nineteen days. the longest she had gone without seeing her husband since they were sixteen. since before they were dating. since before they even met. he called first, naturally, and she answered because she didn’t know what else to do. franesca was confrontational but never held grudges. she could never stay mad for long. their lives were so finely intertwined that one walking out on the other was something that neither knew how to cope with. or at least, that’s what she hoped for.
this lunch would answer a lot of questions that she had. one of which was simply where does this leave us? thinking back, she really didn’t mean the things she said. the threat of leaving him and all that that symbolically entails. francesca sits, fingers locked together over her tiny, tiny, tiny reminder of a belly, glancing at her phone for any sign of communication.
“did you want to order something?”
she looks up, taken from her trance, and nods. “coffee, please--” she was told to watch her caffeine intake, by a woman that might have been her mother, she isn’t sure, neither is her father, and that made her not care much for the advice. johnny tells her that she rest as much as possible and she finds herself too tired to argue with her father anymore, “--actually, can you just make it a lemonade? i'm watching my caffeine intake”