Lisa
"Oh, so you are alive then." Jennie says with heat.
"Yes, I'm very much alive." I say back without looking towards her. My temper still simmering away.
"Where were you? We were meant to meet at the restaurant, I waited and waited yet you never turned up. I thought something must have happened to you, yet here you are."
"Found out that I didn't have an appetite when I got there, and see the girl that I'm meant to be going on a date with, kissing someone else."
"So, wait, you're telling me that you did turn up but just turned around and came home. You see me talking to someone else and just abandon me. I've been worried about you. I called the station to see if something had happened but they said you'd left on time. I figured if you'd been in an accident they would have heard."
"I didn't just see you talking to that woman I saw you kissing her." I clarify, while turning to look at her for the first time since she walked in the door. Probably a mistake because my first reaction is that she looks stunning in that outfit.
"No, what you saw was me being cornered by the last person that I want to see, praying that you were going to turn up and save me. Instead, things got difficult, so you ran. You ran away just like you always do. You ran away from us when it got difficult, you ran away from us all those years ago and now you're running again."
W-w-w-what? Hold on, back up.
"Wait, how did this turn around back on me?" I say, with my voice rising in pitch but not volume. Suddenly I seem to be outside my body watching in on the fight, and I find it hilarious. I start giggling which doesn't help matters.
"What? Why are you laughing?" Jennie asks, totally annoyed. This only makes me laugh more.
Tears are pouring as I try to control myself enough to talk. "I... was... all ready... to tell you off... yet you walk in ... and tell me off." I take a deep breath. "I totally didn't see that coming." I manage to say before setting off in a giggling fit again.
Jennie stands there staring at me for a moment before slowly a smile starts to form, then a chuckle comes, before I know it, we're both laughing so hard that we collapse on the sofa.
It takes a few minutes but the laughing does slow down until we're both sitting there looking at each other in silence. The ghost of our laughter still on our faces.
"I'm sorry." I say into the quiet. "I shouldn't have just left tonight. You're right, I ran but I don't want to run from you. I want to be someone that you and Ella can rely on. Leaving you all those years ago has been my biggest regret, I don't want to ruin a second chance if you're willing to give it to me."
"I shouldn't have said that you always run. You don't. Look at the effort you put into becoming a firefighter. I was caught up in the moment."
"I really am sorry that I left the restaurant. Will you tell me who that woman was?"
"That was Deb. My ex."
"The bitch?"
"Yup." She nods.
Mentally slapping myself repeatedly. Idiot. What a complete utter fool I am.
Grabbing Jennie's hands, I gently smooth my thumb over her knuckles. "What was she doing there? What did she have to say?"
Jennie goes on to tell me what transpired and I feel like an even bigger moron. She starts to cuddle in as she tells the story, and I happily put my arm around her, pulling her in. By the time she's finished, I'm annoyed at myself, and want to have a few words with that asshole Deb but most of all I'm ecstatic to be entwined with Jennie.
