Since Vicky had moved out after the break up, Jack did not feel like himself at all. Usually spunky and outgoing, all he could think of was how much he missed her.
He knew it had to end, he could not go on wishing her back forever, but it felt as though she had taken his whole heart with her, he was numb to ever find love again.
All he wanted was for some kind of hope that things would get better. Just then, he felt something wrinkling in his pocket, and suddenly remembered he had kept the napkin that Rose had written her number on. He rushed to the phone, practically ripping it off the wall, dialing her number as fast as he could.
There was no answer, but the machine picked up. Jack beamed as big as day when he heard the voice on the other end.
"Hi, this is Rose. I'm not here right now, but if it's important, feel free to leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!"
"Hey, Rose," he spoke up, "It's Jack Tripper, we met at the Regal Beagle about a week ago. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to hang out when you get a chance. I'm sorry I haven't called sooner, things haven't been very easy around here. Anyway, you're probably at work now so please call me back when you get a chance. I really miss you, I've been wanting to see you again."
He hung up the phone, slightly disappointed that she wasn't there to answer, but he felt relieved that he had finally reached out. The breakup had numbed his heart so much that he had nearly forgotten he kept the number. He sat back down on the sofa, switching on the television, but all that seemed to be on were romantic films,
and the more he watched all of the couples in them, he just saw Vicky and himself. He wasn't used to living alone. Even when past relationships had failed, he knew he could always count on Janet, Chrissy or even Cindy and Terri when things went sour.
"This is ridiculous!" he thought, frustrated at his constant moping, "I can't keep living like this!"
About fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. Jack practically sprung off the sofa and ran to pick it up, knocking his foot on the table in the process.
"Hello?" he huffed, out of breath from running, "Tripper residence, Jack here, how can I help you?"
The voice on the other end giggled at his attempt to be so proper, "It's Rose, I just got your call. Is everything alright? I've been so worried about you ever since that day we first met and you hadn't called. Did you ever work things out?"
"No," Jack sighed, "I wish we could have, but her mind was made up. Like she said, it was for the best anyway. The poor girl, the very idea of marriage just scares the life out of her, you know? Much as it hurts to lose her after all this time, I..." he paused to stifle an oncoming lump, "I know we needed to move forward, it was the only way."
"You poor thing," Rose cooed, sensing his pain, "Did you want me to come over? We don't have to go anywhere if you don't want, but you sound like you've been lonely through all this."
"Oh, Rose, you have no idea!" he said, almost feeling the same relief as before, "I'm really not used to living alone. Throughout my cooking school years, I always had roommates, so this has been a pretty tough time."
Rose felt her heart melting once more, "Aww, don't you worry, I'd love to be there with you."
"Great!" Jack said, actually smiling for the first time since the split, "I'll see you then!"
Anxiously, he told her the apartment address and after realizing what had happened, hung up the phone with wide eyes.
About thirty minutes later...
As Jack waited patiently for Rose to arrive, he suddenly heard a knock at the door. Once again, he sprung up, yelling "I'll be right there!"
He opened the door and his heart skipped a beat at the sight of the woman. As he reached out to greet her with a hug and kiss, he was so excited to finally see her that he accidentally kissed her on the mouth, although quickly, and Rose's heart fluttered. Embarrassed at his zealous excitement, he awkwardly apologized.
"Oh gosh, Rose," Jack mumbled, redness taking over his entire face, "I am so sorry about that, I don't know what got into me just now."
"That's alright, Jack," Rose beamed, "There is nothing wrong with letting things happen. Besides, that felt really nice and natural."
"Well," he giggled, feeling flattered and slightly shy, "Would you like to come in?"
"Sure!" she said excitedly, taking his outstretched hand, "You'll have to excuse my less than presentable appearance, I didn't have time to fix up."
"That's perfectly fine," Jack replied, leading her to the couch, "Why don't you sit down?" he asked, leading her with a hand on her back.
"Thank you," she said, sitting down, and he did the same, "So how have you been? I didn't know all this was so hard for you."
"Oh yeah," he said, "It's just been really strange, you know? All those years I hadn't lived alone, then after my last roommate got married, Vicky asked me to live with her and things just went from there ever since. That's why it's been so rough on me."
Rose just listened intently, looking in awe at his sweet face, her eyes showing genuine concern as her heart went out to him. Ever since she had seen him crying at the restaurant, she had known that there was something more to that obvious heartache he had expressed in their first meeting. She squeezed his hand, feeling both the same sympathy as before and growing, although sudden, adoration, as he continued to spill his heart to her.
"It's really frustrating, Rose," he said, his voice cracking slightly, "I've been trying to get past this, this, I don't know, slump I've been in! Part of me wants to move forward and be happy, but part of me feels like I lost everything I ever had, and it's making me wonder if I'll ever find anyone I'll love as much as her!"
Rose leaned against him, baffled that someone as good looking as him could even feel that way, "Don't worry, Jack, you will find happiness one day. Remember, I went though the same thing. After my fiance left I thought I would never even want to love again, it's getting past that initial hurt that's difficult."
"I know," Jack said in agreement, "I do want to love again too, but I lived with Vicky for three years! It would hurt so much if I let myself get that comfortable only to have the same thing happen again, I don't know if I could take it!"
"Jack, listen," Rose softly soothed, "Not everyone out there is afraid of marriage. I don't know what she went through, but there had to be a reason, and it just didn't work for you guys, right? One day the right girl will come along, I just know it."
Jack beamed once again, "You really think so?" he said innocently.
"Of course!" she said, looking into those eyes once again, "Look at you, they'd be crazy not to!"
"I really appreciate that, Rose," he said with sincerity, "More than anything I just want someone I can feel safe with. I thought I had it with Vicky, but I guess I was wrong." he nearly began to tear up again, so Rose pulled him into a soft hug.
"Now now, no more of that," she gently whispered, pulling him close to her, "You don't have to be sad anymore, Jack. Where one door closes, another door opens, right?"
"Yeah I guess so," he said, catching his breath as he felt her kiss his cheek in comfort, "I don't want to rush into anything, but all I know is, I feel safer with you than I ever have, like you knew I was out there all this time waiting for that moment we first met, and now that I'm here with you, I don't want you to let me go."
Rose held him even tighter, feeling the adoration she had felt all along had been confirmed, "Don't worry, there is no rush, when you're ready, we can move forward,
until then I will be here for you and support you in anything your heart leads you to. You'll always be safe with me."
They continued to hold one another for a long time. Suddenly, Rose kissed him by the ear and began mysteriously humming a familiar melody to him. Captivated by her naturally adoring tone, he suddenly realized what he was hearing, and was no longer afraid. He gave into the sincere compassion she showed, and turned to kiss her fully. She reciprocated, pressing her lips into his, and moved her arms up to hold his head, running her hand through his hair, and he wrapped his own arms tightly around her in mutual adoration and trust, both of their hearts racing, feeling as though they were in complete euphoria, and suddenly all that heartache he had felt before seemed to disappear completely.
"I love you, Rose." Jack whispered, feeling himself fully trusting her, "Don't let me go..."
Rose sighed and placed her hand on his cheek, and he closed his eyes and leaned into her palm, "I love you too, Jack, I loved you the moment you compared me to chocolate!"
The next day...
Mid afternoon at the Regal Beagle, Rose scurried to take orders from a seemingly overwhelming amount of customers coming in on lunch breaks. Her head was already spinning with worry about what had happened the day before. She never thought that visit with Jack would go the way it did. "He told me he loved me," she thought to herself, so afraid he was moving too fast. She really did care for him, and having gone through a recent breakup herself, the last thing she ever wanted to do was break his heart after it had already been. In the middle of her mind wandering, Jack's former roommate, Janet Wood Dawson, walked in with her husband, Philip, and sat down. They'd had to cancel their usual date night due to their daughter Kaley's preschool play the night before.
"Hi," Rose said in a friendly tone, noticing the couple had come in, "What can I get for you today?"
Janet smiled back at the waitress, "Oh, I'll just have a salad and water, and, honey, what would you like?" she turned attention to her husband.
"I'll take a roast beef sandwich, thanks!" Philip replied, looking at his wife as if to say "How can you eat so little?"
"Would you like anything else, ma'am?" Rose addressed Janet.
"No thank you, I've been eating like crazy lately and things have been stressful at work so I don't have much appetite."
"I hear that," Rose laughed, "Things are super crowded here too, I'll be right there with your food."
A few minutes later, Rose came back carrying the food on a tray and sat the plates down. As Janet looked for a tip to give her, Rose spoke up.
"You know," she began, "Something incredible happened yesterday but it has me so worried, I don't know what to do about it."
Janet replied, "What happened? I hope it wasn't anything bad."
"Oh no!" Rose said, shaking her head, "About a week ago now, on Valentines Day, this really nice looking guy came in here and from what he told me, he had attempted to propose to his girlfriend a second time and got rejected. I didn't see either of them come in, but I heard someone crying at that table over by the door and went over to see what was wrong, and he ends up just spilling his heart out to me."
"Oh, that is sad but so sweet!" Janet sapped, "I'm guessing he was upset because of the rejection?"
"Yeah," Rose slightly gushed, recalling the incident, "We introduced ourselves and I got him laughing a little bit but he couldn't hold back his emotion much so I just let him cry on me for an hour, much to my boss's displeasure."
"That is so precious!" Janet cooed, "So why does that have you worried?"
"Well," Rose continued, "Just yesterday he called me when I was out doing gardening, I missed the call but in the message he sounded like he was feeling really down,
so I called back as soon as I got it and asked him if he wanted me to come over."
"And did you?" Janet inquired, intrigued.
"Yeah I did," Rose said, "That's why I've been worried. When I got there, we were sitting on the sofa talking and he almost started to cry again, so I held him for a while and told him he didn't have to be sad anymore and things would look up eventually."
"Aww," Janet said, "That was nice of you, what happened after that?"
Rose breathed deep before continuing, "While I was holding him, to help console him I started humming, and before I knew it, when I finished, he turned and kissed me and said he loved me, and I said I loved him too."
Janet couldn't believe her ears, "Oh wow, I can see why that would worry you, sounds like the poor guy's on the rebound!"
"He sure is," Rose slumped a little bit, "That's why I'm so confused. He got his heart broken pretty bad, he'd been living with the girl he wanted to propose to for,
I think he said about three years now, and he's so sweet I just don't want him to end up getting hurt again. Even though we just met, I do care a lot about him, you know?"
"I can understand that, I'd been there many times before I married Philip here, that wedding in itself was a fiasco," Janet said, recalling the goings on, "My roommate at the time was about to lose his relationship with a flight attendant he'd been seeing, but they ended up getting back together just before my wedding. So, what about this guy you met, is he cute?"
Rose could feel herself melt inside, "Oh, extremely!" she gushed "He was very well groomed and had one of the sweetest faces I've ever seen and, oh gosh, "she paused,
having to catch her breath, "These really gorgeous blue eyes. It was all I could do not to kiss him the first day we met!"
"Wow!" Janet flushed, "That's something! Strange enough, my roommate also had blue eyes like that. What was this guy's name, did you get it?"
Just then, before Rose could respond, the restaurant door flung open, and Jack burst in, out of breath as though he had been running.
"Rose?" he called out, his eyes searching around for her, "You in here? I need to tell you something!"
Both Rose and Janet's heads turned and they both exclaimed, "Jack!" at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise.
"Rose!" he ran over to her and hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry to barge in like this but I just wanted to tell you, I am so sorry if I seemed too forward yesterday.
I hope you didn't think I was coming on too strong, but I am so grateful for all you did for me!"
"Oh don't worry, honey, it's fine," Rose took his hand, smiling, "I knew you just needed to be loved."
Janet spoke up, "Wait a minute, so Jack's the guy you were comforting last week?" she said, shocked.
"Yeah, you know him?" Rose asked Janet, flabbergasted.
"Yeah, that's the roommate I was telling you about!" she beamed in surprise.
Rose's eyes widened, "This is something! I had no idea you guys knew each other!"
"Yeah," Janet said, "We go way back, we lived with another friend of ours for years."
Just then, the manager, Doug, yelled from the back, "Rose, what did I tell you about stalling orders?"
"For crying out loud Doug, take a chill pill!" Rose laughed, "I was catching up!"
After that, while Rose continued her serving shift, Jack sat down with Janet and caught her up on everything, including his painful breakup with Vicky. Janet told him to be careful rushing into things, but Jack pointed out that he would take things slow to avoid getting hurt again, and Janet seemed relieved and comfortable in the fact that, even though they had just met, Rose seemed to be treating him well.
"I'm so happy for you, Jack," Janet said, her heart bursting, "I do hope it works out, she is absolutely stunning!"
"So do I," Jack breathed out, knowing deep in his heart Rose was the one for him, "So do I..."