Chapter 15

This apparently wasn't Jasina's lucky day because Mark was sitting on the couch, watching ESPN, though he muted it when she came in, turning his head to look at her and offered a grin. Things had been...tense between them. That kiss, and then that night, things were piling up fast.

"Hey darlin', how was work?" Mark asked, trying to get things back to how they had been, before he had kissed her. "How's tacos sound for dinner?"

Jasina pulled her pumps off and chewed her bottom lip, wondering how she was going to break the news to him about her date and the house. "Actually, I won't need to worry about dinner tonight. I'm...going out to dinner with a client from the office." Why was she lying to him? The lie flew out of her mouth before she could stop it and now Mark looked curious, which made this even worse. "So you'll have to eat dinner by yourself tonight." She didn't have time to chat and began heading up the stairs to her room, needing to get ready for her date with John before the poor guy thought she was ditching him.

"Since when do you have clients?" Mark asked curiously, getting up to follow her though he did halt at the foot of the stairs, cocking an eyebrow when she hesitated.

Last Mark knew she wrote an advice column and relationship/addiction articles. Since when did that mean clients? He supposed it wasn't any of his business, he was just curious, that curiosity not helped by the client bit. Not to mention going out to dinner with a client?

"It's one of Trish's clients that she personally asked me to take care of." Mark didn't talk to Trish often, so hopefully this wouldn't backfire on Jasina, flashing a quick smile. "They are out of town and Trish asked me to handle it for her because of wedding preparations. She also asked me to remind you that the wedding dress rehearsal dinner is on Friday and if you don't close the shop down early, she won't be happy with you. Now I really have to get ready."

Tacos didn't sound good anyway and Jasina had tried putting as much space between her and Mark as possible, especially after he kissed her and then the bedroom incident. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Mark headed out to the kitchen to put away everything he had set out, no longer feeling hungry. The prospect of dress rehearsal held absolutely no appeal to him and the idea of eating alone held even less.

John had found THE perfect place and he even knew how to get to it. One long drive and a right turn, even he couldn't mess that up. Feeling pretty damn pleased with himself, he texted Jasina the location. Jasina received the text message and nodded, never hearing of that place before, having just stepped out of the shower. She decided on a simple midnight blue dress that had a ruffled hem swaying just above her knees.

It was one-shouldered, leaving her right bare and she decided on open-toed black heels that strapped up her ankles. She curled the ends of her honey blonde hair, outlined her eyes in midnight blue that matched the dress, and painted her lips in rose petal gloss that made them shimmer. She clipped a simple blue stone around her neck that hung on a silver chain and matched her silver ankle bracelet and earrings. Nodding at her appearance, Jasina headed out of her room and downstairs, completely sober.

Mark had returned to his ESPN, with a beer in tow and was mid-drink when he seen her, sputtering. He had to bang his fist on his chest to clear his pipes, the beer going down the wrong tube. "You look...gorgeous, Jas." He said, rasping a bit.

This client must've been... something else.

It was a very good thing Jasina hadn't been standing in front of him or else her dress would've been ruined, blushing at his compliment. "Thanks Mark..." Concern filled her eyes when Mark kept having to pound on his chest, knowing the beer must've gone down the wrong pipe, her smile instantly returning. "Enjoy those tacos and ESPN, I'll see you later."

She began heading for the front door and heard her cell phone go off again. It was another text from John making sure she was showing up. The boy definitely needed more self-confidence. Mark arched an eyebrow when her cell went off, seeing her smiling slightly and settled back against the couch with a frown. He wondered if he could get Arie to hit her mom up for information and then tell him...Probably not.

"Have fun." He called out, making it sound like he didn't care, which he didn't.

Not at all.

~!~

Given the style of this place, John actually took care when dressing himself, dusting off his black dress shoes and the only suit he owned, that he took everywhere he went -never knew when he might need it. He hesitated at the suit, it was pinstriped, and while he did look pretty darn good in it, it might've been overkill. Sighing, he hung it back up and went with a pair of brand new jeans that weren't baggy and a white button up shirt, leaving the top buttons undone and foregoing tucking the shirt in. He still looked good.

"If I get lost, it's a sign I'm not supposed to be here." John muttered, having turned off the GPS because he couldn't take another 'turn right here' when he knew that wasn't the right he was supposed to take.

Jasina arrived twenty minutes later at the restaurant John told her to meet him and stepped out of the car. Fluffing her hair a little, Jasina locked up before heading inside with purse in hand. She barely got to the front door when beeping sounded behind her, making Jasina turn around and chuckled at John pulling into a parking spot of his own. He stepped out and Jasina had to admit he cleaned up nicely, those jeans hugging him like a second skin. He was definitely a looker, especially with those blue eyes and she simply stood there waiting for him to walk up to her.

"I told you I would show up." Jasina stated as soon as he was close enough, giggling. "And I'll forgive you for being late because you're new around here."

"I winged it, my Swede kept saying 'turn right here, you missed your turn' so I shut her off. Then there was construction and you look hot by the way. Gorgeous, I mean gorgeous. Well, both." His grin was firmly in place as John took her in, his eyes lingering a second or two on her beautifully tanned, toned legs. "Your gams are..." He whistled. "Bet you could crush a guy with your thighs." She either did exercises for her legs or was one of the those rare, very lucky women with a natural inclination towards extremely sexy legs.

"My gams eh?" Jasina didn't take offense to anything he said, blushing slightly, actually feeling like a real woman for the first time in months. "You don't clean up so bad yourself, white definitely suits you." She winked and allowed him to guide her inside the restaurant, both of them instantly seated in a cozy booth in the far back to give them some privacy. She ordered a glass of wine while John stuck with a beer, both of them refusing to get completely sloshed. "So besides my gams and the fact I'm hot," Jasina had to pause when he cleared his throat awkwardly, lowering his blue eyes from hers. "What else has caught your interest in Houston? And how is your chin doing? You have a little bruise from the impact."

"It takes more than crashing face first into a car to slow me down." John joked, toasting her with the beer before taking a small sip, not out to get drunk or even mildly buzzed. He'd wind up rapping to her or something. Now THAT would be embarrassing. "It's fine, thank you." He hesitated. "I think I mentioned it earlier? Maybe I didn't. I'm here to visit a friend, give him an ass kicking or two. So, besides him, the only thing in Houston that's caught my interest is...you."

"Right your friend, any luck with that?" When John shook his head, Jasina decided not to ask anymore on the subject because frankly it wasn't her business and she wanted to have a nice date with John. "Well you definitely caught mine too, so you can stop being nervous. Be yourself, I'm just like every other woman out there." She winked, trying to ease the tension and sipped her wine while the waitress came over to take their orders. The shrimp pasta sounded incredible and Jasina couldn't pass it up while John opted for a steak and lobster. "So, what do you do in Boston for a living?"

"I run a gym." John said promptly, knowing some women found that 'cute' while others thought he was a meat head. He figured he was both. "I bought it off the owner after working for him for years. I went to college and got a degree in exercise physiology." He grinned broadly. "Which is a real degree by the way. What do you do here in Houston for a living? I would say modeling, but...you don't strike me as the air-head type."

"You would be correct in your assumption." Jasina was glad he wasn't the judge them first type of man, sipping her wine. "I'm actually a writer for the local newspaper. I have my own article called 'Ask Jade' and I also write my own pieces about certain topics." She hoped he didn't ask her what kind because Jasina didn't want to get into her past. That's one thing she was always afraid of when dating, though the only other man she'd dated besides Mark was Randy...and now John. "I have an associate's degree in journalism." She added as if he needed to know that information. "And owning a gym can't be all peaches and cream, so I commend you for taking it over."

"Nah, mostly it's body odor and dudes wearing tight shorts, which is... disturbing." John replied cheerfully. "So Ask Jade, huh? Is that your penname? Jade? Jasina Jameson and Jade, I like J's. Course, it helps my name begins with one." He winked at her. "Ask Jade sounds like an advice column, what kind of questions do you get? Anything real weird?"

"It's mostly questions from women regarding real life...and children..." Jasina remembered when she received a letter from a little girl named Little Mermaid asking about her father being lonely. Jasina had found out it was from her own daughter and she cried for hours, a memory she would never forget. "Kids write in for advice on what to do about their parents and vice versa. I even get some from men regarding relationship scenarios and advice on what to do. It's basically open to anything unless it's a sexual nature. We do know that kids read the paper and don't want them getting wrong impressions."

John's blue eyes were now sparkling with wicked delight. "If you could, would you offer advice on sex? Kind of like Dr. Ruth?" He was teasing her and keeping his voice low so he didn't attract unwanted attention or embarrass her, his half-cocked grin letting her know he was just picking on her. "So, if I write in and ask for advice, will it get printed in the paper?"

"As long as it's PG rated, I could pull a few strings..." Jasina teased back, taking another sip of her wine and couldn't believe what a great connection they had already. "Though if you want private advice on sex, I suppose I could give you some. You look like you don't need much though...then again you did ask for my...digits." She couldn't help laughing again, knowing he would probably get annoyed with that. "I'm sorry, let me explain. When you asked for my digits, I was caught off guard because I'm used to a guy saying phone number or just number. Digits was definitely a first for me."

It took a LOT to get John annoyed and she was nowhere even near mildly annoying, he just laughed. "So I popped your digit cherry, is that what you're telling me? I'm an original, from the 90's, so I guess I'm retro, not original. I could have said 'let me get your phone number', but it just doesn't have the same pop to it. Wait a minute, because I asked for your DIGITS, I might need sex advice? That's not fair. I can dance and you know what they say about guys who can dance."

He was so full of life and Jasina couldn't remember the last time she laughed this hard, her stomach actually hurting in a good way. John was definitely a breath of fresh air, one Jasina needed desperately and all of her problems seemed to fade away at the sight of him. She wasn't worried or nervous about anything, not like she'd been with Randy, though that was a lot of sexual tension mounting. With John, he was easy-going, fun and caring, though if he apologized for denting her car one more time, she was going to have to hurt him. When their food arrived, it smelled fantastic and Jasina asked for another refill on her wine, letting her food cool.

"So, you're a gamer huh? That's not surprising, you look like you're a big kid at heart, which is a very attractive quality to have."

"Xbox, PS3 and I even have a WII which is really boring when you're playing by yourself. I also take a PSP everywhere I go, so yeah, you could call me a gamer." John agreed, wondering why they were talking all about him. "I figure it's good practice, you know, being a big kid myself. I'll have experience when I eventually get around to having kids of my own." He took a deep breath, inhaling his food. "Mmm...What about you? Do you have any kids?"

"Yeah I do, a beautiful daughter named Arielle. She just recently graduated high school a year early." Jasina beamed at the thought of her little girl and took a bite of her shrimp pasta, feeling her eyes widen instantly. The taste...Randy instantly popped into her mind and the fork slipped from her hand, clanging on the plate, tears forming in her eyes. "Oh my god..." She whispered, remembering the dinner Randy had surprised her with just a short month before his death and immediately stood up from the table. "John, this has been great, but I really have to go..."

She tossed some bills on the table and began walking away, trying to keep the tears in and needing some air desperately, suddenly feeling suffocated. Automatically, John sniffed himself. He didn't stink. John knew he looked fine, he scraped his teeth and found nothing. Then he leaned over and took a bite of her food, which was delicious. Frowning, he got up and chased after her, catching her gently by the hand right outside the restaurant door.

"Jasina?" John asked softly, confused by the tears he seen in her eyes. "What's wrong? Did I do something to upset you?"