Time With You

I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what Bella and Josh could possibly be talking about. First I thought that Bella was talking trash about me to him but that didn’t seem right, we ‘made up’ and all week we talked like we did before everything went down with Jordan.

Don’t worry about it, I told myself. Bella isn’t saying anything bad and if she was, Josh would know better than to listen to it anyway. You have way too much to do to be gawking at the two of them.

I was determined to pretend I didn’t see them and carry on with filling the diapers but on my next trip up the ladder, I couldn’t help but glanced in their direction; only Bella stood there now and she was looking directly at me, I waved to her.

It would be another ten minutes before I saw Josh again. I was getting the last of the diapers I needed from the riser when I saw him walking towards my department swinging a bag in his hand as he whistled some tune. Bella, who was out in ladies wear putting away some items that a customer tried on but changed their mind about, must have called out to him because he stopped short and looked in her direction. Bella said something and then she pointed, right at me. Josh turned his head in my direction; a huge smile crossed his face as he did so and he continued towards me, not looking away once.

“Just the woman I was hoping to run into,” he said when he was close enough to speak without yelling for me to hear. His hands gripped the ladder opposite me as I climbed down with a couple bags on diapers in my hands. “Is it really safe to do that?” He asked.

“No,” I smiled at him. “I’m supposed to have someone standing right where you are and pass them down the diapers but it’s easy and faster to do it myself.” I walked around the ladder. “Excuse me,” he was standing right in front of the home for the diapers I was carrying. I swear I could feel his eyes on my body as I stretched a little to put the diapers onto the top shelf. “Yay!” I turned to him. “That’s one thing off my ‘to-do’ list.”

“Was it that busy today?”

“No,” I took the ladder down and started towards the horseshoe, filling him in on the situation as I went. “So you see,” I rested the ladder on its side in the horseshoe then turned to make the couple steps to the baby food wall. “I have enough to keep me busy.”

“I see,” he watched me as I pulled the empty boxes off the shelf and broke them down. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You aren’t interrupting Josh,” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “I was actually hoping I would hear from you today.”

That seemed to cheer him up a little. “Really?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I was hoping that we were still on for tomorrow.” He told me that we were ‘most definitely on’ for tomorrow. “Great! Did you have anything specific in mind? Or…?”

“I have something in mind,” he told me with a smile but wouldn’t elaborate on it when I asked him what that was. “You’ll just have to wait and see,” was his response.

While I worked on the baby food, Josh stood off to the side just rambling about everything and nothing; at one point he got on the subject of backyard games. “I can’t wait for the summer so I can take Jesse outside and introduce him to the world outside of my apartment.”

I laughed, “I think he knows about that world already Josh.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” I turned to him. “What do you mean ‘maybe’?”

“I mean, sure Jess knows that there’s a world outside my apartment but he hasn’t had the opportunity to explore and play in it like he will this summer; with me.”

At first I didn’t know why his eyes gleamed like they did when he made that statement, suddenly I clued in. “You have Jesse for the whole summer.” Josh nodded, he looked so excited, and it was so cute. “So are you taking him anywhere? Or are you just hanging around town with him?”

Before Josh could answer me, a customer came by and needed some help and Josh took that as a sign that he had taken up enough of my time. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told me and walked away.

That night when I got off work, there was a message from Josh on my cell. “Hey Anna, I forgot to tell you, I’ll pick you up tomorrow around 6 at….Zack’s? Let me know if that’s not where you are going to be. I’ve got to head to bed, get some sleep so I’m not too tired for you tomorrow night. I’m really looking forward to spending some time with you. Good night Beautiful.”

I could not sleep at all Wednesday night, I kept tossing and turning, wondering if Josh thought this was a ‘date’ or if he was looking at it as a friends thing; his message made me think he was looking at it as a real date.

By the time 6 rolled around Thursday, I was pacing back and forth downstairs, waiting for him. I was upstairs doing it in the living room but Zack sent me downstairs because I was distracting him from what he was watching on TV.

Josh showed up ten minutes after he was supposed to be there. “I’m sorry,” he said the second he saw me come up the stairs after Zack called out to me. “Mark called me just as I was about to leave my place.” As I asked him if his cousin was alright, he leaned down and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Yes,” he said and then sighed. “I forgot that he invited a bunch of us to his place tonight for supper since he’s home for a couple days.” Mark spent ten days every two weeks working up north, living at camp so Josh didn’t get to spend that much time with him; they were really good friends as well as cousins and I knew he wanted to go to see him.

“Oh,” I took a step back from him and tried not to feel too disappointed. “We can always reschedule,” I told him.