Firstly, thank you for the guest reviews on the first drabble! This second ficlet is a re-write of how the dining cart scene in 'South by Southwest' should have gone. If you're not familiar with this TV movie, Jessica is travelling by train to give a lecture and is seated at dinner with a woman called Judy Taylor – who ends up getting Jessica caught up in yet another murder case.
When they first meet, Judy (as Jessica knows her in this scene) asks if Jessica ever thought of remarrying after her husband's death. She says that Frank was the only one for her, which may feel like a bit of a knife in the heart. So…I'm re-writing the scene to give it a little more of the complexity that I think better reflects Jessica's relationship with Seth while still giving Frank his fair dues.
Right Person, Wrong Time | Jessica/Seth
Judy's question had caught her off guard.
While it wasn't the first time someone had asked her it, the question was one she often preferred to skim over. She didn't expect to get away with that in her current company.
"You never even thought about going back to the altar?" Judy asked, popping another bite of food into her mouth.
Jessica chuckled to herself, giving her usual well-rehearsed answer. "I usually say that I'm having too much fun to get married again," she said before stopping herself.
"But the truth is…while no one could ever fill Frank's shoes, there was – well there is – someone," She added, allowing herself the indulgence of saying her thoughts aloud. After all, it wasn't like she was having this conversation with Eve Simpson.
"A very dear friend – but that's all we've ever been – just very good friends. Even if half the town thought we were shacked up together," Jessica explained, having seen her fair share of knowing looks exchanged between friends and acquaintances across Cabot Cove.
Taking a sip of her wine, Jessica thought of Seth.
She could picture him now.
Going around her house as though it was his own. Showing up unannounced for breakfast. Tucking her hand into his arm as he carried her groceries. How he had shown up in New York when she started her teaching position. Their regular dinner dates that weren't actual dates.
It was all so domestic.
Why hadn't she seen it before now?
Or perhaps she had.
"It might have been different you know – if we had met when we were younger, before," Jessica paused, trying to imagine how her life could have turned out if she had married Seth and not Frank.
But Frank. Well, there was no comparing the two.
Both held a special place in her heart – and neither could hold a candle to the other.
And if Frank hadn't died, she never would have chained herself to her typewriter during her early months of grief to pen her first novel.
"He's my dearest friend and I would be lost without him," Jessica said, trying not to think about how Seth had slowly – but then suddenly all at once – slipped right into Frank's shoes. He even had Frank's seat at her dining table.
It was her current dining companion that broke her from her train of thought.
"Right person, wrong time, then?" Judy offered, as though reading Jessica's internal monologue.
Wrapping her fingers around the stem of her wine glass, Jessica watched as her wedding band caught the dim light of the dining carriage.
"Something like that," she said before letting the dry wine burn the back of her throat. As though forcing herself back into reality. But this wasn't a problem that overpriced wine could solve.
By the time Jessica made it to the end of the wine bottle, she concluded that Judy had been right. Seth was the right person for her – but it was too late for them.
Right person – wrong time.
Or was it?