Jessica's Fate

Chapter 91

Luke had been grinning at me when he heard me ask if I could take off. Something should have told me that Sang, or Sean had already popped in to the kitchen to tell him that I was on the verge of being set up. "Leave early?" He rubbed his chin with a frown on his face. "I don't know Jessie... it's an awful lot of work..."

I rolled my eyes at him. "And Sean and Sang will completely help you out." I said. He arched an eyebrow at me. "Or not." I shrugged. "I guess I don't need to go. I mean, I really shouldn't think about getting close to anyone, right? I am leaving at the end of the year."

He blinked at me in disbelief before looking stunned that I could be so nonchalant about it. "Wait. No, I was just teasing, you should go with this random guy that yes, I was told about." He closed the distance between us and gave me a quick hug. "You should never walk away from an opportunity, you know?" He kissed my cheek. "You do deserve to be happy and you never know if he might be someone that will wait for you to come home again."

"But I don't want someone to just sit around and wait for me." I said, my words muffled by his shirt as I hugged him back and buried my face in his chest.

"I didn't say that's what you want." He said, raising my chin to look me in the eye. "Talk to Raven about it next week, you'll see. You may not want it, but the right guy probably wouldn't mind. Because he wants to. Because you're totally worth it."

I frowned. "I... I don't know."

"You're worth it." He stated again. "Trust me." He kissed my forehead and let go of me, turning me to give me a nudge out the door. "Have a good time and we can talk about it tomorrow if you want."

"Maybe." I mumbled as I smoothed my skirt down and reached for the purse I'd stashed in the kitchen. I headed out to find Josh still standing with Sean and Sang at the dessert bar. "Okay." I smiled. "I've been officially released from duty and am free to go." I said, my gaze flitting over to Sang for a moment. I held out my keys. "Are you sure you want to drive my car home?"

She smiled and took the keys. "Sure. But I might let Luke do it instead as long as you're okay with it."

I shrugged. "Either way, as long as it gets home."

"It will." Sean said, stepping forward with a quick, brotherly hug. "Go on... get out of here." I kissed his cheek before turning towards Josh.

"Lead on..." I smiled.

He chuckled and hesitated for a moment before offering me his hand. I placed my hand in his as we started to walk away from the dessert bar. "I'm very glad you are able to go out tonight." He said, glancing at me.

"I'm glad too." I said, looking up at him. "And I'm starving, and this was the best offer all night."

He laughed as we left the building and he led me over to an SUV, unlocking the doors and opening the door for me. "Won't be long until I get you settled with some food. It's not my usual style for something like this but I think that IHOP probably will take care of us pretty well, right?"

"Perfect." I said. "Quick works for me and they are one of the best all night sort of places that we can go tonight and not that far away." I mean, the diner was an all-night sort of place. Usually. But they'd closed tonight because everyone was going to be at the event and I was reluctant to take him there in the first place.

It still felt like Zack's place and I didn't dare revisit the feelings taking someone else there would bring up for me.

Two hours later, I was laughing at a story Josh told me about one of the cases he'd worked on over the summer and debating if I wanted to finish the chicken strips that still remained on my appetizer sampler. I sort of wanted pancakes when we got here but that only lasted five minutes when one of the samplers headed to another table and that was it. Fried and crispy was going to beat soft and fluffy hands down tonight. I'd surrendered a few onion rings for a good portion of Josh's pancakes when he offered to share. "That's insane." I said, drawing my fork through a puddle of bleu cheese dressing on my plate.