Love, Zoey

Chapter Seven

Zoey's p.o.v.

           "So Lilly called me momma the other day." I said softly to America. The warm soapy water easily reached my elbows, making the rest of my body feel a slight coldness that only came from the household act of washing dishes.

             America slowly raised an arched eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"
She sat at he table with her hands deep in a bag of snap peas. "What did you say?"

             Lilly sat in the highchair with the bow I had put on her head now in her hands pulling it as far as it would stretch. She opened her mouth and tried to shove the elastic in. "No, baby, no." I said sternly as I wiped my soapy hands on the towel. "We don't eat those, they're pretties and go in our hair."

            "I think I know why she called you momma." America's face showed a slight grin as she spoke, the look in her eyes making it seem as though she had a secret that you didn't know. "You act just like one. It only makes sense that she would call you momma."

               I handed her some of her baby toys before returning her bow to her hair. "But I have never called myself momma. She learns words by hearing them and repeating them."

            She snapped the peas with precision, each just long enough to fit on a fork and to give the proper crunch that home cooked meals were known for. "But she watches movies, there has to be things she learns from that." She brushed her hair out of her eyes before continuing. "There also has to be some traits that are just imbedded into our brains. We know that each family needs a mother and a father to start and she seems to see that person in you."

            "Momma!" Lilly shouted out loudly making our attention turn to her. "Momma!"

              "Zoey, Lilly. My name is Zoey." I said as I picked up the toys she had dropped, the dishes long forgotten. "Not momma, I am Zoey."

            "Her mom is long gone, why not you just be 'momma'? It's better than that no good bum, Anna, she doesn't even deserve the title."

         America had always been strong, She had been a nurse at the hospital down the road and raised Beck by herself when her husband died. He had been twenty-five years her senior, but they had a love so fierce that it made Romeo and Juliet jealous.

              Beckett James Sr. had been diagnosed with lung cancer when Beck was just ten years old. He only had to fight for a short six months before it took him. America put all of his life support into savings and got a job as a nurse at the local hospital.

             "I don't see a problem with it and I doubt Beck will see a problem with it either." She had her hands deep in a bowl of snap peas, breaking them apart with skilled movements.

           "But when Beck gets back and I leave can Lilly handle that?" I started drying the dishes that still had soft water droplets covering their front side.

          "Lilly loves you like a mother and there is nothing Beck can do about it. And besides you aren't going to be gone forever, you are only planning on moving out to finish your degree." She turned around to look at the clock on the wall. "Oh my goodness, you are going to be late for your date if you don't get ready!"

"**
 

       I swing the door open as wide as it would go. "Hi"

          Blind dates had never been my thing, in fact I had made excuses to get out of them hundreds of times.

         America was the one who had thought I would look good with him and had set the whole thing up. She claimed, "You need a break from playing mommy."

      "Hi." Mike responded. "Are you ready?"

           "Yeah, of course." I grabbed my purse and swing it over my shoulder.

           Once the door was safely locked behind me we started making our way out to his car.

           A tan four-door sedan that sat so close to the ground you almost couldn't see the bottom. This is the car that Beck would make fun of as we drove through the town in his giant truck that was the same color as a fire engine, his father's pride and joy which had become his.

        He would have laughed at how it was the smallest car on the street and how that's probably the car my next boyfriend would drive and that it must match a lot of things in his life.

           Mike drove with slow, calculated movement with his hands on the ten and two. Beck always drove with his left hand resting lazily on the steering wheel while his right would copy the beat of the music onto his leg or on the gear shift.

           When we pulled up to the restaurant I realized that tan must have been his thing. The building sat tall and proud with it's tan decorations and low hanging lights over buffet tables.

            The waitress directed us to a booth in the back where we akwardly sat until Mike opened his mouth. "My grandparents would bring us here every Saturday night when I was a kid." He glanced around as if seeing it for the first time, his eyes wide with wonder. "My sister and I would jump at the opportunity to eat the deserts that would be laid out across the counters."

         "Was it just you and your sister?" I asked, jumping on the conversation topic he had presented.

         The waitress appeared beside our table and pulled her notepad from her apron. "A date, Mike?"

         "Yes, Kelsey, a date." He laughed as she shoved him lightly. "Zoey, this is my sister, Kelsey. Kelsey, this is Zoey."

          She leaned her pale arm across the table to shake mine. "Hi Zoey. It's nice to know that Mikey is getting out there. Did you know it's been six months since his last date?"

           She was blunt, straight to the point and definitely not one to beat around the bush.

           Her small frame reminded me of a smoker and the way her eyes darted around the room looked more like a heroin addict then a normal teenage girl.

           "No I didn't." I responded softly. I liked her spunk, it was something that reminded me of Beck.

           "Kelsey, you told me that you weren't working tonight." He gave her a sharp look of warning.

            My eyes danced around the room as I avoided the akward conversation going on in front of me.

           "No, I said I might not be working tonight." She lashed back. "It's not my fault you brought her to my place of work."

           I picked up the glass cup they had given me at the front where Mike had paid. "I'm just going to go get something to drink." My words fell to deaf ears as they continued to argue.

          I yanked out my phone and quickly dialed America's number. "Hello?"

          "I am never going on a blind date ever again." I whispered into the phone. "I need you to call me in 5 minutes and say there is an emergency."

            "Mike is a sweetheart, I doubt it is that terrible." She tried to reason with me. "Just stick it out for an hour, I bet you just aren't putting everything into this."

             I shook my head rapidly. "His sister works here and they just started arguing at the table in front of me, I think it's more than likely not my fault this date is bad." I took a deep breath before continuing to talk. "I wasn't ready for this. I thought I was, but I'm content with where I am."

             "Alright sweetie, I will call back soon."

            I could already hear my next letter to Beck forming in my head as I went back to join my terrible date.