Sebastian Give Up

The cashier had finished totaling all the groceries and was now putting them into the shopping bags.

"How much is my total, miss?" Maia asked.

"The total is two hundred fifty-six dollars, ma'am," the cashier replied.

Maia then took her wallet out of her pink bag. She counted the money according to the total amount of their groceries and handed it to the cashier.

"Here you go, miss, two hundred fifty-six dollars," said Maia.

"Yes, ma'am, that's correct. Thank you for shopping with us," the cashier replied. "Here is your receipt. Please redeem your complimentary bowl and plate at the information desk."

"Thank you, miss. Good night," Maia responded.

"Good night, ma'am. Take care," the cashier replied.

Hector and Helena helped their mother by putting the shopping bags into the shopping cart so they wouldn't have to carry everything by hand and could quickly push the cart to the car park.

After paying, they left the shopping center. It was already nine o'clock, and they still needed to have dinner. They were starving and thirsty from all the shopping. Maia suggested they eat upstairs, where there were many food vendors. They took the escalator to the food court.

A few moments later, they arrived at the food court, which had a variety of local and international cuisines. Hector and Helena were amazed at the variety of food. Their eyes wandered around the food stalls, looking at what they wanted to eat.

"What do you want to eat, kids?" their mother asked.

They looked around, smiling, trying to decide.

"Wait a moment, mom, we're still choosing," they answered.

"I want a boba drink, mom," Hector requested.

"I want boba too," said Helena.

"Alright, here's the money. Choose and buy whatever you want, kids," Maia said.

"Yay!" the children cheered excitedly.

Helena and Hector quickly headed to the boba stall. They had to wait in line because it was pretty busy. Helena took the number three spot in line since Hector was too short to reach the counter.

A few moments later, it was Helena's turn to order. She ordered two chocolate boba drinks with extra boba as toppings. After ordering, they waited for their drinks to be prepared. While sitting in the waiting area, they took some photos with their mobile phones. They enjoyed capturing interesting subjects around them as both of them aspired to be photographers when they grew up.

Meanwhile, Maia sat at the table, waiting for Helena and Hector to order their food and drinks. While looking at her phone, her thoughts drifted to Sebastian. She read the old messages from her husband, looking at the dates of the last messages he had sent. Maia felt sad, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Sebastian sent the messages years ago, expressing how much he missed Maia and wanting her to come home from work soon. Sadness overwhelmed Maia as she read the messages. She had never deleted those texts from her phone's memory. They were the only memories she had of Sebastian's feelings before his behavior changed.

Maia's heart ached, remembering their past affection. She could hardly believe that Sebastian would ruin her feelings and life as he had. The tears flowed more freely, feeling like her heart was pierced by arrows as she recalled her relationship with her beloved husband.

Suddenly, Maia realized she was with her children and didn't want them to see her crying. Quickly, she reached for tissues from her pink bag and wiped away her tears. After drying her eyes, she put her phone back in her bag.

Remembering her children hadn't returned yet, she stood up from her seat and looked around to find them. She spotted them at a boba stall to the right of their table. Relieved, she sat back down and waited for them to finish their order.

At the boba stall...

"Order for Helena," called the boba stall attendant.

"Yes, sir," Helena responded.

Helena quickly grabbed the bag with the boba drinks in her left hand. They left the stall and headed to the steak stall, having decided they wanted steak for dinner. Upon reaching the steak stall, they checked the menu displayed above the counter.

"Good evening, what would you like to order?" the attendant asked, handing the menu to Helena and Hector.

"Good evening, sir. I'd like to order three servings of tenderloin steak, please."

"And three large servings of fries," Helena added.

"Alright, which sauce would you like?" the attendant asked, pointing to the sauce options on the menu.

"Chicken mushroom sauce for all three, please," she replied.

"Okay, it'll be ready in fifteen minutes. Here's your order number. I'll bring the food to your table," the attendant said.

"Thank you, sir. We'll be sitting over there," Helena said, pointing to their table.

"Thank you and good evening," the attendant responded.

After ordering and paying, they headed to the hand-washing station to clean their hands after handling the shopping bags and other items. Once they finished washing their hands, they returned to the table where Maia was waiting for them.