Rediscovered

Chapter 4

**Marlene’s POV**

I turned away from the door and placed my hand over my heart trying to force it to slow down. *He is taking me out for coffee, that’s it* I told myself. As I rummaged through the closet trying to find something appropriate at the same time something that looks like what I would wear, I come across a nice dark brown button down blouse that has gold trim around the waist. I throw it on and

then find a pair of dark blue jeggings in the dresser. I throw on my black flats and fix up my hair before heading downstairs.

As I get down stairs I hear Jake and Sarah in the kitchen. It almost sounds like they are arguing, but I can’t make out what about. I turn the corner and they both stop talking. As I enter the kitchen they both look at me with totally different looks. Sarah almost looks like she is ready to cry, but with a sad smile. Jake on the other hand is smiling from ear to ear. *That’s weird* I thought. “Hey Mar, all ready to go?” Jake asks. “Um… Yeah” I probably sound stupid but it was a bit

awkward with them staring at me. “Hey do you mind if I come along? We can do a little shopping while in town?” Sarah asks looking between Jake and I. “I don’t mind, if that’s ok with you Jake?” I asked looking towards him now. He was glaring at his sister but then turned his gaze to me and it softened. “Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s go” with that we headed to the front door.

As we stepped out of their house I noticed Jakes car and two others. Jakes car is a small silver sports car, while the

other two are large black SUVs. I turned to Jake with a questioning look. “Those are company vehicles, my brother Derek is having a meeting right now.” I nodded my head while silently saying ‘oh’ then started walking to Jakes car. Before I could reach for the handle to the back door Jake quickly comes up from behind me and stops me. “You can sit up front with me.” I shrug my shoulders and he opens the front passenger door and closes it after I had gotten in. Sarah sits in the center in the back while Jake is in the driver seat.

After we pull away we are all sitting in an almost awkward silence when Sarah suddenly asks if she can put on

some music. I internally sigh in relief and reach for the stereo at the same time Jake does. Our fingers touch and I feel the sparks from the touch. *Why does that keep happening* I pull my hand away and look to Jake who is now staring at me. He quickly looks away after hitting the power button and then looks back to the road. I look out the window and smile when one of my favorite rock songs comes on and I start to sing along.

I wake up every morning with my head up in a daze

I’m not sure if I should say this, f**k, I’ll say it anyway

Everybody tries to tell me that I’m going through a phase

I don’t know if it’s a phase, I just want to feel okay, yeah

I battle with depression, but the question still remains Is the post-traumatic stressin’ or am I suppressing rage?

And my doctor tries to tell me that I’m going through a phase

Yeah, it’s not a f*****g phase, I just want to feel okay, okay Yeah, I struggle with this bullshit everyday

And it’s cause my demons simultaneously rage It obliterates me, disintegrates me, annihilates me

‘Cause I’m about to break down, searching for a way out

I’m a lair, I’m a cheater, I’m a non-believer

I’m a popular, popular monster!

At this point in the song I look over to Jake and he is glancing at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. I turn the radio down and ask, “What?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t take you for a Rock person.”

“I guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover then huh…” at

that I turned the radio back up and listen to the music with my eyes closed. Sure he might think I am weird for liking this kind of music but oh well.

I open my eyes when I feel the car come to a stop and look around. I must have fallen asleep because we are no longer

near any trees only large building and stores. I turn to Jake and see he is smiling at me but quickly turns and gets out of the car. He quickly comes around the car and opens my door for me before opening Sarah’s. “What a gentleman” Sarah comments and I can’t help but nod and agree. I stretch my arms up and I notice Jake’s eyes are darker than usual and I see he is staring at me again but this time, it’s at my chest. I quickly put my arms down and I can feel my face turning red. Jake looks away and starts towards the little shop we stopped in front of. Now that I look I can see it is one of the few smaller buildings in the area. I look at the sign and a huge smile spread across my face. The sign reads “D’Angelo’s il caffè.

We walk in and I can already tell I will be able to use the Italian I have learned. We are seated in a booth with Sarah and I taking one side and Jake sitting across from us. A nice young woman walks up to us and hands us the menus. She walks away and we take a moment to look at the menus. “So what are you guys having?”

“I think I am going to get a hot caramel macchiato.” Sarah answers and I then look to Jake. “Oh, uh, I will just have a

black coffee I guess.” I nod and raise my hand to get the waitress attention. She comes over and with a heavy Italian

accent she asks us what we would like to drink.

“Ciao, vorremmo due macchiate di caramello calde e un caffè

nero per favore. Grazie.” (Hello, we would like two caramel macchiatos and one black coffee please, thank you.) The

woman smiles and says “Certo, e un bel cambiamento avere un cliente che parla italiano.” (Sure thing, it is a nice change to have a customer who speaks Italian) I smile at her and she walk away to start our order. I turn back to Sarah and Jake and notice they both have their mouths open with shock. “What? Did I mispronounce something? Because I am still learning and sometimes get the accents mixed up with French.” Sarah shakes her head and says, “I wouldn’t know, I don’t speak Italian.” She chuckled and I smiled while turning to Jake with a

raised eye brow. “I just find it awesome that you know it, you said you also speak French? That’s even cooler.” I smile and can feel my cheeks turning red. “Oui je parle aussi un peu le francais aussi” (Yes, I also speak a little French as well) I stated and they both smiled. We go on to talk about small things like each other’s favorite color and what kind of music we like when the waitress comes back with our order. Jake looks at

me and asks “How do you say thank you again?” “Grazie” I respond. He then takes his coffee and looks to the waitress and in a very horrible accent he says “Grazie” The women turns to him and with a seductive smile she responds. “Prego

Tesoro, posso ottenere il tuo numero? Forse puoi insegnarmi qualcosa.” She winked at him and she smiled. I suddenly had an urge to punch her in the face for flirting with him. Especially when he doesn’t know she is doing it. I take a deep breath and calm myself down. *What the hell was that about? It’s not like we are going steady, I mean technically we have only been on one date and that was with my friend and his

brother* I shake my head and sip my coffee. I need to get a grip of my hormones and emotions.

Once the waitress leaves Jake looks to me and smiles, I look away before I glare at him for something he knows nothing about. I guess it didn’t work. “Hey, what’s wrong Mar? What did she say?” I look at him and shake my head “Nothing, it doesn’t matter.” I continue sipping my coffee and an awkward silence falls on our table. Once we finish our coffee we get back to the car and Jake tried to open the door for me

but instead I walk around and get into the back. I don’t know why I am upset at him, it’s not like he knows it upset me and we are not dating so it shouldn’t matter. Either way I still feel this way and would rather not sit next to him in the car.

As I sit in the car waiting for Sarah and Jake to get in I notice they are standing behind the car talking. Jake seems mad while Sarah is typing something on her phone occasionally glancing up to Jake. Next thing I know Sarah shows Jake something on her phone and he slaps himself on the forehead. They procced to get into the car, but this time Sarah gets into the driver seat and Jake slides in next to me. “Why are you not driving?” I ask him.

“I wanted to talk to you, Sarah showed me a translation of what that girl said and I am

so sorry, if I had known she was flirting with me I would have turned her down. I know we have only been on one date but I kind of was hoping we could take it steady…. That is if you want to.” He looks down and plays with his fingers and I can’t help but feel a pull to wrap my arms around him. I muster up some will power and settle with taking one of his hands, trying to ignore the sparks I feel when our skin touches. “I wouldn’t mind that, and it’s not your fault. I started talking in Italian and she took advantage of the fact that you didn’t speak it.” He looked up at me and I gave him a reassuring smile.

With that settled Sarah starts the car and we take off. We were only driving for 10-15 min when we pulled up to a large shopping mall. We all get out and Sarah proceeds to grab my hand and drag me to the first store. while shopping for tops Jake finds a seat and just watched us. Sarah asks me a bunch of questions about my life growing up and I ask her the same. She only gives me vague answers, but I am ok with that. We even talk about funny and embarrassing stories about Jake. The more and more I find out about him the more I am intrigued.

It's about lunch time and we are bringing back another load of bags to Jake's car. "Ugh, I am so hungry. as much as I enjoy watching you ladies shop can we call it a day and grab something to eat." Jake exclaimed while throwing his hands up. Sarah and I look at each other with huge smiles. "Sounds good to me, Sarah what would you like for lunch?" I ask her. She turns to me and shrugs her shoulders, "I'm good for anything."

"Okay how about tacos? Know any good Mexican restaurants Jake?" he looks to me and says "oh yeah! there is an awesome taco truck usually parked close to here." with that we head out looking for a taco truck.

While on the search for a taco truck I keep getting the feeling that someone is watching me and I find myself looking around nervously. Jake notices this and starts looking around as well. "Everything okay Mar?" I nod my head just as I come across a guy standing in the distance staring at us. He is wearing dirty jeans and a red hoody. "Jake, look it's the guy from my work" I nudge him and he turns to look. He mutters something under his breath and grabs mine and Sarah's arms and pulls us the other way. We are just about to reach the car when we hear a loud growl behind us.