One Day You'll Be Mine(46)

We pulled into the parking lot of Knife, a steakhouse on Mockingbird. I wasn’t really acquainted with the city yet, but I knew this restaurant was a place Ellis and Rose raved about. Ro dined on filet mignon with a side of green vegetables and a glass of wine. I ordered the hand rolled pasta with black truffle essence and a White Russian.

“A White Russian pairs well with that, right?” I asked the waitress, nervously. I didn’t want to seem out of place by ordering the wrong food.

“You’re fine,” the waitress replied. “Both are really good.” She leaned in to us, “To be honest, it’s about what you want, not what others think.”

“Thank you!” Rose, gave a mini-clap, emphasizing her approval. “Thank you ma’am!”

Turning to me, she said, “Natalia, I have no idea how tough it is for you right now, but I want you to know I love you. Ellis and I have your back. You’re still family.”

She patted my hand, and pulled it toward her as she leaned in. “It’s just only been one week since you’ve been out here. And albeit, things are a little tough. We’re coming up on the holidays, and most people are probably thinking about Thanksgiving more than they are hiring someone. But if you want a job, there are several seasonal places you can work at. If you just want to take some time to yourself and breathe, I’m fine with that too.”

I returned the gentle smile from across the table. “Thanks. I guess I just wanted this to be easy. I wanted to jump into a new life, clean from my old one, and be this super woman I realized I was when I came to visit. Reality’s setting in, and I just don’t feel so super after all.”

“Because you’re being hard on yourself. There’s so much going on. You still have benefits, right?”

I nodded. Hollis filed the paperwork immediately, but the divorce would take about 90 days to be completed. We’d been married for 16 years and had a child; it wouldn’t be an overnight process.

“Use the benefits you have now to see about some counseling and other options.”

“I didn’t want to use them for that,” I sulked. “I wanted to go see a fertility specialist.”

“We can do that too.” I furrowed my brow. She confessed, “Ellis and I are planning to start our family when he comes home.”

“I’m so happy for you guys! Unfortunately, that baby girl I wanted to have is nothing more than a dream for me these days.”

“Don’t give up hope,” Rose said. “You never know who’s coming around the corner. God blesses us through the storms in our lives.”

I took another small sip of my White Russian as the waitress came back and set our food in front of us. I took a bite of the pasta, and gave her a thumbs-up on the flavor. It was absolutely delicious.

Rose and I continued to chat. As we ate, the conversation’s heaviness shifted from its focus on my dark and crazy life to lighter topics. Ro’s libido was through the roof, as was her appetite. She devoured the entire filet mignon, and then ordered this bacon platter with different types of bacon.

I ribbed her on her ravenous, horny appetite. “Don’t judge me! I’m sexually frustrated for your freedom, and if filling my mouth with meat makes me feel good, I’m going to stick as much meat in my mouth as possible and swallow it all!”

She said that a little louder than I’d have liked. As a couple of tables around us turned to look, some chuckling at her raucous outburst, I turned red with embarrassment.

“Control yourself!” I hissed, looking down into my pasta, and pretending eyes were not on us.

Rose waved me off as she laughed and took another sip of her drink. “You’re way too uptight, girl.” She started coughing mid-sip when she kept laughing. At first I thought it was nothing, but she abruptly got up and went to the restroom, and left her purse behind, something she never did.

I wasn’t sure whether to follow behind her or not, so I waited five minutes before calling our waitress. I asked her to wrap our food up and give us our ticket. “I need to check on my sister in the restroom,” I said. “I’ll be back.”

I entered the restroom to find Ro, rinsing her mouth with palmfuls of water. I approached her slowly. “Hey, are you okay?”

She nodded quickly. “I’m fine. I just think wine went down the wrong pipe as I was laughing, and my body just reacted violently. I do have a headache though.”

We walked out the bathroom together. Boxes were ready at the table, as was the check. Rose wanted to finish her wine and a little more of her food before leaving, but the mood was totally gone for me. I was ready to leave before we caused another scene.