Daisies

1.2

"Make mistakes. Make a lot of them."

• • •
Friday, July 29th. 6:33 p.m.

I've been with Jacob for the past hour. We're at the store picking things up for his party, he's being nice, calm, but I still can't read his mood. He's not overly joyous, angry, playful, anything; maybe he's just focused on getting everything for the party. The more time I spend with Jacob the more I realize I don't know as much about him as I thought. The more I find out about him the more I fall into this complicated web of unanswered questions. The most confusing part about him is that on the surface he seems like an open book, but when you do open the book it sucks you into a portal that you'll likely never find your way out of. An enigma, that's what he is.

We're walking in the chip aisle and Jacob stops, seemingly trying to decide between Lays and Doritos. His birthday dinner that he insisted we would probably be invited to, we weren't, was cancelled. Mr. Ricci had some emergency business meetings upstate, at least that's what Jacob told me. He said to be ready at 5 and that we were going to make a few stops, I think he just wanted someone to set up his party for him. I can't tell if he's disappointed or not though, Mr. Ricci's rescheduling it but it's just not the same. Jacob finally decides to grab both. Now with a full cart we head to self checkout.

I'm still trying to not feel weird about hanging out with Jacob, at least that's what I think we're doing. I honestly don't know what this whole thing is. Are we friends that just so happened to kiss once? Are we more than that, or less? We haven't spoken about it since being at his apartment, I actually hadn't spoken to him until today. I push the cart as he begins to put his items on the belt.

"I need to make a stop before we go back."

"Nothing good ever happens when I have to make stops with you." He smiles at what I said despite me being annoyed.

"Well good thing you're staying in the car then." The cashier is trying to hide it but I can see the judgement all on her face and as much as I wanna be mad at her, I can't. I think Jacob might have bought half of the liquor aisle. I'd probably judge us too.

"I need to see your ID." The woman says with an aggravated tone, not at us though. She just seems to be unhappy in general. Jacob reaches in his wallet and hands it to her. She looks at Jacob then at his ID then back at Jacob, almost like she doesn't trust him. "Happy Birthday. That'll be $316.95." Jacob thanks her for her birthday wishes, even though she clearly didn't mean it. He goes in his wallet and pulls out four hundred dollar bills and I grab his ID back from the cashier. Another worker comes over to help bag the groceries.

"Did you want the condoms in the bag, sir?" The young worker asks. My eyes widen then shift to the ground. I didn't even see him grab those. I know that we aren't together, like at all, but I don't know. I wouldn't call it jealousy but it still doesn't feel good. Jacob says something back to the bagger, I'm not even listening anymore. The cashier hands Jacob the receipt and after we get all the bags we head outside to the car.

Once we get into the car I put my seatbelt on and pull my elbow length ombre passion twists out of the way. He pulls out of the parking lot and starts the way to this mysterious location. "That lady was a bitch." I mention while looking out the window.

"Woah, be nice. 9 to 5s are grueling." He chuckled.

"What do you know about the grueling conditions of a 9 to 5. Oh and I forgot, " I reached into my pocket and grabbed Jacob's ID, "you were busy so I got it back from her." I scan over it. Antonio Jacob Ricci. Of course he looks this good in his picture, it also kind of looks like a mugshot. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, 6ft '1in, 185lbs. "I didn't know your name was Antonio too?"