More Than a Memory

Chapter Seven: A Break Through and a Misunderstanding

It's Elias. As fate may have it, he walks in and seats himself in the corner booth right in MY area. I have no choice but to wait on him.

I walk over and plaster on a fake smile. "Welcome to tastee freeze. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Tessa, can we talk?" He asks.

"Can I get you something to drink?" I repeat.

He sighs. "You know what I get to drink, Tessa. You know my whole order." I can tell he's fighting a smile. "We used to come to this exact diner and sit here in this exact booth. We always ordered the same thing every time. Nothing has changed since then."

I clear my throat, but write down his order anyway. "I'll be back." I say before walking away to put his order in.

A root beer and a bacon cheeseburger with extra bacon and seasoned fries. If he's having desert, he'll have a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Part of me hates that I know that.

I walk over to my other tables and check to see how they're doing, and the cook yells out. "Order up!"

I make my way over to the window and take Elias' order to him. "Did I get it right?"
I ask quietly.

He smiles. "So you do remember. I thought you might've forgotten."

"I wish I had," I grumble to myself, causing his smile to fall. "Are you gonna have desert when you're finished?" I ask.

"Only if you sit down and have some too. Your shift is almost over, so I should be ordering my desert right in time for you to clock out and sit with me."

"Elias-" I start.

"Please," He cuts me off. "I just want to talk, okay? I let you talk in that parking lot. It's my turn."

I sigh. "Alright I guess."

I finish up my shift before grabbing our deserts and sitting down across from him. I place his mint chocolate chip across from him, and I keep my cookies and cream for myself.

"So, talk." I say.

He sighs. "When I left, I was one hundred percent planning on calling you as soon as I settled in. I swear I was, Tessa. But all too quickly, I realized the real reason we moved."

I scrunch my eyebrows up in confusion. "What do you mean? You moved because your mom got a new job."

"No," Elias shakes his head with a sad smile. "I thought the same thing." He pauses. "Mom was sick, Tessa. She was dying and the only way she could get the proper treatment was if we moved closer to that specific hospital."

I gasp. "Oh my god, Eli. Is she ok?"

"She's in remission. She has a rare blood disease that attacks your organs one by one. Right now, she's doing great. There's only a 15% chance that it could come back."

"That still doesn't explain why you never called though." I say. "You could've told me anything, you know that."

"I know," He says. "But once we got there, the insurance company started refusing treatments." He takes a shaky breath. "I started doing jobs for people. Small ones at first, but they started getting bigger. Soon I was in deep shit and I didn't know how to get out."