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“Welcome to Starbucks. May I interest you in our special pumpkin iced latte today?” the man asked over the speaker, and I smiled, knowing the voice well.
“No, thank you. I’ll have a venti latte.”
“You got it. Pull on through.”
The voice was none other than Eric's, the man who’d taken my order almost weekly over the past several years.
“Well, hello there,” I teased as I stopped at the window and saw Eric leaning out.
“Hi there, beautiful. How’s it going?”
“It’s good.”
“Eric, there’s a line forming...” Bridget said as she walked over to the window. “Oh, hi, Olivia. I’ll have to ban you from the drive-through if you keep distracting our employees.”
Bridget was the manager, also someone I’d gotten to know over the last few years.
“Okay, give me my latte and I’ll be on my way.” I smiled at the two of them and handed Eric a twenty, telling him to keep the change. As I drove away, I began to wonder if I was lonely from the trip, or the thoughts of going home. Typically, a trip to my usual Starbucks wasn’t so emotional, but I knew they loved it when I came through and left such a hefty tip.
I stood on the pier looking at the boat I had taken for granted, remembering how often my mom had taken us out. As the memories flooded my mind, I swiftly wiped away the tears that escaped the corners of my eyes, then I scolded myself...
“Liv, can you and the girls please grab the buckets and the towels?” It was a beautiful, cloudless day, with the sky the brightest blue I could remember. Squealing about a boy, two of my closest friends ran into the house to retrieve the towels as mom had told us to do.
“Livie, look at this! Can we take this?” Nikki asked as she showed me the beach towel my mom had gotten me for my birthday. It was soft blue with fringe on each end; the towel could easily be worn as a sarong.
“Yep, grab it, let’s go. Car, what on earth are you doing?” I held the cooler, which was heavy, and looked around for my other friend, who had disappeared.
“I’m right here, waiting for the two of you.”
“Okay, let’s hit it,” I said as the three of us ran down the bank to the boat, where my mom stood with a huge smile. The gentle breeze blew her hair like a halo around her head.
Look, you don’t have time for this. Not today; save it for later. Go unload your car, get your ass moving, and get the house ready.Smiling through teary eyes, I retraced my steps back to the Jag. I looked up at the sky one last time to confirm there was little to no chance of rain; the clouds were soft and light, shadowing a bright blue backdrop.
I entered the house.I’m home, mom.I dumped all of the things I’d brought in and looked around. The cool air from the air conditioner made my skin instantly tighten and form goosebumps. I dropped the keys in the tray that sat on the table just inside the door and headed toward the thermostat to turn the damn A/C up a bit. It had to be 70 degrees.
Slowly walking through the house, I noticed two things: not much had changed since my last visit when my mom was alive, and the A/C was still humming away. I made a mental note to call the service company to come out and look at it.
I couldn’t recall a time I’d felt so alone.
Taking my phone out of my back pocket, I answered the incoming call, which was an unlisted number.
“Hello, this is Olivia.”
“Hi Olivia, this is John.”
Okay John, what do you want?He reminded me of a telemarketer. I silently prayed that was not the case. I simply didn’t have the time or the energy for it. “Hello John, what can I do for you?”
“We need to come by and look at the excavating job on Tuesday, if that’s okay?”
I let out a breath I’d been unaware I was holding. This seemed legit. “When did you have in mind?”
“Um Tuesday, if that works?”
“Yes, I’m sorry; what time?”
“Noon?
“Perfect, thanks,” I responded and disconnected the call. I was trying to remember if I had called any excavators. I shook my head and blew it off. I’d deal with that when I had more time. Right now I needed to check out my mom's house.
