It felt strange for Lola to be back in Breckentale. While the surgery went well, Lola’s father and brother still thought it might be best for Lola to return and maybe help out around the house. It was an innocent enough request, but Lola had a feeling there was something more to it. Of course she missed her family, and it had been a long time since Lola came back to Breckentale to visit, at least four or five years. It was always easier to convince her family to fly out to see her since they had other family in Seoul as well. Even so, it had actually been a while since Lola had visibly seen her family.
Lola was still tired from her trip and the time change was a bit of an adjustment. It was Lola’s second day back, and to keep herself occupied she decided to take a walk through downtown. She wasn’t there to buy anything but more to stretch her legs and get some fresh air, but of course she couldn’t help herself and stop in a few shops. After walking around one, she exited without buying anything and looked around to see what other shops she could visit.
Diego had had a crush on Lola since at least the third grade. Not that he’d ever said anything about it and they became friends, staying in touch a little bit after she moved to Seoul and her career took off but it had been a while since he’d heard anything from her. He had heard that she was in town and he wondered why she’d come back and he thought about calling her, assuming that she’d be at her parents but he hadn’t done it. Why would she want to talk to him anyway? She probably had some rich Korean boyfriend waiting for her over there anyway. It never crossed his mind that he was very successful himself and there were plenty of women in Breckentale who would consider him a catch.
He was coming out of his favorite book store when he saw her and he nearly tripped over his own feet. For a moment he couldn’t say anything and was glad she was looking in the opposite direction so that he could take a deep breath and get himself together before he said anything. “Lola, hi, I heard you were in town. How are you?”
Lola wasn’t sure why she was surprised to hear someone call her name, she was sure it had gotten around that she had been back. All the same, she wasn’t expecting it and when she looked she saw a familiar face. Not too familiar as it had been quite a long time since she had seen him, but she could pick out Diego anywhere.
“Diego!” Lola said in a bright tone. “U-wa it’s so good to see you!” It really felt like a long time. She did her best to stay in touch with him after she left but over time and the busier she got, it had been a little more difficult to keep in touch. “I’m doing really well, how are you?”
“Things are good,” he said. How was it possible that she was even more beautiful than she had been the last time he’d seen her. “I have the best of both worlds, I get to work at home and I love what I do. It’s great.” Once his software development took off, he was able to buy a nice house with a big garage that he converted into a workshop/lab. “I don’t have to ask how you are, I heard your last record, it’s great!” Diego had all of her records downloaded and saved on a flash drive. Maybe that was a little creepy but he could listen to it whenever he wanted and K-Pop wasn’t a genre that you could find very easily. “What are you doing back in town? The last I heard you were still in Korea.”
“That’s great, Diego!” Lola had always known that with Diego’s brains there was nothing he couldn’t do. Lola smiled at his compliment and blushed. “Thank you! It was a little different for us, we had more of a hip-hop vibe to it. Min-seo is a fantastic rapper and it’s been something she wanted to do since Starstruck! was first formed.” Lola certainly didn’t mind it and she hoped the album would do really well. Starkstruck! had always had that pop-vibe to it but it was nice to change their sound and mix something new. “Oh I don’t know if you heard. Mom had to have surgery. She’s doing okay!” She quickly added. “But just need some rest and with my brother and Dad working, I wanted to come home for a while and help out. Plus I haven’t been back in years, and thought it’d be a nice time to break. The girls will be fine without me, we aren’t planning on touring until next year, so it’s mostly just public appearances and not all of us need to be together for it.”
“I ran into Sung a few days ago at the grocery story and he told me about your mom, he didn’t mention that you were home though but he was trying to keep Demora from climbing up the shelf to get a box of cereal that she couldn’t reach,” he laughed. Diego had always liked Lola’s brother even though he was a few years older. “I’m glad to hear that she’s doing well, I’m sure that’s a big relief for you. It must be tough being so far from home sometimes.” For his part, Diego had left Breckentale for college and when things really took off for him, he surprised himself by wanted to come back. He felt that he had more control over things in his own domain and while he had people that worked for him, a lot of it was just him and a computer. Or two.
Lola laughed. “That does sound like Damora.” Then paused before adding. “Well it wasn’t necessarily planned. It was an on-going conversation on if and when I could take the time away. I didn’t really have a chance to tell anyone.” It did make her feel slightly guilty. They had tried to stay in touch but maybe Lola should have tried harder. At least to reach out and tell Diego that she’d be coming back. “I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to tell you. And for losing touch.” She did her best to smile. “I hope we can catch up while I’m here though! Maybe we can have lunch together sometime? Or dinner? Or wait, I don’t want to get you into any trouble if you’re seeing someone.”
He tried not to let himself get too excited at her question. After all, they were friends and had been for a long time, it wasn’t as if she really wanted to know if he was seeing someone. Or what if she did. Stop it Diego he told himself. “Oh no, I’m not seeing anyone right now. I’m working on a new project so that’s keeping me busy.” It also made him sound like a loser but Lola knew him well enough to know that when he was working on something, he could get completely absorbed and forget everything around him. “I can do lunch or dinner, whatever works for you. Since I’m my own boss, it’s easy to take off work.”
“Oh okay, well great! Good I wouldn’t want to get you into any trouble.” Lola said with a small laugh. It was surprising though. She knew Diego was dedicated to his work but with his looks, his intelligence and kind heart? It was very surprising that he wasn’t already seeing someone. “Well here.” She said as she got into her purse. She pulled out a pen and a scrap piece of paper and quickly wrote her number on it. “I changed it a year ago, not sure if you have it or not but just in case.” She handed it over to him. “Give me a call and we can get together this weekend.”
She had just handed him what amounted to the Holy Grail of phone numbers but Diego didn’t let it show. “Okay, thanks. I’ll do that. I’ll figure out where is a good place to go and I’ll give you a call. Is there any place in particular you want to go? Or maybe don’t want to go?”
Lola smiled brightly at him. “That sounds great! Hm. Well.” She thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “It’s been so long since I’ve had anything in town, so I’ll let you pick or else it’ll be an hour of me not being able to decide.” She laughed. “Though I’ll definitely want ice cream or frozen yogurt after.”
Diego grinned at her. ‘I promise I’ll pick somewhere that you’ll like and ice cream too.” He seriously couldn’t believe this was happening and even if it was just a friendly dinner, he wasn’t going to complain. “So is Saturday night good for you?”