I was pretty happy to spend time with Jessie outside of the hotel and away from prying eyes. We walked together to a nearby Hellbucks and got some coffee. We took a seat by the window and we pretty much talked about everything. I found out that we had a lot in common. She leans in to ask me a question, "so in your letter from earlier, it had a little triquitra doodle next to your name.
Do you draw stuff like that often?" I lean back against my chair, "Well sometimes. I mostly like to draw that symbol next to my name when I do autographs and shit like that." She smiles and leans her cheek against her hand. "You know I have a tattoo of that symbol on my wrist."
My eyes widened in shock at the irony of this situation, "get the fuck out of here." She laughs, "no seriously I do." I smile, "can I see it?" She smiles and lifts up a sleeve of her sweater. The triquitra rings were black and the large circle that joined them altogether were a fuchsia color.
"Well, well. Will you look at that! That's some pretty cool shit." She smiles before putting her sleeve back down and taking a sip of her coffee. "Do you have any other tattoos?"
She smiles and pulls the collar of her sweater to the side. "You can't see it much but it's a Polynesian symbol." I wrinkle my eyebrow, "what made you decide to get that one?" She shrugs and places her hand down on the table, "the Philippines is basically a melting pot of the eastern world. I raise an eyebrow in interest.
"Okay, keep going." Her eyes lit up, "so the Philippines is a mixture of various different cultures all living under one country. Like, many Filipinos are mixed with Spanish and Chinese. Then there's the bit of history that the Philippines was home to, 'sea faring,' cultures that are related to the Hawaiians and the Samoans." I raise my eyebrows clearly impressed.
"Wow, so you really know your history." She smiles, "yeah I've always loved learning, except when it comes to math." I laugh, "yeah I don't really know anyone that likes math." She smiles and everything was perfect until these two stuck up demons showed up. One looked like a tv and the other demon was short and had two pigtails and an Australian accent.
"Awww... how cute! It's a little pussy cat chilling out with his bitch." Jessie immediately growls like she was about to jump over the table and take them out like a linebacker. "Come on, Jessie. Let's just go.
It's not worth it." We grab our coffee and I take her by the hand and lead her to the door. "Yeah listen to your pussy you slut puppy!" She immediately halts and I'm unable to get her to move. She turns on her heels and completely goes off on them, "putang ina mo!!"(Translation: you mother fucker!)
The tv demon laughs, "well, well would you look at here! Looks like we pissed off the Flip." By this point she looses her shit on them completely and has lunged at them but luckily I grabbed her by the waist before she was able to cause any damage. "Subukan mong sabihin ang kalokohang iyon sa aking mukha sa aking wika ikaw ay isang racist na piraso ng tae!!" "Okay, Sweetie time to go," I say literally carrying her out over my shoulder while she unloads a huge string of swears in Tagalog.
I wait until we're far enough away and I place her back on the ground and take her by the hands, "it's okay, Jessie just breathe." "Mga bobong utak." "Hey, hey, hey. Don't let them get to you okay? Those people are just jealous because they actually hate themselves on the inside.
That's why they like to come at anyone that they see is happy." Still trying come down from her anger, she's only able to respond in Tagalog, "Iisipin mo na ang kapootang panlahi ay tapos na dahil nasa katawan tayo ng hayop ngunit sa palagay ko hindi." I let out a sigh, "yeah, I know. I agree but unfortunately that's the shitty part about Hell though. But you're working on redemption right?
I bet you won't be here for much longer." She starts to cry but tries to hide her face from me. Not really knowing what else to say I just give her a hug. She's shocked at the physical contact at first but after a couple of seconds, it seems to calm her down and she hugs me back. After a couple of minutes I pull away and place my hands on her cheeks and wipe away her tears with my thumbs.
"We should probably get back anyways. You have work in about an hour and I have to get back before Alastor summons me back on his own. She exchanges a small smile with me and nods. We walk back to the hotel in silence. We get to the main entrance and right when I'm about to walk in, she grabs me by the wrist and pulls me back towards her.
She quickly releases my arm and nervously combs through her hair. I smile of course because I think she looks so cute but it was obvious she was nervous. "I uh, I just wanted to tell you that I had fun today and uh, thanks. Yeah, thanks for being there for me and for stopping me from doing something stupid." I let out a sigh, "I understand why you reacted the way you did and trust me, I don't think it was stupid how you reacted. "
She smiles at me and kisses me on the cheek. Stunned, all of my muscles tense up and my heart starts pounding right before my cheeks turn red. She giggles at the sight of me and walks away to go to her work. She turns back and waves at me and smiles. I wave back before I head back inside. The entire rest of my shift I'm going through the motions of my job in a dream like state.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several hours later...
It's now bedtime and I'm closing up the bar and heading upstairs to my room. Jessie has been home for a few hours now but she pretty much just ate dinner and went straight to her room. I was a little bit worried about her but I figured that maybe she just needed some space and time alone to process through things that happened today. So I reluctantly walk away from her door and go to my room which is right across from hers. I get into my room and dress into some pajamas and brush my teeth before heading over to my bed and climbing under the covers.
I was pretty exhausted from everything that happened today so I fell asleep rather quickly. While I'm sleeping peacefully to the sound of rain, I suddenly wake up after hearing a blood curdling scream coming from Jessie's room I grab the key she gave me for her room and again run out without a shirt on and opened her door. I saw her trembling with her knees pulled up to her chest. I quickly walk over to her and place my hands on her arms. "Hey, Jessie! It's me, Demetrius. It's okay, you're in a safe place and no one's going to hurt you." She squints her eyes at me, "
"D? Is that you?" I nod my head at her and she starts to cry. I sit on the bed with her and give her a hug. She cries into my shoulder as rub my hand up and down her back in an effort to soothe her.
As soon as she stops crying I walk downstairs to the kitchen and make her a hot cup of lavender chamomile tea with honey in it. I come upstairs and bring it to her room. She accepts the cup from me and takes a sip of it before sitting it on the night stand. I turn to leave but she stops me, "D?" I turn back around, "yes?"
She combs through her hair nervously, "c—could you stay with me? Just at least until I fall asleep?" A bit shocked by the request I awkwardly scratch at the back of my head," um,... sure. If that's what you want." I start to walk over to her spare queen bed but she stops me, "only if you want too.
I mean, I don't want you to feel forced into doing something you don't want to do." I grin boyishly, "no, no I'm fine. I just want to help you feel better." She smiles and I walk towards her spare bed. "D?"
"Yeah?" "If you don't want to you don't have to but I was kind of hoping that... I don't know... maybe you could, like hold me until I fall asleep." I freeze in place and can feel my cheeks burning bright red. "Uh,... never mind uh, just forget that I asked." I shake my head, "no it's fine.
If you think it'll help you to sleep I can hold you. She smiles nervously, "Oh, uh... okay." I walk over to the other side of her bed and climb under the covers. She turns her lamp off and I scoot close to her and wrap my arms around her and pull her to me. She lays her head and a hand on my chest and nuzzles into me.
I purr involuntarily. She chuckles with her eyes closed still lying on my chest. Embarrassed I immediately apologize, "um... sorry about that, it doesn't have an off button." I feel her smile, "it's okay. It's actually... kind of... calming."
I look down at her and see that she seems to have already fallen asleep. I smile and gently comb my fingers through her soft, silky hair. Even when she was asleep, she still looked like an angel. In that moment, seeing her sleeping peacefully in my arms I couldn't help myself and kissed her gently on the head. She unconsciously lets out a sigh and hugs me instinctively.
It was in that moment that I knew in my heart that I was falling in love with her but this feeling was... frightening for me. 'What if she rejects me? What if she doesn't feel the same way? What if I get my heart broken? What if it's too early and the timings not right!?'
All of these questions kept ringing out in my mind. All questions that I never once asked myself. Not in life or afterlife. Those things just didn't matter to me before but there was just... something about her that made me feel... different. I actually felt like I had a place where I belonged and that made me feel complete.
I still wasn't ready to completely commit to my feelings though. I'm too scared of getting hurt and I've been hurt so many times. Would I even be able to handle another heartbreak? I attempt to shake the thoughts from my head and wrap my hands around the base of her back before falling asleep myself. For the first time in years... I actually got a full nights sleep.
