Come Back To Me

Hollis woke up at noon on her day off to five missed calls and two voicemails from her mother.

”Hollis! I told you I would be calling you today to talk about wedding plans! I know it’s your day off so why aren’t you answering? I’ll call back later and you better answer! We have SO much to talk about honey!”

“Ugh. Seven.” She said, pressing the “7” button and deleting the message and putting the phone back to her ear to listen to her mother’s most recent message.

”Hollis Evelyn Thompson! I’m beginning to think you’re avoiding my calls! It’s almost noon so there’s no way you’re still asleep. I have to talk to you. Come on, it will be fun. I have something really important to tell you. Just call me back or I won’t stop calling you until you answer. You can’t avoid me forever missy!”

“My mother is crazy.” She muttered before dialing her number and pressing the “TALK” button. The phone only rang once before her mother picked up.

”It’s about time! I was beginning to think you were dead!”

Hollis laughed, “Mom, it’s my first day off in weeks, I just woke up. Now what was so important that you had to tell me right this second?”

”I want you to be my maid of honor! she squealed and Hollis, although happy, rolled her eyes at her mother’s over-excitement. Hollis had never been one for weddings and she knew that the maid of honor pretty much helped plan everything, something that she knew she didn’t have time for with her work.

“Aw mom! Thanks!” She exclaimed, which is what she knew was what her mother wanted. “I’m so excited to help you out with the wedding! Do you have a date yet?”

“Yup. July 17.”

“Of…this year?”

“Yeah. We don’t want to wait. It’s going to be a small ceremony anyway so we don’t need that much planning.”

“Mom…that’s three months away. There’s no way we can plan a wedding.”

“Oh pish posh. You were always the worrier. All we need is to send the invites, get a dress and food. There will be twenty people there, tops. Don’t worry. Everything will be great.”

“I’m not a worrier mom, I’m just realistic.”

“Hollis. Relax. All of your stress is going to drive you to an early grave. “

“Mom, I’m a doctor, of course I’m stressed. Is there anything else you want to tell me before I can go back to my day off?”

“Okay Grumpy Gus. Do you want to meet for coffee tomorrow and we can talk more? It’s been forever since I’ve seen you.”

“All right mom. Just call me and we’ll go to Starbucks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Love you Holl!”

“Love you too mom.” She said with a smile before hanging up the phone and putting it back on her bedside table and collapsing into her pillows.

“First day off in weeks…and nothing to do. I need a hobby.”

She dragged herself out of bed after a few minutes and trudged into the shower. She got dressed and toweled off her hair slightly and decided to let it air dry. She took her grocery list from the fridge and figured that she needed to get something done so she might as well get groceries – something she desperately needed.

She grabbed the keys to her car off of the counter and walked out to her car and drove towards the closest grocery store, trying to get her mind off of the fact that she had nothing else to do while not at work.

**

It was in the frozen food aisle that she saw him. He was pulling a frozen loaf of garlic bread out of the freezer at the same time she was loading up her cart with frozen meals and lean pockets.

Brian Haner was literally three feet away from her.
She immediately moved her sunglasses from on top of her head to over her eyes, hoping that with her new hair color and cut would make it harder for him to recognize her. She took her food out of the freezer and tried to move out of the aisle as quickly as possible.

Once she got around the corner she thought that she had heard him call out to her, but she ignored it and quickly finished her shopping and left, hoping that she would not run into him again. She loaded her food into her car as she saw his towering figure walking out of the store. She noticed he was walking differently, with somewhat of a limp and that it seemed as if it was almost painful for him to be walking around.

Part of her craved knowledge of how he was doing and what had happened but she knew that talking to him could not possibly do any good.

So instead she quickly loaded up her car and jumped into the drivers side of the car as quickly as she could before turning the car on and speeding out of the parking lot. She was still tense from the grocery store but as she drove home she began to relax a little.

Her blackberry beeped, signaling that she had received a new text message. At the next red light she stopped and pulled the phone from her purse. The number the message was from was not in her phone’s address book, but she knew it all too well.

”Are you a blonde now by any chance? Cause I think I just saw you in the grocery store.

Staring at the message and not knowing what to say in response, she simply erased the message and threw her phone into the passenger seat as the light turned green.

“Hollis Thompson…you are a coward” She muttered to herself.