Escape

Chapter Nine

The next two days go by in a blink. I worked morning shifts both days at work, and it was super busy. I dropped a tray full of drinks on my shoes, a young screaming boy threw his pasta on my pants, and I'm pretty sure I'm the slowest waitress there. But Laura and the rest of my coworkers were so kind and made sure I left feeling like I did the best I could. Food service workers really deserve more credit.

During my two days of work, I kept replaying my time with Samuel in my mind. I had such a great time with him. But in-between positive memories flashed horrible ones. Ones I've worked so hard to forget. I tried to shake them from my head, but they always come back. I know Samuels not like that, I think. I'm sure he would never do things like that. But I never thought he would do them either. And I if I'm being honest with myself, I really don't know Samuel. At all.

I get off of work at 5:00 pm. I'm exhausted and ready to take a hot shower and crawl into bed. I finished rereading The Great Gatsby, finally, and plan to stop at the bookstore to drop it off. I wish I didn't look like I just worked one of my hardest shifts so far, but it's been a couple days since I've seen or talked to Samuel and I'd really like to stop by.

I step into the bookstore and the bell goes off, alerting the store that I'm here. I walk up to the countertop and wait. A few minutes go by and I'm so distracted by the new pile of books on the counter that I didn't even notice Samuel behind the counter.

"Um, earth to Payton?" He laughs and I look up at him.

"Oh, hey. Sorry, I noticed you added some new ones to the pile." I place his book on the counter.

"Did you like it?" He asks softy, waiting my opinion.

"Yeah, I did. Definitely one of my better reads." I smile.

I read through the new book descriptions when he interrupts me.

"Hm, convincing," he smirks.

I smile back, "I'm sorry, work was... well it was something else today."

"Well, um, I was thinking..." He pauses and I look up at him. "Do you, uh, have plans tonight?" He eagerly waits for my response.

I begin to think of my plans that involve taking a hot shower and crawling into bed before 8:00 pm. Then I look at Samuel and the hope his eyes have.

"Uh, no not really." I chuckle. "Why, what's up?" I ask nervously.

"Well, I would like to maybe do dinner?" It comes out as more of a question than a statement. He looks up at me through is hair.

"Um, yeah. Sure" I shrug. My relaxing plans dissolve in my mind, but I'm not necessarily sad about it.

"Awesome, great." He lets out the breath he was holding. "Would you mind meeting me back here, around 8:00 pm?" He asks hopeful.

"Sure." I reply with a warm smile, people on this side of the world have dinner so much later than I'm used to. We both nod to one another as I turn and leave. I need to get home and shower the diner grease out of my hair.

I arrive at my apartment and go straight upstairs to the shower. I don't even stop to remove my shoes at the door. I undress and am amazed when the shower is perfectly hot, relaxing each and every muscle underneath my skin. I step out, dry off, and blow dry my hair. I throw in a couple curls in an attempt to look decent. I pull half of it up and allow my bangs to fall around my face. I add a little bit of mascara and walk over to the closet to get dressed. He didn't exactly tell me where we are going. I'm not sure what Samuels idea of a dinner date is, but I could only assume it's probably some pub with loud music. So, I grab a white t-shirt and throw on my black jeans and my black boots. I check the mirror one last time and decide I'm too exhausted to put in much more effort than I already have. I head downstairs and grab Samuels leather jacket off of the hook by the front door. I throw it on to keep myself warm on the way there and grab my thinner black jacket and throw it in my bag to wear home tonight.