Furthest Thing

Chapter 9

Harmony

I sat at this booth, sipping on my glass of Merlot. I checked my watch. 12:13 p.m. Why is he late? I thought.

"Hey Harmony." Brandon kissed my cheek, sliding into the booth.

"Hi," I said. "Why are you late?"

He chuckled. "Traffic."

"At noon?" I raised a eyebrow.

"Wine at noon?" He said, mocking me.

I looked down at my almost empty glass of wine and giggled. "I was thirsty."

"I'm sure they have water here." He laughed again.

"You ready to order now ma'am?" A waitress asked.

"Yes, can I have 10 of the California Rolls please?" I smiled.

"And you, sir?" She smiled at Brandon.

"I'll have the same." He grinned at her.

"And your drink?"

"A coke will be fine."

She looked him over. "Do you play any sports? Football?"

"Basketball."

"Oh, no wonder you look so familiar." She glanced back at me and back to Brandon. "I'll have your food out in a little bit." She said, walking away.

I snickered while sipping the rest of my wine.

"What's so funny?" Brandon asked, eating the edamame that was on the table.

"She was so flirting with you."

"Eh, I'm off the market." He waved me off. "So how are things?"

"Good. I just got promoted to a partner of the magazine. So that's exciting and Aubrey and I are going on a vacation in 2 weeks." I smiled.

"Who's Aubrey?" He gave me a confused look.

I giggled. "You know him as Drake."

He nodded. "Of course. How long have y'all been dating?"

"Couple months, not too long." I shrugged. "What about you and Rachel?"

"A year." He stated, sipping on his Coke the waitress finally brought.

"Where'd you meet her?"

"At a game. She was there court-side looking all beautiful, I had to get the scoop on her."

I chuckled. "That's cute. You met her parents?"

"Yeah, her dad is cool and her mom passed like 5 years ago."

I held my chest. "Aww that's so sad."

"What about your parents? They loved me when we were together." He smirked.

I shifted in my seat. "My dad passed after Christmas last year." I mumbled.

He shot his head up from his phone. "Oh not Pops. I'm so sorry, Harmony, I know how close y'all were."

I grabbed a napkin and patted my eyes. "It's alright. He's not in pain anymore or hurting. I've come to grips with it now."

"What about your mom? She live down here?" He asked, grabbing my hand on the table.

"Now you know my ma is a die hard Arkansan." I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Of course, aren't we all?" He chuckled. "I miss her. I remember at my games, you wore a shirt with my number and 'Brandon's Girl' on the back and Ma wore a shirt just like it that said 'Brandon's Ma.'"