Things To Say Before I Go

Chapter 10: Nate

I turned the corner and finally found Jess's house. I had to recall where she lived from the night of our first date and I won't lie, it was challenging. I went the wrong way twice and was grateful to have finally found it. I was wearing a white dress shirt with a black tie and jeans, so when Jess walked out in a beautiful purple dress, I suddenly felt incredibly underdressed. 

"Wow," I said, knowing that I was staring but not caring if that was being perceived as rude. 

She looked absolutely beautiful. She had curled her long, brown hair and had it all pushed forward over one shoulder. The dress hugged her slim frame so well and all of a sudden I couldn't speak. 

"Hi," she said coolly, blushing slightly because I hadn't taken my eyes off of her since she had come out. 

Speak you idiot! "You look amazing," I said, wondering if I was drooling. 

She giggled and came down the steps to join me on the sidewalk. "You might want to close that mouth," she said, pushing my jaw closed. "Flies might get in there." 

She started walking down the street ahead of me. I was standing there like an idiot, not sure if I should follow her and continue on with the night or raise the white flag and go home. She looked back to see if I was coming and ran to catch up with her. We walked without much talking to an Italian restaurant on 39th. It was a nice little place, nothing fancy. I held the door open for her and we went inside.

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"And that's pretty much why my mother moved to Maine," she said, laughing. 

She had just finished telling me about her crazy mother and her obsession with Red Lobsters. The night was going really well. She was full of funny stories and I made her laugh with funny things I made up about the stiffs I worked with, like Marty who blatantly picks his nose in the middle of the office like no one sees him. On top of us getting along so well, the food was fantastic. I ordered four cheese Tuscan ravioli and they were unbelievable. 

"Can I marry this gnocchi?" Jess said, eyes closed, savoring the wonder of her food. 

"I'll go get ordained and make this union official," I said, laughing. 

We finished eating, but I told her not to order dessert. I had something different planned. We went up and paid, thanked everyone for a great meal and left. I planned to take her to this amazing bakery on 42nd that had the best pastries I'd ever eaten in my life. We were on our way there when I decided to strike up a conversation. 

"You know, I know we've talked about why we do what we do, but we've never talked about what we've wanted to do, you know?" I asked, as we started to walk down the street. The street lights were just starting to come on as the sun was setting. 

She looked at me sideways. "Sorry, I don't think I do," she said with a laugh. 

"I mean, your dreams," I said to clarify. "What did you want to be when you grew up? Where did you want to go, where did you want to live? Your dreams. I can't imagine you wanted to be working at a management office." 

"No," she said, shaking her head and laughing. "That was not the goal." She took a deep breath. "Well, when I was younger, I wanted to be a singer," she said. "I had this crazy idea in my head that I was going to be this famous pop star or something. Selling out arenas from city to city. It didn't help that for the first ten years of my life I had stage fright like it was a disease. And I told you about my sister. It was all about her growing up," she said, with a hint of resentment in her voice.