Jessica's Fate

Chapter 27

"This place is cool." I said, taking a sip of my sparkling water and looking around the restaurant. "Fig... food is good. That's genius."

Zack chuckled. "It works. Got brilliant ideas planned for your bakery?"

I shrugged lightly, setting the glass down. "I was pondering The Dark Side Café. But then I thought I might have to regularly burn cookies to have them be on the dark side."

He smirked. "And you wouldn't want to get a reputation for burnt cookies."

"No. No I would not." I nodded. "But maybe just a nicely dark cookie, like a triple dark chocolate cookie would suffice. They could be named The Dark Side and be a signature treat."

He looked impressed. "I'd be interested in tasting those. They sound delicious."

"I'll be sure to let you know when I have successfully created them. I'm still on cakes."

Our server brought our starters, Spiced carrot soup for me and a ricotta gnocchi with lamb bolognaise for Zack. The plating for both dishes was spectacular and once I'd tasted the soup, I almost swooned. We traded tastes of the dishes until we'd finished them completely, just in time for the main dishes to arrive.

"Oh wow." I moaned softly as I cut into the strip steak I'd ordered. "Steak is one of my favorites." I said, a blush of color on my cheeks at the way Zack looked at me when I'd moaned.

"I'd feed you steak every night if it got that reaction from you." He said softly as he ate the pork dish he'd ordered. We'd had a laugh when we discovered the menu sided heavily on seafood. Which neither of us actually cared for.

My eyes locked with his. "Sounds like a tempting offer." I smiled slightly.

"We'll talk about it someday." He said.

"Sure." I nodded and put another bite in my mouth.

His eyes followed the bite as I put it in my mouth and didn't leave my face while I chewed. "I do mean that, Beautiful." He said.

"I believe you." I said. "We have a lot of time to talk about things. After tonight, okay?"

"Deal." He nodded. Conversation ceased as we ate, both of us focused on enjoying our food. We finished at the same time and he looked at me for a long moment. "You are enjoying your prom night experience, right?" he asked, toying with the napkin ring that had been around his napkin when we sat down.

I smiled, dabbing at my lips with my napkin. I leaned over and rested my hand on his arm. "Zack, please believe me when I say this is the best night of my life so far. I can't wait to actually go to my prom with you by my side." I said seriously.

He grinned at me, no longer nervous as he stopped playing with the napkin ring and covered my hand with his. "Great." He beamed. "I can't wait to go to your prom either. I didn't go to one myself last year so this is really nice."

"Well then it's a prom for both of us." I agreed as our server brought the desserts we'd ordered as part of our 3 course meals. My eyes lit up when I saw the strawberry panna cotta I'd chosen. "It looks magical." I said. Its pale pink matched my dress and the light purple of the lavender granita set off the color.

He smiled. "Well, it does look magical. My bread pudding looks good. It doesn't need magic to be appealing." He teased.

"Just for that, my next cake is probably going to be something pink and frothy and magical." I teased. "We'll have to eat it for weeks to get the recipe right."

He rolled his eyes. "Only for you, Beautiful." He said. "I'll eat pink, frothy and magical cakes any time you put one in front of me."

There was an underlying tone that I couldn't quite figure out if it was just seriousness or some form of devotion that I was unused to hearing when it came to things being spoken to me. But I felt my cheeks flush with a bit of color and put a spoonful of my dessert in my mouth to cover my sudden awkward feeling. I offered him a bite of mine and he declined, saying that his bread pudding was more than sufficient. I excused myself to the ladies room with my little clutch bag while he settled the check. I took my time in the restroom, feeling nervous about the rest of the evening.

I mean, I was practically walking into a lion's den. The venue was going to be packed with girls who didn't like me one way or another. A bunch of them had once been friends. Well, I'd thought they were friends. And if there wasn't that danger zone, then there was the very small handful of guys that had considered me only good enough to be a one and done.

I washed my hands slowly before drying them off. I studied my hair, making sure it was still perfectly arranged. I really did need to get Gabriel something special as a thank you. Or maybe just make him something special. Maybe an orange dreamsicle cake would be a good idea. He always had liked oranges and orange was his favorite color. I could work with that. But if I did that, then I should probably also make something for Victor. In spite of my best attempts to get him to tell me how much I owed him for my dress and everything that Gabriel had bought me, I could never get him to tell me. I don't know how Sang put up with it. I mean, really? Just say 'Thank you, Victor'? Why did that have to work? Or be enough. I felt so much like a princess tonight that there wasn't anything I could ever do to repay him for his part in my evening.

I carefully applied a light layer of lip gloss and tucked it back into my clutch bag before heading back out to our table to meet Zack. He looked up with a smile as I approached. "Ready to go then?" he asked, getting up and offering me his arm.

"Oh, very much so." I nodded, tucking my arm around his as we headed out to where our driver was to be waiting with the limo.

He got out of the car as we approached and opened the door for me. "Good food, da?" he asked.

"It was very good." I smiled at him. "Thank you." I murmured as I got into the car. I caught the tail end of a hard look he gave Zack as he got into the car before he shut the door and went to get behind the wheel again. "Everything okay?" I looked up at Zack.

"It's fine, Beautiful." He said before lacing his fingers through mine as the car began to move, heading out of downtown towards Middleton Farm and my prom.