SUNSET, Tuesday
Joey dressed with her usual careless flair for fashion. At 6:45 she walked out the front door and into Dawson Leery's path. "Hey." She smiled.
"Find your bag?"
"What?" she looked at him, confused.
"The bag you were looking for at the airport?"
"Oh, yeah. It turns out a sweet old woman got my bag confused with hers." She shook her head and start walking toward her car. "Everything's back on track now."
"Really?" Dawson asked. The sun slid down the sky a fiery red ball.
"Yeah." She looked at Dawson with that famous What is it you realy want to say? Look. "What's up, Dawson?"
"Where're you headed?"
"Witter's Supper Club." The name of place made her smile it was so Pacey in a twisted way.
"Pacey."
"Yeah, we're having dinner to catch up—you should come with me." Hse watched his face twist oddly in the quickly dying light.
"Somehow I doubt Pacey would like that idea."
"We're not back to this again are we?"
"I don't know, I guess that depends on you, Joey."
"I have no intention of starting this juvenile triangle all over again, Dawson." She sighed and pushed her hair behind an ear. "Especially--" she stopped realizing she'd been thinking out loud.
"'Especially' what, Joey?" Dawson stepped in front of the driver's door of Joey's car.
"'Especially'" she shook her head "Not after I saw the two of you together this morning. It was a sight I've missed, Dawson. You're friends and if I can't be a friend to both of you," she looked out over the creek that burned in its reflection of the sunset and took a deep breath. "I don't want to be anything else to either of you." She lifted a hand to his shoulder and squeezed. "This is supposed to be the easy part, you know after all the hormonal sexual tension is gone. After we've all grown up a little and moved on. Right?"
"Right." Dawson agreed and reached behind his back to open her door for her.
"Thanks." She smiled crookedly.
"Sure." Dawson nodded looking at the rose he'd dropped. She put the car in reverse and crushed it under tires as she drove off to meet Pacey.
A few miles down the road, Joey pulled over fighting the urge to turn around and run back to Dawson. She wanted to be sure everything was okay. She wanted to rid them of the weird tension that had plagued them for so long. Instead she sighed and looked down at her clock. She shook her head realizing she was already late.
Fifteen minutes later she was watching Pacey stand at the door of the kitchen finishing off last minute notes for his cook. He looks so at home. This placed is his—so much of him is here you can feel it. Joey marveled looking around at the knick-knacks displayed in a huge book shelf. The Salt water aquarium held many of the creatures they'd seen we they'd been snorkeling in the Florida Keys over their summer together. The memories made her smile. She turned to see Capeside High memoribilia adorning another wall. Her smile faded as she noted several pictures from both her junior and senior proms. The nightmare soap operas those had been came back with stunning clarity and none to minimal pain.
"Yeah, the stuff from the Keys definitely holds the better memroies." A familiar baritone intruded her reverie.
"Yeah. I guess it does." She turned to smile at him. "I was going to apologize for being late, but you seem to be running even later than I am."
"I stopped counting minutes years ago." He said waling toward a spacious and empty booth.
"This place is great, Pace." She looked around with a discerning eye and spotted the stage. "Please tell me you don't torture the CHS population with a night spot they can't enter."
"I am not that cruel—If you'll recall I was not a, ah, upstanding citizen in my more youthful days. I lock up the liquor cabinets and welcome all over 16 Friday and Saturday nights."
"Does it cut into your business much?"
"Not really. Most of the college crowd around here are townies home for a visit. Even if they're legal—well the apron strings are cut completely yet."
"Well, that is generous and very mature of you, Pacey."
"I do try." He smiled at her. The waiter brought out their wine and a tray of appetizers.
"I don't get to order?"
"Not when the owner knows you as well as I do." He picked up one of the appetizers and looked up at her. "Your mahi mahi will be out shortly."
"Well, well, Mr. Witter you do know me well."
He slid out of the booth and held out a hand. "Come here, let me show you something." She slid out of the booth a look somewhere between curiosity and suspicision on her face. He led her to a deck on the back of the resturaunt. "This is where I make most of my profits—Prom and wedding receptions go over big back here—particularly at night." He looked up and Joey's eyes followed his gaze. Her heart jumped up and then settled.
"I'd forgotten." She smiled a little sadly.
"They haven't changed, Jo."
"I know," she sighed. "I have—changed I mean—but they're still breathtaking and still here."
"You know you were right."
"Of course I was." She didn't take her eyes off the heavenly view. "About what?"
"You said it was harder to see them in the city." He was looking at her, but she didn't seem to notice.
"That was so long ago." She took a deep breath, smelling the sea, the fish cokking inside, the gentle aroma of rosemary, thyme, basil. "Do I smell an actual herb garden, Pacey Witter?"
"Yeah, freshness counts, plus it's cathartic."
"Mmm." She nodded and turned her eyes to the potted jasmine and chuckled. "You know, beautiful as it is out here, I think I prefer the inside."
His brow furrowed a little. "Why?" He looked at her curiously.
"It's more like you. Crowded, eclectic, midly nuerotic—this," She looked around, "Is too fancy and organized for Pacey Witter."
"Aah, but that—that is the other Pacey Witter."
She smiled and walked back toward the door. Turning the corner she saw their table, food already there. "Food's waiting."
"I'm the owner, Potter if I can't get good service who could?"
"True." They ate slowly, talking about people they'd known, things theyd heard about people they'd known and they memories they'd created with others in the years they'd been apart.
As they finished and coffee was delivered to the table, Joey shook her head. "Why is it we can do this, Pacey?"
"What?" he looked confused.
"This," she sighed. "You and I can sit, reminensce, eat, drink coffee, and just be comfortable."
"You say it like it's a bad thing, Jo."
"No," She looked toward the ceiling. "It's just that I can't do this with Dawson, even after years of separation, even after he moved to Boston, and everytign with his Dad. Evn though you never visited me once in London things are easy, comfortable between us. Why?"
"I don't know, Jo. Maybe it's all but living together for three months. Maybe it's me being willing to let you go and live your life—despite the fact that I love you—maybe because I love you." he stopped at the shocked look on her face. "What? You didn't think I'd just moved on and stopped caring did you, Jo?"
"I don't know. I just—I mean you never, Pace?" She looked at him suddenly at a lost for words.
"Jo, I didn't chase you down because I thought you needed to get to know yourself. Alone." He shrugged. "When you didn't come back, after a while I knew you'd done just that and found what you've been wanting all along."
"I found was peace of mind. I mean away from here I didn't have to worry about making anyone else happy or mad or crazy. But that kind of peace can come at a price."
"Yeah, it can be lonely." Pacey shrugged and smiled at her as he slid out of the booth. "Now before this conversation turns the evening toward morose reflection, let me walk you to your car." He held out a hand for the second time in the evening and she hesitated before taking it this time, but in the end the friendly gesture led her to her car and the evening ended with a very chaste kiss on the forhead. 'It was really good to see you, Potter."
"Yeah, it was good to catch up, Pace."
He nodded as she got into her car. When she started the car, radio blaring he knocked on her window. "Here I almost forgot this." He handed her a single white daisy. She smiled.
"Thanks." She said putting the car into gear and heading for the B&B.