Committed ✦ Wilk

Fourteen

I sighed and folded another sweater. I had the same sweater at home and was tempted to wear it to work that morning. I saw a woman looking through the different various options of shirts and something about her seemed familiar. I narrowed my eyes to get a better look and when her dull blue eyes met mine I couldn't believe who it was. "Baylor?" She asked inching towards me. It was my mother.

"Hey," I said nervously. I had only talked to her once since she had kicked me out, and I never once saw her in this store--not even when I lived with her.

"It's been awhile, how are you?" She asked. She wasn't even talking to me like she was mother, she was acting like she was an old family friend.

"I'm good," I shrugged simply. "You?"

"I'm doing okay," she smiled. "How is Rainy doing?"

"Raina..." I frowned. She didn't even know her own granddaughter's name.

"Oh, sorry," she smiled again. "How is she?"

"She's good, growing everyday," I laughed nervously.

"Well that's good," she sighed. "Well I best be letting you get back to work, I'll see you." She walked away and I frowned and slowly started folding the other sweaters. She was my mother and she didn't even act like she wanted to talk to me. She didn't know my daughter's name, and she didn't even give a formal goodbye. I kept my head down and sniffled a little. I had no relationship with her. I would rather die than do to my daughter what my mother had done to me.

"Hey, Baylor are you okay?" A voice asked. I looked up and saw Maggie who was a coworker of mine. She was incredibly sweet and had the most gorgeous curly auburn hair. She knew that I had a daughter and was one of the very few people who didn't judge me because of it.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I smiled faintly. She grinned and nodded.

"Hey, do you want to go grab some lunch?" She offered. I smiled a little wider because she was the type of person who you could count on, and was a genuine friend. There was still twenty minutes until the lunch break but I was pretty hungry. I helped a few customers and I felt a vibration in my pocket. I walked into the staff bathroom and pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw that I had a text from Sam.

11:50 a.m: Hey, baby-girl. Call me when you're not busy.

I dialed his number and waited patiently for him to pick up. "Hey, Princess" he chirped. I smiled immediately and ran my hand through my hair.

"Did you need something?" I asked.

"No, I'm just at the studio and I'm really bored," he said causing me to laugh. "Are you at work?"

"Yeah but I'm getting ready to go on break," I explained. "How are you bored if you're at the studio?" He was always raving about how glorious it is to be in the booth and he always made it out to be so magical.

"I'm waiting on Nate to get back with food," he said and then it made sense. "So how's work?"

"It's the same thing it is everyday," I sighed. "Well except that I just ran into my mom..."

"Really? How did that go?"

"She didn't even know Raina's name," I rolled my eyes. "She acted like I was an old friend from high school or something."

"Something tells me that I wouldn't get along with your mother," he said causing me to laugh.

"Hey, call me tonight. I have to get back to work, and I'm catching lunch with Maggie," I leaned up against the sink.

"Okay," he said. "I love you."

"I love you, too," I smiled. I hung up the phone and stuffed it back into my pocket. I walked out of the bathroom and helped out one last customer and then it was time for my lunch break.

~

Raina was asleep against my chest as I finished up a paper for one of my college classes. I smiled down at her after I submitted the paper and kissed the top of her forehead. As I was walking her to her room there was a knock at the door. I raised my eyebrow and opened the door and found Alex standing there.

"Hey, can I come in?" He asked. I bit my bottom lip and stepped to the side so he could walk in. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah, let me just put her to bed first," I said gesturing towards Raina. He nodded and I walked into her bedroom and quickly dialed Sam's number. Before he could even say anything I cut him off. "Alex is here and he wants to talk. Stay on the line and don't say anything."

"Alright," he said. I kept him on the line and locked my phone. I walked out into the living room and sat my phone down beside me on the phone.

"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked nervously.

"Listen, I know we've had a rocky past, and I've done some things..." he started. "But I think we're getting past that. I'm coming around more, and I'm starting to be active in Raina's life."

"Okay..."

"Do you think we could try to work on us again? You know, for the sake of our daughter?" He looked at me with his hands clasped together. "I think you're absolutely beautiful, and sweet. You're the perfect mother, and I'm glad she's taking after you and not me."

"Why don't we go out sometime?" I suggested. Little did he know I was silently cringing.

"Okay," he smiled. What a fool.

"Call me tomorrow, we can work something out. But I have an early morning so I'm going to have to be getting to bed. He nodded and said goodbye and I waited a few seconds after he was gone and locked the door. I ran into my bedroom. "Did you hear that?" I asked Sam excitedly. "He's really falling for it!"

"I know, I heard everything," he chuckled. "You're doing great, baby. Just promise not to do anything with him, not that you would."

"That's a mistake I would never make again."

"Good," I could feel his smile. "So where are you guys going to go for this pretend date?"