Cliché Love

#18 Maybe Love

Jennifer sat playing with the hem of her knee length black dress as she awaited the arrival of her date. At the age of twenty nine she had gathered the courage to start dating again, after five years of being locked in her room on Friday nights.

The idea of going out with another person was something she forced herself to believe would be fruitful, but deep inside her heart she knew she could never let go of Kade.
Her late husband, one she knew since her diaper days, one she vowed to be with till death do them apart. Well, now it had yet why couldn't she stop seeing him in their apartment?

"It's been five years, Jen. Get over it." She mumbled to herself, glancing at her wrist watch. Since she started the whole blind date her friends at work suggested, she always landed a couple of minutes early just to prepare herself to not back out.

Her colleagues came up with the brilliant notion of setting her up with whomever they saw fit.

The previous ten dates she had been on made her question her decision, none of them caught her eye.

Maybe because your eyes are still living in the past. Her inner voice reasoned.

"Hey, th- Jen?" As soon as the deep voice registered in her brain, she got the feeling of familiarity.
"Xavier." She said as she looked into his warm shocked filled brown eyes. She couldn't help but take in all his features, time had done him well.
His eyes left her face for a moment and not so subtly looked at her left hand. The moment he did that, she felt her heart squeezing. Xavier and Jennifer went way back, high school was spent as best friends and so was college. He was invited to her wedding though he didn't show up, not like Kade was a stranger to him, he too studied in the same school. True they ever saw eye to eye but they were acquaintances nonetheless.

"I'm surprised to see you here." He said in a soft voice as he sat down opposite to me on the booth.

"What would you like, sir-ma'am?" A smartly dressed waiter stood over their heads sucking a little bit of awkwardness loaming over them.

"I'd like a Chicken Alfredo, Jenny?" Her heart let go a little upon hearing the nickname he had given her a decade back.

"Same, actually." Jennifer felt her cheeks heat up as his brown eyes settled on her, giving her a warm smile. The waiter left the two with a soft nod.

"How have you been?"

"On and off." She answered truthfully, placing her hands on the table. "Still taking photographs?"

"A hobby that now rests in the past, I'm afraid. The business world is cruel." She didn't want him to stop speaking, his husky voice brought feelings she thought she buried with the dead.

"How's Kade?" He addressed the green elephant in the room in a nonchalant whisper. Xavier knew of Kade's fate and it touched her that he still spoke of him as a person.

"I'd like to think he's well, finally with the stars." Her eyes glossed remembering how her husband dreamt of standing with the stars in a white astronauts suit. Once again her heart squeezed, milking out every painful memory.

"I'm so sorry, Jenny." A genuinely concerned hand placed itself on her paling hands. She hadn't realized she was looking down till his gaze burned a hole in a forehead.

Knowing it's best to face her fears Jennifer looked up, those powerful eyes stared into hers, begging her to love them.

"It's okay. It was a long time back." Though his hold felt good she withdrew and planted her hand on her lap.

"Still in touch with Stella?"

"Scared she'll hit you with a bat again for trying to hit on me?" They both laughed at the memory of her best friend accidentally hitting him with a baseball bat for slipping his hand on Jennifer's unsuspecting waist.