Going Solo: Grace Gen 4.12

Much to Dad's dismay, Hope was still on the show. There had been some catty moments that got Mom ticked off, especially when one of the girls slapped Hope. I'd never heard Mom get so pissed before. She started cussing, which was a shock, she never seemed to lose her temper, but she was ready to hop on the next plane to Monte Vista. It was a rare thing to hear Dad tell her to calm down, but he had too.

She went on and on about physical violence should get people disqualified, but Erin explained that they always had fights on that show at one point or another. It made for good TV, people liked the cattiness. Mom was not pleased. Jonas and I were back to talking, but something still felt different. I'd not seen him since his birthday.

Each week I drove to Mom and Dad's house, I had to pass his store and I worried that he'd see me. The day I saw him walking into the building as I drove by I found myself actually considering stopping to talk to him, but to say what. I didn't think he really wanted to talk to me anyway, so I kept driving. After the show went off I decided to finally talk to Mom about it. The whole time I was talking, she kept this weird smile on her face.

"Well it sounds like a very romantic date he arranged."

"It wasn't a date."

"Hot air balloon rides, picnic in the park, yeah sweetie that was a date."

I frowned at her. I think watching Hope on that show was confusing her, but I found it best not to argue the point.

"Regardless of our...outing...I freaked out and ran home because it was getting dark. I won't even go home when I come here for dinner because being outside at night, even for just a little while scares me still."

"Well, hunny, my advice would be to stop avoiding him. If he hasn't brought it back up when you've talked, then just let it go...or you could tell him."

I frowned. "Tell him what?"

She gave me that 'mom' look and I shook my head in response.She talked to me a little while about possibly giving therapy a try again. I wasn't really keen on that idea, but I told her I'd think about it.

The next day I was still thinking about Mom's advice, well part of it. I pulled out my phone and dialed his number quickly before I lost my nerve.

"Hey Grace."

"Hey...um are you busy?"

"Never too busy to talk to you."

I could almost picture him smiling on the other end.

"Um...are you at your store?"

"Yep."

"Can I come by?"

"Yes, of course."

Before I left, I took down one of the jars of the Cherry jam I'd made. I never got him anything for his birthday and on top of that I ran away. Hopefully he'd take this as a peace offering. The whole drive over I was nervous. I don't know why, but I was. I thought about turning around several times, but Mom's voice kept popping in my head. Stop avoiding him. Jonas had been nice to me, the least I could do was stop being as stand-offish when he'd not done anything wrong. Jonas was sitting outside on a bench when I arrived.

"Hey, I'm so glad you called." He stepped towards me eagerly, but stopped himself and took a step back.

"Yeah...thanks for seeing me. Um here." I gave him the box and the smile on his face got bigger.

"What's this?"

"I...well...I feel bad for running off and I never got you a gift. I hope you like cherry. Do you like cherry?"

"I love it."

"Good. I've been learning how to make jams and jellies. I promise it's edible. This isn't my first batch, I've gotten better."

"Thank you."

I had a seat on the bench while Jonas stepped inside to put his gift in his office. I watched as people passed by on the street talking among themselves and was starting to feel antsy the longer I waited. It wasn't too crowded, but it was more crowded than I liked, and I got a feeling someone was watching me. I started looking around and let out a small squeal when Jonas sat next to me.

"Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Yeah...I just..."

I looked around again, and just tried to shake off the feeling. It had to just be my nerves being out and around all the strangers passing by.