Moving On

Twenty-three

Twenty-three / Sandra

Aunt Joslin and I are having dinner tonight.

I already figured out that she won't make it to Columbus that easily because she has work, so I said that I would be the one to travel there. It's no trouble for me, of course, since I'm on term break, and I didn't want to drive and be by myself and all, but I got thinking that maybe Austin earned his time away from me. He should have time to himself and do whatever Austins do.

Even though I was the one who invited dinner, Aunt Joslin was the one who booked the reservation and paid for the whole dinner. I said she shouldn't have because I should be the one paying for the meal since I invited her, but she insisted. I couldn't argue, because, well, I don't earn much from my job at the café: just enough for myself to get through college freshman year without asking too many greens from my mom.

We're dining at a restaurant called Nicola's, and it looks pretty fancy from what I saw on the internet. So I wore this black satin dress Luke gave me a few years ago, and I didn't wear this because I missed him that bad, but because I didn't have anything else appropriate to wear.

I left all my fancy dresses at our old apartment which we now sold, so my dresses are back at home with my mom. I had this other dress in my wardrobe at my dorm but it was the dress I wore the night of our dinner in Hawaii and I couldn't bring myself to wear it because it strongly reminds me of Justin.

I park my silver Camry. I wasn't quite ready to step out of the car yet, so I decided to fix myself even though there wasn't anything to fix. I just wanted to kill some time.

I breathe.

What if I might ask too much from Aunt Joslin?

I breathe.

What if she says no?

I step out of the car. There's no sense in delaying the inevitable.

As the sharp sound of my stilettos clicking against the gravel, my heart goes with the rhythm, creating this horrible symphony of fear and anxiety that's nauseating me. I try to shake it off. I need to do this for Dev. He'll be the one to suffer if we-especially I-don't succeed.

"Buonasera, signorina," the headwaiter greets me as I enter the restaurant. "Welcome to Nicola's Ristorante. Do you have a reservation?"

"Si," I reply. "Ho unaprenotazionesotto Joslin Queenly." Huh. So I guess that Foreign Languages class is useful after all.

"Ah, you speak Italian,signorina?" He asks.

"Io parlo solo un po."

"Okay then," he smiles. "I will have a waiter escort you to your table,signorina. However, Miss Queenly hasn't arrived yet."

"Grazie," I thanked him, and went with the waiter he assigned me.

The waiter helped me to be seated and then asked if I wanted some champagne while I wait for my companion. I wasn't really sure if I should because I'm not legal to drink yet, but he didn't ask, so I didn't tell, so I said yes. It's just champagne, right?

After three glasses, Aunt Joslin finally arrived, looking ravishing in a white dress that hugs her body in all the right ways. The neutrality of her dress made her hair pop out more, making it look a whole lot redder than it actually was.

I stood up to hug her.

"Sorry it took me so long," she apologizes. "I had some unfinished work back at the hospital and I had to file in a few paper works."

"You're from work?" I ask. She nods and smiles. "Damn, I wish I looked like that when I came home from school."

"You're too kind," she brushes off my compliment. She calls a waiter and asks for more champagne for us and the menu as she sits herself. "So, what made you invite me to dinner?"