Beth slid out of her side of the booth and moved over to sit by Jake. She looked deeply into his eyes, seeing the love reflecting from those deep brown depths. She felt all the hurt he had been feeling, all the frustrations he had all that time; but she also felt the faith, hope, and love he held on to. It was surreal that she could be the love of someone's life after only knowing each other for a short amount of time. She cupped his cheeks in the palms of her hands and leaned in closer, bringing her lips to touch his. It was just a feathery light kiss, their lips barely even touching, but it was all she can think to do to comfort him. It had been easy for her to move on, she had no recollection of the past; but this man, he carried all the pain by himself, obviously in agony. She smiled at him as their lips parted. She was about to move back to her place when he held her hand and stopped her.
"Stay here, please. I like having you near."
She nodded and moved her plate closer to her new place on the table.
"Have you told my mother yet?"
"Not yet, I haven't had the chance. I was planning on doing a conference video chat to tell everybody all at once. Do you want to be present when I break the news?"
"Do you think that's a good idea? It might be such a big shock."
"I'll break it to them first, but just be on standby. What do you think?"
"That sounds fair."
"I mean, I know they would be all excited to hear this news. I don't wanna tell them and then they'd have to wait to see you, you know?"
"Okay, you're right."
They finished their dinners and polished off the rest of the bottle. Beth found herself really enjoying Jake's company, really comfortable with him. She found that he was truly a gentleman, always opening doors for her or holding the small of her back as they walked. She now understood why she fell in love with him so quickly in her past life; he was quite the catch, he had it all: looks and personality.
He parked his car in front of Nick's house and turned the engine off. No one made a move. They just both sat in silence, staring blankly ahead.
"I'm nervous."
"I know."
"I'm going to talk to my mother tomorrow...and I won't even know who she is."
"Maybe seeing her will be a memory trigger."
"Maybe."
"I'll be by your side the entire time."
"Thank you," she said as she finally unbuckled her seat belt. Jake did the same and exited the car first and rounded to her side so he can open the door for her.
"Beth, we'll get through this together."
He walked her to the gate and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Good night. I'll pick you up tomorrow after work so we can video chat."
"Okay, good night. Drive safe."
She went inside the gate as he went inside his car. He started the engine as she closed the gate. He was excited for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be the start of the return of Beth.
***
Jake and Nick were at the warehouse supervising the contractors and the beginning of the the transformation of the restaurant/bar. They were standing side by side looking at a blueprint while envisioning how the finished product would look like. Things were kind of tense between them, friendly, but tense. Jake was the first to speak.
