Saturday, October 10, 2009

a slow go

Olivia wasn't quite awake, and she'd already been through her morning classes. She hadn't slept well the last few nights. Roger was being a pain to sleep with. First he was restless. Then he snored. Which he absolutely denied. So Olivia decided not to get into it with him. As usual, he was his fresh self. Always up for her to come home during lunch, have a quickie and then off to work. But not today. She'd made plans with Heath at the new pizza place that was close where they both worked. They really hadn't talked much, lately. Even at home, they hardly saw each other. Of course, she didn't tell Roger about her lunch plans, since maybe they were just seeing too much of each other, lately. So she dragged herself to Sam & Louie's to meet Heath.

"You're sure you're not coming down with something?" Heath asked as he got them drinks.

"No, don't think so." She yawned.

"The baby keeping you up?" He stared at her.

"Charlie?" She shook her head, no. "He's been so good. You know. I've been expecting something, but not yet."

"So you're not, you know, gonna have a baby, now are you?" Heath squinted.

"Do I look fat?" She swelled a frown and squinted back hard.

"No, no, its just, you know, I didn't know if you worried about something like that or not." He took forever for his words to come out as if maybe he wasn't suppose to talk about these sort of things.

"I'm just tired." She was in a slump of some sort. "So how did it go, with Nick's parents?"

"I was kind of worried. I was afraid Nick was going to spill his guts out about us to them. It didn't help that his brother threatened that he would, but then he didn't. I think Nick is just waiting until the right moment. Of course, don't know if there is a right moment." Heath sighed. The waitress brought their salads then and Olivia picked at hers.

"And your job? Is that going OK?" Olivia wanted to know.

"I suppose. I haven't done that much. You know, mostly reading manuals and handbooks and whatever. My CPR training starts this afternoon." Heath flashed a smile as if he wasn't really looking forward to it.

"You'll do fine." She looked at him not to worry.

"I know. I've had it a couple of times. After all, I'm getting my teacher's certification. Don't know if I'm quite ready for eighth grade Drama and English, but that starts next month." He rolled his eyes at that. "And then its over. Welcome to the real world."

"Don't look so scared." She smiled.

Finally the cheese pizza came and they dug in.

"Nick really wants to meet my parents." Heath took a breather from the pizza after a couple of slices.

"Are you up for that?"

"Well, I would say, as long as they didn't suspect he was my boyfriend, but I'm afraid they'd get the picture. Instantly." Heath told her. "I haven't seen them in a couple of years. I don't think they want to see me. But he wants me to surprise them. It sounds like a nightmare, but I guess I'll try. You know, just a Saturday afternoon thing. They don't live all that far."

"You never thought you might run into them?" Olivia thought that was sad.

"Well, I thought I saw my Mom a time or two at the mall, but then I'd look straight at her and then realise I was wishing that was my Mom when it wasn't." Heath looked a bit sad.

"I'm with Nick on this one. You should surprise them." Olivia smiled then. Yeah, maybe she needed a surprise herself to wake up.

3 comments:

  1. Your story is great,if that is what it is. I guess I should read from the beginning, no?
    (thanks for the comment)

    samichami.blogspot.com

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  2. this is so great that she and heath can confide in each other.

    ReplyDelete