Sunday - Wk 3 Chp 8 (continuation of wk 2) - Story Telling - REVISED

But it didn't.

“What happened?” she asked. “I mean, if you don't mind telling me.”

“No, I don't mind,” he said, surprised, and watched as the the last rays of sunlight – the only reminder that day had passed – finally disappeared and night set in. “Um, I married the girl I'd dated my last two years of high school a few months after graduation. I was hired by the company I'd been interning with and soon we had enough money to build a house. Everything was perfect.”

“What made y'all split up?” she asked.

“She was killed in a car accident on her way home from shopping for things to put in the nursery,” he continued. “She was seven months pregnant.”

“Oh my god, I'm so sorry,” she said, bringing her knees to her chest. “And that made you leave the country?”

“That, and our house burned down the night of her funeral. The field behind it caught on fire when it was struck by lightning and I was too drunk to do anything but run out and watch. So I lived with my sister-in-law's family until the insurance company wrote me a check. Like I said, all I had was time and money, so I ran away. That's actually my entire story.”

“Wow,” Jasey said. “Well, I guess I have to pay up and tell you my story.”

“I want to hear it,” he said.

“Okay,” she said. “Well, I was born on March twelfth, nineteen-eighty-eight to a mechanic and a school teacher, who did not stay together. My mom raised me on her own from the time I was six up until she remarried when I was seventeen to my ex-boyfriend's father, which was awkward to say the least. He's this plastic surgeon, who has all this money and all these connections to other people with money. I went from barely having too much money to get a grant for college to having enough funds available to be able to stay in college long enough to get my masters in some unreasonable field and then some. Suddenly my mom always had a friend with a son close to my age. It's a little ridiculous. Anyway, I pissed everyone off by moving in with a friend and choosing to work at her boyfriend's cafe over going to school at all. Now I'm living on my own in the same junky apartment I lived in with Emma. She got married a few weeks ago to Jude, and they live above the cafe. It's boring. You still awake?”

“Still here,” he chuckled quietly, slightly jealous of the simplicity of her story. “You're not at all boring.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” she said quickly, blushing.

“Jasey, what are you doing tomorrow?” he asked before he could chicken out.

“I'm supposed to be working, but I haven't had a day off in a long time and my boss owes me a favor or two. What do you have in mind?”

“How do you like picnics?” he asked.

“I don't know, I've never been on one, but I've heard they're quite nice,” she smiled.

“I was thinking I could take you to the arboretum. I haven't been in years. I know it's a little ways away, but-”

“Yeah, it is,” she cut him off, biting her lip.

“We could meet at the cafe at noon,” he said.

"That sounds really nice, but..." she started and he sighed. "Really, I don't not want to go. It's just, we just met..."

"Yeah," he smiled, embarrassed.

"I have a friend, though," she began. "He's moving away soon. We're not close or anything. In fact, I wasn't even planning on attending, but a going away party is being thrown for him at the cafe. Would you like to go with me?"

"As your escort?" he asked tentatively.

"As my date," she smiled as she clarified.

"Absolutely," she could hear his nerves letting up as his voice relaxed. "What time?"