The blonde waitress that had experienced the previous encounter with me finished her shift a couple of hours later, leaving me and the other waitress alone in the diner. She refilled my coffee cup a handful of times, though I barely noticed. My eyes were fixed on the door.
My vision wasn't very specific, but in the familiar scene that I'd watched a thousand times, I noticed the mid afternoon sun peeking through the restaurant windows. The sun was already rising to its peak, so it wouldn't be long. My fingers had started shaking, but it wasn't from the caffeine.
The Sunrise Diner hit it's lunch rush soon enough and the empty tables started filling up quickly. The sun inched across the sky as I sipped my seventh coffee. Suddenly, I heard the familiar ring of the door and watched as the man that I've been daydreaming about for the past month entered.
He was identical to my visions - dirty blonde hair and striking red eyes and the same immortal beauty that I owned myself. A calm haze fell over the room at once, shifting the loud conversations to peaceful exchanges. His eyes swept the room until he met my gaze.
Jasper's mouth curved into a small smile at his first look at me and immediately walked over. We didn't break our gaze until he was sitting in the stool next to me and ordering a coffee.
"No cream, no sugar." He answered the waitress in a neutral sort of Southern drawl that made it seem like he didn't have a care in the world. But his face had the look of someone who'd been through far too much in their lifetime.
"Hello, ma'am." This time he addressed me.
"Well, you've kept me waiting long enough." I smiled.
His brows furrowed slightly, but my happiness infected him.
"Coffee, no cream, no sugar." The waitress interrupted our conversation. Jasper nodded his thanks and took a sip.
"May I ask your name? He asked me.
"Alice."
"Alice…"
"Just Alice."
He stared, considering me for a moment, but just smiled and laughed. "Ok, then, Just Alice. My name's Jasper Whitlock."
"I know." I said.
He laughed again. "Would you like anything, Just Alice?" He gestured to the diner.
"No, thank you. I've been in this diner for a bit too long."
"Well then let's leave."
I grinned and held out my hand, which he took and led me out the door.
We walked down the sidewalks until we reached the forest that I had ran through earlier, where we were hidden in the thick trees. Our eyes met and I smiled before sprinting into it. He followed closely behind, laughing. We ran for at least a couple of miles, staying close to one another, but he stopped after a while. I halted as well and jogged back to where he was.
"You're quite mysterious, you know." Jasper said.
I giggled. "I could say the same about you."
"What did you mean earlier? About how I kept you waiting."
"I have a gift. I have visions about the future and I saw you."
His eyebrows raised in surprise. "So do I."
My own brows lifted as well. "You have visions too?"
"No, but I have a gift of my own. I have...an emotional climate. I can sense and manipulate the feelings around me."
"Wow. That's…"
"Inconvenient?"
"I was going to say amazing. That explains what happened in the restaurant - everything relaxed as soon as you entered."
"Yes, it has its advantages. But feeling everything that everyone else does has its price." His eyes look off somewhere in the distance, and I get the sense that he is somewhere far away. He pulls himself back, though, and looks back at me. "You're a vampire."
"How could you tell?"
Jasper smiled. "Right, sorry. How did you turn?" My smile faltered slightly and he noticed. "It's ok if you want to keep it private. I get that."
"No, it's ok. I don't really remember. I woke up alone in a forest somewhere in Mississippi and had to figure out what was happening to me by myself. If it weren't for my premonitions, who knows what would have happened." I shudder at the thought. "What about you?"
His eyes took on that distant look again and his face creased into one of someone remembering things they wished to forget. "That may be a story for another day."
I nodded silently and took a step closer to him. He looked down at me and the look vanished. "Another day." I said quietly and wrapped my arms around him. He stiffened at first, but put his own arms around me as well after a moment, and we stood there for a long time - just two people who knew too much about pain, finding peace in one another's arms.
The moment we've been waiting for is finally here! Writing this was much better than the other chapters - getting to express the joy and companionship that Alice and Jasper found in one another was really great. The holidays are coming up, so I might be taking a couple of days off to spend some time with my family, but I'll try to get at least a couple more updates out before the new year.
