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Pippa
Pippa played with the gold necklace that Aspen had gifted her as she sat back in the window seat. She had books to stack, but she just couldn’t find the energy. She was always fatigued the first couple days of her cycle.
Her gaze settled on her cell phone in her lap. It had been two weeks since Mason had kissed her and she hadn’t seen him nor heard from him. Fresh hurt flashed in her chest. Was I that bad of a kisser? Because, damn, she’d never been so completely captured by a set of lips before. He’d lit her body on fire. And then he apologized as if it were all a mistake.
Disappointment wound heavily on her shoulders, drawing them down. “He has enough responsibilities. He doesn’t need to add me too,” she said to the empty room.
Ring. Ring.
Pippa jolted as Papi flashed on her screen. She pressed accept. “Papi?”
“Hey, baby girl. How are you doing?” Her father’s voice filtered through the phone.
“Pretty good.” She absently pet Lady’s head. “How about you?”
“I’m alright. Can’t complain.”
“Where are you and the big rig now?” Pippa smiled, imagining him in his giant truck, driving down the highway.
“Arizona today. It’s hot as hell here.” He chuckled.
“You should splurge on a motel with a pool, then.”
“I might do that. So, how’s the shop going? Selling a lot of books?” Her father coughed in the background.
“Sure am.”
“And how’s your seizures?”
Pippa rolled her eyes and let out a breath of frustration. Their conversations always turned to her health. “I’m good. Just the normal amount.”
“Absence or tonic?”
“Yes.”
“Both? What about—”
“I’m fine, Papi. Really. I’m doing everything I’m supposed to, and Lady has alerted me every single time.” She hated that her father still worried so much, even thousands of miles away. Her moving out had enabled him to start really living, and she wouldn’t take that from him again—not after all he’d sacrificed for her.
An image of him in a suit and tie dancing with her mother in the kitchen before he went to work at the bank flashed in her mind. It was a bittersweet memory that reminded her of all her parents had had and then lost. He’d never work in a bank again with his felony conviction. Thanks to me.
“Alright. I was thinking of coming to visit you one of these days. Maybe next month. I’ve got some vacation time saved up. Perhaps me and your sister and Vivian could come together to visit.” The sound of cars zooming by in the distance filtered through the phone.
“I look forward to it.” She’d love to get an actual hug from her dad and see her sister and her fiancée to congratulate them in person.
“Okay, well, I’ll let you know. Gotta get back on the road, princessa. Love you.”
“Love you too.” She ended the call as the book shop door opened and Aspen darted inside.
Pippa might not have seen any trace of Mason, but Aspen had become a regular. Twice a week, she’d drop in with her friends and they’d huddle over the newest episode of the comic they loved. Today, Aspen was alone, her shoulders hunched as she grabbed a book from her bag and curled up in a sunny spot on a beanbag by the other window.
Pippa placed her phone in her pocket. She stood and walked over to the desk, picking a mini Twix from the pile of chocolate she hid behind it. She walked over to the young girl and handed her the candy.
Aspen glanced up and smiled, some of her invisible weight seeming to lift as she accepted the treat.
“Thought you looked like you could use something sweet.” Pippa sat on the floor beside her and crossed her legs before leaning against a wall painted with a rainbow and a cheery quote.
Aspen closed the book and toyed with the chocolate wrapper, her eyes drawing down.
