13 – Joey
“This is Jake. Leave a message.”
Frowning, I sighed and hung up.
This was the third time tonight; his phone had gone to voicemail. Sure, our conversation earlier had been a little heated, but was he ignoring me now? All I wanted to do was chat with him and clear the air, making sure we were still on good terms.
If he was ignoring me, then he was being incredibly petty. But then the other idea came to my mind, that his bitch of a
her. fiancée was keeping him from talking to me. I wouldn’t put it past
“He’s busy, Idiot.” I admonished myself, trying to trick my brain into being civil about Phoebe, even if it was screaming back at me that I didn’t have to be. “He’s probably doing wedding shit.”
Of course, he was doing wedding shit. Probably placating family.
Whose? I didn’t know, or care.
I’d met Phoebe’s parents once, at their engagement party and I knew exactly where Phoebe got her attitude from, and it wasn’t her mom. I had a feeling I knew what Pa Kazumi thought of his son’s fiancée, something drastic would have to be offered, for Pa Kazumi to play nice with Phoebe’s parents.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I looked down at it, smiling. Answering it, I grinned, ready to pour my heart out to the only man who listened to me.
“Hi. Papa.
“Hey there, Roo. How are you holding up?”
My smile faded and I brought my legs up under me, as I stared off into space, trying to keep the tears at bay. I had cried too much over the last month, I didn’t want to cry more and have puffy, red eyes for tomorrow, “Oh, you know, ready to sabotage a wedding.”
My dad chuckled down the line. “Could you at least wait for me to get there before you kick off? I want to video it and post it online.
Icackled, holding my spare hand to my face as my dad laughed on the other end of the line. “Pal”
His laughter died off and he changed the subject. “So, I fly into Paris on Sunday, want to come for a visit?”
I sighed, knowing he was doing it to try and protect my heart. “Papa, I’d love to, but I think I need time by myself to process things
He returned the sigh, and the line went silent for a moment before he spoke, “Then do me a favor, Roo, go on a trip. Just for No one else. Don’t tell anyone, even me. Just pack up and leave. You have nothing tying you to Miami. You need a fresh
you
start.
It was something I had been considering for a couple weeks now. Ever since Jake and Phoebe had announced their engagement. I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing for me in Miami anymore. Jake was moving on with his life and the only friends I had, other than him, were at work… and even then, we weren’t close. They weren’t the kind of friends I would actively hang out with on the weekend. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good.”
We spoke of other things, with my dad trying to skirt the wedding as delicately as possible, while still showing me the disdain he had for Jake and Phoebe.
I really wanted to stay on the phone with my dad and chat until I couldn’t speak anymore, but I didn’t want to be too tired for the wedding tomorrow. I knew I would need all my energy to get through it in one piece
“I better go, Pa. I need to get some sleep. It’s going to be a very long day tomorrow.” I almost thought not to go to the wedding at all. That had crossed my mind on more than one occasion during the day. That’d suit Phoebe just fine, but I knew, even though I was not his choice, it would still break Jake’s heart and as much as I was pissed as hell with him, I couldn’t bring myself to do that to him
“Okay, make sure you call me after and tell me how garish it was. Maybe I might send you a nice French boy in my next package as compensation”
I giggled. “Thanks, pa. I love you.”
13–Joey
“Love you too. Roo,”
My dad hung up and I tossed my phone onto the sofa beside me.
I didn’t want a nice French boy. I wanted a rough, tattooed Japanese American man. Mainly, I wanted Xan from the night before and I was seriously kicking myself about not sticking around and having that late breakfast. I might have been in the throes of passion again, instead of sitting here, feeling sorry for myself. And I was definitely kicking myself about not getting his real name and number. But that was in the past and I had to look to the future.
I looked around the small apartment I had been renting since dad had taken off on his trip and frowned, thinking about what he had said.
There was not much here.
The sofa I sat on. A cabinet with a tiny TV on it, which was still practically new. My bedroom suite and various kitchen appliances and things. I lived sparsely, because of my work hours at the hospital. I was called in for random shifts, and 1 didn’t really have the time, or friends to entertain.
What was in this apartment, was my world. and I realized my dad was right.
There was nothing holding me here.
I could have walked out of my apartment tomorrow and not missed a single thing in it, bar a photo of dad and me.
I picked up my phone and opened it, looking at the screen which greeted me.
A picture of Jake and I, happy, before he met Phoebe.
Clenching my jaw, I opened up my settings and replaced the photo with something random and then opened up the
internet search
I was going on a trip of self–discovery.
Now I just had to pick a destination
