A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝚄𝚁

✞ J U L I A N   W E S T B R O O K ✞

"Yo," Julian says into his phone.

"Hey, Jules. Demi told me you two talked after you stood her up last night. Do you two have another date planned already?" his sister, Nyomi, asks.

Julian runs his hand down his face and exhales hard as the memories of the night before resurface in his mind. "No."

"Why not? You know you're wrong for standing her up with Treyvon and I there."

"She's not who I expected her to be."

"Julian," Nyomi says sternly, making him roll his eyes. "You need to learn to lower your standards. I feel like every time I try to hook you up with a girl, you always find out she's someone she's not."

"Maybe that's a sign to stop trying to set me up with every girl. I've been thinking of chilling out on dating anyway. I think God has me in a season of singleness."

"No, there's a difference between not finding the right person and not actively looking. You're going on dates but you're not interested from the start."

"What are you on bro? I went on three dates with Demi," Julian says with irritation riding his voice.

"Technically, bro, you didn't since you stood her up yesterday."

"No, I did. It went south so I left."

"You met with her last night?"

"Yeah and she tried to seduce me."

Nyomi goes silent on the other end of the call. "Oh... maybe you should take a break."

Julian scoffs to himself. "Wish I thought of that."

"Shut up," she snaps. "I'm just tryna make sure Mama gets to see you at your wedding."

"You think I don't feel a sense of urgency too?"

Julian thinks of his grandmother and the words she told him when he was eighteen: "I won't let the cancer win until I see your future wife walk down that aisle."

Those words were seven years old, and it's been six since his grandmother's 'terminal' cancer had disappeared on her scans. However, now she deals with a very weak immune system, and Julian hates to admit that he feared for her to catch a simple cold, knowing it'd put her back in the hospital.

"Order for Celai!"

Julian stands up, nearly forgetting he had been sitting in a breakfast diner for all that time. He goes and grabs Celai's order of food, pays for it himself despite Celai giving him money, and leaves the diner.

"Where are you?" Nyomi asks as he puts the phone back up to his ear.

"Leaving Waffle House."

"Waffle House? You've never gone there before."

"Yeah. I got food, but not for me. I might go back though, it smelled amazing in there."

"If you didn't get food for you, then who? Mama?"

Julian, remembering he left his sister completely oblivious to his current situation, says, "Nah, I'm up in D.C. right now." He gets in his car and lets his phone connect to the Bluetooth before he continues. "Just know I'm making sure a girl from our church makes a good recovery."

Nyomi stutters through her endless questions. "What? Who? Why are you in D.C. though? Is that why you stood Demi up?"

"You know Celai?" he asks as he pulls off into the road.