Love Metamorphosis

Chapter 8

                  

She sat at one of the back tables waiting patiently for Mary to arrive. They were having an early dinner at 5pm. Her father had dropped her off on the way to a dinner meeting a few blocks away, but she was sure that she would be taking a taxi home.

Home. What was home anymore? She didn't think she could keep the house they had recently gotten together. Maybe she could become a consultant again. She had stopped taking consultant jobs anywhere and made them within two hours flying distance of their new house. She was going to stop all together once she got pregnant and just stay at the local company near Pittsburg.

Now it really didn't matter, because he was gone and everything they had planned together no longer worked. He wouldn't be there with her and she was back on her own. Maybe she could find something in DC and move closer to her family, or look for places near Oliver. There was Candice too, she had two apartments, one on the west coast and one on the east coast, and maybe she could talk her into letting her rent one.

"Good evening." Mary's voice cut into her thoughts, "Sorry to be a tad late my grandson's meeting ran over and he had to send me over in a taxi."

"I am just glad you made it alright," Jemma said with a smile and stood to give the other woman a welcoming hug, "I already ordered an appetizer. I am half starved."

"Oh don't you worry one bit about that, give me half a tick and I will figure out what I want." Taking off her jacket, Mary was seated across from her in a minute flat.

"There is no rush, we have all the time and I have something to tide me over, I hope you like escargot, it is one of the only delicacies I actually like," Jemma said taking a sip of her water and watching Mary over the brim.

"I feel bad for the poor things, they are the most easily preyed upon creatures because they move so slowly," Mary answered with a passing pout, "but that doesn't mean they don't taste good with butter."

Jemma laughed whole heartedly before she could help it, "I never thought about it that way." 

The waiter came by and asked them for their orders and dropped off their well-cooked prey. Mary ordered the seafood fettuccine with a zucchini soup and Jemma decided on the Ahi Tuna with a half size of the pear and caramelized pecan salad. She decided right that instant that she was going to treat herself to dessert, something she had been doing a lot lately. She was eating her grief and thoroughly enjoying every bitter bite.

"My grandson will be disappointed that he wasn't able to meet you. He said your speech at the funeral spoke greatly to your character." Mary said taking a bite of the appetizer.

"I hope it conveyed what I felt for him." Jemma said her eyes a little sad.

"Enough of that, you must remember him in a happy way. I know you must miss him terribly, as I do my husband at times, but they would want us to move past the sadness and onto the joy in the memories of their life." Mary said patting Jemma's hand.

"When did you lose your husband?" Jemma sniffled, but didn't have a single tear escape.

"A little under a year ago." Mary answered almost instantly.

"Oh Mary," Jemma took her hand and held tight, "Here I am openly mourning when your husband passed away so recently as well."

"Yes, but the difference is he was 82 and fighting prostate cancer," Mary pointed out, but her face still had a bit of grief, "I had accepted his death long before I lost him."

"You miss him?" Jemma said, her face sympathetic.

"Every day, he always made me laugh and I don't laugh as much as I use to, but I think some of his humor rubbed off on me." Mary guessed correctly, she had a reserved humor as a child and young woman, to be nurtured into a cavalier humor by the time she was an elder.

"You make me laugh," Jemma assured her, taking a sip of water with her free hand, "I feel like fate has thrown us together."

"I agree, now let's make the best of it." Mary replied, "Perhaps more good can come of it then we can imagine. Now what was your degree in?"

They talked for nearly the entire meal, only pausing for the five minutes it took to enjoy the first part of the meal, the tastes poured over their tongue. Then their tongues got to work talking again, Jemma felt like she had found a kinship in this other woman and was delighted to be in her company. In the end she didn't order a dessert just for herself they shared one.