Chapter Four: Meant to Be Unfinished

"I'll be a beautiful letdown
that's what I'll forever be
and though it may cost my soul
I'll sing for free." - Switchfoot "The Beautiful Letdown"



Utter�humiliation.

As I watched Isaac walk away from me, I felt my heart sink. You cannot even imagine how many questions just flew through my head in that 7-second span I was standing there, watching a moment I've only dreamed about just disappearing:

He isn't even going to remember me. Why did I even tell him my name? It's not like I'm ever going to be anything to him�

I wish I weighed 20 pounds less�then maybe I wouldn't have been so hard to help off the ground. What a damsel in distress I was�

Did he actually smile at me? Must be a fluke in the lighting, or maybe I finally developed that astigmatism that my optometrist said I would be getting in college�besides, no guys ever flirt with me�

Man I wonder if Mrs. D told him I sing in college and play guitar too, along with drums and crappy piano�oh yeah right, why would he want to hear ME sing?

I know it's horrible�but I can't help it. I guess I'm so insecure that it has just vacuumed my personality straight down the toilet. I was so conscious that people were thinking negative things about me all the time�it was rather scary. And I know that it's a bad habit that I've been trying to stop having for a while.

What to call the daze that I was in because of Isaac would be indescribable. It seemed like just the way he spoke to you was like he knew for years, not just knew you�close to you. Like he knew all your inner secrets and was completely comfortable secreting emotions out of a woman if he wanted to. It sent me into something I never even knew existed�

Sarah, get a grip. You just met the guy. You will probably never see him again.

"Sarah!" I suddenly heard someone call out my name. I looked around in a frantic flurry, trying to decipher the noise I heard and saw Eric looking at me sternly, "Get upstairs."

I mumbled under my breath, "Yes sir�" as I grabbed onto the pepperoni rolls tightly to keep my hands steady. I thought that the moment I met Ike was just a chance meeting�

It�was�fate. I just didn't know it.

________________________________________

"Man, what's the matter with you?" I heard Tay asking me as I sat down at the large conference table in front of us. We were surrounded by an array of sandwiches that I had heard were made by the girl I had just met...

They looked delicious. I was looking forward to a delightful taste of the peppered turkey on mushroom bread.

"Nothing," I said as I took one of the sandwiches I wanted. Of course they were all in finger form so I grabbed a couple of mushroom ones and decided I'd try the other ones later.

From the corner of my eye, someone else walked in the room and I saw Zac starting to fan his mouth. His eyes were lightly starting to water and I looked at what samples might have been missing other than mine.

Ah yes�the classic jalapeno yelp. He always does that when he eats something with jalapeno peppers.

"Zac, you got to watch that," I laughed as I looked over at him. Tay was lightly cracking up and I heard a girlish giggle from the other side of the table. It was a little deeper than I heard before and it caused me to look up�

to find out it wasn't Sarah.

"Boys!" we heard Mrs. D coming in and we all stood up and gave her a handshake, "This is Leah Phelps, she will be dining with you today."

"Phelps, like the swimmer Phelps?" Zac perked off, sipping some water quickly before completely recovering from the jalapeno pepper bread.

"Yeah, everyone says that," Leah smiled, slightly laughing and Sarah was now entering with a small basket of a couple pepperoni rolls, placing them gently on the table.

"Oh Sarah, doll!" Madeleine widely smiled in her direction, "Sit down, sit down dear, you've had a long, hard day and you deserve a little bit of rest."

"Um�sure, Madeleine," Sarah lightly smiled as she took a seat on the other side of us, smiling lightly at Tay.

"Feel free, boys, that's what they're there for," Mrs. D smiled and walked out of the room. I think she might have just invited us up here so someone could eat the store's food. That's how my grandma used to be before she passed on. She loved to just see us there, eating her food and enjoying the atmosphere. She was almost a free spirit. It's sweet to see that still exists in older grandmother-types.

Sarah looked over at me gently with her soft brown eyes and quickly grabbed a couple samples. Someone must have told her to tell us what each of them were cause she started explaining which ones she was picking up.

"This one is the Mortadella combo with our mortadella and natural salami, provolone cheese, made on fresh pepperoni bread," she smiled as Tay was picking up one of those, "One of my personal favorites. But I must recommend the peppered turkey with Swiss cheese on mushroom bread. I don't like to go without one for lunch while I'm here," she blushed lightly.

Tay was in snack heaven.

________________________________________

I was smiling as I picked up a couple of the samples that I was hoping to try. Of course, my favorite peppered turkey and mortadella, and I wanted to try the Piccante combo with hot ham, hot pepper cheese and peppered turkey. I usually don't go for too spicy things like the Beef and Cheddar on the jalapeno bread, but I love the combo of the Piccante on the mild, crunchy basilicata bread.

My eyes kept diverting to Isaac, hoping to hold his gaze for a little while. My god is he cute.

"This one right here is our corned beef with Swiss on Rye�not too fond of rye bread myself, but oh well, if anybody likes it, they can take mine," I smiled at the boys. The others are pretty impressive as well.

Then�the inevitable occurred.

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