Jo giggled. "You must have been a boy scout."
"As a matter of fact, I was." He grinned. "Ready to go?"
He took her out to her favorite restaurant, where he ordered steak and she ordered seafood. "I have to say you do look ravishing tonight," he told her. She'd worn her dark red off-one-shoulder dress.
"Thank you," she said. "I had you in mind when I picked it out. You look very nice as well." He was neatly dressed in jeans and a brown-and-tan striped polo shirt. "That shirt really matches your eyes."
He ate every bite of his meal, but she had to ask for a doggy bag. "You must have really been hungry," she commented.
"I was so nervous about tonight that I could hardly eat anything all day," he admitted.
"Nervous? About going out with me?" She was surprised.
"Well, like I said, it's been a really long time, and...heck, Jo, I'm so scared!"
"Scared? Of what?"
"Well...that I won't please you."
"You pleased me just fine last weekend."
"But we weren't exactly planning for that to happen, were we? It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing."
"Well, let's not plan for tonight to happen, either," she suggested. "Let's let tonight be a spur-of-the-moment thing too."
"But if we plan for it to be that way, then it won't be..." He looked puzzled for a moment, then burst out laughing. She joined in.
He took her to see 'The Time Traveler's Wife' and they both found it charming but a little hard to follow.
"The ending was just so sad," Jo told Doug afterwards. "It reminded me of the day Rick died."
"That must have been so terrible for you," he said softly.
"Oh, it was!" she agreed. "I'd just started my work day when the news of the attacks came on over the radio and we all gathered around to listen. My first thought was of Jamie, and my second was of Rick. I tried to call the child care center but couldn't get through because all the other parents were calling in too. It took me a couple of hours to get there and pick her up, and we went home to wait for word from Rick. We didn't hear anything at all for two days. I couldn't eat or sleep. It was pure torture. On the third day, the police called me. They wanted...me...to come to the makeshift morgue..."
By now she was sobbing hard. He held her close and stroked her hair until her tears subsided.
"Now I've gone and got your shirt all wet," she said after awhile.
"That's OK. I can live with my shirt getting a little wet. I'm more worried about you."
"I'll be OK," she sniffled. "Sorry for getting all emotional."
"Oh, that's all right!" Doug assured her. "I know how you feel. I've been there too, you know."
"I know. It must have been pretty similar for you when you lost Mary Frances."
"It was the worst day of my life," he said. "I'll never forget kissing her good-bye that morning. I've relived that moment in my mind over and over again millions of times. She made some joke about it being hump day and I told her I'd take her out somewhere really nice that weekend. I had no idea I'd ever see her alive again." He had to choke back a sob.
"Going to the morgue to identify the body was the worst part for me," said Jo.
"It was for me too," Doug agreed.
"Who could have ever guessed that a movie would have had such an emotional impact on both of us," Jo remarked.
"I had no idea our night would end like this," Doug replied.
"It's not over with yet." Jo giggled as she started to kiss him, and he responded with even more passion than he had the previous weekend. Together they lay back in bed, their hands moving slowly all over one another's bodies, pushing clothing aside to caress bare skin.
In contrast to the fevered urgency of the previous weekend, their lovemaking this time was slow, gentle, leisurely, as they patiently took the time to explore one another's bodies, discovering how best to bring one another pleasure.
"You were so worried," Jo chuckled as they lay in one another's arms afterwards.
"I really enjoyed that," said Doug. "Did you?"
"Very much." Lying in the arms of the man who'd become so very special to her over the past few weeks, Jo drifted into a contented sleep.