Broken Hearts

4

"Yes, I met him." Jennie spoke and looked at her with a distant gaze. She should have told her, not let her embarrass herself. The red color in Jennie's cheeks faded, and she looked fine again. Her eyes fell on Zachary. He was watching her, examining her, and their gazes met. She immediately averted her eyes, but she couldn't escape his smile.

"Don't you want to go get dressed?" Alice asked him, raising an eyebrow. "You're shocking my and Jennie's eyes," she added with a smirk. She placed the shopping on the kitchen counter and leaned on it with her elbows.

"Your friend obviously doesn't mind," Zachary replied with a flirtatious smile, looking at Jennie and winking. She immediately turned her gaze away from him and coughed. It was very obvious that she was nervous in his presence.

"Go!" Alice pointed a finger at him to go get dressed, and he chuckled as he went to her room where he had his things.

Jennie leaned towards Alice and began to whisper. "Couldn't you have warned me that he was coming?!"

"I mentioned it to you."

"But you didn't say when!" Jennie snapped, and Alice smiled apologetically.

"I forgot."

"Do you know how embarrassed I was in front of him?! I thought he was a thief!"

"Sorry," she apologized. "Take it positively; at least we'll laugh about it in the future."

"Ha ha ha, I'm already laughing..." There was irony in her voice. She looked at the door of the room where Zachary had just entered. "My phone!" she screamed and ran in the direction where she threw it out of surprise. Fortunately, it landed right on the couch. She examined it and looked for new scratches. She found nothing except for one big one that had been there for years. "You're lucky," she looked at Alice, and Alice rolled her eyes.

"How was it with your dad?" Alice asked Jennie, and she immediately put on a mischievous smile.

"He has someone." She jumped to Alice and leaned on the kitchen counter. "Some new neighbor. He didn't tell me they were together, but at least from his smile, I read that something is going on."

"Don't you mind?" Alice asked as she put vegetables in the fridge.

"No. I'm happy for him." She stretched and looked into the distance. "Since the divorce with mom, he hasn't had anyone. It was devastating for him to see his ex-wife happy with someone else while he drowned in sorrow, wondering why she left him."

"I feel sorry for your dad; he's really a good guy." Alice looked at Jennie. "Sometimes I felt like his second child when I was at your place." She smiled and reminisced about the old times.

"Honestly, I don't know what went wrong in their relationship. They always seemed in love and happy. At least, that's how it looked for my dad. In the last year of their marriage, Mom spent more time at work than at home. Well, as I know now, she was sleeping with her boss..." Jennie sighed and sat down for the dinner she had prepared. Alice sat across from her.

"My father blew a bunch of money on gambling. He was addicted. If my mom hadn't divorced him, we would be on the street now. I even found out that he borrowed money from suspicious people who later went after him. Mom did well to divorce him." Alice opened up. Jennie had no idea that her father was a gambler. Alice didn't talk much about her family, and Jennie didn't want to pry unnecessarily. Zachary entered the room and stood next to Alice. This time he was already dressed, and the music was turned off. He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled gently, trying to comfort her. Alice looked at him, returning the smile.

"My mother left because, I quote, 'I haven't experienced a proper youth; I want to enjoy, be free.' She had me at eighteen, and she and my dad got married only because of me. It lasted them five years, and since then, my dad has been raising me alone." Zachary joined us as well.