Page 119 of Come Back to Me

I hand it to Jen, and she gently grabs it from me. She gives it back to me in a span of a couple minutes.

“I can take you guys to see Dana now.” She gets up from her chair with Grayson following her outside.

I follow closely behind.

I can’t stop my mouth from jittering. I haven’t seen Dana in such a long time, so I’m crossing my fingers that this goes well. I know I’m overthinking the hell out of this, but I can’t help it. Overthinking is a part ofmy DNA.

As I observe our surroundings, I notice the shelter is set up similar to an apartment complex. There are multiple buildings with two stories and parking spots in front of each of the buildings.

I give Grayson and Jen some space to talk about his mom and how she’s doing. I don’t like inserting myself into other people’s business, especially when it doesn’t involve me.

When we get to Dana’s apartment on the first floor, Jen knocks on the door. “Hey Dana, it’s Jen. I have some visitors here to see you.”

Dana says through the door. “Visitors?” She swings the door open, her face lighting up as her eyes land on me. “Violet, is that you?”

“If you need me, you know how to reach me.” Jen walks away from us, heading back towards the main office.

“Hi, Dana,” I say.

“Is it okay if I hug you?” she asks, sniffling.

“Yeah, of course.”

She rushes over to me, embracing me tightly. I can’t help but let some tears fall out of my eyes because this is such an emotional moment for me. I know it is for her, too.

Dana lightly hits Grayson on his upper arm.

“Hey! What was that for?” he asks, his mouth slightly dropping open.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing Violet with you?”

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” he says.

“Well, I’m definitely surprised. How did you two reconnect?” She looks back and forth between Grayson and I.

“Violet surprised me after practice about a week or so ago.”

“Let’s just say it didn’t go too well, but things are better now,” I add.

“Every time Grayson visits me, all he talks about is you,” Dana blurts out.

Grayson corrects her. “No, allyoutalk about is Violet when I’m here.”

Dana’s apartment is warm and cozy with soft browns on the walls, and the furniture is in autumnal colors. There are scattered blankets on the sofa and plush chairs.

We sit down at the kitchen table. I sit across from Grayson, while his mom sits at the head of the table.

“Bullshit! You always talked about how you wished you could talk to her. You wondered what she was up to and how she was doing.”

Grayson grunts. “Whatever, so did you!”

“Okay, moving on.” She turns to me. “It’s been a long time, kid. What have you been up to?”

“Well, I got promoted to assistant manager at Sweet & Salty.”

“Atta girl. One day, you’re going to run that entire store. I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you. School has kept me busy. I’m a marketing major, and I’m working on getting my minor in entrepreneurship.”