September 25, 1995

As the glass double doors closed behind him, Jack paused for a moment on the sidewalk and took a deep breath. His chest was tight and his palms were sweaty, but he wasn't shaken by it. He was used to this feeling - failure - and another crap audition wasn't going to bring him down. At least, that's what he tried to tell himself.

Although it was still September, there was a fall chill in the air, and Jack breathed in the scent of crisp fall leaves as he strolled past Central Park. Kids were running and playing, enjoying their Saturday afternoon off from school, and parents with strollers and dogs on leashes lingered close by.

Jack wasn't really sure where he was going; maybe to Will's office, maybe to Rory's apartment. He battled with the decision to tell anyone about this latest audition or not. All of this was just getting to be too much for him. He knew that at some point he was going to have to grow up and start acting like an adult, get a real job and pay his own bills, but he wasn't ready to give up on his dream yet.

The truth was, being an actor was appealing to Jack for a variety of complex reasons. Sure, he was a fame whore who dreamt about living the glamorous lifestyle of a successful celebrity entertainer, but it was more than that. As comfortable as he was with himself, acting afforded him the chance to step outside of himself for a little while and be somebody else. Maybe somebody who had a committed, loving partner, a best friend he wasn't green with envy of, or someone who had a real relationship with his father. Sometimes, he felt like he could make up for all of his shortcomings by pretending to be someone else.

He had lost track of how far he had walked; suddenly he was just a block south of St. Patrick's Cathedral. He was on the other side of the street from the massive Gothic-style church, and immediately noticed that a large crowd had gathered on the steps out front. Women in long dresses and elaborate hats and men in tuxedos with glistening cufflinks lined the sidewalk where a black stretch limousine waited.

Jack figured this must be a wedding letting out of the church; it was a popular spot for Saturday afternoon ceremonies. He recognized that it must be someone important or rich getting married, based on the sheer number of wedding guests and the fact that there were even a few photographers in the crowd. He couldn't tell if they were from the papers or if they were paparazzi, but he was certain they couldn't all be wedding photographers - there were easily three of four of them, cameras poised to catch the new couple descending the stairs as husband and wife for the first time.

Jack's pace slowed as he passed by the church, only a few lanes of traffic separating him from all the commotion. If it was a celebrity that was about to come out of that church, he sure as hell wasn't going to miss it. He racked his brain trying to remember if he had read about any high-profile couples in the gossip and entertainment magazines that were getting married this weekend.

He decided to scan the crowd of guests for any other celebrities. He didn't see any that he recognized, but his eyes came to rest on two children, looking very uncomfortable and out of place, standing at the head of the limo. The little boy looked to be about four years old, with a round face and a plump physique. He was seated on the hood of the limo, playing patty cake with a girl of about seven who was standing in front of him. The girl had shiny red ringlets of hair and a pretty face. It appeared as though they were unattended, but surely they belonged to someone in the wedding party, as both were outfitted for such an occasion. While everyone else was craning to watch the double doors of the church open or adjusting the lenses of their personal cameras, these two seemed as though they could have cared less about what was going on.

A gasp went up from the crowd, and Jack's head snapped back up towards the doors with the rest of the crowd. Applause and cheers erupted from the guests as a tall, rotund man stepped out onto the platform at the top of the stairs. He looked to be in his early 50s, with his hair thinning and sagging neck skin wrinkling beneath his broad smile. Jack wasn't sure who he was at first, but realized that he must be the groom when a wedding-dress clad woman appeared next to him.

Flashbulbs went off as the bride joined her husband and they stood arm in arm to pose briefly for pictures at the top of the stairs. Jack watched the crowd laugh and applaud, the two children by the limo still looking dazzlingly uninterested.

And suddenly, he heard her laugh. A high-pitched, tinkling sound of genuine happiness and joy, emanating from the bride on the stairs. Jack hadn't paid very close attention to her before, after checking to be sure it wasn't a celebrity, but as she laughed while her new husband was bent over whispering something in her ear, he suddenly found himself mesmerized by her.

She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She would not, perhaps, be recognized as an obvious classic beauty by the general population, but there was no denying the femininity of her features, the grace of her movements, her unexplainable magnetism. Her smile was dazzling, perfectly framed by her full red lips, and her pale skin looked like creamy porcelain against her pinned-back chocolate hair and ivory silk dress.

While not altogether surprised by this feeling of extreme fascination with this woman, Jack was unfamiliar with the strength it hit him. Sure, there were many beautiful women he admired and he delighted in being able to appreciate their fabulous wardrobes and cool, confident mannerisms, but he had never felt this way about one before. She looked so happy, and he looked happy with her, like he knew that he was marrying a gem. But Jack was sure that this dopey-looking man would never be able to appreciate this sparkling woman to her full potential; for some unexplainable reason, he had a gut feeling that maybe - just maybe - he was the only man that was meant to love and cherish this woman. Have sex with her? No. Understand and appreciate her as a human being? Definitely yes. And for a moment, as his fascination overtook him, all of his previous worries and stresses melted away and he, too, felt genuinely happy.

The couple began to move slowly down the stairs, hand in hand. They paused briefly along the way to kiss the cheek of a wedding guest or shake the hand of an onlooker, and as they did so they were pelted with red rose petals by those lining the sidewalk. When they finally made it to the limo, the groom broke his grip on his bride and bent down in front of the two children. They embraced him, the little girl planting a kiss on his cheek, as the bride watched from a few feet away. She smiled at them, but seemed apprehensive when it was her turn to greet them. As they reluctantly embraced her hips and knees, she patted their heads awkwardly, finally squatting lower to place a small kiss on each of their cheeks.

And then, she was looking at Jack. Her smile dissolved as they locked eyes, confused about why this stranger was staring at her so intently from the other side of the street. Their shared glance lasted only a few seconds, but to Jack, it felt like weeks. When she finally looked away and disappeared into the limo behind her husband, he felt a flush rise in his cheeks as he realized how creepy he must have looked.

Embarrassed, and perfectly aware that just because he couldn't see her anymore through the tinted windows of the limo didn't mean she couldn't see him, Jack continued down the sidewalk. He watched the limo pull out into traffic out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head over his shoulder to watch it speed away in the opposite direction he was walking. He sighed and shook his head, thinking how stupid it was for him to think that he would ever see that woman again, not knowing that not only would he see her again, but that she would become his best friend in the entire world in just a few short years. In less than 10 years, he would even see her as a bride once again.

Jack quickened his pace as he tried to forget about her and decide if he should stop by Will's office or not. He took a few deep breaths, enjoying the cool fall air in his nostrils, not really wanting to have to endure the confines of his friend's small and dark law office. And try as he did, he couldn't get the image of the bride's bright and lovely face out of his head for the rest of the day.

Jack had his first sex dream about a woman that night.