Regret
The next morning, I woke up and she was gone. At least she left a note. "Had an early shift. Check your phone for pics of you sleeping" I blushed and walked to the shower. After freshening up for the day I put my clothes on and grabbed a receipt from my purchase last night. I had four unopened bottles of Moscato. I filled up Cassie's morning bowls and headed out to the grocery store. On the way there, I felt a bit weird. I drowned out those feelings in some Lo-Fi tunes. When I finally arrived, there were three police cars parked out front and some bystanders being nosy. I began to recalculate my every move last night, hoping I didn't have anything to do with the scene, but when I walked in, the officers barely noticed me. Again, upon entering the store, I saw that Dylan wasn't there. I walked straight to the cash register to get my refund. Something told me to ask, but I struggled for about thirty seconds after getting my money back to ask the cashier my burning question. "Do you know a guy named Dylan here?" She looked at me as if she were trying to identify whether or not I was an undercover cop. "Yeah, he used to work here." I raised an eyebrow and she answered the question I was obviously asking myself. "He died in an accident on the bridge last night."
"Ha. Funny. So where is he really?" My mouth started going dry and my heart was beating rapidly. There was no way he died. She smiled dryly. "That's what I've been told." Suddenly every memory of him flew through my mind like a compilation being fast-forwarded on repeat. That one time he gave me a discount on food for Cassie because it was her birthday, and the night he walked me to my car to make sure I was safe. Even though I had no interest in him whatsoever, he was always kind to me and expected nothing in return. I looked down at the money in my hands and suddenly it had no value to me. For an instant, I realized how short and nearly insignificant life was. I dropped thirty dollars cash in the donation box and walked out, speechless. As I made my way to my car, I thought about all the opportunities he probably didn't get to take during his life here. He obviously didn't plan on being a store greeter at the age of thirty, but he didn't take action either. I thought of all the things in my life that I was putting off because I thought I would have more time when really, I could have died on the way home. I picked up my phone and dialed Jordan's phone number. When she answered, her background sounded a bit noisy. I figured she wouldn't have processed my message correctly. "Hello?" I heard her voice answer. I thought for a few seconds and I responded. "Hey, do you have time alone tonight? I think we should talk about something." I waited for what seemed like an eternity before she gave me her response. "Okay, that sounds fine. I should be free around 8 pm and I can take you out to dinner." "Great" I replied, and then hung up after about five seconds of silence. I then dialed Lindy's phone number. It rang and rang, and no one picked up. I decided to leave her a voicemail instead. I waited for the tone, cleared my throat, and began my message. "Hi Lindy, I was just calling but I guess you can't come to the phone right now. I just wanted to let you know that we won't be talking very often because I am now engaged to be married. I hope you can understand. Feel free to call back if you want to discuss this further, or don't; your choice." I hung up and started the car.
