Wayfaring Traveler

eleven

"Anytime. But, thank you, Francesca," I replied.

"For what?" she mimicked.

"For everything," I mimicked, "for being here for me during my hardest time and for giving yourself to me."

She gave me a big smile, soon after giving me a gentle kiss.

"In a short amount of time, my heart has been both broken and mended. In such a short amount of time I've fallen in love," she began, maintaining our intimacy.

She inhaled and proceeded in exhaling, preparing herself for what was to come.

"I love you, Ezra," she said.

She said the words clearly and yet I wondered if I was just merely dreaming. I blinked and had to pinch myself and ensure that I had, in fact, heard her correctly. She delivered the three words that meant the world to me.

"Ezra, I said that I love you," she clarified with a small nervous laugh.

I was speechless, I was in love. 

"I love you too, Francesca," I stated, kissing her once again.

I loved her and she loved me, and that was all that mattered in the end.

* * *

After an endless amount of hesitation and convincing, Francesca agreed to get out of bed. As much as we wished to stay in bed all day, we couldn't possibly let that happen when work existed.

I rose from the bed first, grabbing a t-shirt and putting it on. For Francesca, I grabbed one of my button down shirts and gave it to her. She buttoned it up slowly and ran her fingers through her hair, everything she did seemed angelic.

I stayed on her side of the bed and she put her arms around me in a romantic way. I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Unfortunately we have to face reality now," I said aloud, causing Francesca to frown.

As beautiful as she was and as wonderful of a time we were having, it couldn't last forever.

I helped her up from the bed and we made our way out of the motel room shortly after. We called a taxi and made our way towards Travelers, once we arrived Francesca planned to sneak upstairs to her loft first thing to get herself together for work. While the loft was still incomplete, it had a few of her belongings already moved in.

I was already ready for work, for the most part, just having to put on an apron and clock in. In all honesty, it was a luxury to work with Francesca at Travelers, although the job was not ideal for the long term it was nice.

Francesca returned downstairs after ten minutes with a big grin on her face, putting on a matching apron and clocking in as well. Following Francesca's reappearance was Cleo Scottsdale and his own, her brother often picking up shifts in his free time. He walked behind the counter and prepared himself for work as well.

"Good morning, Cleo," Francesca exclaimed cheerfully at the sight of her brother.

"Someone's in a good mood," Cleo said, making eye contact with me though, "did you sleep well?"

I averted his eye contact slightly due to his question, also sensing that Francesca's focus was on me.

"Yeah, I did," she replied, helping out a customer a second later.

Cleo gave me a small smile in which I returned.

"You're a good guy, Ezra. Thank you for being here for my sister and for the shop," Cleo stated, expressing both gratitude and kindness.

"It's my pleasure and no problem at all," I replied

We worked side by side for the duration of the morning, Cleo a hard worker and charismatic man that often attracted the attention of female customers. Our shift went by quickly and by four in the afternoon we were finished and the next shift workers came in.

Francesca and I began to take off our aprons and clock out when Cleo joined us in the back room with a stack of mail.

"You've got mail, Chessie. I saw a letter from your college somewhere in the stack," Cleo announced, taking off his work attire.

Francesca took her mail from Cleo, searching for the specific envelope. Once she found the envelope she swiftly opened it and began reading.

"They want you back, huh?" Cleo questioned.

Francesca finished reading before shaking her head. 

"Must have been a mailing mistake, it's a letter for current students," she said with a sad undertone.

"Chessie, you ought to go back to college now though," Cleo stated, leaning against a counter in the back.

She looked at him and just stared as if the idea was a wild one. From what I knew, Francesca had finished at least a year and a half's work of college.

"I don't know, Cleo. I'm not sure that returning to the pursuit of higher education is wise. I was blindly ambitious when I attended college and still am not certain on as to what I would like to pursue. College is absolutely exhausting and I couldn't work as often if I went back. My life is finally settling itself out and I'm in a good place now. I'm not entirely sure that I want to disrupt my life at the moment with college," Francesca explained, clearly hesitant.

"You absolutely adored your time in college, anyone could tell during that time with a single look at you. If work is one of the largest obstacles, I'll help you figure it out. Mom and Dad set aside money for college and I'm sure that they would be thrilled if you went back. But, ultimately it's your decision and I'll support you either way," Cleo expressed, emphasizing how supportive he was of his sister.

Francesca turned towards me and said, "I just don't know, I'm content enough with how things are at the moment."

Cleo nodded before dismissing himself and saying goodbye for the day, leaving Francesca and I to ourselves.

"What should I do?" she softly asked.

I wrapped my arms around her waist, wanting to express my support for her.

"Do what makes you happy," I simply answered.

She paused, each breath of hers now indicating a sense of uneasiness.

"I don't want to create distance between us or leave you for school," she replied back.

I removed my arms and put her hands in mine instead, looking at her directly in the eyes.

"We can handle it, I promise you."

She shook her head, "I'm not so sure, Vince couldn't."

"Well, I'm certainly not Vince. I'm Ezra, and I can surely handle you going off to college and making a name for yourself. I personally believe that you going back to college would be a wonderful opportunity and experience. I'm certain that you can figure everything out along the way, you've always persevered after all. If you want to go back, I think you should," I stated, letting her know that she had my full support.

She said nothing and just stared at me, she evidently was considering what both Cleo and I had said to her. After a minute she lightly squeezed my hands and exhaled a breath that had to take some courage to inhale.

"I'm going back to college," she announced softly before repeating her statement a bit louder, "I'm going back to college."

I smiled and embraced her, glad that she had made her decision. She stepped back from me and gave me the largest grin before hugging me once again.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you," I replied.

"I love you more," she stated.

I held her tightly, genuinely happy for her and excited for the future.

"I love you most."