I Don't Belong To You

Chapter 12

After 4 days of being stuck in bed, forced to succumb to the drowsiness induced by her medication and left only with the company of Nam, she's more than ready to get back to work.

She's not feeling exactly 100% but her doctor assured her yesterday that she was no longer contagious and so she takes a seat at her desk early Monday morning ready to tackle her missed emails.

She works for a total of 10 minutes before deciding to text Becky. They haven't talked at all, short of a brief conversation about her well-being on Saturday night. She's dying to know where they stand and what the next step will be for them but she also doesn't want to push Becky. Their conversation had been short, but thoughtful on Becky's part.

11:36 a.m.

How are you feeling?

11:38 a.m.

Better, that's for sure! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. At noon.

11:41 a.m.

Okay, well I'm glad you're feeling better. Hope it goes well!

She had obviously hoped for a little more. Maybe Becky would want to see her afterwards or maybe even tag along? But she had been rather disappointed to find such a short, and relatively useless, reply.

So texting now is taking all of her courage because these short responses feel like a segue to a "This just isn't working for me" talk that Freen isn't even close to ready for. But she takes a deep breath and just hits send, without thinking too hard about the text.

Doctor said I'm no longer contagious so I was thinking dinner tonight? I'm not up for cooking but take-out maybe? To thank you for taking such great care of me.

She sends the message at 7:36am knowing full well that Becky wouldn't be up at this hour. So she answers emails and gets through half her day with the kids before she has a chance to check her phone again. But even at 12, she still has nothing. She's fairly certain that Becky would be awake but has no way of knowing so she places her phone back in her desk but turns the ringer on and just puts the volume down. Just in case she texts back.

It's just before 1pm when she finally makes it to the school. After arguing with Lilly for half an hour about it, she had finally won. She was going to pick Ritchie up from school today. She just hoped that Freen would actually be there.

She had received her text when she woke up around 11:30 and just as she was about to reply, she thought about the possibility of calling, just to hear her beautiful voice. But she knew she may have been in class teaching, since she seemed to be feeling better. But then the thought of hearing her voice turned into dying to see her. And so after a brief battle with the babysitter, she's walking into the office of the school with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bag in the other.

After the parent in front of her is helped, he moves to reveal a cute looking blond behind a large desk. Becky approaches as the woman continues to stare at her computer and sets down the flowers to sign herself in, as Lilly instructed her to do.

"Hi there...what's the name?"

"Becky…Armstrong," she says slowly as writes the date and time of day.

"Oh, hi Becky!" She glances up briefly to smile at her and catches a familiar look in her eyes.

"Hi Ms…Richards." She responds politely, intentionally using her last name to remind the young girl that they aren't friends.