February Stars

17

July 1993

Jessie spent the next few weeks trying to keep herself busy. She was able to talk to Dave on the phone, but not nearly as much as she would have liked. She picked up extra shifts at the restaurant, asked for extra assignments at the newspaper; she did everything in her power to keep herself from missing him.

Dave was busy, too. Nirvana's new album, In Utero, was due to be released mid-September and the band's management had the guys on the road doing a lot of promotional appearances. Jennifer had been able to join them on this promotional tour and Dave was actually happy to have her there. The one thing he was dreading, however, was the visit to Virginia they were planning at the end of the summer. He hadn't figured out a way to tell Jessie that Jennifer would be accompanying him. Ever since her tearful phone call, he'd tried his best to refrain from mentioning the other woman and to her credit, Jessica didn't bring it up either. He was hoping he could sneak in, spend a few days with his mother to make Jennifer happy and then sneak back out, unnoticed.

“That is a stupid-ass plan,” Jim had told him over the phone. “You need to just tell her.”

“You said she works all the time, right?” Dave asked.

“Yeah… but I dunno man, what if she finds out?”

“Just keep her busy, OK? We'll be around during the day while she's at work and when she get's home at night, we will be going to sleep. She won't even notice. Please Jim… I don't want to hurt her anymore than I have to,” Dave begged. Jimmy sighed.

“Fine,” Jim said. “But for the record, I'm doing this for her and I still think it's a fucking terrible idea.”

This was the same thought running through Jimmy's head a few days later, as he and Jessica headed to the beach together on one of Jessie's rare days off.

“Is that…Dave?” Jessie yelled, whacking Jimmy on the ar. They had driven past a Seven-Eleven at the exact moment Dave was walking out. Jim cursed Dave silently as Jessica caught a glimpse of herunmistakable tall, skinny, long haired drummer. “Jim, was that Dave?” Jimmy looked in his rearview mirror.

“Uh…No…I don't think so…” he said, uncomfortably.

“Jimmy, yes it was! Stop the car!” Jess squealed smiling from ear to ear. “Turn around! Is he planning on surprising me? Did I ruin the surprise?” Jimmy shook his head and didn't slow. “Jim, stop! What the fuck? Go back!”

“Jessie, you can't go there,” he said. Jessica whacked him on his arm.

“Jim, I saw him, the jig is up! I know he probably wanted to surprise me but--” Jimmy cut her off.

“He's here with her, Jessica,” he said finally. Jessica froze. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I fuckin' told him he should tell you himself…”