Holiday hurricane

Chapter 7

Linda had completely forgotten about the date she was supposed to go on with Chase. It was going to be a special night where she would finally have the opportunity to be in a relationship with a handsome, professional man.

She quickly searched for her cell phone to call him and explain her dilemma. It wasn't in her bags. "Has anyone seen my phone?" She hollered. Everyone searched the basement for the small, mobile device but it was nowhere to be found. They searched everywhere and her aunt eventually found it under one of the mattresses.

Relieved, Linda took the phone and opened it. To her dismay, she had a low signal and could only hope that her call would go through to Chase. Linda dialed the numbers and hit send. Begging her phone to work properly, she listened to it ringing. After four rings, the familiar husky voice picked up on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" He asked.
"Hey. It's Linda. I'm so sorry about our date." She replied. There was a pause and the line grew silent.
"Just forget about it. I understand that you don't like me that way but I hoped that you would tell me instead of ditching me though" he said. She could hear the anger and disappointment in his voice. Her heart dropped and she didn't know what she could say to fix this. "I'm sorry. I'm still at my parents' house. There was a hurricane and we are in the basement. We have been stuck down here for four days." He sighed and apologized. "Look, I'm sorry for overreacting but you should have called. I was freaking out waiting outside of the restaurant for you and you never showed up. I thought I did something wrong." She answered him and said," you did absolutely nothing wrong. How about we reschedule our date for when the storm ends and I come back home because I really want to start a relationship with you." He agreed and she smiled softly. Together, they worked out all of the details and she promised to call him when she was on her way home so they could go out when she got back.

They hung up the phone and Linda went back over to sit with her family. She explained what had happened and talked on and on about how much she loved and admired Chase. This was the first man that she had ever showed any interest in besides the few high school relationships that she had suffered through when she was in her teenage years. It felt nice to talk about a man as wonderful as Chase and even nicer to be able to confide in her family.

After they talked for a couple of hours, they turned on the radio and gathered around it. They had been listening to it frequently for the past few days but they expected the storm to pass over soon since the noises outside were less frequent and did not make as much noise as they had before.

The reporter on the news spoke professionally, throwing on facts about the storm that they really didn't need to know. The man finally got to talking about the duration of the storm and how long until it passes over. After a couple minutes of scientific language and statistics, they heard exactly what they were hoping for. "The storm will pass over the region in approximately 1-3 hours. Until then, stay in your places of security and stay safe against the winds." The family cheered loudly and hugged each other, clapping their hands and celebrating the good news that was just shared with them.