for, liar

Chapter 73

I worked myself to death by the end of November.  Our business has picked up drastically and Jeff had to hire all these new baristas to help out. I've been working almost everyday with minimal free time. I've seen Miles as much as I can when either of us wasn't working, but it's only been a few times. Way less than I wanted, as usual.

"I want the store to stay open for Thanksgiving. I think we can make a huge profit from that, especially with people wanting coffee before going shopping on Black Friday." Jeff explains.

I have no interest in working on Thanksgiving. I doubt anyone else at our store would either.

"I'll be out of town so who would even work?" I ask.

"I can work and I just hired a new assistant manager so she could work too."

I raise my eyebrows, pressing my shoulder up against the wall in the back room. "Do you not have plans for Thanksgiving? No family or anything?"

He shakes his head and looks back at the computer to continue making next week's schedule.

Jeff has never mentioned a single detail about his personal life so I'm not even going to question that he just might not have anywhere to go for the holidays.

"How long will you be out of town?" He asks.

"Thanksgiving and Black Friday. My mother wants me to go shopping with her. I can work the day after though, but I'd prefer not to since I've been working every single day this month."

He shrugs and moves the cursor around the screen to change a few things. If my vision was better, I'd be nosy and try to read what he was doing. At least we're in person talking about the schedule so I have a better chance of not being on it for the holidays.

"Okay, well I have dinner plans so I'm going to head out."

He waves me off and I grab my bag from the hook on the wall.

Miles is waiting next to his car when I walk outside. He smiles at me from across the parking lot and I walk over to him, ready for his embrace. I haven't seen him since last week and damn, I sure missed being next to him.

"Dinner is on me obviously. Where would you like to go?"

I think about it for a minute and try to think of the simplest option. I don't feel like sitting in a fancy restaurant. I kind of just want this evening to be chill.

"What about Chinese takeout in the park? It isn't too cold outside yet." I suggest.

He chuckles and opens the passenger door for me. We drove down to North Tryon to Soho Bistro and ordered beef and chicken lo mein to take back to the park. 

The sun had already set by the time we reached it. Luckily enough, the lampposts created plenty of light for us by the field. We've come to this park a few times since we started dating. Not many people come by anymore making it a perfect place for romantic dinner dates.

I lay out our picnic blanket in the grass and sit down next to Miles who takes no time before digging straight into his pasta. He hands me mine and smiles. I don't hesitate to do the same.

"How was work?" Miles asks.

He twirls his fork around in the plastic dish and bites a large amount of food off.

"It was okay. Jeff was trying to get me to work the holidays though. He thinks our business will blossom." I reply with a warranted eye roll.

"You said no, right? Are we still going to your dad's for lunch?"

The plan was simple. I would drive us over to my father's house around noon to have lunch with my dad and his family. We would stick around for a couple of hours and then ride down to my mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Mom wanted us to spend the night so we could go shopping at four in the morning. She loves keeping up with tradition.

"Yeah. Lunch is at 12:30 so we would need to leave around ten."

"And we're spending the night? At your mom's? Is that going to be weird?"

I laugh and shake my head. "Now you sound like me! No, it shouldn't be weird. I'm an adult. She should be fine with it."

He nods a little, digging his teeth into the end of his eggroll. I may not be looking forward to the actual holiday, but I am kind of excited for my family to finally meet Miles. I've been holding back far too long and I think I'm ready. We were able to get past our little rough patch just in time for everything to feel perfect again. Obviously we still have stuff to work on, but he has shown no problem with talking things out and understanding where I'm coming from when it comes to certain subjects. He actually listens to me.

"I'm excited. I hope they like me." He says.

I wonder if he's nervous. I know I was when I met his parents. I probably still would be if I saw them again.

"They'll love you. Just be ready for my father to make some dumbass comment about me being his little girl and the normal dad death threats all of them do because he sure does love that."

"I think I can handle it." Miles laughs.

We lay down to talk for a couple of hours until it just got too unbearably chilly that we had to leave. I probably could've stayed out there longer if we had a blanket to put over us, but it was starting to get late and all I wanted was a hot shower.

Miles kisses me goodnight when he drops me back off at my car and leaves to go home. I let Maddy know I'm on my way and ask if she needs anything, but she declines saying she has everything.

When I finally get home, I look around in my closet for something to wear that isn't too casual and would flatter me well. I had lost some weight over the summer so most of my dress clothes are a bit baggy on me. I might use Black Friday as an excuse to buy myself some clothes or make mom buy them and put them under the tree. She usually lets me pick out my Christmas presents anyway. It's strange how different Christmas is when you're a kid compared to now when you actually want clothes as gifts.

A lot of things have changed but I don't mind it at all. I just get skeptical when I start to get really happy again. I'll never feel like I deserve it.

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