Jake Griffin and the Girl(s) of his Dreams
Duke University
September 1981
The Quad
He didn't mean to meet her. She was the girl of his dreams. But that didn't matter. Dreams were just that. Dreams. Not meant to take shape. He had no intention of introducing himself. But sometimes dreams find their way into our waking lives.
He was walking to class. He had just stopped at the campus store to pick up a bottle of lemonade. It was still extremely hot for mid September and he had back to back 4 credit courses. That meant 6 hours in a dilapidated laboratory reserved for grad students., The one with no air conditioning. He knew he would need a little something to quench his thirst. He toyed with the idea of storing his beverage in liquid nitrogen to keep it cold just as he noticed there were only few people left on the quad.
Jake checked his watch. He was going to be late so he picked up the pace. He detected Abby, the aforementioned girl of his dreams, coming down the stairs perpendicular to his current trajectory. If she descended quickly enough, they were bound to cross paths. He began to panic just a bit. In his hurried and distracted state, his over-sized penny loafers gave out from beneath him and he fell face forward on to the pavement. The glass bottle shattering under his palm.
He stood up in shock. And looked directly at Abby. She was just staring at him. She wasn't making fun of him. She wasn't doing anything. Just staring. Jake ran his finger through his hair and he felt wetness on his face. Warm and sticky. "What the..?"
He pulled his hand down and looked at it. It was covered in blood. He turned it over so his palm faced up. The sight nearly made him gag. The bottle. Most of it was imbedded in his palm.
He was most definitely panicking now. He had no idea what to do. Just as he was starting to feel a little light headed, he felt someone lift his uninjured arm and put it over their shoulders. The rest was a blur. The next thing he remembers is being in the university's medical clinic with someone wrapping his wounded hand.
"That was a nasty fall," She says. "Are you ok?"
"Yes. I think so. How did I get here?"
"I brought you here."
Jake looks up and meets the most beautiful brown eyes he has ever seen. "Abby?" He says in shock.
She smiles. "You know who I am?"
Jake wishes he could just pass out right now instead of dying from embarrassment. "Uh, I've seen you around. Med Student, right?"
"How did you know?" A burgeoning smile dancing on her lips.
"I can tell by your handiwork." He lifts up his recently gauzed appendage. Ugh. Jake. Knock it off with your terrible puns.
Just as he was about to run out of the room screaming. She chuckles. "Well thank you very much…um…?"
"Jacob…Jake. Griffin." He squirms at his own formality, but relaxes a bit when he sees a full smile on Abby's mouth now.
"Abigail… Abby. Candide." Jake sees a twinkle in her eye. "Well, I think it's about time we wrap this up." She says and when the pun hits Jake full in the face, he immediately blurts out an invitation to a date.
She immediately agrees.
There was a first date. And then a Second. A first kiss. A first argument. Make up. Everything that comes with finding love.
Jake married Abby in June of the following year. His one true pairing. The girl of his dreams. The love of his life.
Well.
That was until he met her.
Washington DC
November 4, 1987
Memorial Hospital
Abby looked exhausted. She just didn't have anything left to give. She leaned back and put her hands to her eyes as she began to cry. "I can't believe it, Jake. I just can't believe it." She let a sob escape. "After all this time. After all we've been through"
"I know" Jake said. He couldn't look at his wife. He was stupefied by his own thoughts. "It will be ok. I promise."
A woman, a nurse, entered the room. "Are you ready?" Abby pulled her hands down from her face and whipped a deadly look at the new occupant of the room, scrutinizing her with her bleary brown orbs. Then she looked at Jake with soft, pleading eyes. Jake nodded and walked towards the nurse with one last look at his wife of 5 years. Abby's face was awash in pure grief.
He walked with this nurse down the hall. She stopped to look at him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She's fine. Don't worry." She forced Jake to meet her eyes.
"Clarke is fine."
And for the first time since Abby got pregnant, Jake Griffin could breathe.
"We just needed to do a few tests. Standard procedure for high risk pregnancies like this one and especially since, you know, the multiple miscarriages before." Her voice trailed off. "Are you ready to meet your daughter?"
He nodded.
They walked to the nursery. She placed a little bundle of pink blankets in his hands and Jake finally allowed himself to cry.
This was the other girl he had been dreaming about. Ever since he married Abby. Even after all the strife and misery they have had trying to conceive a child, he couldn't help but hope for this moment. As he looked down into her barely open blue eyes, he knew this was the other love of his life.