One I've Been Missing

If I Get My Way (Part 1)

I arrived home and found my cousin Ellie sitting on the couch, watching something on Netflix, she then noticed me.

"Hey, you're already back from your girlfriend's house?" She remarked jokingly

"She's not my girlfriend, Ellie."

"The little smile on your lips says otherwise."

I went to the couch and sat down next to her. "I asked her out tonight."

"And what did she say?" she asked, excited.

"She said yes," I answered.

"I'm glad you are giving this a chance. Jade seems nice" we stayed in silence for a few seconds until she broke it. "So... when do I get to meet my new sister-in-law and niece?"

"Hey, hey, hey, don't get ahead of yourself" I said, laughing. And speaking of Jade, she just sent me a message.

Jade: Hi Pez, I spoke to Leigh, and she said she can watch Jasmine on Wednesday. Let me know if that works for you.

Perrie: Hey Jay, Wednesday is perfect. I'll pick you up at 7 then ;)

I was very happy that Jade accepted going on a date with me, but as always, I was nervous. I get like that every time I start dating someone new. Being intersex and dating is quite hard. There are some people who don't really care, but it is a dealbreaker for some. And there are others who say it's fine with them but then want to keep me in the shadows because they are ashamed of me. I hope Jade doesn't mind, but there's only one way to find out. I'll tell her on our date because there's no point stringing this along if it's not gonna work.

For now, all I've got to do is start thinking about our date.

In one of our text conversations, Jade mentioned that she was interested in astronomy. I have a friend who works at Hempstead Observatory, so I pulled some strings so Jade and I could stargaze after our dinner.

I chose to take her to Hoxley and Porter, a train-themed restaurant that is a little fancy but not too much as Jade doesn't seem to like overtly fancy places. I just finished getting ready, so I went downstairs.

"Holy shit, you look hot." Ellie said to me.

"Thanks El" I said, giving her a little twirl. "Well, I should get going now, wish me luck."

"You won't need luck looking like that Pez" I laughed and went to the door.

"Use protection!" Ellie yelled. I rolled my eyes and flipped her off.

...................................................................................................................................................

"Jade, I know it's been a while for you, but you've gotta chill." Leigh laughed as she watched me struggle to find an outfit to wear tonight; I had just showered and straightened my hair. She got up and went to my closet.

"Here, you'll look hot in this" she said, handing me a black leather dress that I probably wore during my college days.

"Isn't it a little too much?" I asked.

"Of course not! Now go get dressed before you're late." I got dressed and did my makeup.

"Wow Jade! You look really hot, babes." Leigh said.

"Thank you." I said a little shyly. It's been a while since I really dressed up, and I have to say I looked really nice.

Leigh and I went downstairs, where Jasmine was watching cartoons on the TV. "Mommy, you look like a princess" she said, coming to hug me.

"Thank you baby." I said leaving a kiss on her head.

We chatted for a bit and I heard the doorbell ring, I said goodbye to Jasmine, and as I was going to the door, Leigh yelled, "Get it girl!" I rolled my eyes and laughed, then went to answer. As soon as the door opened, I was speechless. Perrie looked amazing, and red really looked good on her.

"Wow! You look great, Jay" she said, greeting me with one hand on my waist and the other still behind her back.

'Thanks, you look amazing too." I said with the slightest blush on my face, "What are you hiding in there?" I gestured to her arm that was behind her.

"Oh, this is for you" she handed a bouquet of flowers, I smiled at the gesture. I dated a few assholes in the past, so I wasn't used to the way Perrie treated me.

"I'll just put them in water, and we can go." I said to her. When we got to the car, she opened the door for me, and we had fun blasting some 90s R&B on our way.

We arrived at the restaurant, and it was a really nice place, it was a bit fancy but nothing too posh. Over dinner, we started to get to know each other a little better.

"So, what made you become an architect?" She asked me

"I always enjoyed art and went to a bunch of art classes; one day I went to visit my older brother at university and stumbled upon an architecture class. I watched the whole lecture while my brother was going crazy looking for me." Perrie and I laughed.

"I was 15 at the time, and that day I decided what I wanted to do. What about you? What made you go for music?" I asked

Perrie looked a little nervous before she answered, "Well, I guess I've always loved music. My mum and I would always sing together and blast old rock songs. She was a very good singer, she was good at everything really; she was like wonder woman to me." She said with a nostalgic smile.

"You and your mom are super close?" I was interested in the fond way she talked about her mom.

"We were" she said after a brief pause.

"You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. It's fine." I said trying to prevent her from discomfort.

"No, it's OK" she grabbed my hand across the table to reassure me. "We were really close, but she died when I was little, my dad also wasn't in the picture, so my brother and I went to foster care. We ended up getting separed because he was adopted, and I wasn't. Before she died, she gave me a guitar and I took the guitar to every foster home I stayed in. I guess you can say that music was the only constant in my life, and maybe that's why I chose to do it."

Every time I discovered something new about Perrie, I admired her even more. She was a very strong woman who had a difficult life, but she was still a very positive person, and I really liked that about her.

"Your mom would be really proud of you now. You know that, right?" I said to her.

"I do." she said with a smile. "What about you? You talked about your mom a couple of times when talking about Jasmine, I guess you guys are close too, right?" She asked

"Oh yeah, my mom is awesome. When I was pregnant, I got really scared of disappointing her, you know? She gave me full support to move from Shields to London, so I could study, and then I showed up pregnant, and to top it all off, it was from a stranger I met in a nightclub. But she was an angel to me and Jas, and she moved in with me to help while Jas was really little."

"She seems great." she said with a smile, "You seem great, too...with Jasmine."

"Thank you," I said with a big smile on my face, wanting to be as good a mother to Jasmine as my mother was to me.

The evening kept going really nicely, nothing was a dull subject with Perrie, and everything seemed interesting when she was the one talking about it. I really didn't want this night to end.