Chapter 4 - The meet up

“Would you like to order while you wait for your friends?” Macy the resident waitress at Jodie’s asks smiling tat me sweetly. I’m the first one here so of ‘course, I should have known the others meant 7:30 when they said 7 pm. I didn’t expect Kelly to keep me waiting considering my predicament with Oliver.

 I thought she’d be here early to help me face him. but now she left me in the cold to face my demons alone. I cross my fingers hoping she shows up next instead of others. I hate my need to be on time, I should have come later on.

“Yes. I’ll have lemonade please.” I say deciding to have a drink while I wait. I don’t know how long they are going to make me wait anyway. I might as well have a cooling drink while I wait anxiously.

“Okay sweetheart, I’ll bring you that refreshing glass of lemonade ASAP.” She says smiling like she does every time I come in here. Macy has been working here for a long time. I’m pretty sure she was here when I was in first grade.

 And I’m sure she was here when my father was still alive. We had many fun dates here together.

 My dad loved bringing me here when I was a kid. He would order me a big piece of chocolate cake and a glass of lemonade; for dinner. I would eat the whole piece happily and then he would buy me a small Sunday as my dessert.

He spoilt me more than my mother. He loved to see me smile, even if it meant giving me way too much sugar for my own good.  I love our daddy daughter dates so much. He made me feel so special and loved. He would tell me stories about his childhood. He told about all his adventures at his family home. I’m pretty sure most of the stories were made up but they made me smile.

 He made me laugh from the moment we left home to come here to the time he tugged me into bed when we got home, I loved my father so much. I smile thinking about the many evenings we spent in here stuffing our faces with cake.

 I miss him so much. I used to cry when I thought about those days but these days I think of them with so much joy. He gave me the best nights of my life. When I’m really lonely I recall our time together and I don’t feel so bad.

“Am I late? Don’t tell me I’m late.” Oliver says standing in front of me. I look up at him my heart in my throat, I didn’t hear him approach. I take a deep breath and tell my brain to tell my face to smile. I don’t want to make this awkward. But he scared the crap out of me; I need to stop fantasizing in public. I’m going to get a heart attack zoning out in public.

“No you’re not. I’m the first to arrive, still waiting for Kelly and...” I say wondering what I just said. Did the words I just let escape my mouth make sense. It sounded like gibberish to me.

“Good, I got caught up. I hate being late.” He says and I just nod. I don’t know what to say, my mouth is so dry and I can’t get my brain to work. I hate this feeling, having a crush on someone sucks.

“Here you go sweetheart.” Macy says coming back at the perfect moment. I need to have a drink right now.

“Thank you so much.” I say taking the glass in both hands. I take a big swig of the lemonade and close my eyes as the lemonade washes out the dryness. Yep! I needed that.

“Will you be having anything?” Macy says to Oliver. She smiles at him with the same warmth she gives anyone that walks through the front doors.

“I’ll have what she’s having, please Macy.”  Oliver says pointing to me and I look at him confused. Again my brain is doing that thing where it’s working but not really working. I can hear the words he’s saying but they lose meaning as soon as he looks at me. So I’m left with a deafening ring in my ears.

“Huh?” I ask when he smiles at me. Why is he smiling at me? Did I miss something he said? This is so frustrating. I hate zoning out when people are trying to talk to me. It makes me look like I’m not interested in what the other person is saying.

“I mean the lemonade; it’s always so good right?” H e says smiling at me again. I smile nodding.

“It’s too good. I’m pretty sure they put something in it.” I say and he laughs softly.

“I think it’s the lemons, they have to be artificially modified, steroid filled lemons.” He says and I nod laughing.

“It definitely has to be the steroids.” I say taking another sip, this time I don’t go all in. he’s watching me, I feel awkward gulping the lemonade with his eyes on me like this.  

“Yey! We’re having lemonade.” Kelly says from a few tables from ours. She smiles at me when I turn and look at her.

“I missed the lemonade from here.’ Jameson says looking at mine like it’s a pot of gold.

“It’s the steroids.” Oliver says whispering the words to me. I laugh at how silly he is, I didn’t imagine him like this. He always looks so mean and standoffish. Except when he’s with his friends of ‘course but that’s expected.

“I thought we’re going to use the private room.” Jameson says standing next to me at the table.

“We were waiting for you.” Oliver says when Macy arrives with three more lemonades.

“I figured the rest of you will want a glass too.” She says smiling at Kelly and Jameson.

“Yes ma’am. We appreciate you so much.” Jameson says drinking the lemonade to half empty in a second.

“You’re very welcome. Jodie said I should give you these.” She says giving Jameson a key.

“You see we were waiting for you.” Oliver says getting up from the table.

“How was I supposed to know you didn’t have the key?” Jameson says raising his brows in question.

“You could have asked me.” Oliver says and I stand up too.

“I did.” Jameson say leaving the table and heading to the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” I ask Kelly who is following the boys into the kitchen.

“I don’t know.” She says shrugging.

“Are they fighting?” I ask and Kelly looks at them thinking about it for a moment. We walk through the kitchen past the cooking staff. They ignore us continuing with their work. All this looks weird to me but I can tell the rest of the people around us are used to this.

“I don’t think so” Kelly says after so long I’d forgotten what I asked her. My brain is trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and I’ve never been in the kitchen before. I can’t get my mind to understand all this.

 “Come in, you’re good. Please come in” Jameson says when Kelly and I peep through a door at the end of the kitchen. We look in into the dark suspiciously, what type of freaky stuff did we get into tonight? Jameson turns on a light and Kelly and I exclaim in surprise.

“This is unexpected.” Kelly says walking in first. I follow her looking around the room. There is a whole living room back here. There are sofas, chairs, a dining room table and even carpets. It looks like a very small and cute apartment. The only thing that’s missing is a bed and a bathroom.

“Why is this here?” I ask looking at Jameson. I would ask Oliver but I can’t stand to look in his eyes. I’m still getting used to having him around. I can only take him in small doses for now.   

“We love to hang out at Jodie’s and he was kind enough to give us or own place to do that.” Jameson says if that’s explanation enough.

“He just gave it to you?” Kelly asks just as confused as I am.

“Yeah, he likes us a lot.” Jameson says looking at us like we’re less than. And to be honest I feel like I am less than. How can they have a private room at one of my favorite restaurants and I don’t?

“And we love the chilli cheese fries from this fn establishment.” Oliver adds and Jameson smiles.

“Speaking of chilli cheese fries I come bearing gifts.” Jodie says walking through the door.

“Yes perfect timing.” Jameson says walking to the table and taking a seat. “I’m about to go in on these bad boys.” He says pulling the plate of fries towards him.  he smells them first and then he proceeds to take a bite.

“Macy told me you have guests tonight. So I brought extra fries.” Jodie says greeting both Kelly and I. “It’s really nice to meet both of you. Please feel at home and enjoy your selves.” He says looking at me a little too long. He stares at me like he’s trying to figure something out. I wait for him to say something but eventually he stops staring at me and he leaves us to work.

“I was think we should start with the essay. It requires the most work so we’ll work on it, get it out of the way.” Jameson says as soon as Jodie closes the door.

“Do you have an idea on how to tackle the essay?” I ask him sitting down at the table. I take out my pen and note pad, ready to document everything that’s discussed. This information is going to be useful later in the writing of the assignment.

“I was thinking of thinking of this as a love question.” He says and I look at him, waiting for him to elaborate. “What if the colors represented emotions?” He asks looking at Kelly and Oliver because he can tell I’m confused.

“We’re listening, keep talking. We’ll get your meaning through your words.” Kelly says sitting next to him at the table. Oliver sits opposite me and he’s looking at Jameson confused. The only person that seems t get where this is going is Kelly.

“Red represents passion or love right?” He asks and I nod. “Yellow represents happiness and joy. So I was thinking we could write the essay like that. If the world has no color it means it won’t have any love passion or joy left.” He says and I look at him amazed. That actually sounds like a good idea if we can get it on paper.

“Well that’s very deep and thought provoking.” Oliver says looking at Jameson for a long time.  

“I know but I like the idea.” Kelly says and Jameson smiles at her proudly.

“But how do we put all that into a comprehensive and coherent essay?” Oliver says looking at the three of us.

“I think we should start with researching the correlation between colors and emotions. Maybe that can give us an indication of where to go from here.” I say and the three of them nod in agreement.

“I think this might just work.” Jameson says opening his laptop.

“You had doubts?” Kelly asks smiling at him.

“I think we all had doubts.” He says and we laugh.