Forever & Always

Two

When she was done, she locked up and headed towards the main house. Her mother had already opened the back door for the dogs to roam.

"Emma!" her sister yelled at her as she swiped part of her toast.

"That was mine!" Her sister grumbled, and Emma laughed.

"Sorry boo, gotta go." Emma kissed her sister's cheek, grabbed her keys, and headed into the garage.

"Will we see you later?" her mom yelled, and she grabbed the door, yelling at her mom upstairs.

"Nah, we should probably wait out traffic at Disney with Collin."

"Tell him hi!" Her mother's voice flittered down, and she mumbled yea-yea and headed out. Her white Nissan was parked in the driveway. It was pretty, but she missed her bug. The VW Beetle had been bright red, and Emma had put in a sub-woofer, which was ridiculous but worked in many ways when Emma was up at her old college. It had an issue with the fuel line, and she had moved over to this one when she had gotten a great deal to lease it. Unfortunately, now she has a car payment plus car insurance. As a result of leaving school and returning home, her parents said. They had a point. She was an adult and had been spoiled long enough.

Emma pulled out of the driveway, plugged in her phone, connected it to the Bluetooth, and turned on some music. Her drive was only 30 miles, but it took almost an hour and a half in everyday traffic. Friday mornings were clear, as most commuters arrived later than usual, but Friday evenings? Yeah, right, she was lucky to be home in under two hours.

Last week, it took her three hours to get home! She only worked part-time at her cousin's place, but it sucked. She was also 1099'd, which meant she had to track her miles or remember to write them off in her taxes. She grabbed her mileage book and quickly recorded the mileage before her phone started ringing.

"Hey, Col, were your ears ringing?" Emma laughed into the car.

"No, why?" Collin's deep voice echoed a bit as Emma turned the volume down. "Were you talking about me?"

"Of course, silly," Emma replied.

"Well, I am working until six tonight. Do you want to grab a drink?" he asked, laughing. He was a bad influence because he was already 21 and often gave her a drink while they walked around the park waiting out traffic.

"Duh!" Emma said, smiling. "I already told my parents I was probably going to Disney, so that works. It will take me a half hour to get there, so…"

"Don't worry, I'll see if I can bounce early. My co-worker owes me for last week anyway. See you later. Oh, and Emma?" He said.

"Yea?"

"Drive safe; don't go weaving around in traffic."

She laughed at his bossy tone.

"Yes, sir." She said as he snorted and hung up.

Traffic was smooth, heading towards Buena Park. Her cousin's office was right around the corner from Knotts Berry Farm. Pulling into the parking lot, she noticed it was just Lisa at the office today. Emma grabbed her purse, keys, and water and headed inside.

"Good morning. Is it just us today?" Emma asked Lisa, looking around at the empty building. Lisa smiled.

"Yep, Stu is out today, and Charlie called in sick." Of course, he did.

"No worries," Emma said and approached the back. She fired up the computer and logged in to see how many orders she needed to fill. It wasn't too bad. She leaned back in the chair and said, "We can manage." Lisa mumbled incoherently, and Emma got to work.

"Hey, kiddo, lunch is here," Lisa said over her shoulder as Emma was stalking items that had come in on yesterday's shipment. She didn't realize four hours had already gone by.

"Great, thanks!" Emma stood stretching her legs.

"No problem," Lisa said, smiling and returning to her office. Emma pulled open the Panera bag and dug into her salad. Since she returned, her mother had been on a rampage about her diet, having gained 15 pounds. Emma rolled her eyes. She was always built differently from her mother and sisters.

Her middle sister was barely 100 pounds, and though Emma ran and still worked out, she was over 120 herself. It didn't matter that she was back in a size 2. Her mother constantly complained. It made her extremely self-conscious. In college, not having someone regularly breathing down her neck about eating and exercising daily was nice.

Her phone vibrated. Looking down, she saw Collin's name appear.

It is so slow today. Rod said he would cover for me. I'm leaving at five and should meet in the parking lot around the same time.

Perfect, she thought and hit reply.

Great! Meet at the tram?

She put her phone down, and it quickly vibrated again.

:)

He must have gotten a customer. She finished her food and cleaned up the desk before returning to the pallet of stuff and organizing again.

"Ready?" Lisa peeked through the door just as Emma shut down the computer.

"Yeah!" Emma said happily.

"Great, you got a lot done today. Honestly, I don't know what those boys do all day." Lisa said, and Emma laughed.

"I just put on the radio and find stuff to do. Like sort inventory from that shipment that came yesterday. I know they had enough time to put all that away." Emma rolled her eyes as Lisa locked up.

"Anyway, have a great night, Lisa." She waved and unlocked her car, sliding in and pulling out her phone. Collin had already texted that he was on his way. She opened up the map app and looked at the traffic. The freeway was decent, so she planned to hop on the 91 to the 5 and take the carpool lane on the 5 to take the bypass traffic and head straight into the parking lot.