Store Encounter
He got up from the sofa and stared at her, lifting her head with the tip of his finger to look at her face. He saw the tears in her eyes and it broke his heart. He didn't know why, but he lowered his head and kissed her, making Julia respond with tears. It further broke his heart and he hugged her tightly even though he didn't know what to say to her.
"Please don't leave me," Julia whispered in her tears as they broke away from the kiss.
"I am not going to," Jason replied, and Julia hugged him making Jason wonder why she would think that but he felt it was not the right time to ask.
"Do you still want to go grocery shopping?" Jason asked, after hugging Julia for a while and she nodded in a yes before breaking away from the hug and exiting the room with Jason staring at her back.
Peter saw Julia come out of the room with a red face and red eyes. Obviously, she had cried.
"Hey, what happened?" Peter inquired with concern.
Julia could not speak but shook her head in a 'no' before walking past Peter and heading for the front door. Peter quickly went after her, not sure what transpired between her in Jason.
Jason was already out of the room and he partially witnessed the scene and he felt sad. He wished he would stop hurting Julia but he didn't know what to do and he felt too embarrassed to ask Peter. He didn't want to get in touch with Henry either because of the distance. He went back to the room after staring at the closed door for a while.
Outside, Julia was sitting in the car and Peter was behind the steering wheel. He couldn't understand why Jason and Julia kept hurting each other. He could tell they both loved each other. He knew Jason didn't get close to women but he was different around Julia and he had also seen how Julia looked at Jason and he knew she loved him, so why can't they just express their love and be happy? Peter thought as he occasionally glanced at Julia sitting next to him.
"What happened?" Peter inquired worriedly breaking the silence in the car.
"Nothing, I just missed my mum," Julia replied not ready to talk about what transpired between her and Jason.
Peter knew she was lying and her response confirms his thoughts earlier, their inability to express their love towards each other. He decided not to push Julia any further since she was not ready to talk about it. The engine came to life and he drove towards the grocery store.
After driving for thirty minutes in complete silence with Julia looking out the window and Peter concentrating on the road, they arrived at the grocery store. Peter parked the car in the store's parking lot. Julia got out of the car and headed for the store as Peter waited for her standing next to the parked car.
Inside the shore, Julia pulled a trolley basket and started going through the store sections picking up items they needed at home and putting them into the basket. After walking through several sections of the store, her basket was almost full. Still pushing her trolley down the section aisles, she read through her shopping list to ensure she had not left anything out.
A man pushed his trolley passed her and stopped to pick an item from the shelf. Julia, whose concentration was on her shopping list, did not realize the person who walked past her had stopped and she bumped her trolley into the person.
"I am sorry. I am so sorry," Julia apologized as soon as she felt the bump which made her lift her head to see what had happened.
"That is fine, I shouldn't have stood in the way," said the man with a smile.
"I should have also looked where I was going," Julia admitted her fault, and the man smiled.
The man stared at Julia as if recalling something but Julia excused herself and went past him. His gaze followed her as she pushed her trolley into another section of the store. The man stood for a while trying to recall where he had seen her face before. Unable to remember, he pushed his trolley in her direction and caught up with her.
"Excuse me, it is me again," the man said, stopping Julia from moving further.
"You do look familiar; perchance are you related to anyone called Amber Harrison?" the man asked with a smile.
Julia froze in place; how did this man know her mother? She stared blankly at him for thirty seconds before replying indirectly.
"My mum was called Amber Harrison," Julia replied with a frown trying to put her emotions together remembering her mother.
"Wow, what a small world. You look so much like your mum," the man said smiling.
"How do you know my mum?" asked Julia with no expression.
"My friend and I used to frequent a popular restaurant in Kansas because of their amazing dishes. Ms Harrison used to wait on us. She has great customer service experience," the man replied, with a smile as he recalled the moments.
Julia recalled her mother had mentioned working as a waitress in a restaurant in Kansas. She was terminated despite her good service for no apparent reason.
"How is she? I went back to that restaurant a couple of times just to see her but never did," asked the man when Julia was not saying anything.
"They fired her," replied Julia sounding cold.
"Why? She was excellent at her job," asked the man.
"I don't know. She never talked about it," replied Julia, and she started pushing her trolley down the section aisle.
The man also pushed his walking by Julia's side as they continued chatting.
"You are very pretty like your mum. Where is she now?" inquired the man with a smile.
Julia paused in her steps and inhaled deeply before speaking, "She left"
"To where?" asked the man who did not understand Julia's statement.
"I lost her," replied Julia and the man raised his eyebrow.
"As in dead?" the man asked not wanting to accept Amber was dead and Julia nodded in a 'yes'
"I am so sorry, what happened to her?" the man asked sounding sad.
"Please forgive me, I don't want to talk about it," replied Julia.
"I am so sorry. I am Mr Dickson and you are?" the man said.
"I am Julia," Julia replied.
"I am so sorry about your mum," Mr Dickson said, as they both headed for the cashier.
Mr Dickson paid for his groceries and paid for Julia's and wanted to walk her to her car after she had said thank you for his kind gesture but he had a call and excused himself to answer it after saying goodbye to Julia.
Julia returned to where they had parked and Peter helped her put the stuff into the car. She sat in the car and Peter drove out of the compound. Mr Dickson was out of the store just in time to catch them leaving. He recognized the car Julia sat in as Peter's and concluded Peter was Julia's husband as he saw the wedding ring on her finger.
Mr Dickson sat in his car and started wondering if his friend Mr Johan Haward had something to do with Julia's mother's termination. He recalled they invited her out one day and she ended up going home with Mr Haward, both drunk. Mr Haward was already married and Mrs Haward was already pregnant with his second child. He recalled after that party Mr Haward never wanted to come to Kansas anymore and never liked to talk about Amber too.
"Was it because Amber got pregnant after that one-night stand?" Mr Dickson thought.
He had found out about Amber's pregnancy but discarded it as a false rumour. He wanted answers and decided he needed to speak to Julia to know if she was a child of Mr Haward. He drove out of the parking lot and headed for his house.
Peter and Julia arrived home and they carried the items they had bought into the house and unpacked the items placing them into their rightful places.
It was almost noon, so Julia quickly prepared something for lunch. Jason joined them in the living room area 10 minutes after they had arrived. He walked to Julia realizing she was still quiet and a bit moody.
"Don't think about our earlier discussion okay?" Jason said in his deep voice but not so loud.
Peter could not hear what Jason had just said as he was watching the news. Jason kissed Julia's forehead and joined Peter to watch the news.
Julia served the cooked lunch on the dining table, and they all sat around the table eating their food in silence. Peter broke the silence, trying to lighten up the mood.
"It's Saturday, why don't we do something a little fun today, like going to the movies," Peter suggested, and Jason lifted his gaze to look at him for a while before replying.
"It's not a bad idea. Do you have a place in mind?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, there is a place half an hour's drive from here," replied Peter.
"Okay. How about you, Julia do you want to go to the movies or do you have another place in mind?" asked Jason, but Julia was lost in her thoughts, so she didn't hear him talk.
The earlier conversation about her mother had triggered a rather painful memory. She recalled the scene she had walked into. She excused herself, leaving for the room. Jason got up and followed her, thinking her reaction was from their morning conversation. He entered the bedroom and found Julia standing there looking out the window.
Jason walked towards her and stood next to her. He pulled her into his arms, and she collapsed on his chest, breaking down in tears. Jason rubbed her back gently trying to calm her down, first before asking her what the problem was.