Save Me

Chapter 11

Finally sitting down at the table, our hostess started to hand out the menus.   Pretending nothing happened, the girls opened theirs and started looking at it trying to seem busy.

"Great, thank you."   I said as he handed me the last menu.

"Your server will be right with you."   

"Thank you.   And, I'm sorry about earlier..."

"It's totally fine."   she said, waving the whole incident off.   

Too bad I couldn't do the same thing.    

Once she left, I felt the need to have another little talk with the girls, this time a more serious one.  It was going to be directed towards Lily, she was the culprit and I felt bad bringing Paige and Kenzie into it but it had to be done.   I was going to take a different approach though.   This time I was going to lay on the guilt because getting angry just didn't seem to make a difference.  

Clearing my throat,  "Can you guys put the menus down, please.."

They knew what was coming.   I could see it in their eyes.

"Okay, I'm going to say this one more time because what happened this morning can not happen again.   Under no circumstance can any of you ever, EVER walk away from the group."   I continued, looking directly at Lily,  "I was really scared someone took you.  Can you imagine how devastated we would all be if something terrible happened to you?   This isn't Ann Arbor.   This is Chicago and it's a very beautiful city but also very dangerous.   Bad things happen to good people every day.   I would never be able to forgive myself if I was responsible and you got kidnapped or worse.   PLEASE, please do as I ask."

I gave it my all, there were even a few unshed tears in my eyes.   Some of it was an act to drive home my point but part of it was real.   I could not even imagine having to call Ben and Elizabeth to tell them Lily was missing.   

"I'm really sorry, Auntie Vivie.   I just saw Shannon and I waved and he waved back and then I just went to say hi..."   

For once, Lily actually seemed genuine in her apology,   "I understand but promise me you won't ever do that again, not for anyone."

"I won't, I promise."   She choked, her eyes teary.

Then looking to the both Kenzie and Paige as well,   "I love you guys and want this to be a special  weekend but if you don't listen, we'll come right back to the hotel because the zoo is a huge  and very crowded place.  If we aren't careful, it's easy to get lost.   I'm not going to tolerate this again."

There.   That sounded very 'parental' and I hoped it would work because if it didn't, we'd spend the rest of the day in the hotel.  This was the last scare my nerves could tolerate.  

"We'll be good,"  Paige agreed,  "promise."

Phew,   "Okay, good.   Now let's figure out what we're going to eat."  I smiled wanting them to know it was time to move on.  

After I said my peace, I let everything else go for the sake of the day.    At least where Lily was concerned.   Seeing Jared again had me frazzled and there wasn't much I could do about that.   Knowing he watched as I walked away with a look I couldn't even begin to decipher, confused me even more.    I hate mixed signals and I'm not good with games.    

I was attracted to him.   He made me laugh and once I relaxed and got comfortable I realized I really enjoyed spending those few hours with him.    Obviously, I'd love to get to know him more but he shot that down last night.   All I knew was I definitely didn't want to put myself in that situation again.  Actually, I'd rather not think about him again.