My One Constant

Chapter 3

"Jules I promise I'm not lying!!" "No way, you're delusional!" We were sitting at our table at the restaurant discussing whether or not our waiter, Matthew, was hitting on Julia. I sensed that he was based on his body language, constant looks at her and the glass of wine that was "on the house" as he said. "He's just being friendly, he probably has a girlfriend" she said as she looked over the menu smiling. She was clearly interested, no one smiles that hard when looking at a menu. "He's not just being friendly, no waiter at Olive Garden brings a free glass of wine. They all work off of tips, if it was on the house that means he's paying for your drink." She slowly looked up. "Wait, you're right. God, what do I do? I'm never good at this" she laughed nervously. "It's easy, just flirt back," I said. "Look in his eyes, say his name and smile when you talk to him. Here he comes!"
Our waiter came back with our salad and breadsticks. "Alright ladies, here you go. Let me know 'when.'" We watched as he sprinkled cheese on our salad and when I caught Julia's glance I nodded subtly to tell her to talk to him. "That's perfect! Thank you so much, Matthew." She said through a big grin. His face lit up, "you're welcome, miss?" "Julia" she replied. "Julia..I love that name. Miss Julia, do you know what you'd like for dinner?" "I'll have the soup of the day please." "Perfect, and how about you?" He asked, turning to me. "I would love some alfredo please." "Alfredo..." as he wrote in his book, Julia looked at me and raised her eyebrows in excitement. I winked back. "Sounds good ladies, I'll be back in a couple of minutes with those entrees." As he walked away, she turned to me and her jaw dropped. "Constance, I don't think I've ever been that nervous to talk to a guy!" She covered her mouth. "He's so cute." "Julia, he really likes you!" I exclaimed. "He looked you in the eye a lot, his face LIT UP when you said his name and he asked for your name. Those are clearly signs he's interested." "I hope you're right" she gushed.
We said a prayer over the salad & breadsticks and began eating. "So Con, hows your love life?" "Dry" I said laughing. "Um, I talked to Kyle the other day but it's just not the same. We broke up so long ago and even though we still care about each other, we're so different now." "I'm sorry to hear that" she said. "I know you've loved him for so long. What do you think your next step is?" Julia had always been the therapist type. Always asking deep questions about how I'm doing. "Parting ways. That last conversation just made it so clear. I do care about him, but at this point we've grown in such different directions that I can't see myself with him anymore. Not romantically." She nodded, "and did you tell him?" "No, he fell asleep during the convo and we didn't talk after that." I took another bite of the salad in front of me.
"Besides, if I'm dating him, how can I be ready for the day I meet One Direction?" I said dramatically. Julia laughed, "oh yeah, when is that happening again?" she teased. She knew I had always been a fan and we often joked that I would marry a band member one day. "Mmm any day now" I said smirking. "They have a concert in Orlando this weekend so..." Julia laughed again, "oh so like tonight?" "Yeah maybe tonight we'll meet." Suddenly Julia's fork clanged on the table. I looked up at her to see her face drained of blood, staring at a table behind me. I turned around to see what could possibly have left her so speechless.