Chapter 9: Sunday is Mom Day

Meredith avoided the pigeons and made sure she had no loose popcorn in her purse as she headed to the Metra the next day. She would take the train to Schaumburg where her mother lived. Meredith’s mother picked her up at the train station and the went to Yu’s Mandarin for lunch. Meredith really had been craving Chinese food since the sushi left her wanting a little more asian in her life.

“So how have you been this week?” Meredith’s mother asked her after they ordered drinks.

“I got a big project at work so I have been crazy busy. It’s due on Friday so I still have a lot of work to do.” Meredith looked around the restaurant. She felt uneasy as though someone were watching them somewhere.

“Oh! Meri, that's wonderful.” Her mother had called her Meri since she could remember. “Will you get a promotion?”

“Probably not but if we do well we will get raises. I have a good feeling about it.”

“Who would have thought all that finger painting would become a successful career.” Her mother sighed with a nostalgic smile on her face.

“Mom, I’m not finger painting. It’s graphic design.”

“Oh, I know honey. It’s fancy finger paints.”

Suddenly there was a shadow looming over their table and Meredith was surprised at how quickly the food was ready.

“M-Meredith Glenn?” A rough voice with a slight squeak said. Meredith looked up to see a hulk of a man. He had bleach blonde buzzed hair, clear blue eyes above a large smushed nose and baby smooth cleft chin. He was about six feet five inches and as wide as he was tall with broad shoulders. He wore a simple long sleeve shirt and jeans with a huge lopsided grin.

“Barry Olsen?” Meredith recognized him as the linebacker from high school. He was popular because he was the quarterback’s best friend at the time and she noticed that very same quarterback Tony Sanders standing a couple feet behind Barry. “Hey, Tony.” He smiled as a response.

“I heard you and Chad broke up a while back.” Barry said to her as his way of getting to the point she guessed. He slid his card to her. “We gotta go. We’re running late for T time. My cell number is on there. Hit me up next time you’re in town.”

“Oh sure. Was good to see you guys.” Meredith said not entirely sure how to respond. Tony smirked and finger waved and Barry grinned more so than he already was, which came off a bit demented.

“Tony is handsome as ever. He looks like a younger version of Guy Pierce.” Meredith’s mother swooned after the guys had left the restaurant.

“Yeah.” Their food had arrived and Meredith was ready to dig in. She was so hungry for some reason. 

“So are you going to give Barry a call?” Her mother interrupted Meredith’s uncouth shoveling of food into her mouth.

“Mmmprombambly mop”

“Dear?”

“Probably not. I went on a group date and the guy Jordan I was paired with was nice. Also I have a date with one or two guards.” Meredith said after swallowing her mouthful of food.

“Oh, Meri. That’s great news. I’m so glad you are finally moving past Chad. He was such a horrible young man. He had some weird obsession with dark chocolate and dough balls.”

“Oh, I had forgotten about that. Yeah, I don’t know why he would eat dough balls.” Meredith and her mother finished up their meal then headed to the mall to look around. Her mother had promised to buy her a new outfit for her presentation on Friday. 

Meredith FaceTimed Taylor in each store and had her mother help her show off each outfit in the fitting room. Between the three of them the chose a sexy high-waist, black pencil skirt with a gold zipper up the back, a short-sleeve cropped red blouse with a black camisole and platform nude pumps to accentuate her height. Meredith didn’t really do much in the decision making other than try the clothes on her mother and best friend chose for her. They weren’t overly expensive but she wasn’t at Target.

Meredith kissed her mother on the cheek and thanked her before saying goodbye before heading back into the city. She saw she had missed a text from Jordan while shopping.

I’m going to be doing some drone shoots for a project on Wednesday if you want to come with me.

Meredith thought about it. She should have her project pretty much wrapped up by then so why not. Jordan seemed nice.

That would be awesome! If you have time afterwards maybe we can grab something to eat.

Sounds like a date. :) I’m looking forward to it.

Meredith smiled and was excited to be able to finally move past Chad. She didn’t know why she had held on to him for so long. Maybe she felt she wasn’t good enough after all he did cheat on her several times. But she knew better and she was glad to finally be free.