11. Charlotte
The last thirty minutes of my shift definitely took a weird turn.
Jane had told me that most of their business was police officers from the station, so I made sure to be polite when the officers came in. They were harmless enough aside from the flirting. I couldn’t help but be slightly flattered by it. I’ve been with Adam so long, it had been a while since I’d been paid that kind of attention. Besides, I could do with the tip money.
I was happy to play along, despite not being overly enthusiastic about dating anytime soon. Maybe one of them would change my mind. There was something about Officer Weatherston, who I now know is called Elijah, that really gets under my skin. He always seems to have some snarky remark for me. Although, I couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for him when he spilled his coffee on himself. I instantly felt this need to take care of him. There was a certain softness that seemed to let its way into him when I was helping him.
While he normally seemed to be snarky or give sarcastic comments, it was nice to see a hint of vulnerability beneath the surface.
After all of that excitement, I was glad my shift was over and I could head over to pick up Theo. I pulled out my phone and started going through my notifications. I deleted the texts from Adam without bothering to read them; I didn’t want to know what he had to say. I spied an email from the realtor and found myself stopping dead in my tracks.
My application has been accepted for the apartment.
It was already empty; we could pick up the keys whenever we were ready. I let out an involuntary squeal as I finished reading the email. The apartment was small and not exactly our forever home, but it was a start. It was a way to begin our fresh start and get out of the hotel. It felt like for once, things were finally starting to go our way. I fired off a quick email back, asking if I could collect the keys tomorrow, hoping they would be open on a Saturday. I would have to sort out some furniture and other bits before we could actually move in, but I was excited to at least have the keys.
I continued to go through my notifications as I set about walking again and saw a text from Alice.
Alice: Sorry I didn’t get a chance to come see you, got a big order come through late in the day. Lucas said you were doing great, though! Want to go get dinner with the kiddos tonight to celebrate?
I really shouldn’t have been that surprised that Lucas and Alice were siblings. They both had this supportive nature about them, you really got the feeling that they were in your corner. I had sensed a familiarity when I first met Alice and it must have been their similar nature. Both of them had been nothing but kind to Theo and I since we came into town and I was grateful for them. I fired her back a text to arrange the time and place before walking into the day care to get Theo. We had an hour or so before we arranged to see Alice and Violet, so we walked back to the hotel to get showered and ready. I spent the whole walk asking Theo to tell me everything. He seemed so happy and it put my heart at ease. This was going to become our new normal. I was anxious he would struggle to adjust, but he seemed more settled than I’d ever seen him.
Alice had suggested that we meet at a place called Blake’s Diner, she said it was a fond favourite of her family. It was an old eighties style diner lined with booths and various decorations from the time period. Alice and Violet were already there when we arrived and the kids quickly started colouring.
“How did it go?” Alice asked excitedly as I sat down.
“Really good, Jane offered me the job!” I couldn’t hide my own excitement in my response.
I felt like I could finally breathe and I was not afraid to celebrate that.
“That’s amazing, Lottie!” Her smile was genuine as she turned to me. “Lucas and Violet gave rave reviews about your hot chocolate to me.” Violet briefly turned away from her drawing to give me a thumbs up.
“The highest of compliments,” I said with a laugh. “I didn’t realise you and Lucas were related. What a small world to meet two siblings in the space of a day.”
“I know! I have another brother, so if you ever bump into him, you’ll have the full house! Lucas said you came by his shop; I heard somebody is quite fond of cars,” she said, giving Theo a nudge. “Lucas meant it when he said Theo could come by, I think he would love to have a helper for the day.” This caught Theo’s attention and prompted him to spend the next few minutes begging me to let him.
“I’ll talk to my brother and get it arranged,” Alice finally cut in, saving me any further repeated begging.
“I don’t think Lucas was overly pleased with me mistaking him for Violet’s dad,” I said quietly, not wanting Violet to overhear in case it was a touchy subject.
“My brothers can’t stand him so that doesn’t surprise me. It was a bit of a bitter split. They are a little protective of me and especially Violet.”
“I definitely got the protective Uncle vibes. He said he wasn’t too happy to have heard Violet was hanging out with a boy.” This earned a laugh from Alice.
“They’re both terrible.” She shook her head.
“They were like that when I had boyfriends when I was younger. God help me if they ever catch me on a date. It’s going to be even harder for Violet when she’s older, I’m sure.”
“Does Violet still see her dad?” I asked softly.
“Sometimes. He doesn’t see her as much as I wish he did,” she said with a sigh. “Does Theo see his?”
I hesitated for a moment. I had avoided most of the talk about Adam when we first met. There were still some parts I wasn’t ready to share. However, the more I spoke to Alice, the more I began to trust her. I had a feeling there were parts of our stories that were similar and it was nice to know I wasn’t doing this completely on my own.
“No and I’m not planning on it.” I paused. “We only split up a couple days ago, so it’s all kind of fresh.” Her face softened as she watched me speak, I could see the pity washing over her.
“Oh, Lottie, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise it was that recent!” She held her hand out and grabbed mine. “If you want to talk about any of it you know I’m here, right?”
“I know, thank you.” I wasn’t really ready to dive into all of it, especially not in front of Theo. He had only asked about his dad once since we got here, but I knew more questions would be coming. I also needed to figure out how to answer them. “Did I tell you I found a place? They emailed me back just before I got here saying I could do the paperwork and get the keys tomorrow morning. It’s only a small place, so it’s a start.”
“That’s brilliant! So you’re really here to stay then?”she asks, squeezing my hand.
“It seems we are.” I squeezed it back. “I just need to sort out some furniture, we didn’t really come with much. I don’t have to lot to spend on it until I start getting my paycheck, but I have enough for some of the basics.”
“I can definitely help with that. There’s a good second-hand furniture store just outside of town where I got a lot of bits for the shop. I can ask Lucas if we can borrow one of his trucks to move it to your new place.”
“Oh, I don’t want to put him out…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, he’d be happy to help you, I know it. I’ll text him now,” she said, pulling out her phone and sending off a message.
“I am really grateful for you; you know that, right?” I gave her hand another squeeze when she put the phone down on the table.
“I’m just happy to have met you. It’s been really hard moving back into town after the split. It’s nice to have somebody to have fun with and talk to.” She smiled softly and her phone buzzed. “He says to let him know when and where and he will be happy to help,” she said, holding it up to show me. It felt good to have a plan of action for tomorrow. One more night in the hotel and we would be in our new home. We spent the rest of the meal chatting while Theo recounted his day to Violet and Alice. He was slightly upset to hear Violet got a hot chocolate and cake from me at the café, but I promised to make it up to him. The next couple of hours were filled with food and laughter. I soaked in every minute of it, giving a silent toast to the future.