Body Language. [Discontinued]

CH. 34

"Hey," Vanessa spoke. Soleil nodded her head to acknowledge her but continued walking. "Um, Soleil..." she called to her.

Soleil huffed, whipping around. "Not right now, okay? I have to help out in the kitchen–whatever you have to say to me can wait," Soleil told her, before turning back around and walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, girl," Jacqui, one of Soleil's co-workers smiled as she walked in. Soleil returned the friendly smile, approaching the sink to wash her hands. "When you're done, can you grab the other bag of apples for me?"

"Okay," Soleil replied, pulling up her sleeves before placing her hands in the running water. "What else are they having?"

"We're doing all fruit since they seemed to like it the last time–so they have choices of; apple slices, oranges slices, bananas, watermelon, and pineapple." Jacqui listed off, cutting the apple down the middle.

Soleil grabbed a few paper towels to dry off her hands and then turned the knob with the paper towel to turn the water off. She walked over to the industrial-sized fridge, opening the door to grab the extra bag of apples.

"How did the holidays go?" Jacqui asked her, as Soleil dumped the bag of apples into the bowl to wash them.

"It went well, got to see my sister, so that was exciting. How was yours?" Soleil answered, glancing over her shoulder at her. "Seen your man, yet?"

"Girl, no," Jacqui scoffed, Soleil raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Something came up and he was unable to come home like he was supposed to," she told Soleil, referring to her boyfriend in the military.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Soleil grimaced, turning around to face the sink. She poured the water out of the bowl again for the fourth time, before turning off the water again and walking over to Jacqui.

She grabbed a cutting board from below on the shelf and walked away to grab a knife. "Is it hard?" Soleil questioned her. "You know, the whole long-distance relationship?"

"It is, but I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to stay with him. Even though we're thousands of miles apart, we don't miss a beat. He's still consistent as he was when he was here," Jacqui explained, as Soleil started to intently listen. "I do get lonely, I miss touching him–being held by him, but I know in the end, it'll work out,"

"Have y'all ever thought of parting ways before?"

"Once, I got so fed up with him not being here–he understood and was all for me moving on, even though it would've hurt. But I started to think of all of the stuff we went through, how he treats me, how much my family loves him–how much I love his family. I invested so much energy into this relationship as he did too, I couldn't just throw that away," Jacqui shrugged, grabbing the apple slices and setting them aside in a bowl.

"How long has he been away?" Soleil glimpsed over at her, continuing to cut into the apple.

"Six months now,"

"Wow," Soleil slightly widened her eyes. "That is definitely a li'l minute,"

"Yeah," Jacqui laughed, grabbing an apple from the bowl. "If this was a permanent arrangement, I'd have to move on. But since it's not, I'll stick it out for now,"