Page 19 of Seeing Harper

“Thank you. And if you get the island finished tonight, I’ll share some of this with you.”

“Ohhh, deal!” she said, going straight for the kitchen island. After a few moments of looking at the first few pieces of paper that she picked up, she just shook her head and started shoving it by the handfuls into the garbage bags.

“What if some of that is bills?”

“The dates on top are two months ago. If I hadn’t paid it yet, they’d have called. If I miss something new that’s in here, they’ll call.”

“Okay, then. Sounds like a plan,” Julia said.

Ten minutes later her room mate came over happily and sat beside her on the sofa. “Okay, I’m done!”

“Promise you’ll help keep it straight?”

“I do, and if I need reminding, remind me.”

“Remember you said that,” Julia said, as she took one of the paper plates Cruz had used as extra support under the ones that actually held the food and made her a plate. When she was done she handed it to her.

“Oh, my God! Fried shrimp, mac n cheese, dirty rice, a burger, a hot dog! What is this?” she asked, pointing to a casserole of some kind.

“It’s got rice and crawfish and spicy tomatoes and some kind of sauce in it. And there’s half a sweet potato on there, too. It’s got butter and brown sugar on it. I ate the other half with the steak.”

“You had a steak?”

“I did. And we have all this left! I even gorged on shrimp, too, and there’s so much still left.”

“And he’s gorgeous?”

“The man that gave it to me? Yeah, he is. And he’s so sweet.”

“If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”

“No, you will not! He’s supposed to be…” Julia stopped talking mid-sentence when her phone buzzed signaling an incoming text. She picked it up and looked at it as she broke out into a huge smile as she giggled.

“That’s him?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah. Cruz. He wants to know what was my favorite on the plates.”

“Tell him all of it and we’d like some more because I’m tired of bologna sandwiches.”

“Fried bologna is good.”

“Not as good as all this.”

Julia typed out a text in answer to his.

.

“All of it. I’m still eating! It’s delicious. Thank you.”

Julia’s phone rang as she waited for him to text her back. “Eeeeeeeek!” she squealed, as she fumbled with the phone and she did her best not to drop it. “Okay, okay, be quiet,” she said. She swiped the green button on her screen. “Hello?” she said.

“Hey, Julia. It’s Cruz.”

“Hi, Cruz!”

“Hey. Sorry to call already, but I was thinking. Maybe if you’re not doing anything, we can go catch a movie and maybe get something to eat tomorrow. I’m not going back until later tomorrow night, or maybe even Monday morning,” Cruz said.

“I’d like that. I have tomorrow off, so, yeah. That sounds good.”