Come Back to Me

Chapter 15

The next day Eleanor asks me if I'd like to have a girls day and I readily agree. Between the cold attitude from Paul and the overly helpful Andrew I was more than ready to spend a day away from them.

"Bye boys! Don't miss us too much." Eleanor says while blowing kisses on our way out the door, making me laugh. She's only been here for a day and I already feel so close to her. I wonder if this is how it was in the beginning; did we hit it off from the start the first time too? Based off of our pictures I feel like I can assume we did. We decide to hit Starbucks for breakfast before going shopping on the pier at a nearby beach.

I open my wallet to hand Eleanor money for my drink but she stops me. "Don't worry i got this..." Her face drops suddenly as she stares at something in my purse. I look down to see the picture I took from therapy of us two. "What's that?" She asks quietly reaching her hand toward the paper. I hand it to her and she examines it.

"It's a picture of us from when we first moved in together."

She nods slowly still staring at it. "Why is it in your purse?", she asks with her voice full of emotion.

I shrug, "They showed it to me in therapy. I liked it so I asked Paul if i could keep it."

She laughs, "Of course you can keep it, it is yours."

"Thats what he said as well." I say as I laugh at the memory.

It's silent as Eleanor finishes paying for our drinks, as we're waiting for them she turns to me again.

"You wanted to keep a picture of us with you?" She asks and I nod in response. "Why?"

"I don't know... I saw it and it just made me happy."

She let's out a laugh in disbelief before pulling me into a hug. "I love you Ashley."

"I love you too." I reply and I feel like I really mean it. I only remember knowing Eleanor for a day but it feels like my heart remembers it even when my mind doesn't.

We finally get our drinks and Eleanor drives away from the drive thru and also away from our emotional moment. The atmosphere is different now; I feel free. I can already tell today is going to be a fun day.

We're just window shopping when suddenly Eleanor turns to me with excitement in her eyes. "It's a hat shop!" She exclaims, "Let's go in." I agree and right away we start trying on crazy hats and taking pictures of ourselves in the mirror in the back. "Do you know what snapchat is? i can't remember when exactly it came out..."

I think for a second. "It sounds familiar but I'm not sure."

"It's an phone app that you take pictures with."

"Oh! oh yeah.... I think I remember that coming out but I never got it."

"Okay. Well its like one of my favorite apps. Basically when I'm not working I'm on snapchat... and sometimes even at work. But don't tell my boss." She explains with a care free laugh. "Here watch I'll show you." she pulls out her phone and explains how to use snapchat to me. When she feels like I finally get the concept,  we continue to take pictures and put them on her story. We take another one with the craziest hats we can find for each other, "This is so great! I'm going to send this one to Paul!"

My face falls but I put on a smile before she looks back at me. "Is that okay?" She asks; probably wondering why I suddenly got so quiet.

"Yeah! go ahead send it." Paul...I hadn't thought about him all day but when Eleanor mentioned I couldn't help but feel a little... jealous? She seemed to be so close to him and something inside of me longed for that feeling as well. We put our hats back and decide to keep walking along the pier. We stop for a moment and listen to a man playing the violin on the side. "You seem to know Paul really well."