Hey, all. I waited a little bit to update, to allow anymore answers to the quiz question come in. Unfortunately, no one answered correctly…some got the city correct, but I'm looking for an exact college. I'll leave it open for this chapter too, if any of you have another guess! Here's the clue:

"Cee! You're back from the Windy City! You passed the Geiger test to get back here?" He asked brightly, and she rolled her eyes. "Radiation free, thank you very much."

So, if you have an idea, guess! The prize is a walk-on role! Here are some reviewer responses:

Tim Lin—No. I just like the name Mara, lol. Thanks!

Kittykatangel518—my name means, "who remains silent consents." I'm thinking about getting it tattooed somewhere on my body. That would be awesome, wouldn't it? And a bit more intellectual than "MOM" or "CHARLENE LOVES BILLY BOB." And thanks for your compliments! Oh, and no, they haven't slept together. Though I have made subtle inferences that they have come close. Wink, wink, nudge nudge.

And thanks to Banana Princess, michelle, LordLanceahlot, beebee17, nikki007, Tim Lin, Ikinder, kittykatangel518, moovalous3, UnangelicHalo, Angel From Fairyland, and Sunchaser for reviewing last chapter! Keep it up!

Finally, on to chapter 8.

Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning, curled up against Jesse. I started to move—I had work, unfortunately. And on my birthday too! Damn manager.—and I felt Jesse's arm coil around my waist. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…" he sang softly, in a groggy voice. We were both tired—we had, er, been up sort of late last night. No, we didn't have sex. But there is some things between kissing and sex. Cough.

I grinned and leaned over, and kissed him gently on the lips. "Go back to bed," I whispered. I had the breakfast shift, and it was 6:30. I crawled out of bed, pulled on a black skirt, black pumps, and a white blouse, did my hair and make up, and gave Jesse one last kiss before running out the door.

I checked in, and saw Sazz at the bar.

"Hey, Simon! Happy Birthday!" I grinned, waved in acknowledgement, then got to work.

Several hours later, after breakfast and the beginning of lunch, I got a break. Sazz and I were hanging out outside the restaurant, herself with a cigarette (a/n: Sazzy! You bad girl! Smoking! At your young age! Tsk tsk.) and myself with a bottle of water. I felt my hip buzz, and I pulled out my cell phone.

"Hey, Lisa, whats up?" I asked, seeing the caller ID.

"GoddammitAaronpaidbailandisoutofprison." Wow. Now I know how Jesse feels half the time.

"What?"

"Aaron is out of jail. His parents paid the bail, and now he's free again."

"WHAT?"

"I know! Mara's mother called me this morning in a fury when she found out. I mean, I know it's legal and everything, BUT THIS GUY KILLED OUR BEST FRIEND!"

"I know. Dammit." I leaned against the wall and slid to the ground.

"Listen, I have to call Beth and let her know. I'll talk to you later, okay? And happy birthday." I closed the phone, and banged my head gently against the brick.

"Suze? What's up?" Sazz dropped her cigarette, and ground it into the pavement with her heel.

"The guy who was arrested for murdering my best friend paid bail and is out of prison," I groaned.

"Hey, listen. That doesn't mean that he's off scott-free. He's just going home for a little while. He'll still go to trial, and he'll still get convicted and he'll still rot in prison, okay?" I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Yeah. You're right. I just got mad for a second." She offered me her hand, and pulled me up.

"Come on, break's up. Let's get back to work."

…………………………………………….

At 5:30, I got home. I had gotten off work a little bit earlier, but had gone to the hospital to talk to Mara. She was upset too, but I conveyed Sazz's words of wisdom to her, and she and her mother both calmed down, just as I had.

I saw a note on the door to the bedroom, in Jesse's pristine old-fashioned script. "Querida, I've gone out for the afternoon. I'll be back by 7, and we'll go out then. Love, Jesse." Realizing I only had an hour and a half to get beautiful for my darling Jesse, I quickly jumped into the shower to wash off the eau de filet mingon from the restaurant. I reminded myself to shave my legs, and moisturized and blow dried my hair. Finally, after an hour, I felt ready to get dressed.

I had bought a Betsey Johnson dress at an outlet about a month ago, but hadn't found anywhere to wear it to. It was a beautiful burgundy crocheted lace over a pink silk slip underneath, with a ribbon around the waist. By amazing luck and karma (they had to give me something back after these horrible past few weeks), the shoes that Lisa got me matched the dress perfectly.

At 7 on the dot, I put the last finishing touches on my appearance, and I heard the door open. Jesse came into the living room. He was dressed already, in a classic sports jacket and dress shirt and pants. I see that I didn't overdress, which was one of my concerns when deciding what to wear. He never did say where we were going.

I grinned and walked up to him, wrapping my arms around his neck, and his went around my waist. I kissed him, and we remained that way for several minutes.

"Hello, Birthday girl. Are you ready to go eat?" He asked, his breathing slightly ragged. I nodded, and he wrapped his arm around me and led me out the door.

…………………………..

We arrived at Milano's, a small, cozy family-owned Italian restaurant that not a lot of people know about. Jesse and I went here on our 5th anniversary, so it had good memories of Jesse and me together.

We dined happily, talking about our day. Jesse seemed a little bit distracted, but I put it in the back of my mind. After our waitress took away our plates and we ordered our desserts, Jesse reached across the table—avoiding the candles, of course, and took my hands in his.

"Susannah, I love you so much." I squeezed his fingertips.

"I love you too, Jesse," I replied, smiling. Jesse let go of my fingers. He suddenly looked nervous. He reached into his pocket and produced a small velvet box. I think my heart stopped.

He slid from his chair and knelt beside me, and opened the box. Inside was a simple silver band, with one diamond in the center and two blue topazes, my birthstones, on the side. "Querida, will you marry me?"

"Yes! Oh my God, yes!" I said happily. He slipped it on, and I pulled him up and kissed him passionately. One of the waiters must have witnessed it, as we were soon presented with a bottle of the restaurant's finest wine. We didn't really pay attention to it, since we were cuddling and kissing each other throughout dessert. (a/n: so cliché, is it not? The whole engagement? I couldn't resist, though. I'm a romantic at heart.)

By ten o'clockish, we arrived back at the apartment. I changed out of my dress, and into the new nightgown that Cate had gotten me. It fit amazingly (the good karma just keeps coming.). I turned to look in the mirror, and…

Whoa.

This thing fit. I was smokin' if I do say so myself. The shade of cream made my skin look tan, and something about it must have had the slightest purple undertones or something, because the green in my eyes popped. It clung to my every curve, and somehow just made me look absolutely amazing. Giselle times a billion.

Jesse was about to climb in bed when I came into the bedroom. He looked at me, his eyes bugged slightly, and he gulped. Not a bad reaction. I smiled slowly and walked towards him, all sultry-like. He immediately stood back up, and took a deep breath.

"Actually, I think I left my book in the living room… I'll just go get it…" he tried to hurry past me, in an obvious attempt to escape temptation, being the good little Catholic boy that he is. I grabbed his wrist as he came closer to me, and stopped him. Something came over me, and I stepped closed, and pressed myself against him. My hands roamed along his bare back, shoulders, and chest, my fingertips drawing imaginary shapes with a feather tough. My foot slid up and down his leg—he was wearing only shorts. His face came down against my neck. "Why do you do this to me?" he asked in a deep, throaty whisper.

"Do what?" I asked, in an equally husky voice, even though, considering how close I was pressed against him, I had an idea.

"Drive me crazy." He started kissing my shoulders, up my neck, along my jaw line, until he met my lips. I wrapped my arms around him tightly, as did he, and we kissed deeply and passionately. We stumbled back, and fell against the bed. I crawled up so my head was at the pillows, and he followed me, his lips on my face the entire time.

He settled himself on top of me. My leg instinctively bent and curled around his leg. His hand slid down my leg, underneath the soft silk. Thank God I remembered to shave, I thought as I arched my back against him.

He had begun to slip the silk pajamas off, when the phone rang, shrilly, incessantly, and destroying the mood. Jesse said something in Spanish, I groaned, and reached over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Susie! Hi, it's mom!" I covered the mouthpiece.

"It's my mom," I whispered to Jesse, who, despite the interruption, was still inching his fingers up my waist. My complete bottom half was exposed, as the hem was up now at my belly button, and he was admiring my pink panties.

"Tell her you can't talk." He replied.

"Yea, that'll go over well. 'Sorry, mom, can't talk, Jesse wants to finish undressing me'" I hissed.

"What was that, Susie?"

"Nothing, just… talking to Jesse."

"Well, I'm sorry to call so late, and I hope I didn't wake you up—" no, you just interrupted POSSIBLE DEVIRGINIZATION—"But Lola just went into labor!" When I gasped, it wasn't just because of this news, but also because, well, Jesse's hands had just found my chest.

"Can you come to the hospital? She's at St. Marina's." I slowly eased Jesse's hands out from underneath my nightgown, and pulled it down.

"Yea, I guess… I'll be down in about half an hour, okay?" I hung up, and groaned. Jesse looked mildly put out that we'd had to stop.

"Lola went into labor, and my mom wants me to come." I pulled jeans on underneath the short silk slip. It looked alright, and the silk was too soft to give up quite yet.

"Do you want me to come?" Jesse asked, getting up.

"If you want," I said. "But do you have class tomorrow?"

"Not until noon. Besides…" he reached for my left hand, and held it up so the ring sparkled and drew our attention, "we need to tell your family."

…………………………………………………………………

A/n: Okay. Hope you all enjoyed. Now, please, review! Also, if you have any idea of who the murderer is, I'd like to know. And explain why you think that. I'm just curious to see if any of you are on the right track!

Thanks! And don't forget to send me nice, long reviews!