Built For Failure

Chapter 2

The cashier rings me up and the total is $60, but the sale knocks it down to $45, so I happily slide my card and grab my bag once the receipt is printed. I walk out and see mom down at Bath and Body. I quickly walk over and smile as their sale is buy three and get three free. Walking inside, I grab one of their baskets and go around to smell their scents.

Mom comes over and drops two bottles of body spray into the basket while I grab a couple newly released scents, but also get a couple of vanilla-infused sprays. Just have to love dropping so much money on things to make you smell better. We made our way up to the cash register and we dropped $90 dollars.

Mom swipes her card before I can grab mine, to which I glared at her because I wanted to pay for our stuff. She just shrugs and walks away. "Where to next?"

I place a hand on my hip. "Hmm... Can we grab a snack from Auntie Anne's? I've been craving their cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets." My mouth waters as I think about the chewy goodness of Auntie Anne's pretzels and the taste of the cinnamon and sugar on my tongue.

We make our journey to grab some pretzel nuggets and we both walk away with some, of course I got cinnamon sugar while mom just got the regular salted ones. We decided to go with TGI Fridays for lunch, just because we're still hungry and just want to grab a couple appetizers to eat.

I place my bags in the back seat and slide into the passenger seat as mom starts the car, backing out of the parking spot after looking both ways to make sure it's safe. Beginning our trip to Fridays, I glance at my phone to see that my message still says only delivered. Hm, guess he became busy today, I don't really know what it is he's doing.

Mom pulls into a spot and I make sure to grab my card and phone, walking in and being seated at a booth. She looks over the menu as I look at what drinks they have. The waiter comes over and he asks what we'd like, mom ordered a Dr. Pepper and I ordered a Coke, although I need to get off sodas in order to lose some of this weight. Who am I kidding? I love food too much.

"So I was thinking we could try their combo appetizer, the one with the mozzarella sticks, wings, and their loaded potato skins. But instead of the potato skins, maybe extra mozzarella sticks? Oh, and the sweet Apple Butter BBQ sauce. That's sort of like Honey BBQ sauce." I nod along, agreeing as the waiter puts our drinks down in front of us.

"May we get your combo appetizer, but instead of the loaded potato skins, can we get extra mozzarella sticks? With the Apple Butter BBQ sauce please." I make eye contact with the waiter and he nods, taking note of everything. "Will that be all for now?" We both nod.

I look at mom as he walks away. She looks at me suggestively. "Well he seemed cute, you could try talking to him?" I laugh. "Mom, I'm not looking for anyone at this exact moment. You know this!" She shrugs. "Was worth a try."

We talk about a little bit of everything until our appetizer is placed on our table. I give mom a plate as we dig in and I close my eyes because the food is so delicious. It didn't take us long to finish up and we went through two drinks each throughout the whole process.

Mom gets up and heads to the restroom, giving me time to slide my card over to the waiter to pay for our meal. He gladly takes the card and rings up the transaction, bringing back a restaurant copy and my copy of a receipt. At the top of the receipt that I'm supposed to keep, he wrote his number down with a smiley face. I giggle and write down a tip for $7 since he wasn't a horrible waiter. My mom comes back to the table and I show her what he gave me, to which she looks at me knowingly and smiles wide.

I enter the phone number into my phone under "Fridays Guy" to send a text later. We grab our things and head out of the restaurant to the car. "So... Are you going to text him? Maybe it'll be better for you to date someone who's here rather than long distance, Vera. Maybe your little thing with Alex isn't made forever."

I look out the window, deep in my thoughts, as her statement ponders in my mind. "I'll text him, but I'm not expecting anything since I'm still with Alex." She looks over at me as she gets on the road. "Vera.. I'm going to be honest with you. Do you really think Alex will be willing to come here and be with you? Like, leave his friends and family to come here? How real do you believe this relationship is?"

I glance at her. "Mom, I don't really know. I've been thinking about this for quite some time. We've been together for almost a year and I'm not number one priority. I'm giving him two weeks. If he doesn't make an appearance, then I'm done."

She nods and agrees with my choices. "I'm proud of you and the young lady you've become. You are so beautiful V, you're amazing. Please don't ever think anything different." A tear lingers in my eye as I smile, looking down at my phone as I send a text to the Fridays Guy.

Me: Hey there, it's the girl with the curly brown hair with red ends, I just decided to send a text over.

He responds within a minute of the initial text sending.

Fridays Guy: Hi beautiful, I was a little nervous leaving my number with such an attractive young lady, but you caught my eye - so I took my shot and tried. Thanks for texting me.

A smile appears on my lips as I read his text message, chewing lightly on the tip of my nail as I think about how to respond. Of course, Alex sends a text just as I'm about to respond. I slide over to his messages and see a picture that was sent of Alex and...

* Just giving some insight into Vera and Alex's relationship, they've been talking for quite some time and there were A LOT of empty and broken promises made. So this isn't just something that's new and hasn't really begun yet.*


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♡ lulxmiya