Just Fall In Love Again: A Joan and Adam Fan Fiction

Started 9/6/05 Written by Kimberly Granlund

Chapter 1

It was a nippy fall afternoon in September in New York City as 22-year-old Joan Girardi walked down the streets of the Urban/Artsy part of NYC.

"Since when is the 2nd day of September so freaking cold?" Joan asked, pulling her brown corduroy jacket closer around herself.

"I dunno." Her roommate Anna Rollins replied, playing with the buttons on her pink suede jacket.

Joan glanced over and rolled her eyes at her friend.

She glanced in the window of the building they were passing.

"Wait." She said.

Anna stopped and looked in the window, then back at Joan. "What?"

Joan read the wording on the window slowly again, letting it set in.

It read "Silhouette - a collection of Art created by new-comer, Adam Rove".
"Um, I'm going to go inside for a sec and look around."
"Why?"
"The artist is someone I use to know. "

Joan opened the door and went inside.

She stood in front of the sculpture closest to the door and smiled.

The style was still so Adam.

Adam Rove scanned over the people inside the gallery looking at his work.
Fresh out of Berkley the previous May, he had heard that a gallery company in New York City was looking for a fresh new artist's work to display and Adam had jumped at the offer.

He looked up again and stopped on the tall, thin brunette and the medium height brunette by the door.

She had a little bit below her shoulders red highlighted brown hair pulled back with a jaw clip. She was wearing brown boots, jeans, a long sleeved red shirt and a multi-colored scarf.

It couldn't possibly be Jane. Or could it be?

If it was, she'd changed a bit, but it still was Joan.
Her friend said something to make her laugh and he smiled.
He had always loved her laugh.

Joan walked over to the wall and looked at some of the paintings.

"That looks like you."
"That is me. I can't believe he kept it all these years."
The painting was of her from their sophomore year in high school.
She was sitting against a wall holding Grace's poem "Sewer Walking".
She had found the poem and tried to submit it to the yearbook, but she couldn't find out who had written it and Adam had told her it was Grace's.

Grace wouldn't let her submit it, so she had made a whole bunch of copies of it on colored paper and Adam had helped her throw them off the roof.
He had been sketching her when she'd come up to the roof.
He must have painted it after that.

"Joanie."

Joan looked over at Anna. She shook her head. "Sorry."
"You got kind of spacey."
"Yeah." Joan said smiling.
"So who's this Adam Rove guy?"

"He was my ex-boyfriend in high school."
"Oh, okay him."

Joan nodded and turned to look at more of the artwork by the door.
She looked up and froze in her step.
It was Adam. And he was looking right at her.

He still looked the same. His hair was still brown and wavy, his eyes were still brown.
Wearing a blue button-down shirt and jeans, he hadn't changed at all.
Now, he was walking towards her.

Anna looked up at him and then at Joan.
"I'll go and let you talk."
"What? Why?" Joan asked.
"It's okay. Art creeps me out in long periods anyways, it's okay. I'll meet you at home later."
"Okay."
"Okay. Go get him." Anna said squeezing her hand.
Joan smiled and watched her go out the door.

"Jane?" She heard that familiar voice ask.
Turning around, she looked up at him. "Adam."
"It's you." "Yeah, it's me."
"Is it weird that I want to hug you?"
Joan shook her head. "No."
Adam nodded and reached forward to hug her.
Joan rested her head on his shoulder and breathed him in. He still smelled great.
Adam pulled away after a moment and looked at her.
"What?" Joan asked.
"Nothing. It's just, you still look so much the same."
"Yeah? So do you."

Adam smiled. "Do you want some coffee?"
"Is it black?"
"Yeah."
"As long as I can drown it with sugar, sure."
Adam smiled. "So." Adam said, as they sat down with their coffee.
"What?"
"What happened to us?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we haven't talked since the summer before college started." Adam said.
"A phone call was forgotten or something and we just never remembered to return it? I don't know really."
"I've missed you. As a friend."
"Me too."

"Was there someone in college?" Adam asked after a long pause of silence.
"1. He was a sport reporter or the CBS news. Whatever that channel is."
"There was 1 for me too. She was a fashion designer."
"Did you love her?"
"No. I cared about her a lot thought." Adam said.
"I felt the same way."

"What did you do after graduation?"
"Seeing how I seriously brought my grades up that last year, I was able to go to the college I wanted. I went to NYC. Where did you go?"
'I went to Berkley."
"Wow. Really?" Joan asked.
"Yeah. What did you do in college?"
"I had to take an English class and I took it you know and everything and it was okay. I then started taking writing classes and I loved it. And I knew that's what I wanted to do. I loved theatre classes too. I was in quite a few plays too. I took several computer classes and found I really liked them. I took some music classes and I loved them as well. I took some art classes too. Mostly pottery and photography. Photography was incredible and I loved it! How about you?"
"I was an art major and I took everything art pretty much. I took digital arts too, which I really liked. And I now love guitar as well. Where do you work now?" Adam asked, taking a drink of his coffee.
"I'm a journalist writer for Seventeen magazine."
"Wow. That's awesome Jane. How?"
"I was originally an intern and they loved my work so much that they offered me a job as a urban reporter. Then like 6 months after that, they bumped me up to a part time journalist. Then about 6 months after that, they bumped me up to a permanent journalist. It took me about 2 years, but it was worth it. I've been doing this now for 2 years and I love it. My friend Tara works there as a fulltime journalist as well, so it's fun." Joan said, taking a drink of her coffee.
"What kind of writing do you do?"
"Whatever they need me to. Most of the time it's a fairly major article. Sometimes even a cover shoot. A lot of the time, I get to interview celebrities."
"What's that like?" Adam asked.
"Incredible. About 85 or so of them are really nice people."

"Was that Tara who came in with you?"
"No. Tara's tall and blonde. She's a chatterbox too. She's so sweet though. I adore her so much. She's one of my roommates. Anna was who came in with me. She's more laidback." Joan replied.
"How many roommates do you have?"
"3. Anna, Becca and Tara. I've lived in a townhouse with them since I started at NYC. Their boyfriends live in another townhouse. My friends Zoe and Caitlyn live in another townhouse. They have one other roommate, but I don't know her at all. Their boyfriends live in another townhouse. We all live within 2 subway stops of each other, so it's great."
"How many friends do you have?"
"10. Anna, Becca, Tara, Zoe, Caitlyn, Matt, Jason, Chris, Aldin and Nathan." Joan replied.
"Cool."

'Yeah." Joan said, taking a sip of coffee. "So, you haven't really gotten a chance to talk."
"Yeah, it's okay though. I'm enjoying hearing about you."
Joan smiled.
"There's not really anything that different with me. I now live in San Francisco. Grace and Luke live in the San Diego area. They live in La Jolla so Luke can work at Scripps Institute. Glynis and Friedman live in Monterey Bay because the Monterey Aquarium's up there, which is where they work. I see them often enough."

"Cool. How much longer do you have to hang out here?"
"Well…" Adam paused to look at his watch. "It's 5:47, so 6. We opened at 9 this morning. I actually wasn't sure if anyone would come." Adam replied.
"Why not?"
"I don't know. But I'm glad everyone came. I even got several offers on my stuff today. But you know what the best part was?"
Joan shook her head.
"You coming. It meant a lot to me."
Joan smiled. "Your welcome."

"How did you find out about my showing? Did one of our group tell you?"
"No. Anna and I were hanging out and stuff. We were in this area because first of all, it's an awesome area of New York City and secondly one of the best coffee places ever is a couple blocks from here. We were just walking down the street and I was complaining that it was cold and I saw the writing on the window and we came in."
"And Anna left because?" Adam asked, smiling.
"She wanted us to be able to talk alone and also because art creeps her out in long periods."
"Why?"
"I think this is what it is and she swears this is why. Her mom's a huge art person and she use to drag Anna to every single art show, museum and whatever else." Joan commented.
Adam laughed, which made Joan laugh.
They looked at each other for a minute and Joan sighed.
"She swears she has nightmares about art forcing her to look at them." Joan said trying to sound serious.
"Really?"
Joan nodded laughing.

"Adam? You can go back to your hotel now. I'll close up."
"Oh okay." Adam replied.
"Who's this?"
"Oh! Sorry. Leslie, this is my friend Joan Girardi. Joan, this is my agent Leslie Scott. She books my gallery showings and stuff."
Joan stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you as well. She's your muse, isn't she?"
Adam nodded.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't you see it Ms. Girardi? Your in over half his stuff."
Joan smiled.
"I'll see you tomorrow Adam. It was nice to meet you Joan Girardi."
Joan smiled. "Nice to meet you too."
Leslie nodded.

Adam grabbed his coat and fallowed Joan outside.
"She's um…"
"Yeah. But she's good at the business part yo."
"I've missed hearing yo." Joan said.
"Me too. Do you want to get some dinner?"
"Yeah. But, Adam this can't be anything else then 2 friends having dinner."
"Why?"
"You know why." Joan said, looking at him.
"Okay. If that's what you want."
"It is."
Adam nodded.

They walked down the sidewalk for a couple blocks till the got to Maglino's Italian restaurant.

"Won't there be a huge crowd inside?" Adam asked as Joan opened the front door.
"Yeah, but I have my connections."
"You have connections?"
"You'll see."

"Hi Steven."
"Oh! Joan! Hi, how are you?" The host said upon seeing her.
"Good." Joan said.
"Good. Table for 11?"

"No. Just 2."

"The gang's not here?"
"Nope."
"Well, tell them I said hi."
"Sure thing."
"Okay then. Right this way."

"Told you." Joan said smugly looking at Adam as they fallowed Steven to a small booth.
"So how did you find this place?" Adam asked as he opened his menu.
"Tara, Zoe, Becca, Anna and I just stumbled across it and tried it. We loved it so much that we brought Caitlyn and the guys here and they loved it too. So, now we come here pretty often. That's why Steven asked why there weren't 11 of us. All their stuff is homemade by the way. The Lasagna and Spaghetti's so good. Their pizza's very oh my god amazing."

"What kind of pizza?" Adam asked.
"The special's really good. The jungle's spicy and different, the Mexican's really good. Big Texas is one of my favorites. Also the barbecue's awesome."
"What's one it?"
"Chicken, BBQ sauce, Onions. You know. Garlic and Cilantro." Joan replied.
"So a medium?"
"Sure."

"Hi, welcome to Maglino's. What can I start you off with Joan and co?" The waiter said, placing a basket of garlic bread on the table.
"Skip the beginning. We're going all the way."
"Okay. What would you like?"

"A medium barbecue."
The waiter finished taking their order and went to get their drinks.
"So, does everyone here know you?" Adam asked, reaching for a slice of bread.

"Pretty much." Joan replied, grinning.

"So tell me about these friends of yours."
"What? Like their personality? Look? What?" Joan asked, curiously.
"All of it I guess."
"Really?"
"Unchallenged."
Joan smiled at him.

"Okay. Anna's like 5'6". Her birthday's July 16th. Her brown hair's above shoulder length and it's a blunt-type cut. She was a theatre major and it's because of theatre that I met her. She's kind of quiet and she's sort of artsy. When she's around her friends, she's so out-going and stuff. She works at the restaurant "Galleria on the waterfront"." Joan said.
"Okay, cool."

"Tara's 5'7". Her b-day's May 12th. She has straight long blonde hair. She's a music major. She's a journalist at Seventeen magazine. She talks too much and loves laughing." Joan said and Adam smiled.

"Becca's 5'4". Her b-day's April 17th. She has about my length blonde hair that always has at least one random braid in it. She was a business major. She's a flirt, out-going and quirky. She works at the TRL studios. She loves dancing and she loves going out at night. She's a bit wild at times. She's so sweet though and she's a lot of fun to be around." Joan said, taking a bite of her bread.

"Those are your three roommates right?"
"Yeah. Do you want to go by townhouse?" Joan asked.
Adam shrugged. "Sure."

"Okay. Um, Matt's a little bit taller then you. He's involved with Anna. His birthday's February 22nd. He has blonde hair that's sort of spiky. He's a music major and he works at Columbia Records as a mixer. He has a drum set in his room, which is great to bang on when you're in a bad mood. He's out-going and constantly trying to make you laugh." Joan said, smiling at him and Adam smiled back at her.

"Um, Jason's about your height and he has sandy blonde hair. He's dating Becca. His b-day's August 2nd. He's an Economics major. He works for CNN. He's a lot like Becca and he likes partying like she does." She paused as their drinks and more bread came.
"Thanks." Adam said.

"Let's see. Chris is about 6' and he has brown hair. He's dating Tara. His birthday's September 1st, so we celebrated his birthday yesterday. He's an art major and he's a cartoonist. He's a big sports fan, a dork and he loves making people happy." Joan said.
"They sound great."

"Yeah, they are." Joan said smiling.
"Okay, continue."
"Okay. Zoe is 5'7". She has wavy about my length dark brown hair and she has blue eyes. She has this whole Ashlee Simpson thing going on. She's stunning and I'm not quite sure she completely gets that. She's an art major and she does photography professionally. Her whole family is made up of artists. She's quiet, Shy and has this gorgeous smile. Zoe's one of those people you're friends with the minute you meet her. She's just like that. She's so sweet and she's a really good friend. Her birthday's March 19th." Joan said, continuing.

"She sounds amazing."

"She is. Caitlyn's 5'8" and has reddish brown long wavy hair. Her birthday's October 17th. She's the youngest of us all. She's a dance major and she's a dance teacher that's pretty well known at the American school of ballet. She's been dancing since she was little. She's loud at times and can't sit still for long. Dancing and drawing are two of her favorite things. She's a humanitarian and a vegan and doesn't like people causing bad ripples in life. She's big into politics and she writes a lot too." Joan said.
"Cool."
Joan nodded.

"Aldin's your height and he has light brown hair. He's dating Zoe and he's totally in love with her and all about her. His b-day's June 19th. He's a multimedia major and he's a sports writer for the New York Times. He's talkative and a bit of a dork. He's a computer geek and he can tell you what every little part in a computer does. Anything that has to do with computers, he knows about it." Joan said.
"He sounds cool." Adam commented.

"Yeah, he is. Nathan's 5'10" and has medium brown hair. He's dating Caitlyn. His b-day's April 30th. He's a physics major and he writes the dialogue to a lot of ads that are on TV. He plays the guitar and drums and he's also a big fan of bass guitars. He's out-going and talks about music a lot." Joan said, finishing.
"They all sound awesome Jane."
"Yeah, they are all amazing." Joan said taking a bite of her pizza.

"Thanks for dinner. You should have let me pay for half of it." Joan said as they walked back to Joan's place.
"No. It's the very least I could do for you giving me such an enjoyable day."
"Well, this is my place. I had a lot of fun Adam."
"Yeah, yeah me too. Can I get your new cell phone number by the way?" Adam asked.
"Yeah sure."
Adam handed her his phone and Joan handed him hers.
"Thanks." Adam said after they had given each other back their phones.

"Hey, do you want to come in? At the very least you could meet my roomies." Joan said.
"Okay."
Joan opened the door and Adam fallowed her.
"Oh whoa!" Joan said upon seeing the living room.
All 10 of them were there in the living room.
"Hey Joanie." Anna said.
"Hey. Um everyone this is my friend Adam. Adam from the left: Caitlyn and Nathan, Zoe and Aldin, Becca and Jason, Chris and Tara, Anna and Matt."
"Hi Adam!" They all said at once.
"Uh… hi." Adam said looking over at Joan and smiling.

"Here. You want?" Joan asked handing Anna the pizza box.
"Oh! Yes! Gimme!" Anna said happily.
Joan laughed handing Anna the box.
Anna stood up and walked to the fridge.

"Hey Jane, sorry. But I'm gonna go ahead home. Early morning. Can I call you tomorrow?" Adam asked.
"Yeah. I'll walk you out."
"You know how I am about crowds of people." Adam said outside.
Joan smiled.

"I wish you weren't going." Joan said, looking at him.
"Yeah me too. But, I think I should."
"Okay. I had a great time tonight."
"Yeah me too." Adam said.
Joan smiled again.
She leaned into hug him.
As Adam pulled away, he kissed her cheek.
"Good night Jane."
"Good night."