A Little Big Crush

Decisions

She forced a smile when she saw her mother, stepfather, and grandparents talking towards the entrance of the church.

"Hola, Dinah. You look so pretty," her mother gushed as she gave her a big hug. Dinah always loved how polished and nice her mother always looked. Dinah secretly loved how young her mother looked for her age compared to how her friends' mothers looked. With her unblemished skin, salon- style haircut and color dye with only little crow's feet  It gave her hope that she herself would age gracefully when the time came.

"Gracias, you too," she said.

"Que Dios te bendiga," her grandmother said as Dinah enveloped her in a big hug. She loved how she could get lost in her grandmother's hug and how her roundness always seemed to close her in and fill her with so much love. Her grandmother was like her best friend. She always listened whenever Dinah needed to pour her heart out and she would be eternally grateful.

"You too, Abuela." Dinah smiled at her warmly, feeling appreciative of Abuela's prayers for her.

Once Dinah greeted the rest of her family with their usual kisses on the cheek, she and her family headed into the sanctuary for mass. As the family sat down in their usual pew in the second balcony of the church, Dinah took out her phone to silence it and saw what Dario wrote in his two messages to her on her notifications screen. Damn. Her phone must have updated last night and there must have been a glitch in her settings that now made her automatically see the message.

First the message sent at midnight.

Dario: Sorry. My parents came back to the house.

Then half an hour ago.

Dario: Are you mad?

It must have been the setting she was at- a holy, friendly, peaceful, and loving environment that made her see how horrible Dario's behavior was and that she didn't want to be associated with him anymore.

Instead of answering, she was going to do her unthinkable. She tapped on his profile picture on the top of their conversation, pressed the block button, and clicked on Block on Messenger.

Dinah dropped the phone in her purse and pressed her lips together, satisfied. She already spent too much time thinking about him already and she had enough. She wasn't sure when she would talk to him again or if she would, but for now and today at the very least, she wasn't going to think about him.

As the priest walked down the aisle, her family and the rest of the congregation stood up, and from then on, Dinah focused on the mass service and the priest's message of healthy, holy living.

"Are you going to come over to my house?" Dinah's mother asked as they both held on to Abuela's arms, one of them on each side, as they helped her walk down the few steps to the first floor landing.

"Yeah, I'm just going to stop by the bookstore first and pick up my order," Dinah replied.

"What order?"

"I ordered some books for work. I need to fill up the classroom library. Ten cuidado." Dinah directed that last part to Abuela, pointing to the last step that seemed to be more sunken in compared to the others.

"Ok, but come right after. I'm cooking ropa vieja," Mom said.

"Don't worry, I'll be quick." Dinah kissed her family on the cheek and walked back to her car.

While turning the ignition on and putting up the volume of her favorite radio station, she bopped her head back and forth in time to the music. She actually felt pretty good not letting herself think of Dario during the service, so she wasn't going to kill her good mood by even checking her phone.

She couldn't anyway. She already blocked him. So any messages he was thinking of sending couldn't be sent.

Dinah smiled as she drove towards the bookstore.