Wished Away: A Broken Fairy Tale (19 page)

Jess

“D
etails, details!” Cam stretches out on the lounge chair on my deck with DJ lying in a little ball on her chest.

“Wait for me, I don’t want to miss a thing,” Kat calls from the window of my kitchen.

I roll my eyes at Camryn and pull my aviator sunglasses down and cover my mouth trying to hide the grin that is bursting through me. Last night was my first official, real, planned, and incredibly romantic date with Gage. And yes, it was as amazing as you think it was.

Kat makes her way out to the deck with a large pitcher of margaritas and a bag of Lays potato chips, my weaknesses. “Alright ladies, I have everything we need to get Jess to spill her guts.”

“First things first, where did you go?” Cam asks as she gets up and places DJ, who’s sound asleep in the Pack and Play in the shade.

I smile thinking of our night together. I’m beginning to learn that Gage is such a surprising person in so many ways. I’m used to being around men who are outspoken and blatantly confident like Holden and Joey, even Dave never held back. But Gage—he’s somewhat of a mystery, and I’m never quite sure what’s going on in his head. Last night I learned the times he finally decides to let his guard down and open up to me, it’s all the way and no holds barred.

“Well, he picked me up right on time which was good because I was nervous as hell.” I look over at my friends and feel a little uncomfortable talking with them intimately about my date. I’m still uncomfortable talking about another man with them…especially Cam. They loved him as much as I did and I can’t help the feeling of guilt I have over my feelings for Gage, especially after last night. It was simply perfect. I can’t even believe I’m thinking about having feelings for another man, but there’s no denying the way my heart flutters and races every time he’s close. He doesn’t even have to touch me to make my body light up, just one look from those complicated blue eyes and I’m a goner.

“Jess, we don’t care when he got there, get to the good stuff! How’d he look? I bet he looked hot.” Cam turns to Kat with wide eyes almost spilling her drink. “You should have seen him the other night. I’m telling you, I was even looking twice. All those tats that have been hiding under his doctor’s coat are sexy.”

Kat and I laugh, and I think back to the way he looked when I first saw him last night. I take a sip from my drink, thinking I might as well make this good. “When I opened the door, there he stood, all six foot four of him, in a pair of dark blue jeans and a deep green shirt that was similar to the one he wore last Saturday.”

I leave out the part that the shirt he was wearing hugged his defined muscles and when he looked up at me and smiled with eyes that seemed to be glowing, I knew I was done. I already knew I was attracted to Gage as a person, he’s so companionate and smart, but physically, he makes me disintegrate into a pile of jell-o.

“Did he bring you anything? A bottle of wine or flowers?”

I know I’m blushing thinking about how I felt when he first looked at me. You know that moment when you think that an outfit you put on looks good, but all the sudden looks like crap once you go out in public and you notice everything wrong a little too late? That’s exactly what happened at the moment he looked at me last night. I had self-consciously started fussing with the purple fitted sundress cursing myself for wearing something that showed my every imperfection the instant his eyes fell on me.

“You look amazing,” he had said meeting my eyes with a look that said he meant it, and stepped through the doorway handing me a bouquet of wildflowers and kissed my cheek.

“Yes, he brought a bouquet of wild flowers,” I say simply.

“Jesus Jess, stop holding back and tell us everything just like you always used to make me do. This is a good thing ok. A date with a smart, kind, freaking
hot
doctor is a
good thing
.” Kat’s leaning towards me looking truly frustrated and then turns to Cam who smiles at me compassionately.

“Jess, it really is a good thing. We all want you to find someone again. All of us. Joey, Holden, Mr. and Mrs. Bosi…” A tear pricks my eye at the mention of Dave’s parents, and Cam reaches over and grabs my hand. “You deserve to find someone again, and Dave would have wanted that. It’s been almost two years, it’s time.” She kisses my hand then tosses it away and takes a sip of her drink, laying back as if she didn’t just lift a thousand pound weight off me. “Now, tell us everything. Where’d you go? What’d you do? Was there making out involved?”

I laugh through my tears and Kat hops on the edge of my lounge chair and puts her hand on my leg. “Please let there be make out parts! It’s been a while for me.”

I think about the things Gage and I talked about last night, and decide to open up to them. “It was honestly an amazing night you guys. He planned out such a memorable night. He actually recreated my idea of a perfect first date, but the best part was, we really got to know each other.” They both
oh
and
ah
as they huddle closer ready for details. “It was really sweet actually. The other day, we played a game at the beach…like a Twenty Questions kind of game, only a lot longer, and he’d asked me what I thought the perfect date was. Well, he must have been paying close attention because he had every detail covered.”

“No freaking way!” Cam said as she hit my shoulder. “If it’s what I think it is, he’s either totally whipped or totally crazy! How can he even afford that?”

“It totally is and when I said it to him the other day, I didn’t actually think it would happen. Or at least not so soon.”

When Cam turns to Kat to tell her my very specific idea of the perfect date, my thoughts flash to the way he looked at me when we arrived to our first destination and I realized what he was doing.

There we were, standing on the back deck of Joey’s parent’s house, the one he bid on at the GoodFellas event, overlooking the crashing waves of the Atlantic hand in hand. I looked up at him, smiling in disbelief and utterly speechless. There was a candlelight dinner set up in the sand, surrounded by hundreds of glowing candles. “Magic” by Coldplay was playing softly in the background perfectly capturing the moment. He looked down at me. “You do realize it’s only going to be downhill from here right?” He winked playfully and placed a kiss on my forehead and led me over to the table.

“I can’t believe you did all this for a first date. What if you don’t even wind up liking me after tonight? I was just kidding when I told you about my dream date. I didn’t actually ever expect this.” I said feeling a little embarrassed as two men dressed in tuxedos, just as I’d specified in my description, placed a creamy bowl of lobster bisque in front of the two of us, and another followed with a bucket of clams, placing it at the center of the beautifully set table.

Gage reached across the table and took my hand in his, instantly calming me, and I fell a little harder. “Jess, I already know I like you. It’s not like we don’t know each other, and even though this is our first time purposely spending time alone together, I already know I don’t want it to be the last.”

Kat interrupts my thoughts. “Shut the hell up. He did not have Coldplay playing live for you?”

I laugh. “No, but he had Ghost Stories playing throughout the dinner, and told me that it made him think of us.” I couldn’t help but share that one personal piece of many things Gage said to me last night that made it clear he intends for us to be together from now on. It scares me because I’m not as sure as he is, but the more I talk about our date, the more I think I want to spend as much time with him as I can. My worries keep shifting to Charlotte, and I wonder how she’ll feel when she learns about Gage. How can I tell her? Is it too soon? She said she wanted me to be happy, and Gage makes me happy right now.

“But everything else, the surf and turf, chocolate cake, cotton candy, and dancing under the stars? He did all of that?” Cam and Kat were just about falling off their seats when I nod my head yes.

I couldn’t believe he’d gotten all of this accomplished in only a day. I now know he’s not only a successful surgeon, but is also a partner in his family’s hotel business, which apparently allows him to afford extravagant nights like he created for me.

“Ok, then there was for sure making out…details, and don’t leave anything out.” Cam finishes off her drink and sets it on the table next to her with ready to hear more.

I laugh and shake my head, but inside, I’m a puddle of goo. He literally made me melt last night. I felt things I’ve never felt before, and a part of me feels bad for even thinking it, but it’s true. Dave and I had a great sex life, an amazing one actually. But I’ve only kissed Gage, and it’s evoked thoughts in me that I didn’t even know I wanted.

I take a deep breath and have a smile that matches Cam’s. “We were dancing to “Always in My Head”, and we were totally alone on a private cove surrounded by dozens of candles. So yes, there was making out.” I close my eyes for a moment and think of the way his tousled hair blew in the light breeze over his hypnotizing eyes that were filled with that same look that I can never figure out.

He cupped my face in his large, comforting hands and brushed his thumb across my lips. “This was a really good idea for a date, thank you for thinking of it.” The sarcasm in his deep, silky voice made me laugh. He pulled me so my body was flush up against his, moving his body perfectly to the song, making me wonder what other things he can move in electrifying rhythm this way. He trailed his hand from my waist up behind the nape of my neck and took a deep breath in. “This song makes me think of you.” He lifted his eyes again to meet mine. “Sometimes when I’m with you, I can’t believe this is all actually real.”

I looked at him and knew exactly how he felt. “I really hope it is.” I surprised myself with my honesty. I’ve always had a sarcastic comment back when he opened up to me this way, and apparently that’s not something he does often, and after last night, I realized I needed to let him in--that I wanted to let him in.

His smile was heartbreaking and he pulled me in gently, slowly sweeping his lips across mine, making me let out a sign, almost begging for more. He slid his fingers through my hair and pulled me in closer, deepening our kiss this time, our tongues matching each other’s need to connect. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair, filling with a fiery desire that had my head spinning.