Joey’s office, New York
“Damn it!” exclaims Joey, burying her face in her hands and combing her hair with her fingers exasperated.
“Cursing so early?” inquires Ethan with a smile. He is sitting in front of her as usual, reading some papers. “I don’t think it’s even 9:00 a.m. yet,” he continues.
“I didn’t know that there was a no cursing restriction in the morning,” Joey retorts. “It’s just that I left my notes on the novel I’m editing at Dawson’s place yesterday, when we went there for lunch.” She tries to ignore Ethan’s funny look and blushes lightly. “I’m going to have redo the work I did unless Dawson can bring me those notes from home,” sighs Joey, looking through the bunch of papers she has in her desk in a last try to see if the notes are somewhere in there.
But they’re not.
“Can you wait a minute, I just need to call Dawson and then we can discuss the structure of the short story collection”, she says, nodding to the papers in Ethan’s lap as she reaches for the phone.
Ethan waits patiently as Joey dials Dawson’s phone number. She taps with her fingers on the table waiting for Dawson to pick up the phone, but all she gets is the busy tone. Bip bip bip.
“Just great” she sighs, stressed out. “Ok, so let’s start with this anyway” she says as she motions Ethan to hand her the revisions and notes that he had brought and she starts to review them.
Ethan looks at her with curiosity. She seems to be tense, as if something is bothering her.
“So how crucial are these notes anyway? I can’t imagine you really got all that much work done at Dawson’s while you two were… eating,” teases Ethan, hoping to make her laugh or something, so she can relax.
Joey can’t help but smile. He’s right, she didn’t write a thing. Since they knew they couldn’t be meeting that night or even the next day at all because Dawson would be in the studio filming some general shoots in a frantic pace, they agreed to meet at least for lunch that day. ‘A romantic, intimate lunch at my house. Just you and me, being quiet and boring’ Dawson had said. She had laughed and of course, accepted. And of course, one thing lead to another, and…
“Shut up Ethan,” she says, realizing she has zoned out for a moment and that Ethan is staring at her with a malicious grin in his face.
“So I’m guessing that you and Dawson are becoming, dare I say, cliché domestic? You know, the whole ‘his home is my home now’ phase of a relationship,” inquires Ethan
“Yeah, I think we are” she says, a sweet smile in her face. “And is weird, you know? I hadn’t pictured myself like this with him in years. But then things happened, I took the blind off and nowadays, I can’t imagine it any other way. To go home at the end of the day and to find Dawson there… is something I dreamed of for so long so many time ago,” she says, her voice trailing to these days at college, when the thought of Dawson leaving Boston had perturbed her so much.
“So now what?” Ethan asks.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, are you going to take the next step? Are you going to move in with him, or him with you, or… what?”
Joey bites her lower lip, a new light in her eyes, glad that Ethan brought that subject up. She puts the papers he handed her before aside and leans her arms on the table, playing with her fingers as she speaks.
“Actually… I don’t want him to move in to my apartment. But I was thinking… I’d really like to move to his. But maybe it is too soon? I mean, I don’t wanna make him feel pressured, you know? Things are going well the way they are now. Maybe we should wait? You’re a guy, what do you think?” she inquires, waiting for Ethan’s answer.
Ethan sighs and accommodates himself in the chair.
“Well, anyone but you can really know. You two, for all I know, have such a history of bad timing behind you, that maybe now that time seems to be by your side, you might just go ahead and take this chance. I don’t think Dawson would feel pressured at all. But once again, only you can know that.”
“If it was my house, I would ask him in a heartbeat. But since it is his… I guess I’ll have to wait till he does.”
“What’s the problem with your house by the way? I guess his is bigger or something, but I don’t think he cares.”
“Oh no, is not because of that. It’s just that I wouldn’t feel right with him there, where Chris and Pacey have been before. I don’t know,” she shrugs her shoulders. “I guess I really want this to be a new beginning for us, so I want a new place as well to live what Dawson and I have.”
“I see” Ethan nods his head “It makes sense”
“But let’s not talk about ex-boyfriends,” she says, burying her face in her hands. “No, wait. Or maybe, we better do,” she says, resting her chin in the cup formed by her hands together.
“Chris seemed pretty upset when I last spoke to him. This morning”
Ethan’s eyes go wide. “This morning?”
“Yes. I met Dawson in a café near here to have breakfast together, and in my way to the office, Chris bumped into me by accident. He didn’t look very pleased to see me”
“Well, I’m sorry Joey, but I can’t say I blame him,” says Ethan. “It hurts when you’re the one who gets dumped, mostly over the phone, and after almost two years of relationship,” he adds softly.
“I don’t blame him neither, it’s just that I hadn’t thought about him in a while, and seeing him today and the way he looked at me... it’s kinda sad. You know what he told me the last time I saw him? When he stopped over my apartment to take his stuff.” Ethan nods his head in a negative gesture “That ‘love is an addiction’ and that like everything else in the world, the novelty just wears out,” says Joey.
“Yeah, I guess that’s what happens the greatest part of the times.”
For a moment they both remain silent.
“Have you told Dawson?” Ethan asks.
“Should I? I mean, is nothing big, just a casual encounter.”
Ethan nods his head, not wanting to influence in her decision, and goes back to the work in hand. Joey looks at him thoughtfully, then she goes back to work as well as she sees he is not going to add anything else.
As she assured to Ethan, there’s nothing to say about Chris.
Mid day, a Deli in New York.
Just another crowded lunch scene in New York.
It opens with a busy New York deli, people pushing and yelling orders to the cooks behind the counters, waving money and waiting in line, slightly annoyed. In addition to the people waiting for food, we see people sitting at tables, reading books or the newspaper, absorbed in their own little world.
We see Joey, Dawson, Sam and Ethan sitting at table with the leftovers of the meal spread in front of them. Sam and Ethan are having a conversation, Ethan lightly stroking Samantha’s hand, Sam flipping her hair over her shoulder and talking to him. Joey and Dawson are sharing a dessert, taking turns feeding one another. Joey laughs at something Dawson says and he leans in to kiss a bit of chocolate on the corner of her mouth, left over from her last bite, which lead them to a lingering kiss.
“You two, get a room” Ethan retorts, breaking the moment.
“Oh, shut up Ethan” Joey says, rolling her eyes and leaning on Dawson, who just laughs and takes a sip of his drink. “Jack over here!” she waves her hand for him to see them since he seems to be a little disoriented after his call to Capeside.
He gets closer and sits in the chair between Dawson and Joey and Sam and Ethan.
“So how’s Amy?” Dawson asks, wrapping his arms around Joey’s shoulders, pulling her back against his chest. “Did you talk to Bessie?”
“Yeah I did, Amy even called me dad,” he says, proud of his baby and forgetting all his worries about it from the other week. “Bessie told me that Amy didn’t sleep very well tonight because of her teeth”, Jack says wistfully, motioning for a coffee from their waitress.
“Oh yes, they always have a hard time with that” Ethan says, which causes him a curious and half amused look from the rest of the table. “I’ve got little siblings,” he says, and everybody forgets his earlier comment.
“So… it won’t happen, but if it does…“ they all look expectantly to Joey. She takes a deep breath and decides to go ahead and pose out loud the question everybody has been thinking anyway “If the worst scenario happens and Helen gets Amy’s custody, do you think you would be able to visit her?”
“Well, with Bodie and Bessie I am able to go and visit anytime I want. I even stayed at the B&B a couple of days last week. Not more because I don’t want Grams to be alone at home. But I doubt Helen’ll allow me to do something like that. I’ll be lucky if I get any visits regime at all after my little interruption at her work today,” he says, rolling his eyes now that he is more calmed, and realizing how bad following that impulse can be for his case in the future.
“Well, when it’s time for Social Services to re-evaluate the case, just let us know and we can come make statements or do what we can do to strength the case. Our word has to count for something.” Dawson assures him. He knows that what Jack did and he related to them sooner while having lunch is not the best thing he could have done, but with the right lawyer, he is sure they can prove that Jack was in the middle of a crisis, frustrated… something. They’ll find a way to prove that he is never like that. Never. Hell, he can even explain how he punched him once and Jack didn’t even try to beat him back.
“Jack if you need anything, please let us know, we’d love to help as well,” Sam says, reaching to touch his hand affectionately.
“I second that,” Ethan adds seriously. “We might not know each other that well. Actually, we barely know each other. But an injustice is always an injustice, so if there is something that can be done about it, then I’m on it.”
“My hero,” Sam mocks him, causing everybody to let out a light laugh and distending the mood. Ethan just throws a paper napkin at her as she laughs.
“So what are you going to do now? Going back to Capeside or are you staying a little longer?” Dawson asks.
“Actually, I’m meeting with some of the parents from the HPA, (The Homosexual Parents Association) after lunch. You know, looking for advice, similar experiences and all that stuff. Bryce said it would help”.
“But you’re going to Dawson’s later, right?” Joey asks, knowing that he had stayed there last night already.
“Yeah, I will. Unless Dawson wants to kick me out,” Jack jokes.
“Not gonna happen,” Dawson says with a smile.
A beep goes then from Dawson’s cell, startling Joey, causing Jack to laugh.
“Damn!” Dawson exclaims. “I gotta go. I have a meeting in twenty minutes” he adds as he stands up and speaks to Sam. “I’ll be back at the office around 4, or so I hope. Make sure that Jhonny has those revisions ready or he’ll know my fury” he says, half joking, half serious.
“Yes, sir” Sam jokes, making a military salute.
“I’m going with you,” Joey says standing up as well. “See you later Ethan”
Ethan nods his head as the two of them leave.
Dawson and Joey reach the street and stop in there facing each other for a moment. Joey takes Dawson’s hands in hers and Dawson brushes hers with his thumbs.
“I called you several times this morning, but I always got your voice mail.” she whines pouting.
“You did? I’m sorry about that. I have been all the morning hanging on the damn phone. Didn’t even have time to check my lost calls. Did you have to tell me something?” he inquires, thinking that maybe she will tell him about Chris now? Despite his conversation with Sam earlier, he had been waiting all lunch for her to say something about it, but obviously it wouldn’t have been the right moment with their friends there.
“Yeah, I wanted to ask you if you would have had the time to go home and take some notes I left in there so you could give them to me at lunch, but I see you’re busy, and so I am, so it’s ok. I’ll work on that tomorrow and that’s all.”
Dawson nods his head, a little disconcerted.
“So that was all you wanted to tell me?”
He sees her bite her lip and how she becomes a little nervous. ‘It might be not that important’ or something like that Sam had told him that morning. But if so, why was she so nervous?
“Well, actually…”
‘Tell him. Just tell him’ she encourages herself. ‘Dawson, what do you think about me moving in with you?’
She looks at his expecting, serious face. He looks so stressed, and he sure is. With all the work he has right now, the last thing he needs is all the stress that also comes along with a moving. She sighs lightly and shakes her head.
“It’s nothing. Forget about it,” she waves her hand in the air and then kisses him lightly in the lips. “You better go or you will be late,” she smiles at him, removing her hands from his.
Dawson just stands there, pensive, but suddenly it blurts out, even though he knows it shouldn’t.
“So you’re not gonna tell me about Chris?”
Joey is petrified in her spot.
“What?” she exclaims, surprised at the question. How does he know?
“I saw you talking to Chris this morning, when you went out of the café. I thought that a meeting with your ex boyfriend would be something worth of mentioning.”
“Yes, my old boyfriend ran into me and we talked. You would think in a city of 2 million people the chances of running into your ex would be slim to none, but it seems like not.” Joey says, getting a little exasperated. So there she was, thinking about asking him to move in together, and all he was thinking about was Chris?
“I’m just asking because seeing you two talk, it looked kind of intense from where I was standing,” Dawson says, “so I was just wondering why you two were so tense, that’s all” he says, noticing her becoming upset and knowing he had just made a bad move.
“What is this all about Dawson?” Joey asks, now truly annoyed. “If you had something to say about it, why didn’t you just come up and asked me to introduce him to you? Is it that you were spying on me, expecting me to throw myself at his arms or something just because we had casually met in the street? How alike in the movies that would have been, right?”
“I didn’t say that,” Dawson states calmly, “I’m just saying that it seemed to me as something I would have commented to you if I had met one of my ex-s…”
“Well Dawson, maybe you would have commented it to me, but maybe I just don’t feel the need to comment everything that happens in my life to you,” she kinda yells, feeling how she is getting more and more upset each passing moment. Just two minutes ago, she was reuniting courage to ask him to move in together and now they are arguing.
She stops herself when she notices a few passing people staring at them as they walk by.
“You know what? Forget about it. This stupid and nonsense argument is over,” she says, motioning with her hands as she turns around and walks away.
“Just great,” Dawson says out loud, exasperated, as he walks the other way.
Later that day, in a mall of New York.
Jack is concentrating, walking in the mall along the aisle filled with toys, trying to think about something Amy would enjoy and she didn’t have already. He scans the shelves of toys, a lot of stuff already in his basket.
“Typical,” says the man with the curly sandy hair that is standing slightly behind him, following him around.
Jack watches him as he takes a little teddy bear in his hand and looks at it with concentration.
“What is typical?” Jack asks, puzzled.
“This,” and the guy motions to the selves. “It’s called guilty. Guilty for not being there with them. So you try to supply your absence with present so they know you love them, even though you’re not able to show it in a normal way.”
“Yeah, I guess you can call it that,” Jack agrees absently, grabbing the teddy bear from the man’s hand and watching him as he walks to the shelves in the other side of the aisle.
So Paul. Paul Jackson. They have both attended today the HPA reunion that Bryce had recommended Jack. Paul was there, just like he had been there the first time Jack had visited them after meeting with his lawyer in New York a few months ago. Although then Doug was with him. This time, just like before, he had offered Jack his support along with the rest of the group did. But once everybody had left, Pauk stayed and chatted with Jack for a little longer. When Jack commented he was going around town for the rest of the day, Paul insisted on going with him. Jack hadn’t protested.
“So, does it work?” Jack asks, walking to him, placing the teddy bear in the basket among the other things. “I mean, if I’m gonna spend all this money, I hope it is at least worth it,” he jokes.
“Well, sure it works at first. But the more time passes, and the older they become, the less effect it has. Actually, my father used to do that to me, since he was always out in business trips and stuff like that, and I hated it.”
“Kids are complicated, aren’t they?” Jack sighs, hoping he will get it right with time.
“Yes they are. I guess it is because we tend to forget we were once kids as well, and we are unable to put ourselves in their shoes. What is a shame if you ask me”.
“The lost of innocence, right?”
“Yeah.” Paul agrees softly.
“How old are your kids?” Jack asks.
“Mark is seven, Stephanie is five,” he answers as they walk to the cashiers to pay. “Mark is starting to make questions already. You know, about me, and why I have no girlfriends and things like that. It’s hard to explain to him.”
“I bet it is. Any advice you can give me for the future is more than welcome” Jack says as he puts the basket over the rolling belt and starts placing the toys in there.
“I’ll exchange advices for dinner. What do you say?” Jack smiles at him brightly.
Jack is startled and flattered.
“Well, that’s if you’re not already seeing someone. It’s just that I didn’t see your boyfriend with you so I assumed… we can go out just like friends anyway,” Paul adds quickly, misunderstands his hesitance.
“There’s no boyfriend at the moment. We’re kind of… in a break.”
“Oh, I see. Well, either way, my invitation is still up”
“Thanks Paul. I’ll… I’ll think about it, ok?” Jack smiles at him.
Paul smiles back and relaxes.
“Ok.”
Jack takes off his credit card and hands it to the woman in the cashier, his face serious and pensive.
Dawson’s office. Early evening.
We see Dawson sitting at his desk, reading the so awaited revisions he had asked to be done by today.
He is leaning in his chair, and his eyes drift to the phone in the desk, then back to the papers. Back to the phone. Sighing, he straights up and picks up the receiver, ready to dial the numbers and surprised to hear Joey’s voice in the other side of the line when he places it over his ear.
“Wow, that was quick. I think it didn’t even ring”
“Joey? I was about to call you.”
“Well, seems like I was faster” she laughs, and Dawson smiles.
“Joey, I just wanted to apologize, I should…”
“I shouldn’t have accused you of spying,” she interrupts.
“And I shouldn’t have pressed you to tell me. You’re right, you don’t need to tell me everything that goes on in your life.”
“But the funny thing is that I do Dawson, I do tell you. Everything that happens to me, everything that passes through my head, I can’t wait to go home and tell you about it. But with this... I guess I didn’t know how to approach it. I mean, if I mentioned it, maybe I was giving it more importance than it really had. Or maybe you would give it more important than it’s needed. And not mentioning it didn’t seem such a bad idea to me. I mean, it really was nothing but a casual meeting,” she reaffirms.
“I know. I think I just let jealousy take over. I have never met the guy, you rarely speak of him except these days we spent in L.A updating each other, and out of a sudden, and there he was, standing in front of you. I felt a knot in my stomach and I overreacted. It’s not that I doubted of you, it was more like… making him real. Until now he was just a name, or a picture, but not… real, you know? Not someone that could go back to your life.”
“He is not coming back to my life Dawson. He left it, and it was my choice for him to do that,” she stops briefly “and maybe my choices didn’t hold much weight before, but this time it does. There’s nothing between Chris and me anymore, there’ll never be. But seeing him again today… I was just thinking that I never gave him a proper goodbye” A beat “I’m gonna call him. I’ve been thinking about it and I really need to clear up some things with Chris.”
She waits for Dawson’s reply in the other side of the line.
“Dawson?”
“Yeah, I’m here” he says, as we see him leaning on his chair, tapping with a pen in the table. He leans forward, placing his arm over the desk. “I understand. Do whatever you need to do,” he adds softly.
In her own office, Joey smiles lightly as she twists the cord of the phone in between her fingers.
“I knew you would understand.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes it takes me a while, right?” he laughs softly.
“Just sometimes,” Joey jokes, trying to clear up some of the tension. “See you later, ok?”
“Yeah”.
“Love you.” she says softly.
“Love you too” he replies, a little smile on his face.
Dawson hangs up and rustles through his papers, pondering his conversation with Joey.
He is still going around that idea he had for tonight, but he wonders if this is the right time. Today of all days, maybe he can wait till the air is cleared up, until Joey has done and thought about… about what? About Chris? Dawson leans back on his chair and stares off the space. It’s still the same, isn’t it? Waiting for the right time, for the perfect moment. Well, maybe that moment doesn’t exist. Maybe we are the ones who have to create it. How many things did he and Joey lose waiting for that? Things they never said, things they never did.
‘To the hell with it’ he says under his breath. He’s gonna make it. But he may need some help. ‘Now if only I could find that address’ he murmurs as he goes through some papers in the table.
(A montage with a few NY spots fading into each other that leads to…)
A cafeteria in New York, later that day.
Joey sits alone at a table in the same cafeteria she had been with Dawson in that same morning. Noise all around her, she looks around once more. Nothing. She sighs as she starts to doubt if this was even a good idea. But before she can continue her train of thought, she sees him walk in and scan the room for her. His eyes stop as he locates her and begins to walk over.
Joey stands up and smiles at him weakly.
"Hey Christopher, thanks for meeting me here," Joey says as he stands motionless in front of her.
“I gotta say, I was truly surprised when I got your call. I was being sarcastic when I suggested it," Chris explains. His tone of voice is rather cold, but at least is not despising as it had been earlier that day.
Joey instantly picks up on the hostility, but she decides to ignore it. Instead of replying, she sits down and motions for Chris to do the same in the seat in front of her. After a slight hesitation, he does.
“I guess you’re wondering why I have called you today of all days, after all this time” she starts.
“Yeah, gotta say that the question has popped into my mind a couple of times on my way here,”
"Chris, I just wanna apologize for my behavior." She stops as she puts all her thoughts together. "Breaking up with you the way I did it… well it was really immature and impersonal and… cowardice. I shouldn’t have done it the way that I did."
“Wow” Chris has is eyes fixed on her and seems to be truly surprised for what he just heard. “Well, I don’t know what to say except… that I agree”
Joey makes a face, pursing her lips and nodding her head.
“I guess I deserve that,” Joey says softly.
“Well, it was you who said it, not me”
A silence falls upon them and Joey looks at him with a sad face, realizing how pointless it all was.
“Chris, you knew so little about me. Hardly anything actually. And that was comforting. It has always been, since I was in high school and I started running from real love. Being with guys that hardly knew me, or that knew me well but not as well as to being able to read into me like he always did.” she ends the sentence referring to Dawson almost whispering, her eyes sad.
(“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac starts playing in the background)
“Yeah, you were kind of a mystery to me, and I liked it like that. The tall, stunning brown eyed girl that was helping me go through my first novel. Your big grin, your easy laugh. That is, whenever we weren’t fighting and bickering,” he adds as an after thought, and Joey is amazed by how easily all of her relationships could be defined like that looking back: constants fights and bickering with some sweet moments thrown in between.
I took my love, I took it down
climbed a mountain and I turned around
and I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
'til the landslide brought it down
All of them, but one.
She watches as Chris face lights up when he starts speaking, and how it falls at his afterthought.
"But then it all ended with a phone call, and you running to another guy.” He throws her a hard look that she holds, trying to show him what she feels like that: remorse, regrets, shame. “Was it worth it Joey?”
Joey looks down at her hands before replying.
oh, mirror in the sky
what is love?
can the child within my heart rise above?
can i sail thru the changin' ocean tides?
can i handle the seasons of my life?
i don't know.....
“Yes it was,” she answers softly, looking up at him again and trying to explain herself when Chris face shows disappointment and hurt. “Our time ran out Chris. My circumstances these days helped me realize that. If I hadn’t realized it then, I would have had later. What you and I had wasn’t there anymore. It wasn’t the first time that it happened to me, and I bet it wasn’t the first time for you neither. Although I hope it is the last one.” she adds, softly.
“Thanks for your best wishes Joey. So this is what you called me for? To wish me luck in my search of love out there?” he asks, impatient.
Joey nods her head.
well, i've been afraid of changin'
'cause i've built my life around you
but time makes you bolder
even children get older
and i'm getting older too
"No. I called you because I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I’ve always acted without thinking about the consequences, or how my acts could affect other people. I’ve been kinda selfish in the past when it comes to things like that." Chris just looks at her, still listening. "I don’t know, I guess being with the right person has helped to give me that final step into adulthood; it’s grounded me into reality."
“Well, congratulations” Chris snorts as he is about to stand up and leave.
“Chris, wait. I… I´d like to tell you a little story. And maybe, alter listening to it, you will know who I really am and why… why I did the things I did?” she looks at him expectantly “I feel like I own you at least that”
Intrigued, Chris sits down. This is the woman that, after all, filled his mind and heart for two years. And as she said before, he never really got to know her. Not like he thought he did at least.
Seeing that she has now all of his attention, Joey relaxes and starts to speak, trying hard to thread the timeline right.
“Ok, so… well, this is a story that starts down a creek, in a little coast town. In one side of the creek, there was a girl whose world was about to fall apart and change forever. In the other side, there was this boy whose life seemed to be perfect, and that would be there for her when hers crumbled down…”
oh, take my love, take it down
climb a mountain and turn around
and if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
well the landslide will bring it down
As Joey speaks, we see the camera go round and round the two of them. Sometimes Joey is talking animatedly, sometimes she laughs and little by little, Chris face softens and he even smiles. Other times, she is somber as painful memories are as well related.
The ambient is more relaxed as the story progresses, as if the ex couple were getting to an understanding.
“And I think” Joey says, leaning on her chair exhausted “that that was all”.
Chris lets out a deep breath and leans back on his chair as well.
“Well, I really had no idea where I was getting myself into. That love life of yours has been…”
“Intense?”
“Complicated.”
Joey nods her head.
“Yes, it has, for someone who thought that she would go to her grave as a virgin” she laughs softly as she rolls her eyes and Chris smiles.
“And how do you know that now is over, that you are finally with the right one? That I wasn’t or that I am not the one?” Chris asks, curious.
“I can feel it.” Joey shrugs her shoulders as a sweet smile appears on her face. “I don’t need him to make me stop running, because I don’t wanna run anywhere but to him.”
Chris just looks at her, noticing, probably for the first time, now that his anger has somehow subsided, that she has really changed over the past months.
“Just for you to know, all I’ve told you has been the hard work of my therapist for months now,” she laughs, noticing the way Chris is staring at her.
As she says this, her eyes lie in the figure that has just walked into the café. He spots her almost at the same time she does, and walks to the table. Chris follows her gaze and immediately figures out who the guy is. He stands up and so does Joey with a big grin in her face.
“Hey,” Dawson says softly as Joey gets close to him and kisses him softly in the lips. She links her arm with his and turns to Chris.
“Chris, I wanna introduce you to someone. This is Dawson. Dawson Leery” she flashes a smile at him as he shakes hands with Chris.
“I think I’ve known you better by Colby all this time. I didn’t know he was real though.”
“Well, as real as he can get,” Dawson laughs. “Nice to meet you Chris.”
“I don’t know if it is nice, but it’s sure as hell interesting. And odd.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Dawson agrees as he interlaces his fingers with Joey, holding her hand. Chris gaze wanders from one to the other before he nods his head.
“I think better go. My unfinished second novel is awaiting. The curse of an unfinished ending, you know?”
“Oh yes, he knows it too well.” Joey says, rubbing Dawson’s arm as she speaks.
“It was… nice to see you Joey. And thanks for… for letting me know,” he says.
and if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
well the landslide will bring it down
the landslide will bring it down
Joey smiles to him and nods her head.
“It was nice to see you too Chris.”
With a nod of his head, he leaves the place. Dawson and Joey follow him with their gaze and then Joey smiles up at Dawson, who kisses her softly. Soon, she is wrapping her arms around him as the world around disappears for the two of them until they’re able to break the kiss.
“Thanks for calling me,” Dawson says, placing a lousy strand of hair behind her ear.
“Let’s just go home. Jack might be about to arrive,” she states, holding his hand as they walk out of the café.
Ethan’s apartment, evening.
The apartment is dark, though we can see the furniture vaguely in the dark. Panning across to the door, we can hear a man and woman’s voice, laughing, their voices getting louder as they get closer to the door. Finally with the sound of a key in the lock, the door opens and Sam and Ethan step in, playfully pushing and teasing one another, although we can’t hear exactly what they’re saying. Finally, Ethan turns on the light and we see Sam is carrying a bag.
“Well, this is it,” Ethan says, putting the keys on a little table near the door while Sam looks around at the house. She has never been there and she was curious to see how it was. And it definitely is very… Ethan.
“Looks good to me,” she smiles at him and Ethan smiles back. ”And thanks for letting me come here to change. After the argument I had with my aunt today I didn’t feel like going back at all. Hopefully by the time I’m back from the theater, she will be sleeping.” she sighs.
“So still giving you a hard time, huh?”
“Kind of. And I’m still looking for a place on my own. Oh well. Where can I change?” she asks, lifting the bag where she has her belongings.
“Upstairs,” Ethan points up. “First room in the left”
“Okay,” she smiles and heads there.
Ethan watches her go with a smile and takes off his coat. He is lucky; he’s a guy and doesn’t need to dress up for the theater. But Sam insisted she wanted to, so…
While he waits, expecting her to take her time to get dressed, Ethan begins digging through things, looking for something. But it hasn’t been five minutes when he hears her walking down the stairs.
“I’m sorry all I need is five minutes and I should be able to find the tickets,” Ethan says with a sigh, digging through the tidy pile paperwork on his counter, then turning to face her.
(“Feelin’ way to damn good” by Nickelback starts playing in the background)
And for a moment, his breath is caught in his lungs.
I missed you so much
That I begged you to fly and see me
You must've broke down
Coz you finally said that would
But now that you're here
I just feel like I'm constantly dreaming
Realizing the look of admiration on his face, Samantha smiles and resumes her walking down the stairs, her hand caressing the rail gingerly as she does so, enjoying the impression she has caused on him.
“It’s fine, you’re kind of cute when you’re all frustrated,” she smiles, referring to his earlier mood while trying to find the tickets. But Ethan can’t close his mouth, his jaw still dropped at the vision of Samantha in her red dress.
“Well then you would love working with me, Joey teases me constantly about being a rather ‘negative nick’ when we’re slammed with work, which is pretty much always,” he laughs softly, they both holding each other’s gaze.
“I’ve always realized how beautiful you are.” He starts, softly, “which combined with the strong and appealing personality of yours is just like a death weapon” and Sam smiles at that compliment.
“Thanks.” she says softly.
The air between them is vibrating with intensity and their heartbeats are fast and their mouths dry. Sam walks up to Ethan and it seems to him as if he had lost all capacity of breathing. Ethan, the Casanova, the wild guy from ………, don’t know what to do or what to say.
‘Probably kiss her, you idiot. Not like you haven’t done it before’.