A Date with Fate (Jessie's Girl)

"Er, no, actually," chuckled Jessie. "But I picked up a decent amount of Spanish when I was in Madrid, which is...kinda similar, as I'm sure you know, and I love learning new stuff."

"Well!" said Annabella. "If I can pique your interest in my culture, might you be interested in joining me for dinner, for the finest Italian cuisine you will ever have in your life, I personally guarantee you?"

Oh, what a voice. She could just swim in it.

Jessie slipped her arm around Annabella's. "How can I possibly turn that down?"

***

August 29th, 6:17 p.m.

Annabella normally rode her bike almost wherever she went—work, mall, pool hall, just about anywhere—and secured though it might be, she didn't want to leave it chained to the bike rack outside the mall, which Jessie could understand. And so they slid it into Jessie's backseat, where it luckily just fit. So when the evening was over, Jessie would simply drop Annabella and her bike home.

Annabella directed Jessie to Venizzi's, a secluded but popular restaurant outside of downtown, where the streets and buildings just started to turn to pastures and farmland. The establishment proudly stood alone, a solitary dot on the horizon. They entered. Once they'd been shown to their booth and settled in, the hostess gave them menus and said their server would be right with them.

"Gosh, y'know, this is amazing," said Jessie. "I never knew this place was here. How'd you find it?"

"Having a keen Roman nose helps," Annabella remarked with a wink and a smirk.

The waitress dropped by and took their drink orders. They opened the menus.

Jessie waited until the waitress headed back to the kitchen, then smiled and turned to Annabella. "She's a cute thing, huh?"

Annabella nodded, studying the contents and specials. "She's got some good stuff going on, yeah, but the question is: does she have the complete package, inside and out?" She tapped her heart and forehead.

"Just as valid a point."

Jessie wanted to be chivalrous, so she said, "By the way, it's my treat."

"Oh, that's really not necessary," said Annabella. "I just saved a bundle on my bicycle insurance by switching to Bike-o."

Jessie laughed. This girl charmed the pants off her.

"No, seriously, though, I insist," Jessie insisted insistently. "My Dad's a doctor."

Annabella's tune was changed for her. "Then again, if you'd like to be a gentlewoman, who am I to stand in your way?"

The waitress returned with their bevvies and took their orders for dinner. Jessie ordered the veal tortellini and Annabella went with the "pasghetti and beatmalls," inanely altering its name. After they handed the menus back and the waitress withdrew, Jessie looked at Annabella with an amused expression.

"I didn't know anybody still said that," she chuckled.

"Oh, I'll always be a big kid at heart," Annabella assured her. "Here's my 'child baggage,' as it were. Believe it or not, I still watch 'toons, I still love video games, I still play with my dolls, I still fantasize about living in a magical, mystical kingdom with either my Prince Charming or my Cinderella, I still sleep with my teddy bear and my blankie, and I still believe in Santa Claus."

"You...believe in Santa Claus?"

"Yeah, well, not in a form that physically manifests itself, of course, but...every Christmas Eve at midnight...I hear sleigh bells."

Jessie smiled warmly.

"Just 'cause we grow up, why should we have to stop being kids?" Annabella went on. "I don't think it's fair sometimes, y'know? You grow up, but still do kid-like things, and folks find it strange. Just 'cause you're an adult, why shouldn't you still be allowed to go up to someone and go—"

She lightly slapped Jessie's arm.

"Tag! You're it! And then book it?" she asked.

Jessie wasn't exactly sure what to say. She normally prided herself on being a mature, responsible person, and yet she had to admit Annabella had a good, if somewhat whimsical point. She was starting to like Annabella in a way she couldn't remember liking hardly anyone before. Along with her free, childlike personality, she had a lovely, innocent face and such soft gentle brown eyes. And even if she hadn't known she was Italian, she could tell by her expressive hand movements accentuating everything she said.

"Hope you brought your appetite, buddy girl," Annabella said sweetly. "Only the happiest tummies leave here."

They chatted and flirted a while longer, until the food arrived. The waitress set their plates down and asked if they cared for parmesan cheese, to which Annabella said, "Oh, but of course, my good woman! Please apply liberally!"

When she finally gave the waitress permission to cease, she told them to enjoy and headed to her next table.

"So!" said Annabella, stirring the cheese in with the spaghetti and meatballs, turning it all into a swirl, "Tell me something I don't know about the lovely Jessie Townsend."

"Hmmm," Jessie mused, digging into the veal. "'S see...well, you already do know that she was abroad for three semesters in Europe..." she said, sticking with Annabella's third-person reference to her, "...and you know she likes reading, tennis and rock music...and that her favorite movie's L.A. Story, 'cause she's a sucker for sweet, intelligent romantic comedies...what else do you wanna know?"

"Does she live alone?"

"Oh, well, no, actually, she lives with her Dad."

"Just her Dad?"

"Well, he is getting remarried, so the woman who's gonna be her step-mother is over a lot of the time too, but...she can't really see anyone being a real mother figure for her other than her actual mother."

"Oh...may I ask...what happened with her actual mother?"

Jessie paused to chew and swallow, abandoning the third-person. "She left us."

Annabella's face fell. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she empathized. "How heartbreaking! I don't know what to say!"

Her genuine emotion surprised Jessie a little. For a second she was going to say, "Well, it's okay, it's not really that big a deal," but that wouldn't have been a very thoughtful thing to say. Actually, it remained quite a big deal, but the significance simply diminished in Jessie's and her Dad's minds as they grew accustomed to being on their own. She looked back at Annabella to see her resting her hand with her fork on the table, looking down at her pasta with visible dejection in her eyes. She looked like she was about to cry.

Jessie certainly didn't want that to happen. She clasped Annabella's hand, maneuvering her fingers around the fork. "Oh, whoa, whoa, hey, Annabella, it's okay!" she assured her. "W—I mean, thank you, of course, for your compassion, but it really is okay, honest. I mean, it...it just happened. It was just one of those things that happen sometimes. Y'know, I mean...that's life. Good stuff happens and bad stuff happens. That's all."

Annabella still didn't look up. Jessie was becoming concerned. This was a completely new color on Annabella, as far as she could see. Up until now, the Annabella she knew had been upbeat, cheerful and carefree. Clearly, something had gone very awry here.

"Whoa, Annabella, ar—...are you all right?...Is there something else going on here?"

Annabella blinked several times, trying to hide what she didn't want Jessie to see. "I lost my mother too."

Ouch. "Ohhh...God," said Jessie, slowly retracting her hand. "My turn to be sorry then."

Annabella looked back up into her eyes, her voice cracking a bit. "She, um...she was an alcoholic. We kept trying to get her to stop, or-or get help, but, it just wouldn't take, and then one night, my Daddy woke me up in a panic. I got scared, because I'd never seen him crying before. He-he couldn't find her...and...and then we realized the car was gone."

"OH, dear," Jessie moaned.

"And next thing I knew, I didn't have a Mom anymore. The, uh...the car wasn't in great shape either, but we couldn't care less about that. And my reaction was to grieve and mourn for a couple weeks, but it really broke my heart what it did to Daddy. He'd always been so...happy, and so full of life. Everybody said I got it from him. But after that, he just...kinda became a recluse. Suddenly he didn't wanna leave the house, he didn't wanna play with me...he didn't wanna do anything anymore. I told him he always had me, and that I'd look after him forever, but...he had just...checked out, by that point." She wistfully pushed the meatballs around the plate. "He really loved my Mom."

Jessie nodded. "Sounds like you did too."

"I did. She was such a groovy, amazing lady. Minus that blinkity-blankin' alcohol problem she would've been practically perfect."

"Where's your Dad now?"

"Still at home. I call him a couple times a week to check up on him and see how he's doing and all, and, well..." She shrugged. "I guess he's had the time he's needed to cope, but...he's still not the same man I grew up with. I just...good golly, I just miss his smile so much, Jessie. I haven't seen it in years. He's just so lonely. I wish he could find someone to love him like Mom did. You're so lucky your Dad has."

Jessie's eyes dropped to her own plate, feeling guilt cast its shadow over her. In the first place, if she were to be completely honest with herself, if Jessie lived on her own, she probably wouldn't keep in touch with her Dad that well. But more importantly, Annabella made Jessie realize that ever since she met her future step-mother, she really had only been thinking about how Gretchen's introduction into their lives would affect her. She didn't mean to ignore her Dad's feelings (or Gretchen's); she had just only gotten back from school and needed a little time to adjust to life at home again, and meeting Gretchen right off the bat the first night threw her for a bit of a loop. She didn't put up a fight against her presence because she guessed she presumed Gretchen made her Dad happy, but that was as far as she'd thought it out. She supposed she owed the matter a little more consideration than this.

"I guess I never looked at it from that angle," Jessie uttered to her veal.

"What could be better than a loving new addition to your family unit?" Annabella pondered out loud.

Jessie gazed at Annabella to find optimism and idealism in her eyes. The guilt spread. Gretchen may have had some evident flaws, but there was no mistaking her love for William—though she honestly didn't know if Gretchen genuinely liked her too, especially after what she'd done to her last week. She found herself abruptly feeling awful. She really only meant to teach her a lesson, and it had certainly worked, but at the same time, she'd clearly way overdone it. She probably traumatized the woman for the rest of her natural life. Gretchen was just trying to be nice to her—albeit in her obstinate, misguided Christian way—and what did she get for it?

Raped.

She'd raped this poor lady.

Oh, why did I do that... she thought. I feel like a terrible person. At the time, of course, she hadn't thought of it this way; she'd thought of it then as a necessary if drastic measure to take, to get Gretchen off her back about whom she dated (i.e., other women). She just hadn't wanted to take the hint that Jessie was gay and didn't want or need her help finding a mate, and she did need to be set straight—as it were—but she didn't deserve this. She looked up at Annabella's tender smiling eyes again.

My gosh, Annabella...you're so sweet, and pure, and innocent, and good, and golden-hearted...you could never even think about doing anything like that. For Heaven's sake, if you knew what I did to her...you'd probably never speak to me again.

She must have been punishing herself quite a while, because eventually Annabella asked her, "Jessie? Everything cool, honey?"

Jessie forced a bittersweet swallow. I don't deserve to have you call me "honey," Annabella...I like you so much, but...as much as I hate to say it, you're too good for me. But I'm also too selfish and chicken to let you know that.

"I'm fine."

They had almost cleaned their plates. Not an unimpressive feat, given the size of the portions the restaurant served them.

"Psst."

Jessie looked up.

"Got a little room left?"

Glad to be able to change the subject, Jessie patted her belly. "Yeah, I guess so."

Annabella smiled and slid her plate to the middle of the table, trying to conceal her eagerness, having been waiting for this moment since they sat down. Channeling her inner canine, she removed her sunglasses from her head, leaned down and pushed her one remaining meatball across the plate, towards Jessie, with her nose.

Jessie's heart melted. It was very possibly the silliest, but as well the most adorable thing she had ever seen in her life. Her eyes rose back up to Annabella, chin on hands, spaghetti sauce residue on her nose. Jessie told her the only thing that came to her mind.

"You are so cute."

Annabella arched her eyebrows flirtatiously. "This is the night, cara mia. It's a bella notte."

Jessie smiled back at her. "Annabella notte."

"So I was thinking..." Annabella purred in a voice dripping with playful romanticism, batting her eyes, chin still propped on her fists. "...mayhaps after this if you want...we could go walk it off...in the park behind the church...lie in the grass...look at the stars...I know lots of Italian love songs...maybe I could sing to you?"

She really had already charmed Jessie's metaphorical socks off. Jessie had never met anyone quite like Annabella, which she supposed only made sense, as there was no one quite like Annabella. Oh, what does falling in love feel like... she wondered to herself. She couldn't match Annabella's flirting finesse, but she matched the tone of her voice.

"That sounds like a lot of fun..." whispered Jessie, also leaning her chin down on her hands, a goofy smile on her face, "...although you could be totally making it up and I wouldn't know the difference."

Annabella only shook her head with a smirk. "I am only and nothing but the real deal, baby doll."

Jessie returned the canine-like gesture, leaning down to the plate and taking the meatball in her mouth—no hands—getting a little sauce on her own face in the process. She chewed it up, gobbled it down and looked back to Annabella, making a silly smile with small bits of leftover meatball sticking to her teeth.

"Now Eskimo kiss me," said Annabella.

Jessie all but dropped her face right into her plate laughing.

***

August 29th, 9:37 p.m.

Jessie was walking on air.

She didn't want this night to end. She felt as if she and Annabella were the two title characters in that old romantic puppy-love masterpiece. It was remarkable how well their magical evening encapsulated its post-dinner love scene.

Annabella had indeed taken her on a hand-held moonlit stroll through the park, where the only sounds they heard were birds and crickets chirping. The air was a fair, less than humid 75°, and the refreshing breeze fanned their hair over their faces. They didn't play out all the details Annabella was describing in the restaurant, as lying on the ground was less romantic and fun than it sounded, so they cuddled on one of the benches and took in the lovely night painting of the stars and constellations in each other's arms.

And Annabella did also stick to her word about serenading her. She held Jessie in her embrace and treated her to a beautiful, sedate rendition of what to Jessie was a vaguely familiar melody, an operatic aria which Annabella told her was called "Nessun dorma." She wisely opted to forego the historical significance of the song, which was less pleasant than the song itself, but she translated some of the lines afterwards.

Jessie officially loved Annabella's voice. She just couldn't get enough of hearing it. She'd liked it since the first time she heard it completely by accident on the phone. She couldn't believe how fortunate she was, to have fate present her with such a wonder-filled experience. She didn't know if she was slowly falling in love with her, but she did know enough to leave that feeling alone for now. It wasn't appropriate to scrutinize their time together, thereby cheating herself out of its enjoyment.

Whether she was or would one day be in love with Annabella, she could on the other hand focus on all the fascinating aspects Annabella's personality glimmered with. She certainly wasn't kidding about essentially being a big child—when she wished to be—but she could be a grown-up when she chose as well. It was something Jessie very much admired about her. She wished she had the ability to switch on and off between such altered states.

She also loved how peculiar, and spontaneous, and consequently fun Annabella was. She was such a breath of fresh air. It seemed most everyone else she encountered was wedged in adult mode, and stuck to a more or less predictable routine balanced between work, sleep and sedentary at best social skills. She might almost go so far as to say she was mind-blown by Annabella's bursts of energy and emotion, which struck her as passionate, boundless and not forced at all. And yet for all her upbeat drive and sparkle, Jessie noted there was another side to Annabella as well, a more vulnerable, fragile side which when touched upon the wrong way could bring about a sadness in her that broke Jessie's heart and made her want to hug her tight and tell her everything would be okay. Once again, she was compelled to think to herself, she had never (and likely would never again have) met anyone like her.

Where, she simply had to wonder, had such a marvelous creature been all her life?

Annabella noticed the pensive expression on her face. "What's on your mind, my dear?" she whispered.

Jessie opened her eyes and looked up at her. "What's on my mind?" she repeated.

"Yeah. Talk to me. What's the tale, nightingale?"

Her face was upside-down from below, where Jessie's head was resting in her lap. She sat up a bit, all the while gazing into the portrait of this enchanting princess who had given her this amazing evening of joy and delight, and decided to show her gratitude. She let her fingertips tenderly caress Annabella's soft face, not exactly sure if she should be doing this, but overcome and intoxicated by the idea that right now she could, and threw the caution to the wind before she could talk herself out of it.

The kiss was slow, lasting and magnificent. Their eyes closed as their hands took their time finding their way around one another's bodies and their mutual aura of magnetism permeated the atmosphere around them. Their bodies pressed into each other, making both of them shiver with excitement. Jessie could have sworn a heart-shaped cloud of steam had risen off them. She swelled with happiness and excitement. She zealously hoped and felt she could say with a certain measure of safety that Annabella was feeling the same way. She didn't think anyone could kiss like this and not mean it, but then again—and certainly not that she thought Annabella was capable of passionate deception, but—she just never knew how the girl would surprise her next.

Her perception wasn't offbase. While Jessie couldn't have believed it had she heard it herself, Annabella was feeling every bit as entranced and enchanted by Jessie as vice versa. She too couldn't believe how lucky she felt, and didn't think she had met anyone like Jessie before as well. Her heart was also fainting time after time and time again, regaining steadiness only to once more surrender to this powerful impulse. Jessie was inclined to believe that such an evening of simple yet astonishingly profound pleasure was for Annabella more or less par for the course, her mindset thus far being that this was just pretty much who Annabella was. But Annabella would have been adamantly quick to inform her otherwise, that while in Jessie's eyes she wasn't unlike an extraordinary fairy-tale being whose dreamy allure was almost even akin to a mythical creature such as a pixie or forest sprite, she was simply a very friendly, and outgoing, if perhaps exceptionally charismatic, 23-year-old lass.