Chapter Five:

I was so caught up in the fact that I was lying in Jesse's arms and that he'd told me that he loved me in words that meant so much, that I'd forgotten all about Adeline McClellan and her request.

The request that would cause Jesse to fail his semester exam if he decided to let Adeline have her way. And that would ruin all of the work he'd been doing for the past two years, and I couldn't let that happen. There had to be another way to solve the problem.

My problem with that was that I couldn't think of a way to make Adeline happy without putting Jesse's future as a doctor at stake. I suppose I could have asked him - hypothetically, of course - what he thought of asking his professor for an alternate assignment, or for another body to dissect - perhaps he could say that he would be too embarrassed to complete the assignment if he had to see a woman in her all-together…even if the said woman was a member of the dearly departed.

But I didn't want to spoil the moment, which is something I'm terribly good at, what with always asking him dumb questions about completely random things, or making him feel sad by asking him about his family.

Oh, God. Jesse's family. How, I wondered, would I ever be able to explain to my mother why Jesse's family wouldn't be at our wedding? If Jesse and I even get married, I mean. I suppose we could tell her that his entire family was dead, but then she'd want to know how they died. And given that her job is a TV news anchor, we wouldn't exactly be able to say that they had died in a fatal car crash along Highway 1 or anything because she would have heard something about it if they had. And we could never say that they lived in Spain because then she'd want to know what kind of people they were if they didn't even want to buy a plane ticket to America for such a momentous occasion in their son's life.

But Jesse would have to propose first, which he showed absolutely no sign in doing.

Not that I've been reading about it in Cosmo and then comparing his actions to what an article I read last month said he'd do if he were thinking about popping the question, or anything.

Jesse has not, as the article said he would if he were considering marriage, asked me if I'd ever thought about marrying him, nor has he, as the article also stated he would also do if he considered me fit as a life partner, asked me anything about what we'd name our kids or where we'd live if we were to be moving in together. Not that he would want to live with me before wedlock or anything. When he was dead, that was different, because it'd be hard for a dead guy to… you know…not that he would have done that.

But now that he's alive, it's easier to give into temptation, he says.

He most definitely does have the will-power not to give in to temptation, but he actually admitted - albeit, rather red-faced and embarrassed - to me that there was indeed temptation. Excellent!

So I had been lying there in Jesse's arms, thinking about how great it would be if he just suddenly decided to give in to temptation and kiss me passionately like the guys in my mom's books do to women when they are anywhere in the vicinity of a flat surface, when Adeline decided to show up. And this time, hysterical didn't even begin to cover it.

She materialized subtly, and neither of us had seen her standing there over us in Jesse's bedroom.

Until she shrieked. And then she started screaming.

"WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD HIM YET? I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU WHAT WAS WRONG. THEY SAID YOU WOULD HELP ME, AND YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVEN'T SAID A WORD. HE'S DOING IT TOMORROW, AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TALKED TO HIM YET."

Actually, I had. Or at least I thought I had.

I didn't realize that Adeline had been referring to a different Jesse, not my Jesse.

Jesse, shocked as I was, looked at her. "Nombre de Dios, miss," he breathed. "What is your problem?"

"MY PROBLEM? MY PROBLEM IS THAT SHE FORGOT TO TELL HIM! SHE DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO FIND HIM AND TELL HIM NOT TO DO IT," she yelled, pointing at me. Thank God no one besides me and Jesse could hear her because Jesse would have been in so much trouble with his neighbors right then.

"Susannah?" Jesse said, eyeing me questioningly.

"Um…Adeline." I took a deep breath. I couldn't help but noticed that I'd involuntarily become very interested in the comforter on Jesse's bed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know who you were talking about. I thought you were talking about him," I pointed at Jesse. "But apparently, I had the wrong guy. Listen, your body is of no value to you now. Your body died, and I know it won't be a picnic seeing your body dissected, Adeline, but it won't hurt you."

"It won't…?" she asked, not believing me. "But why?"

"It won't hurt you at all," Jesse said. Well, if anyone, he'd know, having been dead before and all.

"Really?" she asked. She had no way of knowing Jesse's past, so I don't really blame her for not believing him right away.

"Really," he said compassionately. Yet another wonderful thing about my boyfriend: he actually cares about people. I could totally see Jesse as a doctor, you know, as much as he liked helping others.

"Okay then," Adeline said. I noticed that she was crying. "Sorry to have bothered you so. I know I must have interrupted something." She smiled kind of sadly - I thought, anyway, but, who knows?She could have been happy- and faded away to her afterlife. For once, I'd managed not to get angry with a member of the undead, and I'd handled her quite rationally, if I may say so myself.

Actually, she hadn't interrupted anything, except some nice daydreams I'd been having. Daydreams that had a snowball's chance in hell of actually coming true any time soon.

I had hoped that maybe Jesse and I could get to work on fulfilling those dreams somewhat, and he'd forget all about Adeline McClellan and what she'd wanted. I didn't really feel like explaining that one to Jesse. But this is my life, and not a movie, so things didn't happen the way I'd wanted them to. Jesse, as usual, wanted an explanation.

"Susannah….exactly what was that all about?" Jesse asked.

Suddenly, I wished Adeline had taken me with her.