Alexia picked up a box of old-fashioned chocolates and stacked it on top of the Tootsie Rolls in the back room at Cherry Creek Specialty Store. Out front, the store was chaotic, but Alexia had been given the task of “organization” so she could thankfully hide back here where it was quiet.
Of course, being alone in a small stockroom gave her a lot of time with her thoughts. Too much time. She couldn’t stop dwelling on the fact that Ben was leaving or that she’d lost her virginity to him. Had he planned on going to Pepperdine before they’d done it?
If she’d known then that he was moving to California, she might have done things differently.
“Hey, Alexia.”
She shrieked when Jonah came into the room.
“You scared me!”
He laughed. “Sorry. I just came back to see if you needed any help. It’s dead out front now.”
With a rapidly beating heart, she nodded. “Maybe you could go through the deli containers? I think we could combine several open boxes and get rid of the rest.”
“All right.” Jonah passed her and opened a box of one-pound containers.
What would Jonah do if his girlfriend was leaving him? She decided to ask him.
“Hey, Jonah?”
“Yeah?”
“Hypothetically speaking…what would you do if your girlfriend decided to go to school on the other side of the country? Would you be okay with that? Or would you be mad?”
He stopped doing what he was doing to look over at her.
Maybe the “hypothetical” route had been a bad choice. Too obvious, maybe?
Straightening, he took in a thoughtful breath and said, “Well, I don’t think I’d be mad, not if the school she’d chosen was a school she really loved. College is a big thing in everyone’s life. It has to be the right school if you’re going to spend four or more years there and thousands of dollars.”
Alexia nodded. “That makes sense.”
He swiped sweat from his forehead. “Is there…I mean…are you okay? Is your boyfriend moving somewhere far?”
She licked her lips. Bit the corner of her mouth. “Yeah,” she said. “I just, I don’t know how to deal with it.”
“I suspect if your relationship is strong enough, you guys will survive just fine. Talk to him about it.”
“Yeah,” Alexia said, but there was more to it than that. Alexia had to factor in the whole sex thing, and she couldn’t talk to a guy about that. She might have to turn to one of her friends instead.
After work and a hot shower, Alexia called Raven. They hadn’t talked since Alexia had invited everyone over to add on a few rules. Raven was probably still mad at Alexia. She had every right to be.
Thankfully, Raven wasn’t mad enough to avoid Alexia’s call altogether.
“Hello?” she said after picking up on the fourth ring.
“Hi.” Alexia draped her legs over the arm of her father’s reclining chair. She wiggled her toes as she clutched the phone, her fingers slick with sweat. What if Raven hated her?
“I was calling,” Alexia began, “to tell you how sorry I am that I butted into your business. I didn’t mean to make you mad. Obviously, I did, and I had no right to accuse you of something like cheating on Horace.”
Raven was silent for a minute and then, “It’s all right.” She sighed. “I know why you did what you did, but it still annoyed me that you didn’t trust me. I mean, if my best friend didn’t trust me, then why did my boyfriend?”
“Well, maybe Horace knows you better than I do.”
Raven snorted. “Doubtful. I don’t think he knows me well enough and the scary thing…?” She paused again. “I can’t stop scoping out other guys. Like, why can’t I just focus on Horace?”
“It’s okay to check out other guys as long as you don’t touch them. You know? Look, but don’t touch?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey,” Alexia hung her head back and looked at the ceiling in the living room, “why don’t you come over? We can talk more. I have some stuff going on, too…I…I don’t know, I just want someone to talk to.”
“Sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
They hung up and Raven pulled in the driveway some twenty minutes later. They went to Alexia’s room. Alexia sat at the head of the bed while Raven spread out at the foot, her finger twirling a lock of her luscious hair.
“So how are you and Ben?”
Alexia stiffened. She’d wanted to invite Raven over to confess everything, but now the idea frightened her. What if Raven thought Alexia was crazy or something?
Raven is the least likely person to judge you, Alexia thought.
So Alexia told her everything, from losing her virginity on the Fourth of July to Ben’s decision to go to Pepperdine, to Alexia’s fears of losing Ben altogether.
“I can’t believe you’ve kept all this bottled up,” Raven said when Alexia finished. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Alexia shrugged as she picked at the lint on her black cotton shorts. “You were mad at me.”
“So.”
“So. I…I don’t know. I guess I should have.”
“Yeah.” Raven scooted up on the bed and gave Alexia a hug. “It doesn’t matter what we’re fighting about; you can call me whenever with whatever. Got that?”
“I got it.”
“So, wow,” Raven said, “this is a lot.”
Alexia grunted. “I know. I’ve been so frustrated over this whole thing.”
“Well, I don’t blame you.”
“What am I going to do?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. On the one hand, you can’t really ask him to stay here because that would be selfish, but if it’s bothering you that much, you can’t keep it locked up longer. It’ll ruin your relationship.”
Raven bit at her nail, brainstorming. Finally she said, “This might sound really bad, and I know it’s tough to think about, considering you lost your virginity to the boy, but have you ever thought about breaking it off with him when he leaves? California is a really long way away.”
Alexia closed her eyes. She had considered breaking it off, but didn’t want to voice it because the idea scared her. She loved Ben, she’d given her virginity to him, she didn’t want to lose him, not now.
But how could they work, being so far apart?