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A small smile sneaks across those delicious lips of hers. At least I amuse her, it’s better than nothing.
“Iced coffee is fine, Jonathan.”
“Sounds good, what works for you?”
“Do you know Elka Bee’s Coffee Haus, in Happy Valley?”
“I sure do.”
“Is Wednesday okay?”
NO! That’s not okay! That’s four days away! I scream inside my head.
“Wednesday is perfect.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” she says taking a step back to leave.
I don’t want her to leave yet so I go for it and say, “Here, let me give you my number and you can just tell me what time works for you as it gets closer. What’s your number and I’ll send you a text so you have mine.”
I break out into a cold sweat after I ask for her number. I mean really, what makes me think she’ll give it to me now? We spent a week together and professed our love to each other and she never gave me her number. At this point what do I have to lose? It’s worth a shot. I have to wipe my hands off on my shorts before I grab my phone out of my pocket. because my hands are so sweaty. I don’t want to look like a total ass and drop my phone in front of her. Might as well try to keep the level of humiliation to the lowest level possible while I wait for her to shoot me down.
As I stream all the wishful thinking I have into my thumbs, I pull up a new contact and type Gracie into the name field and then hover over the phone number box waiting. Right when I’m about to tell her that’s it’s okay and I understand, she starts giving me her number. I can feel myself shaking as I enter her digits into my phone. I hope to God she isn’t messing with me and this is really her number because I am going to write it on my fridge, write on paper and file it away. Hell, I may buy a little black book just to put her number in it. I am not losing this bit of gold.
I quickly send her a text to make sure she isn’t lying, and the relief I feel when I hear a ping from her bag is like a heavy weight being lifted from my chest. I watch as she pulls the phone from her bag and adds my number to her phone and then I hear my own ping. What I see on my phone brings the biggest smile to my face.
Gracie: Got it, Georgia.
I must look like a fool but I can’t help it. Just her three-word text has my heart practically pumping out of my chest. So, I send her another text but she starts to leave before she reads it.
“See you Wednesday, Jonathan.” She says as she walks the two steps back towards her car.
“See you Wednesday, Em.”
I make myself turn and walk back into the gym to get my stuff otherwise I know I’ll just stand and stare while she drives away. I don’t wanna scare her off.
I see Devon inside and he can tell just by looking at me that it went well. I’m too happy to talk about it so I just hold up my hand as I walk out the door. I jump in my truck and read her text:
Georgia: Thank you.
Gracie: You’re welcome, Georgia.
The use of her nickname for me is yet another glimmer of hope. I know it’s foolish, but it is hope I’ll feed off of to get me through the next four days until we meet for coffee.
I start my truck and take the first full breath that I’ve taken in five years.
Life to Live Again
Emily
You can do this Emily. It’s just two old friends having coffee and catching up. It’s not like you are going to have to go sit across from the love of your life whose heart you broke over five years ago and act like it’s not at all awkward. No, that would be too painful for even you. That’s why it’s just two old friends meeting for coffee. No. Big. Deal. So you tried on everything you own to go get coffee, who doesn’t? You can do this. You owe it to him to at least give him some of your time after the way you left things.
As luck would have it, the only parking spot is right in front of the little local coffee shop . . . and the little two-person table that Jonathan is already sitting at and . . . yep, he’s seen me and has his hand up in a wave. Guess it’s too late to put it in reverse and take off now that I have been spotted. I can’t even take a moment to catch my breath because he’s right there!
I. Can. Do. This. I tell myself.
As I get out of Justine, my trusty old Jetta—I must admit I named her after spending my week with Scarlett—I take the five steps it takes to get to Jonathan and I see he has a friend with him.
He gets up and awkwardly comes in for a hug. I lean to the right and he leans to the left so we clank our heads together. We both reach our arms up to take the hug high and that goes wrong too. This is just too funny and I can’t help the giggle that bubbles out of me.
