Architect of paradise (PART I: Out of the Ruins)

12. Earning a date

Early in the next morning, I couldn't wake up from the wine I drank the previous night. Alice gets inside my room and gets me out of my blankets. She seems energetic. My movements are sluggish and slow. Alice yells at me. When I finally get at the kitchen, I can see Lily waiting there. I furrow my eyebrows. I don't remember to have to meet her today.

-"We are going shopping at Richmond!" Alice says with enthusiasm.

-"What?" I look at her surprised.

-"John will drive us there."

-"Are you crazy? It is far away."

-"No problem!" John meddles in.

I look at Lily. She is also surprised. She came to spend some time with me and Alice, with who was a classmate at high school. She didn't have time yesterday with the organization. However, Alice wants to go for shopping. She is a really impulsive and decisive person at the same time. She has a lot of energy that nobody can slink her. In the end, we end up in John's car traveling to Richmond.

In the car, Lily started to narrate her life from the moment she went to study and then, her meeting with her husband. Then she got pregnant but she lost her husband. With the birth, she couldn't and had no time to grief. She told the story of how I save her life and how she begged me to be her friend. 

     At that point, I blushed and Alice laughed. Then, she told us some things about herself. Well, I know the most of them, so they were for Lily to hear. When she realized that John is Alice's fiancé, she opened her eyes widely with surprise. She could remember that Alice was a feminist and even though she wasn't against marriage, she wanted to be free. I smile cunningly. Well, John was a man who deserve for a woman to mend her beliefs for him. I was really happy until Lily asked the prohibited question.

-"Did you have been in love with someone?" She asks and I froze. Her question is really tricky. She didn't ask if I was dating somebody, but if I have ever loved someone.

I can't answer her immediately. I don't know if I can answer her at all. Alice and John remain silent and I don't think that they are going to help me. Lily realized that she asked something personal and maybe painful, so she went the conversation to another topic. 

    She asks Alice and John, if they liked the organization. Alice pointed the same things to Lily about the future of the organization. Lily was listening carefully. You could say that she was really serious about New Leaf.

When we finally arrive at Richmond, we stop in front of a big building. Alice puts out of her bag a card and gives it to me. I take it and I realize that it is an identification card with my name on it.

-"Today there is an examination for the renewal of social services agent's license. You are going to take it." She says to me seriously.

-"What are you talking about? I can't do that. I can't take the responsibility of another's life, when I don't know what to do with mine!!!" I yell.

-"Addie, nothing is going to change if you don't take the risk. This is a very big step for you to find yourself." Alice says. My eyes are wet. I am scared and Alice knows it. John and Lily don't meddle in.

-"Come on, Addie, do it."

-"I am not prepared."

-"Don't lie to me. For you to create the organization, I am sure you studied really hard. You are ready."

-"Alice..."

-"Addie, do it!!!" She says and her eyes are looking at me intently.

With trembling hands I open the door and get out of the car. I go to the entrance of the building showing my card and go inside.