77. Lulu and Jack

Lulu walked down the street, looking back over her shoulder as if Jack might reappear at any moment.  “That’s silly,” she told herself, “it’s not like he’s a ghost!” 

She replayed their last conversation over in her head, like her brain was the TV screen and she merely had to flick the remote control:  rewind.  “Lulu, I want us to move in together.  You are all I think about every moment of the day, and I need to wake up next to you.” 

Every moment of the day?  Gah, I hope not, she thought.  He is a pilot, for goshsakes, he’s going to crash his plane and kill a bunch of people if he is that easily distracted. 

Lulu couldn’t tell the difference between an innocent compliment and full-blown obsession, she just knew she felt suffocated. 

Right after he said it, she broke it off.  “It’s best if we stop seeing each other for a while,” she uttered, or some such nonsense cliché.  “It’s me, not you.” 

But what might life have been like if she stayed with Jack?  Where would he have taken her (literally)?  He had good seniority with the airlines; he was always jetting off to Japan or Paris or someplace else she had only seen in movies.

She snapped back to the present moment when she tripped on an uneven spot in the sidewalk.  A woman with three dogs walked past her, mumbling something about red and blue dots and a man named Jim.  Lucky girl, she has a man that doesn’t make her feel like running away. 

Lulu glanced at her watch:  7:30 PM.  Good, no one will be here now, she thought.  She walked in the pristine lobby and approached the bank of elevators.  She pressed the button and waited.  She stepped in and rose to the 15^th floor.

The receptionist was still there.  “Lulu, welcome back.  You weren’t gone long this time.” 

Lulu grinned wide and finally exhaled.  Her office.  Her work.  Her salvation. 

Her home.       

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trifecta writing challenge:  the word is "home" and the story is 333 words exactly