Page 8 of Owen's Heart

RANIA

Monday…

Two Days Later

Damn it! Ever since I saw Owen, I haven’t been able to get him off of my mind. The sight of him made me want to fall back into his arms again. I knew deep down I never got over him, and I never would. The few relationships I had since Owen attest to that very fact.

Sometimes, I wonder if I would have gone back to Owen had he found me after I had broken up with him? Thanks to Janae, I’d hidden out with other friends around campus until I took my exam, then I went home with her for the summer. I had made Aunt Mildred promise not to tell Owen where I had gone, and she kept her word even though she hated the fact that Owen and I were broken up.

Janae was glad to have me with her for the summer until we both went back to campus in the fall. Her mother was a complete mess back then, drinking herself into oblivion. Thank God that Helen has found the help she needed since then and has been five years on the road to sobriety.

Janae and I even got jobs at the local Dairy Queen in Gadsden, Alabama, where she lived. I miss Janae so much. I’m happy that she’s now married with two kids of her own. She’s a mom, which I thought would never be. She promised that she never wanted to settle down, least of all have children. I guess meeting a good man like Jonah will do that to a woman.

I’m happy for Janae, and we speak and facetime often. Since I live so far away in New York, working and living in the Bay Ridge area, I haven’t seen Janae since we graduated from university eight years ago. Janae went back home to Gadsden and got a job with a local law office, the same office where she met Jonah, who she later fell in love with and married. On the other hand, I was blessed to get an internship with Cohen & Resnick, an accounting firm.

I thanked God back then that Bay Ridge was a residential area about twice the size of Prattville. It wasn’t too hard for me to get a feel for the city, even though it was on a faster scale and far more citified than Prattville, Alabama. After about a year, I was offered a full-time position. I hardly made it back home to visit Aunt Mildred, but when she called me a few weeks ago telling me of her surgery, I put in for an extended leave and came to help her with the café.

Aunt Mildred is my dad’s sister and had never married. We have relatives dotted over the state of Alabama here and there, but none are close and dependable. My aunt took me in at a time when I needed her the most, and there is no way I would let her down.

Parking at the café, I head inside the building to start my day. I turn on the lights and head over to the back office to put my handbag away. The rest of the employees soon arrive, and the business is bustling with the smells of coffee, bacon, and all the good things morning in the café brings.

I talked my aunt into staying home to rest up for her upcoming surgery. She will be checking in at Elmore Regional on Wednesday morning to prepare for surgery in the afternoon.

My expertise is accounting, but I’ve been working in the café with my aunt most summers since I was sixteen. The café. Is pretty busy during the morning hours, but the crowd thins out an hour before the lunch hour begins. I’m already tired since I didn’t get much sleep last night nor the night before. Images of Owen kept digging into my thoughts and dreams.

Last night, my dreams were filled with making love to Owen. I swear I could smell the scent of his woodsy, citrusy cologne, and I could hear the deep grate of his voice as he plunged deep inside my silken heat. I woke up burning for Owen’s touch and saturated in wetness between my thighs. How the hell am I going to bear being around him if my body becomes aflame with a desire so severe that it causes my panties to become wet every time I see him?

Right now, my nipples harden at the thought of Owen kissing me again. I remember how Owen used to murmur against my ear when we were in a crowd how much he loved me and how much he wanted me. He even promised that he would never allow anything to tear us apart and that we would be together forever.

That had been proven to be nothing but lies.

Even though in the beginning, Owen called me, emailed, and texted me incessantly… soon the calls and text messages became fewer. By the time summer was over and fall began, hearing from him had become nonexistent. I knew that he had quickly moved on with his life from things my aunt implied but wouldn’t come straight out and say.

On many occasions, I had wished that I had stayed in contact with a few of my high school friends back home to keep in the loop about Owen since he didn’t do the social media scene at all.

I grab a cup of coffee, add sugar and a splash of milk before taking a seat on a barstool. Maybe the caffeine will give me energy since I still have a long day ahead of me. My aunt hired someone to take over in case I need to be away, so I won’t run myself ragged, but I need to stay busy to keep my mind off of someone I rather not think about. I have given them too much power over my brain as is.

“Oh, my God! Rania Brown! Is that really you?” A voice I remember well causes me to spin around on the barstool and face the entrance of the café.

I sit my coffee cup down, and a smile plasters against my lips. “Desiree Ellis!” I exclaim and hop up from the barstool.

She’s smiling so hard as we meet each other halfway and go in for a hug.

“How many years has it been, girl?” she asks.

“I don’t know, maybe close to six years.”

“It’s something like that or nearly. Last time I heard you were living in New York. Are you back home now?”

“Yes, I am. My aunt is having surgery, so I came home to help her out. “I missed you so much, Desiree. I’m sorry we lost touch when I went away to college.”

“Don’t sweat it, Rania. That works both ways, doesn’t it?”

I nod, but still, the smile on my lips won’t let up. Desiree still looks the same, only her hair is cut into a short bob. It fits her round face; her dark brown skin is radiant without one blemish.

She’s plumper than she was years ago, but the extra weight really looks good on her. Her dark brown eyes are still looking me over the same way I’m taking my old best friend from my high school days in.

“You know when we went to rival universities, I to Auburn and you to the University of Alabama, we were bound to lose touch. Being on campus at Auburn was a whole different experience from high school.”

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