Second time lucky

45

I was interrupted from the last few minutes of fast and furious when someone knocked on my door. It was still two hours until Riley was supposed to pick me up for whatever surprise he had planned.

"Wear something nice." He said when I spoke to him this morning. "Flat shoes."

"Okay, still not telling me where we are going?" I asked.

"Nope, I'll see you later Britt."

I opened the door still in my pajamas after a lazy day of laundry only to see Averleigh and Anna standing there.

"Hey?" I said unexpectedly as they stood in front of me.

"We came early, figured you could use some time to get ready." Averleigh smiled her usual friendly smile.

"Yeah and Courtney was getting on my last nerve. I don't understand how my brother puts up with her." Anna added as Averleigh scolded her for being rude.

I opened the door wider to let them in as they took a seat on the couch.

"So she's still here?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's leaving in the morning after breakfast." Averleigh explained as I nodded.

There were two thoughts going through my mind as the kids ran downstairs and attacked their grandma and aunt.

The first was that Courtney was definitely prolonging her visit and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with Riley. The second, that there definitely couldn't be any funny business after this date with the kids home and his mom waiting for us to get back.

I quickly went upstairs and took a shower, making sure to shave and wash my hair. It seemed like it had been forever since I had been on an actual date and it didn't matter to me that it was with Riley.

He had seen me at my best, my worst, my ugliest, and yet no matter how much we kept messing up, we couldn't stay away from each other.

Perhaps that's what love truly was, finding that person that, no matter how much pain they cause, you never want to go a single day without. Riley was that person for me.

I had tried to forget him once. I had four years to get over him, to get rid of all the feelings and emotions that had only ever existed for him, and I almost had succeeded, with Kyle. But then Riley came back and no matter how much I tried the feelings wouldn't go away.

And now? Now I wanted to impress him all over again the way I did in high school. I knew Riley was a great boyfriend, and I hoped that after tonight we could find our rhythm again. The comfortable one from before all the drama of college.

I sat down in my robe and combed through my hair leaving it to air dry in its natural waves. Then I put on my outfit, the blue halter neck I had bought for our third anniversary, the last anniversary we celebrated before everything went downhill.

One I was dressed I put my robe back on and out my makeup on. It was rare these days that I used half of this stuff and even rarer when I actually had to put it on myself. It took a few tries before I got it perfect, opting for white and nude on my eyes with a modest pink for my lips.

I strapped on some two inch black heels and added some curls to my hair once it was dry, before removing my robe and making sure everything looked okay in the mirror.

Honestly I wished Ava was here. I knew she was busy tonight with Brett and her family, but it wasn't the same getting ready without someone to tell me if it were okay. That's when the idea popped into my head.

"Anna?"

She ran upstairs and into my room as I turned around.

"Wow." She gasped causing me to laugh.