How I Met Your Father

Elizabeth and her daughter, Holly, walked down the street holding hands. Holly was chatting away about her friend that she made in preschool that day. Elizabeth was very happy about this, her daughter was very shy when she was around new people and it made it difficult for her to make friends. So as a celebration for making a friend they went to a ice cream shop before going to the bakery.

“Heeyyy mommmmy,” Holly said as she swung her legs back and forth under the chair. “What happened next? How did daddy ask you out? Did you guys ever have a playdate?”

Elizabeth chuckled “You want me to tell you more?”

Holly nodded over dramatically, her brown hair flying everywhere. She then began to laugh, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“Okay okay,” she couldn’t help but laugh along with her child.

I sat in my car for a few minutes, collecting my brain. I looked at my phone, no new messages I sighed. I turned the radio on, it was playing some bad Maroon 5 song as usual, but I couldn't help but sing along as I drove to my work. I worked at an diner, it was a small simple place, it was very homey feeling. I smoothed down my jean dress as I got out of my car. When I got into the diner I grabbed my apron and punched in.

"Hey Staaannn!" I yelled into the back kitchen, Stan was the old man who ran the diner. He looked like a grandfather, white hair that fell over his bald spot, very tan and tall. He had a beautiful Greek accent, which I envied.

"Hello Lizzy," he said from the kitchen, "Welcome back, can you take this plate to the man in the right corner?" he phrased the sentence like a question, even though he was telling me I had to do it. He handed me a plate stacked with pancakes.

I nodded and took it, I walked smoothly over to the man in the corner "Here you go sir, would you like anything else with that?" I said as I handed him his plate.

He didn't look up from the book he was reading, "No thank you Miss."

I could tell today was going to be a slow day. He was the only person in the diner and it was beginning to rain. I walked back to the counter where Andrea a coworker of mine was standing.

"Hey chica how did your test go?" she said as I leaned up against the counter facing away from the door.

I shrugged "I think overall pretty good, how's Tyler doing?" Tyler was her autistic son, I baby sat him whenever Andrea needs a break seeing as she is a single mother. He was a sweetheart.

She smiled "Much better, he got over his fear of dogs yesterday which was definitely a breakthrough."

We talked about random things till the bell on the door rang. "Ooh it's the attractive guy that comes here sometimes," she whispered, looking past my shoulders, probably towards the man who just walked in.

I rolled my eyes and turned around to see the customer "Phil!" I laughed "What are you doing here?"

"I come here sometimes, I didn't know you worked here." he said walking over to the counter.

"Yup I work here, you must come here when I'm not on shift or something."

Andrea elbowed me then left to the kitchen, we would talk later. I smiled and took him out a menu.

"Must have been, well now I know you work on Wednesdays at 4," he smiled as I handed him a menu.

"I'm here till closing time," I sighed "Can I get you anything to drink?"

“IS THIS WHEN HE ASKED TO HAVE A PLAYDATE WITH YOU!” Holly asked loudly, interrupting the story.

“If you listen maybe you’ll find out,” Elizabeth raising her eyebrow and giggling. “okay, I’ll skip ahead to when we were hanging out after my shift was done.”

I stood in the doorway of Phils apartment. He had stayed at the diner for my entire shift, never leaving. I would get him a coffee every so often. When my shift was over he convinced me to go to his house and have a horror movie marathon. I didn’t really need much convincing. I looked around his living room, it was a messy room. A woman's touch was missing from it. I chuckled and untied my shoes, pulling them off with a lot of difficulty. Phil watched me struggle with my shoes.

“Having trouble?” he chuckled as he hung up his coat.

“No!” I pulled off my shoe finally. “Huzzah!” I ran over to his couch and jumped on it face first into a pillow. I turned over to see Phil sitting on the ground in front of the tv. He grabbed a ps3 control and inched over to the couch. He was about to sit on my legs before I quickly pulled them away. I looked at him and pouted.

He rolled his eyes “We should watch Cabin in the Woods, I’ve been told to watch it,” he said as I sat up.

“Yeeess have you seen it?” I asked looking at him.

He shook his head “Naw Aaron just left it here yesterday and said I need to watch it.”

My eyes widened when he said that, “Oh my god, yes we are watching it!”

He chuckled and hit the X button, making it play. I sat up, sitting indian style on his couch, I looked over at him and grinned. Halfway through the movie we ended up spooning on his couch. I couldn’t focus on the movie while I could feel him breathing right next to my ear. The melodic pattern of his chest rising and falling, rising and falling. I closed my eyes, the sound of screaming that was coming from the tv made me jump. Phil chuckled and pulled me close into him.

“I might fall asleep any minute,” I mumbled.

“That’s fine, do you want some different close? I mean you can wear some of my clothes...” he said into the back of my head.

I chuckled softly as his voice vibrated my hair, “Why not, get out of this dress would be nice I guess.”

“You guys had a sleepover!” Holly said as they walked out of the ice cream place and onto the busy street.

“Hold my hand boo,” Elizabeth whispered, grabbing a hold of her childs small hand. “Yes we did..”