Life slips through our hands

Chapter 4

The next day, Nina went to work as usual. Mr. Bower was the only one in the shop. She greeted him and started to prepare everything right away. A few minutes later, Charles arrived.

"Sorry, I'm late". He came in.

"Don't worry, your mother called me", said Mr. Bower. "Is your sister ok?"

"Yes, she is. It was a false alarm". The old man nodded. Nina was behind the counter and couldn't listen to what they were talking.

"Morning Nina". Charles smiled at her while walking to the counter.

"Good morning", she replied.

"I'll take care of the heavy work; just take care of the front".

"Thank you". Nina saw him walking towards the back of the shop. He looked tired.

They didn't talk much that morning. Charles was absent-minded and looked kinda worried so Nina did not want to disturb him.

In the afternoon, when Joanna arrived, the shop was calm. Charles was cleaning the tables and Nina was putting some cookies in the showcase. The two girls started chatting about the usual and a few minutes later Charles joined them.

The first customer of the afternoon did not come up until 6 pm. They did not stop from then until closing time.

Sunday was boring as hell, they only had three customers. But Charles was in a good mood that day so he kept chatting away and joking with Nina. The time flew faster than they expected when they were together.

"Hello?", Nina answered her phone. It was Monday afternoon.

"Nina, are you at home?", it was her mother.

"Yes, Mom. Do you need something?"

"Can you wait for me with dinner served? I'm driving home. I'll have to fly to Washington tonight".

"Sure. Is spaghetti alright?", she asked.

"Anything is fine".

"Ok, I'll start cooking then".

"Thank you, see you at home", her mother hung up.

Nina's mother worked in the sales department of a big company, Adela's mother's company. She would usually travel to other cities to see clients and have contracts done. Every now and then she had to attend to some emergency; this was one of those days.

"When are you coming back?", asked Nina. They were having dinner already.

"In two or three days. There're a lot of things I have to take care of this time". Nina nodded.

"Lara invited me to her house this Wednesday", she told her mother.

"Go and have fun! It's summer, just take care of yourself".

"Thank you".

"Do you need money?"

"No, I'm good".

"Are you sure?", her mother insisted.

"Yes, Mom", she smiled at the woman in front of her.

"Call me if you need anything. Ok?", Nina nodded.

Nina was left alone in the house. She wanted to call Lara but, by that time, she was probably with Ian. Nina took a book from the shelf and sat in her bed to read and kill some time. She did not know when she fell asleep.

The next day, she had just finished her shift at work when Lara called her. It was around 5 pm.

"Hey! You're alive. I thought you'd be still locked in your room with Ian". Nina said jokingly.