Willa

Chapter Twenty Six: A Tale of two dates *

"Good morning" Willa cheerily greeted, as I picked up the phone.

"Good morning to you too... why do you sound so chipper this morning" I ask curiously, as I hand Harper a juice box and take the seat beside her on the bench in the yard. We had spent all morning out here planting and clearing the flower beds, me in a pair of tan dungarees, grey t shirt, my hair wrapped up in a scarf like a war time factory employee who was working the line.

Harper looked to me as I sat "Is it aunty Willa" she asked.

I nodded as she smiled, kicking her legs excitedly back and forth. Willa is in the background, sounding like she is moving about "Willa" I ask "did you hear me"

I hear a car door shut, and the phone moving about in her hands "Sorry Allie. I was just getting a million things into the car for basketball today. I've finally shut the trunk... I had to jump on the top of it. God knows what the neighbours thought" she muses.

I let out a laugh at the vision of her on top of her car, and Harper smiles "what did she say mama" she asks me.

I run my hand through her red hair tenderly "Aunty Willa is acting a fool again... nothing new" I noted, and she took another sip from her juice box and watched a bee buzz about on the flowers in-front of us.

"So why are you so chipper this morning..." I ask again

I hear the car start "No reason" she says, but I can hear it in her voice that she is excited about something.

"You can tell me" I add. I didn't want Willa to hide her life from me. I wanted to hear about the things that made her days and the people in them, yet I noticed she didn't talk much about her friends or her love life there. It was as if she shielded me from it, and I appreciated that sometimes, to be kept back from all the details that may sting. To know the ins and outs of her dating life would perhaps indeed be too much, but to know nothing at all, it was also rather painful. My mind could go wondering when I knew nothing, making things worse than they were in reality. Perhaps it would be better to know it all, and just take it.

"I have a date tonight" she finally confesses.

I gulp a little "wow okay" I add, pretending to be thrilled "who with" I ask. She is quiet, like she's assessing the depth of her reply "is it the girl from the hotel, the one who knocked your door"

My eyes squeeze shut for the reply, because if it was, that meant, that she meant something a little more, and that she had lasted past the weekend.

"Yes" she replies "the very one. I didn't put her off after all" she says with a hint of a humour "I pick her up from the airport in a few hours"

"The airport" I ask, a little flustered and standing to pace slightly around the yard. Harper took off looking for bugs under all the pots, as I watched on and tried to distract my train of thought.

"Yes, she's from Arizona" she returns.

My nostrils flair slightly at the wave of emotions running every which way through my body and mind. Willa didn't just have a date, she had a girl fly out of state to visit with her, this was serious, and if Willa didn't realise it she soon would. A woman doesn't just fly hours for a hook up, she must really like her, perhaps more than like her. Why did it make my heart hurt?! To consider another may take it, as if they were taking it out of my hands forcefully and stealing it away, like I had any say on who or where Willa's heart resides. As her best friend I felt i always kept it safe, that piece of Willa. I guess it was time to hand it over, because romance trumped friendship, and it no longer belonged to me. I should have been expecting this moment, it was long overdue. Willa is the most incredible person I've ever been blessed to meet, and to have in my life, and so I knew, someone would come across her one day, and realise how they needed her in their life. Willa was a catch, she was, and is, a true discovery.