After saying goodnight to Trista and Blaine, Jenna followed me out to the car in relative silence. She closed her door and turned to stare out the passenger side window. I started the car, but didn’t put it into gear right away.
“Jenna, there’s something I think you should know.”
She turned to face me. “What’s that?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with this. I thought you should know that.”
“What do you mean, Jackson?”
“Tonight was an obvious set-up and I wanted you to know I didn’t have a hand in it.”
“I never assumed you did. I know it was all Trista’s doing. I was hoping it was only obvious to me because I know her so well.”
“She isn’t exactly the most subtle person in the world, is she?”
“She isn’t, but at least I know she means well,” Jenna replied.
“I know what you mean. People have been trying to fix me up like crazy ever since Melissa…”
I put the car in gear and hoped she didn’t pick up on that. Shit! I didn’t know how I was going to get myself out of this one. I wasn’t supposed to have been married, but maybe she didn’t notice.
“Melissa?”
Shit! I couldn’t think of anything to say at first, then it all fell nicely into place.
“I didn’t mean to bring her up; that slipped out. She was my wife. She died eighteen months ago. I wish I hadn’t said anything. People always seem to treat me different after they find out I’m a widower.”
Jenna fell silent. It was good I remembered the directions. I let her stare out the window while I drove back to the condo. The way I saw it, it was half a lie. Melissa had been dead to me ever since she’d run off. And I’d had a few great dreams she really was dead. Franklin too. It was always a disappointment to wake up from those.
Once I parked in front of the condo, Jenna turned to me and broke the silence. “I’m sorry about tonight.”
“What do you have to be sorry about?” I asked.
“Well, you know.”
I really didn’t know what she was talking about. “I’m not following you, Jenna.”
“I’m sure you were looking forward to getting away from all of the pressure to move on when you moved here. I’m sorry Trista interfered.”
“Don’t be.”
“I don’t understand. I would want to be left alone,” she said.
“For a long time, I did want that, but you begin to learn how to deal with things a little better every day. It’s like the way I wanted to hold on to all of her clothes and keep all of the pictures of us around; almost like I thought it would make her less gone. I learned all it did was keep me in a constant state of grief. It was hard, but I felt better once I packed up her things and stopped looking at our wedding album every day.” I sounded so sappy to my own ears that I wanted to kick my own ass. It had better be true that women went for this sort of crap.
Jenna appeared thoughtful. “I never thought about it that way, I guess. I still am sorry about Trista, though.”
“You shouldn’t be,” I said with a smile. “I had a good time tonight.”
“You enjoyed being grilled by a table full of strangers?”
“People are only strangers until you get to know them.”
“True.”
“And everyone at that table wasn’t grilling me. You were quiet most of the night.”
“I’m a quiet person,” Jenna said softly.
“It’s too bad,” I said as I opened my door. I was starting to feel more confident in the role I was playing. It was fun to be the old me again.
Jenna climbed out of my SUV and asked, “What is?”
“You were the person at the table that I wanted to be grilled by. I wouldn’t mind getting to know you better.” Much better.
Jenna stopped short at the access door to the condo and stared at me in shock. Perhaps I had been too upfront in my approach. The look on her face didn’t seem to be one of amusement. Her voice was coarse when she spoke. “Listen, I’m sorry if I’ve given you the wrong impression here. This was not a date; it was people getting together for dinner. That’s all. Thank you for the ride home, but I think you had better go now.”
“Go where?” I asked, looking around. “I live here and even if this had been a date, I wouldn’t have felt it appropriate to follow you up to your place without an invitation.” Unless I thought I could get one in the time it took to get to her door, that is. “The problem is that, unless you expect me to go around to the alley and break a window to get in, I have to follow you up.”
“I didn’t…you…ah…goodnight.”
With that, Jenna turned and walked up the stairs to her condo. I followed her up at a respectable distance. When we were both at our respective doors, I turned to her and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you. Goodnight, Jenna.”
© 2009, Sydney Katt. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use of content will result in dragon attacks.
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