Come Back To Me

Hollis had taken the liberty of purchasing the most intense wedding planning journal Borders had in preparation for her coffee date with her mom. She knew that she had her first appointment at three o’clock that afternoon – the perk of having two other doctors working in her practice was that when she had other plans there was someone there to pick up the slack.

Knowing she would be going right to the office, Hollis made sure to dress appropriately. She put on a dark purple button down shirt and a high-waisted black pencil skirt. She slipped on her black high heels as she ran a brush one more time through her straightened hair. She grabbed her briefcase, stuck the wedding planner in it and left her apartment, grabbing the keys off of the table by the door as she did so.

It was only a short ride to the Starbucks and when she pulled into the small parking lot beside it, she saw that her mom was already there waiting for her.

“Hi mom” she said with a smile, giving her mother a big hug before they went into the Starbucks to get their drinks before the wedding talk would begin.

“How’ve you been sweetie?” Her mother asked as they sat down on the armchairs in side the café.

She shrugged, “Pretty boring. Pretty much just work and more work.”

“You’re going to put yourself into an early grave Hol. You need a social life! A boyfriend, anything!”

“Mom, enough ragging on my personal life. We need to get started on your wedding planning because you’re being stupid and only giving yourself three months to put an entire wedding together.” She scolded as she pulled the heavy-duty wedding planner from her briefcase, she opened it up and put it in her lap as she sipped her venti vanilla crème.

“You bought an encyclopedia.”

“No, I bought a wedding planner. Something you’ve probably never heard of. “

“Honey, you know that I’ve never planned a wedding before. Your father and I ran off together to the justice of the peace and got married.”

“Yes, I know. But this time, you’re going to have a real wedding, especially if I have anything to do with it. You need at least one nice wedding mom. Now let’s get started…”

**

“I can see you” Colleen said with a giggle as she answered the phone.

“Well I can’t see you, so help me out.”

“I’m waving” She said, laughing again, most likely at how stupid she felt.

It only took Zacky another minute or so before he noticed the petite redhead waving at him like a fool. As soon as they made eye contact, Zacky hung up his phone and quickened his pace to meet up with her.

“Sorry, I have a hard time picking people out of a crowd.” He said, somewhat embarrassed by his inability to find her.

“Don’t worry about it,” She said, giving him a hug. “Let’s go get some coffee, I need caffeine like nobody’s business.”

“Have I told you yet that your accent is adorable?” He asked as they walked into the somewhat busy café.

“Nope, not yet.”

“Well it is.”

She blushed, “Thanks.”

They ordered their drinks and Zacky paid for them both – after a short dispute with Colleen, who attempted to pay for both of them – they then saw two armchairs open and rushed over to sit down before someone else took them. They sat down and sunk into the chairs, slowly sipping their hot beverages and chatting about nothing at all.

“So…where are you from?” He asked.

“Huntington Beach” She replied with a “smart-ass” sort of smile.

“Really? I knew that accent sounded familiar.”

“I’m from Kinsale Ireland.” She said, the Irish town’s name making her accent even more apparent.

“Never heard of it.”

She shrugged, “It’s one of the oldest villages in Ireland. It’s by Cork and very close by to Blarney, and I know that you must have heard of at least one of those.”

He nodded, “Yeah. I’ve heard of them both. Why are you here then?”

She shrugged, “The grass is always greener. Which is impressive because Ireland is pretty damn green. I had a cousin move out here a few years ago and I came out to live with her this year for a change of scenery.”

Zacky was going to respond when an all too familiar voice flowed into his ears.

“Mom, you’re being retarded!”

“Honey, stop yelling at me, you’re drawing attention to yourself. See? The man behind you is looking at you like you’re the retarded one.”

At that, Hollis’ head whipped around and Zacky wasn’t able to turn away fast enough and he and Hollis were face to face for the first time in two years.

Neither of them said anything, but they were both unable to look away, even though their respective other halves tried to pull them back to their respective conversations.

“…Zacky” She said weakly after five silent minutes.

“You’re blonde” was his response, and he didn’t care how stupid it sounded.

A hand went up and stroked her hair, “Yeah, I needed a change.”

“I thought you got enough of a change when you walked out on Brian and I.”

“Zacky, don’t be like that. It’s been two years, I’m sure you two have both moved past that. And don’t argue with me because that girl you’re sitting with begs to differ.”

“That’s not the point Hollis. The point was that you just walked away. You just walked away and never bothered to see how either of us were doing. You just passed me off to another shrink and that was the end of it.”

“Zachary Baker that’s the biggest load of crap. You have no idea how hard it was to not run back to both of you. You have no idea how many times I cried and just wanted to call Brian and come over like old times but I didn’t because I knew that you would both be better off. And I picked Ava for you; I knew she would be good for you. And for the first year of your therapy with her I would call her every week to see how you were doing, so don’t tell me I don’t care. Zacky I cared too much, that was the problem.”

Zacky picked up his drink without breaking eye contact with her and quickly looked back to Colleen, who was sitting stunned, not knowing what to do.

“Come on, we can go finish these outside on the patio, where it’s a lot less stuffy.” She stood up and with one last look to Hollis, they both left the Starbucks and situated themselves on one of the many tables outside of the café.

Hollis was shocked. She had never seen Zacky so cold before…she didn’t think that if they ever saw each other again that he would behave that way…but then again, she hadn’t thought that she would ever see him again. She turned around in her chair so she was facing her mother, who was looking at her with her mouth hanging open.

And then, at the same time, both Colleen and Hollis’ mother asked the same question:

“Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”