Jessica's Fate

Chapter 30

I snuck a glance up at him as we stepped on to the dance floor. "Do I even want to know how you came to be holding court with my list of one and done dates?" I asked as we navigated our way through some people to the middle of the floor before we started to dance.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure how it happened either. I mean, I thought that they were going to wait for their dates to use the restroom but they never left either."

I snorted, rather unelegantly and unladylike. "Yeah well they were probably only there because their dates thought you were yummy."

"Good thing I only care about one woman in this building thinking I'm yummy."

I arched an eyebrow at him. "Mrs. Hopper?" I guessed teasingly.

He laughed. "Sure. I guess there's two then."

I smiled. "She's really nice. Not sure you have a chance to steal her from her husband though. He's one of the gym teachers. Pretty buff."

"Aw man. Guess it's back to the gym for me before I take him on." Zack quipped and dropped a kiss to my forehead as the song ended. "Seriously though, you have nothing to worry about. A couple of them were hedging around, being nosy trying to find out how long we've been together and their dates were just as interested in hanging on every word. I flat out told them they were idiots to have not dated you longer than one date and I was the lucky one that you chose to spend time with. There wasn't that much talking after I shut them all down and I was in the middle of ignoring the blatant attempts at flirting with me. Right in front of their dates, when you re-joined us."

"And you claimed me with a pretty serious, searing kiss." I said. "I think I felt that one down to my toes."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Great. I've been trying to work on that. The whole, feel kisses down to the toes thing."

I snorted again and rolled my eyes at him. We danced for a while, mostly just with each other but a couple times the guys from my study group joined us and we ended up in a big group dance session as some of their songs came on the play list along with my nod to my mom's rock tastes with a little Bon Jovi and 'It's My Life.'

It was the perfect rock anthem for my life right now. At least in the last 6 weeks since I'd had that dinner with Kota, Sang, Owen and my mom. Look at me now. A business idea fully in place in my mind, culinary school plans being made for next year and a job that I really loved at the diner.

Why wouldn't I love the diner job? It brought Zack right to me. I wasn't going to share credit with the meatloaf. I know he was coming back for me.

"Want another drink?" He asked, his tone raising because it was really loud on the dance floor. I nodded as the song came to an end. I stretched up and kissed the lower edge of his jaw before turning around and grabbing his hand as I led him off the dance floor and over to the beverage area. He turned in our tickets and we both got ice tea again and went to go sit at an open table. It was really quite nice, they'd used smaller café tables and chairs to create groupings of 4 or 6 for people that wanted to sit together and then there were a lot of tables for two. We sat at one of those tables. Mostly because we did want to be alone and partly because my study group was at one of the larger tables for 6 and I didn't really socialize with them much anyway.

Nor did I have any other friends to hang out with. He laced his fingers through mine and took a sip of his drink. "Tonight's amazing." He said. "Do you want to go to the diner after?"

I drank a long drink of ice tea and nodded. "Shoot, I need to tell Luke. Do you mind if he and Sang join us?"

"No, that would be nice." He said, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand.

I smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that." I said, reaching into his inside pocket with my free hand to retrieve my bag and grab my phone. I quickly sent a text to Luke to let him know we would be at the diner around midnight and he and Sang were welcome to join us. He immediately sent back a smilie face, a chocolate chip cookie emoji and a stack of pancakes. "Chocolate chip pancakes okay with you?" I asked.

"Bacon?" he asked.

"You got it." I nodded before sending Luke a 'yes' followed by a bacon emoji. Which earned another smilie face and a thumbs up. "There will probably be strawberries if Sang has anything to say about it."

"Sounds good too." He said as we finished our drinks. "So who's that?" He pointed at the group of teachers.

I glanced over. "Well, Mr. and Mrs. Hopper. Gym class and History." I said. "Ms. Dominguez, Spanish and Mrs. Cheyer is my French teacher." I tilted my head to study the last couple teachers that were chaperoning. "Oh and Mr. Jarvis teaches English and communications and he's married to Ms. White who teaches the home ec classes and then the last teacher is Mr. Montgomery and he is the principal but also still teaches some of the math classes."

"They seem like a nice group of teachers."

"They aren't the reason I hate school, that's for sure." I said, toying with my glass.

"I'm sure they appreciate knowing that."

"Yeah." I nodded, putting my phone away and giving my bag back to him to tuck into his pocket.

"So what are the rest of your weekend plans?" he asked.

"Well, that's tomorrow which means I'm wearing my rattiest clothes and my glasses and not doing much."

He chuckled. "Text me if you want to go for a run or maybe out to the beach."

I shrugged. "I have access to a pool." I said. "I can see if Uncle would mind if we used it tomorrow."

"Sounds even better."

"Pool time it is. Sometime around 2 pm then." I said. "What's the situation with our driver? Will he wait to take you home, do we need to let him go after we go to the diner?"

"I'll check on that."

"Okay. I'm sure Luke and Sang could give you a ride home if you need one."

He leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"Then again, I don't think my mom would really mind if you stayed over." I said. "I could ask her if you wanted me to."

"I think that I will check with the driver and accept your suggestion of getting a ride from Luke if our driver does not want to wait for me any longer." He said. "Then again, I could have one of my friends bring my car to the diner so that I had it when we're done."

"Oh that sounds like a good idea." I said. "Not that I wouldn't mind you staying over." I smiled.

"Maybe not tonight. I don't want to ruin your mom's impressions of me. She likes me now."

"Good point." My head popped up and I listened. "Oh, we have to go dance to this. It's my last song." I said, recognizing the guitar strumming that began Bryan Adams' song 'Heaven'. I got up and grabbed his hand again, dragging him back out to the dance floor. I looked up at him and smiled as he spun me slightly, pulling me in close, his arms wrapping around my waist as I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck.

Was there ever a better time or reason to simply sway in one spot on a dance floor than to a slow song? My eyes never left his and he smiled at me as he tightened his grip around my waist. "Good song." He murmured before leaning in and kissing my forehead before dropping his head to rest his forehead against mine.

"Thanks." I mumbled, sighing softly and relaxing into him as we slow danced.