Jennie
Lisa is here in record time. I honestly don't know how she drove the truck over to the restaurant that quickly without it falling apart, but before long, she's waiting outside. I feed Bambam a white lie and tell him that we're off on important wedding business. I don't need him all worked up, not now, especially when he might be the one person that Mina doesn't particularly want to see at the moment.
We don't know where to start, but Lisa and I start doing circles around the neighbourhood.
"Did she leave any clues?" I ask. "Anything telling you where she might've gone?"
"No. Nothing." Lisa's shoulders are squared off and tight as her eyes flicker across the road. I've never seen her like this before. She's sick with worry for Mina.
"Okay, so let's retrace our steps." I tell her.
"I already tried that. Audrant Bakery doesn't even open for another hour. I've called the airport, and they don't have any record of her checking in or booking a flight. It's like she just vanished into thin air." The anxiety in her voice is palpable.
"Well, no harm in trying again, right?" I ask. Anything beats going in circles, anyway.
She watches me sceptically but then finally gives a grunt of acknowledgement. "Okay. First to Audrant Bakery, and then to the wedding designer."
"But why would she go to those places if she's trying to forget about the wedding?" I counter.
"Beats me. I'm only working with what I've got. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears."
I scan the street for any sign of Mina, but I don't see her. We pass a gas station, a local boutique, a diner. And then it clicks. "Maybe she's not trying to forget. She's trying to remember. Pull into the diner."
"You're hungry? Now?"
"No... I think I know how to find her."
We pull into a fifteen-minute-only parking space and jump out of the car. I push open the glass door and burst inside. There's a drum of activity, half the patrons sitting around the diner's old-fashioned counter, the other half stuffed into little red booths. I scan through the crowd hopefully, but I don't see Mina. My heart drops.
"Take a look at this." Lisa taps me on the shoulder and pulls me aside. She's pulled up a map application on her phone, and there are tiny little red pins all around our current location, marking the nearest diners.
"There has to be seven in this neighbourhood alone." she says. "Who likes breakfast food that much?"
"Everyone except you, you gorgeous grouch." I pat her chest. "Come on. Let's get going; we've got a lot of ground to cover."
We hit up each diner, one right after the other. It's not until we reach the fourth one, I can feel Lisa starting to lose hope. "This is ridiculous." she snaps. "Mina's not here."
"Just three more." I tell her. "Do you trust me?"
"You tied me to the bed and left me there."
"Okay, so let me earn that trust back. Please."
The pleading note in my eyes must get to her at least, because she exhales a tight breath and then says, "Ok, let's go."
By time we hit number seven, I'm still holding on to hope. It smells like hot dough and sizzling bacon. Lisa is wound up tightly behind me, with her shoulders tense, adjusting her glasses every couple of seconds. Please be here, I quietly beg Mina. Lisa needs you. I need you. I need some inch of hope.
There. In the booth at the back. All alone, morosely, Mina stabs her fork into her breakfast, and it's just as I thought. Blueberry pancakes.
She didn't come here to forget about Bambam. She came here to remember why she loved him in the very first place.