It's late and she's been driving for an hour now, but she had to get something to eat and decided to drive on after all. She reaches the mall and is just about to step out of the car when her hand phone starts to ring.
"My, my, howdy stranger!"
"Hi Hayley, I'm on my way to my brother's house and was thinking of you, so I dialled."
"Well, I'm glad you called, Aiden, I've been wondering how you were. And coincidentally I've been trying to reach you today", Hayley leans back on her car....
"Yeah, I saw that... how have you been girl?"
"I'm good, so hey! When are we going for that ride like you promised?"
Aiden got his new car this week and last year he'd promised Hayley a spin in it. Maybe even a trip to Germany just for fun. Each time she saw Aiden, he always reminded her of a 'golden boy'.... Aiden's a tall, sleek, youthful looking guy with dark blond hair and bright blue eyes. "Quite handsome actually", she thinks while she's listening to him.
"Some day soon, girl, first I have to work this car up and build up the mileage slowly. When this monster's ready for speed, I'll call you and we'll blast the highways."
"Cool! I can't wait!"
While she's standing there in the cold talking to Aiden, she realizes she really enjoys her conversations with him. One cold November evening last year, when they both happened to be working the late shift, they were standing out on the terrace having a smoke. Talking about his trip to New York next weekend and the conversation started to get deeper involving past relationships. They exchanged talk about their experiences and principles. Since that day, Hayley and Aiden have been keeping in touch, even though he'd left for a new job elsewhere.
Aiden goes on to tell her about his new job and his plans for the weekend.
"Hey Hayley, I've reached my destination now, so I'll call you soon, alright?"
"You'd better! I'll see you soon yeah?"
Hayley locks up her car and heads on to the supermarket to get her groceries....
As quickly as the weekdays pass, so does the weekend. It's now Monday, and Hayley's dreading the thought of going to the doctor tomorrow. It'll be just a small surgery but she knows she's going to have problems walking for the rest of the week. Her main concern now is how she is going to drive home from the doctor's. She stares blankly at the screen. Rain pulls up next to her and whispers, "Hey, have you heard anything from Carl yet? Did he send you any text messages?"
Hayley shrugs, "No, nothing as yet. Why?"
"Just curious."
"Well, I don't know what's up with that either"
"Hmm... we'll see..."
Hayley's about to leave for her doctor's appointment. She packs up her stuff. Rain looks up and whispers, "Hey, is Justin still not here?"
"Hmm... No idea, maybe he is but somewhere else and too busy. We'll see..."
She's more concerned of the surgery right now.
"Oh my god, this was more painful than I thought!" Hayley was having a tough time trying to drive home. Her toe was bandaged and that couldn't fit into her shoe, so she was driving with sandals on. But each and every time she had to change gear, her toe hurt like hell.
She almost fainted at the doctor's, the pain was apparently more than she expected. Her ears started ringing and within a few minutes, she couldn't hear a thing. Her ears blocked up and she felt dizzy. The doctor made her lie down for a while and gave her some water to rejuvenate.
Now Hayley's home and resting her foot up just like her doctor told her to. She decides to call Rain and tells him she isn't sure if she'll be able to come in tomorrow. With the way things are looking right now, it didn't look good. She hangs up, takes a pill and goes to bed.
Something’s buzzing somewhere far away, but the buzz seems to be coming nearer and nearer. “Oh! Too loud! It’s time to wake up, Hayley.” She drags herself out of bed, stumbling on her feet and feels an odd throbbing on her left toe. She remembers now, her toe. She slumps on the couch, trying to decide what she should do. “I don’t know if I even have shoes to fit in,” she sighs while she lights up a cigarette and takes a draw. She takes a good sip of her coffee, gets up and pulls all her shoes out of the closet. “This one won’t do… Nope, that neither… Maybe this…” Finally, she finds a pair of sturdy dark blue boots which ordinarily was one size too big for her. “I’m so glad I didn’t throw these away” She slips her left feet in and “Yes, this one fits!”
“Okay, so which outfit is going to fit now?” Hayley actually wanted to look good today, but how to accomplish that with these boots? “No choice”, she decides on a brown top and a pair of jeans. It’s already a quarter to 8 and she’s not ready yet. Hayley dials her manager’s number and he agrees that she should leave the house only after the rush hour has passed. That leaves her at least one and a half hours more to slowly get ready for work.
As the day passes, Rain is getting more and more curious. He scoots on over next to her and on a surprised note he says, “Hayley, hey, isn’t he here today?”
“I don’t know, Rain. We’ll see him whenever….” She kicks off her slippers and puts on her boots. It’s just after lunch and she desperately needs a smoke.
Tyrone calls out to her, “Hey, you planning for a smoke?”
“Yeah, you coming?”
Talking and laughing, on their way back, she suddenly notices Justin, who’s peering up at them while sipping on a cup of coffee. He’s standing at a coffee corner waiting for some people.
When she sees Rain, she walks over to him and whispers, “Justin’s in the building. He’s standing there. I think he’s in a meeting.”
Rain looks out, “Yeah! I see him! Well, how come he doesn’t come and say hi or even send you a note?”
“Maybe he’s too busy, dear. He is, after all, in a meeting right now,” she replied, surprised at his concern.
Rain just couldn’t shake it off. “Yet, I still wonder…”
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