Chapter 25

For the next several days, Jasina couldn't get what Steven JR said out of her head. No matter how much she wanted to forget about it, she simply couldn't and hadn't slept well. When Trish and Steve came to pick up the munchkins, Jasina didn't want them to go because she didn't want to be alone with her thoughts. She would end up doing something dangerous, something reckless and something completely off the wall. Before Trish and Steve could leave, she pulled Steve aside and held her hand up when Trish began questioning what was going on.

"Your son said something to me...and I can't get it out of my head."

Steve raised an eyebrow, glancing back at his wife, who held Steven JR in her arms. "What did he say, honey?"

"He said...Uncle Marky still loves Auntie Jazzy." Jasina reiterated, watching Steve's eyes widen slightly, folding her arms in front of her chest. "Is it true?"

"Does it even matter at this point, Jasi?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" She demanded, looking over at her best friend and saw the knowing look in Trish's eyes, swallowing hard.

"Because he's tried for the past few months to try telling you how he feels, but you cut him down every chance you get." Steve stated bluntly, ignoring Trish's narrowing eyes. "What? She needs to know that she's hurtin' my best friend and what a stubborn ass he is."

"I don't cut him down..." Jasina lowered her eyes, chewing her bottom lip. "Do I?"

Trish decided to keep her mouth shut because the look Steve was giving her told her this was something he wasn't going to be dissuaded from. That and she and Steve had already had the Mark/Jasina conversation, twice.

"Honey, you have cut that man down so many times I'm still wonderin' how he's standing. Mark's a proud man, but...when it comes to you, he's been swallowin' it." Steve said, still in the same blunt manner. "Of course, that stubborn streak of his don't help none, or the fact that he speaks without thinking first, but even when he does try to do it the right way, you've mowed him down. So again, does it really matter at this point if he loves you or not?"

Steve was absolutely right and Jasina felt like a heartless bitch, knowing everything he said was the truth. "No it doesn't. I'm sorry for even asking. You two should get the munchkins home and get settled in after your honeymoon."

Jasina didn't even give Steve a chance to say anything else, shutting the door in his face and felt the tears slip down her cheeks. She couldn't cry in front of people. Jasina had lost so much of her own pride and had been rundown to the point where she didn't know if she even had self-esteem left.

Jasina locked her door and shut the windows, holing herself up in her house, coming to the heartbreaking conclusion that whatever JR said to her would have to be forgotten. Jasina knew she still loved Mark, they had such a complicated past and history that it was hard not to, even when she was with Randy. That didn't stop her from feeling love for the man who had stolen her heart and Jasina also realized she'd never gotten it back, wondering if she ever would.

"Did you really have to tell her all that?" Trish demanded once she and Steve were at home and the kids, namely Stevie, was out of earshot. "You know it's going to upset her."

"Trish, I love you, but Jasina is YOUR best friend. I love her like a sister, but Mark and I have been best friends almost all our lives. You would have done the same to Mark and you know it."

He had a point and Trish simply nodded, not ruling out having a chat with Mark in the future though. She suddenly felt so bad for Jasina and even for Mark, knowing they had had so many chances together and none of them had worked out. She idly wondered if either of them were ever going to find happiness like she and Steve had.

After her brief conversation with Steve, Jasina stayed away from Mark, knowing it was for the best. She continued her work with the newspaper and kept her friendship with Trish, but never spoke about Mark. It didn't matter that he still loved her and she still loved him. All they did was hurt each other and Jasina refused to hurt Mark a second longer.

Arielle came by at least once a week, but other than that between working her internship and spending most of her available time with Gary. Jasina was just waiting for Arielle to come to her to announce her engagement, knowing Mark was probably dreading for the day to arrive. It would happen in its own time, but for the moment, everyone was content with their lives and finally getting back to solid ground.

Mark had done what he had decided to do: Move on from Jasina, or at least pretend too. Either way, it was sort of working. He saw his daughter and inevitable son-in-law a time or two a week and was annoyed constantly by text messages from Arielle, usually some kind of text chain letter that he would automatically delete.

He put in more hours at the shop, seriously giving thought to just signing it over to Steve -not that he had consulted Steve on this- and staying home to tinker with his bikes since that was pretty much all he cared to do at the moment. Or maybe run a business that was strictly in relation to motorcycles. Nobody said a word about Jasina to him, not even Arielle, and that was the way he needed it to be. He was no good for her, maybe he never had been.

She had moved on and it was time he did the same.

~!~

"Are you sure about this, baby doll?" Gary asked somewhat nervously, staring at his girlfriend with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Absolutely." Arielle had no doubt in her mind this was the right thing to do. "It has to be done, Gary. There's no other way around it."

"But...what if it backfires?" The last thing he wanted to do was go against his girlfriend, but even Gary had some concerns about this plan. "And Trish and Steve are on board?"

"Yup, we all want the same thing. This is the ONLY way." Arielle walked over, after closing her laptop, and straddled Gary's lap wrapping her arms around his neck. "Don't you trust me? Whatever happened to that fearless stud I met in school, hmmm?" She began nibbling his earlobe, smirking when he groaned against her.

"I'm still here, baby doll, just a little more reserved these days."

Arielle giggled softly, not stopping her administrations. "Too reserved for...me?"

"Absolutely not."

~!~

"You realize, if this backfires, we're going to lose our friends, right?"

"Considering Mark handed me the paperwork for sole ownership of the shop, I guess that's just a risk I'm gonna have to take, honey." Steve said, staring into his wife's brown eyes and smiled, bending down to kiss her reassuringly. "The man loves his work, him doing that is tellin' me it's time to stop all this and-"

"Repair some broken fences?" She drawled softly, mimicking his accent with a gentle, teasing smile.

"Mmm-hmm..."

~!~

"A blind date?"

Jasina blinked at Trish, wondering if the woman had completely lost her mind, and could see how serious she was. The last time Jasina went on a blind date, she ended up walking home in the pouring rain and ended up with pneumonia for three weeks. It was the worst date of her life.

"No thanks."

"Oh come on, please Jasi!" Trish begged, staring across the table at her best friend, both of them on lunch in the cafeteria. "You need to get out there again and what better way than with a friend of Steve's?" It wasn't the complete truth, but Trish wasn't lying about the friend part, brown eyes pleading.

"You really need to stop with those puppy dog eyes." Jasina ordered, leaning back in her chair as she stabbed her salad, chewing her bottom lip. "What's his name?"

"Terry." Trish lied smoothly, smiling. "So this means you'll consider it?"

"If this doesn't go well, I'm sending you my therapy bills."

"Deal."

~!~

"I'm not going on a blind date, Steve." Mark grunted, busy hauling his toolbox to his truck, ignoring the other man's offers of help. Knowing Steve, he would purposefully drop the box, just to delay the inevitable. "Last time you hooked me up with someone, she was twice my age and I ain't no damn spring chicken."

"In my defense, she SOUNDED a lot younger than she was." Steve protested, walking around to lower the tailgate. "Look man, you've been a grouch lately and I think you need to get out, with someone of the female persuasion. All you do is stay to home and mess around with your bikes."

"So?"

"So unless you want me to relocate the shop to YOUR garage, you'll do this."

"Christ...is she at least not older than seventy?"

"She's around your age, pretty hot. She's one of Trish' friends."

"Eh...what's her name?"

"Terri."

"One date, then you leave me alone, whether it goes anywhere or not."

"Deal."

~!~

"Why the hell am I doing this?"

Jasina groaned for the millionth time as she drove down the street toward the restaurant Trish had set the blind date up at. She figured a setting with people around would be the best route to go and Jasina couldn't agree more. The last thing she wanted was have another disastrous experience with a man.

She decided to wear a simple black and emerald cocktail dress that went two inches above the knee. It had a sophisticated cut of a V shaped neckline in front and back, a perfectly fitted skirt and an alluring slit in addition to its elegant black lace overlay. She wore two inch black open toed heels that had a simple strap buckle around them, deciding on a black lace choker with emerald stud earrings that matched the dress.

Her eyes were outlined in black with a neutral eye color and a gentle dark pink gloss that made her lips shimmer. Her hair was left down, which now reached the middle of her back and curled at the ends for style, not wanting to go all out for this blind date. It was dinner and would last about two hours, Jasina hoped she could get through it without bolting, promising Trish she would at least give it a try.

Therapy bills would be piling up in Jasina's future, she simply knew it.

Mark knew he had to at least give this blind date thing a half-chance, wondering how the hell he had let Steve talk him into this. Sighing, he parked his truck away from the restaurant, mostly because if she turned out to be some psycho older woman, he didn't want her knowing what he drove. Stepping down from the cab, he adjusted the hem of his vertically striped button up shirt, something he had actually gone out and bought only yesterday morning.

The stripes were of varying sizes in a light gold, an amber, dark red, and a pale grey. Along with a pair of form fitting, dark blue jeans and his hair pulled back and then secured in place with a light brown bandana, he was presentable. That was cemented when he received a double take from some women walking down the street, smiling in spite of himself.

"Terri..." Mark muttered under his breath, heading towards the public restaurant, really wishing he had gotten more information about this woman besides 'smoking hot'.

Jasina decided against using the restaurant's parking lot, instead putting her car a block away, in case she had to make a run for it away from this blind date. She had mace on her in case someone tried jumping out at her, smirking at the thought. Jasina had years of street fighting, it was one of the few things she gained from being a drug dealer earlier on in her life.

Her heels clicked against the sidewalk as she headed toward the restaurant, not seeing the emerald eyes following her every move. Though she was too far away for him to see who she clearly was. As Jasina walked inside the restaurant, she wondered briefly if this was the right thing to do and hoped this Terry guy didn't repulse her.

Frowning, Mark headed inside the building, stopping to give the waiter his name and was gestured to a table in the corner. It was in full view of the public but also set away from the main tables to provide a hint of privacy. Wondering if he had been seeing things outside -and it was always possible, according to Steve he WAS losing his mind- Mark headed that way, stopping under an archway to see if his date had arrived.

"Hi, I'm Jasina Jameson and I'm expecting someone by the name of Terry." Trish hadn't given her a name, blinking when the hostess nodded and guided her down the aisle, right past... "Mark?" She blinked at the sight of her ex-husband, both of them not seeing each other for awhile and had to act like she hadn't noticed how incredible he looked. "What are you doing here?"

"Waitin' on my date, what are you doin' here?"

Mark couldn't resist giving her a quick once-over, trying not to be completely blatant about it because he knew she wouldn't appreciate, but she was, to paraphrase Steve, smoking hot in that dress. He loved the emerald beneath black overlay. Given that they hadn't seen each other in quite some time, and apparently they were...no, she was not being seated right across from him at the table to the left, no...Damn. He could tell tonight was going to be...distracting, his eyes darting down to her shoes and then back up to her face.

"Waiting on my date." She answered and took a seat, ordering a glass of red wine to calm down since she was extremely nervous about this blind date. "And naturally he's late." Jasina added gruffly, crossing one leg over the other and could feel Mark's eyes giving her a once-over much the same way she was giving him one.

Of course, Jasina was sneaky with hers while Mark just blatantly did it out in the open with absolutely no shame. He still found her attractive, that much was obvious. Mark quickly skimmed through the available drinks, arching an eyebrow when he found Jack and Coke under a different name, ordering that. He wasn't about to sit here and just wait. He would have a drink, probably for the same reason Jasina was: Dating sucked.

"Don't feel alone, mine is too." Since she was a woman, Mark wasn't really considering it late so much as normal. "You look...nice." He complimented after a moment, knowing she had caught him checking her out and half-grinned.

"So do you."