food. She goes to the diner and drops me off at a coffee shop for drinks. This is the place where Sebastian used to work. She told me how he’d personally make her seasonal drinks and gave her a little extra with her orders. She always left him tips and he’d send her a smile that would make her bad day better.
Of course, she went into quite detail and I felt like I was reading a romance book with how beautifully and sweetly she described everything. She sounded exactly like someone in love.
Sebastian is special to her. Just as Heath is to me.
At the counter, I greet a teenage girl who passes me a polite smile. I hand her the note that Heath gave me which has our orders written on it. He said this way I wouldn’t have to worry about interacting and I’d be fine. That little act gripped my throat so tightly, I said nothing and instead kissed him and left.
I make a mental note to text him about it.
Passing over the note is far easier than me staring at her and trying to get the words out as my heart beats erratically as if it’s about to die. Black coffee for Heath, pumpkin spice latte for Marie, green latte macha for Sebastian and iced tea for me.
I move over to the second lane next to a woman. She is thin and small, but looks stunning in a pastel pink dress that loosely hugs her frame. A diamond earring blinks at me as she tucks her hair back. I also catch a glimpse of the diamond ring on her finger and the necklace around her neck.
Without a doubt, she is rich.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen diamond in real life.
Dad got mom a simple gold ring that she’s never taken off. Over the years it’s dulled in color which ironically reflects how their love has taken a turn in the past decade or so.
The woman fidgets with her hands like I do sometimes.
Are you okay? Those words sit on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t get them out.
