Hucow Generation - Chapter 12

Happy Friday, everyone!

Chapter 12

I was rarely out in town if I had to be honest about it. 

Zack was the one who made it appealing for me to go out and about in town. The time we had eating together was significantly pleasant. It was nice to be with him in public and to have people seeing us together. It was different from being by ourselves in private. I wasn’t exactly too sure how to explain it, but it made things more real for me. 

It was this confirmation that he wasn’t ashamed of being seen in public with me.

I still wouldn’t consider that a date, although, I sort of wished I would have been that. It was still too soon to even call anything we did together something like a “date”.

So, after having lunch with him, I headed back to the farm and I headed back to work. 

My farm was a milk farm and those cows weren’t going to milk themselves, were they? 

If I ever wanted to have a shot at keeping the farm and keeping my house, I had to the farm and I had to do the best darn job possible! 

I was just about to get back to work right before I heard footsteps coming from behind me…

Then, a large and dark shadow loomed over me.

I saw it looking over me and that made me wonder who that person could potentially be… 

I turned around as soon as I could and the person that stood behind me in the barn was honestly the last person that I wanted to see in my barn.

“Willow…”

That person in question was Florence—the woman who was after my land. 

“Florence? What are you doing here?” I asked her. Her shadow loomed over me because she stood above me. I was still squatting down on the ground and this was one of the facts why her shadow was looming so much over me. Well, that and the fact that she was much, much taller than I was. 

“What a nice way to greet your aunt, Willow.”

I finally rose from the ground after squatting for so long.

As I mentioned just now, she was still much taller than me even when I stood next to her. My eyesight gave to the height of her neck, which was to demonstrate how much taller she truly was compared to me.

“I’m sorry—perhaps I should have gone with something like… Let’s see… Hello, Florence, how are you today? Thanks for coming here… Uninvited or without letting me know that you were going to come ahead of time… So? Is that any better?” I cocked my head and gave her a wry smile as I spoke to her.

“It’s nice to see you. I’ve thought of coming by since you’re all alone all the time on your land.”

Well, that’s not exactly true anymore after I met Zack, but she probably doesn’t know anything about that, of course… I thought as I was biting my lip not to tell her about the young man who would potentially become my boyfriend soon—crossing my fingers that this would come to fruition. 

Hold on!  I was legitimately beginning to believe there was a chance that he would become my boyfriend and I was becoming excited about that potential… I was becoming problematic—I was not supposed to fall for him, this badly… I was not supposed to be falling for anyone…

“Right… You’re right… I’m always alone…” 

“Um, I’m not too sure about that, I wouldn’t say always,” she corrected me, which surprised me and caught me off-guard. 

“I’m not sure if I understand what you mean…” I smiled and shook my head, trying to brush what she said to the side and forget about it entirely. 

“That Zack guy is a hottie.”        

What she said just now hit me like a brick wall of brick. 

She just mentioned Zack, meaning that she had known all along about Zack. 

How could she have known about him? How did she see him? I was overwhelmed with so many questions, but I couldn’t just ask her. I was busy enough that I needed to carry a straight face in front of her and not come across as too weak to her. 

“Who’s that Zack? I don’t know what you’re talking about…” and at the last second, I thought it was perhaps to lie to her. Now, I never liked lying. I never enjoyed lying to anyone, ever, but in this case, it was a little bit different. 

I was pitted face-to-face with Florence and I knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to stop asking me question after question until she was satisfied, so I preferred denying everything and moving on… 

I didn’t even know why she was even here, to begin with…      

“Oh, but darling, you don’t have to lie to me, now. I agree with your choice of boyfriend. He looks so cute. He has to be a sweetheart.”

“ZACK IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!” 

I didn’t mean to shout this loud to her, but I did, and I had accidentally confirmed out loud that I knew Zack. She knew everything.

“Oh, so you know who I’m talking about, then, huh?” she was amused that she was able to mess with her the way she did. Her plan had worked perfectly. Now that I had mentioned Zack out loud, I couldn’t exactly walk back on this and pretend like I didn’t know why. This was impossible now.

“Look. I don’t know what you want from me, Florence, but this has to stop. No. I am not going to sell you the farm and I would appreciate it greatly if you didn’t bring someone who has nothing to do with this whatsoever like Zack,” feeling like I had been defeated already, I took a deep breath and I tried to defend myself as best as I could.

“What I want from you is quite simple, Willow—I want your happiness.”

My happiness? I wasn’t certain if I had heard right.

“What do you mean?”

“You have been alone for far too long. I want you to find love.”

“Florence—my personal love life has nothing to do with you!”

“There’s something you need to know… I had a special arrangement with the bank and I’ve actually been making sure they don’t take it from you. Here’s the deal: I want you to find the love of your life and I’ll let you keep the farm, how about that?”

This was the last thing I expected her to tell me on that day… 

My jaw dropped and I knew now that the rest of the day was going to change drastically…