AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, what about the meatloaf meal?” I asked as I picked up the package and looked at what it included.
“Ew, gross.”
I looked at her as she wrinkled her nose, clearly not liking my choice. “Okay, what would you pick, Your Highness?” I said teasingly.
“How about the stuffed salmon?” She pointed toward the package.
“I’m not feeling it. That would be heavy, don't you think?” It was my turn to wrinkle my nose, mostly mocking her. She bumped me and laughed playfully.
“Oh look, Harold, aren’t they so cute? How long have you two been married? Surely not that long–you both look so young!” an older lady said as she and the man I assumed to be her husband Harold,walked up to the cooler section next to us. I glanced over to Kayla, who had turned about three different shades of red. I couldn’t help but laugh and play along as I put my arm around her.
“Oh, we’re on our honeymoon, aren’t we, babe?” I answered as Kayla looked at me like I had lost my mind. She looked incredibly uncomfortable, her mouth was firmly closed. Her expression was not only priceless, but hysterical, and I was about to lose my shit. “Come on, babe, let’s get that whipped cream. You know what? I say we add some chocolate syrup to tonight's pleasure. How about you?” I said it in a low voice, but not so low that the elderly couple couldn’t hear it as I grabbed the salmon, and we hurried off. Kayla was pulling me away with a vice-like grip that would snap my arm if I didn’t comply and follow her.
I glanced back at the couple as we turned the corner to head up a random aisle. They stood there with mouths as wide open as their eyes, part shocked and part envious.
“Oh my God! You are evil. Just evil!” Kayla exclaimed as we reached the middle of the aisle.
“But babe, don’t you want chocolate poured all over you?” I was on a roll. I was laughing so hard, I was almost bent over, and finally she lost it as well.
Wiping away tears, we hurried off to grab juice and seltzer for drinks and checked out.
“I guess we’re having salmon,” Kayla teased as the guy behind the register rang us up.
Three
Years
Later…
Olivia
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Lao Tzu
“Hey, El.” I hit the touchscreen to transfer over from music to the phone call. I was still learning how to use all the bells and whistles in the wildly overpriced Jaguar, but when the dealer said he had one that met my specs and in fire blue I wrote a check that made my intestines shake.
“Liv, you headed back now?” Elliot’s voice filtered out of the car’s speakers. The top was down, and I was blasting him with highway noise, the air rushing past the small microphone mounted in the frame just above my forehead.
“Yeah, my shoot ran over.” This was typical of Venus magazine. Venus was a clothing line and one of my steadiest clients over the past six years. Their photographer was unreliable, but they were still one of my favorite contracts. I traveled often for their photo shoots–because they made it worth my while–and I’d already put quite a few miles on the Jag, thanks to traveling between Miami and the Keys for work.
“The realtor’s going to meet you at your mom’s house at two tomorrow,” Elliot continued.
“Got it,” I told him, swearing under my breath as the car in the next lane swerved into mine with no warning. Florida drivers were kind of crazy.
“Okay, safe travels, lovey.” El snickered like he knew I was about to go full road rage.
“Will do.” I may have been grinding my teeth. “Bye, love.”
This was true: I loved my best friend of nearly twenty years, we just weren’t the love match everyone else thought we were.
I cranked up “Hot Child in the City” and sang along as the palm trees whipped past, the car eating up the miles between Key Westand Marco Island effortlessly. I wanted to ignore reality for just a little longer.
I didn’t want to think about selling my mom's home, the place she’d raised me as a single mom when my sperm donor father fled the scene. All I knew of him was that he’d made a name for himself as a photographer. I’d never asked her who he was, and she’d never volunteered the information; we’d been content with our tiny family unit of two.
Thinking over the last three years, the day my mom passed away visited my mind often, and returning home was not favorable. It hurt to the core, so I had only been back under dire circumstances since then.
“Hey, watch it!” These drivers were going to be the death of me yet.
I noticed my favorite Starbucks ahead and turned the radio down while merging off the exit ramp and falling into line with others who needed caffeine to finish their drive. While waiting to order, I reached into my bag and put my wind-blown hair into a tie.
