True Lovers II: Real Questions

After their first beach date, or date altogether, Jack and Madison each went home dreaming... Dreaming of a future together. Jack decided that becoming a man with Madison would be most wonderful. Madison decided to forge ahead with her writing career, but always with Jack in mind. They would have adventures together through her writing. She didn't really have a 'career' per say, but always dreamed of one. Now, she had her muse... her daydream main character. She thought about him all the time, anyway, and the places they could go, so why not weave it into her stories? It made perfect sense.

As Jack laid on his pillow, he replayed that kiss over and over in his mind. Had she put her hands up on his cheek? It seemed so. Was that a good sign? Wait! Where'd his hands go? He could be a little touchy-feelie when it came to kisses. They just made his mind wander off into 'no-no land' and he did NOT want to rush things with Madison. She was too special. Other girls seemed like that's all they ever asked for and even though he just knew Madison could feel him, he knew she had higher standards than to just sleep around. Where were his hands...

Madison was up that night, also. She was pecking away on her computer keyboard just typing her latest story as fast as she could. It would be about their next date. It would be about their immediate future... couldn't jump ahead. Oh, but in her mind she always jumped ahead when it came to Jack. He was so domineering and strong. He did seem a bit controlling, but if it was the kind of control she was hoping it was, he could be perfect! She wanted a man that led the way through life with sweetness and kindness, but with power. Yeah, she would make her character this guy. She didn't know enough about Jack, yet, to know what kind of love he would be. Was he jealous and controlling? Would he let her be herself or would he constantly judge her every move? In her heart, she could only be happy if she could truly be herself. He could influence her on the big 'issues' like modesty or honesty, but oh she would never lie to her Jack. The truth is, she never lied to her husband. By the time she had a big truth to tell him, he simply didn't care anymore. She would have told him, too. So, this Jack seemed very mysterious, sometimes. What was he doing now...

Jack tossed and turned and even managed to sleep a little, but each time he awoke he would picture being with Madison. He just needed her now. It was important that they be together and he was going to show her that. His love would be a generous, overflowing love that she could thrive around. They would do big things and go places. He had plans when he got out of school to make big money. There were definitely plans. Would she be faithful? He wondered. She had a fling on her husband right around the time Jack moved in the neighborhood. From what he understood, her husband had been going out lying and cheating on her at the time, so he never really judged her for it. She seemed like the honest type. That's for sure. Was she going to try and control him? He couldn't be controlled by a strong and loud woman. She needed to be gentle and sweet and pure hearted. He wasn't much of a person that judged on looks, but mostly how they were around him and others. But, with Madison, he liked how she was so much. He definitely thought she was beautiful, too. He had been a bit controlling in the past with other girlfriends, who turned out to be cheats by the way, but with Madison, he'd have to be different. He couldn't act like a donkey when it came to these sweet feelings he had about her. He would treat her like a Queen and he would be her King.

Oh yes, Madison thought, my main character will be the 'Kingly' type. He will buy her gifts, take her out, and let her spoil him in return like a good Queen would. But first, he needs a name. What would be a good name for a prince of a man like Jack.Well, he's cute, loving, sweet and kind. His character will be named Dewayne. My that sounds nice. And the girl's character will be named Nicolette. Yes, these are good names. This will be a good story. She plugged away and plugged away. Their first date would go something like this... Then suddenly the phone rang knocking her out of her stupor. She grabbed it.

"Hello." She answered. It was 10:30 p.m.
"Hey. It's me... Jack." It was him. Her heart immediately started pounding. She tried to sound cool.
"Hey.. what's up? What are you doing? I mean, it's late. I was up, but it's late." Ugh! Too many words!
"Well, I'm sorry, but..."
"No, it's no problem." She interrupted. Dang! Just quit interrupting! She laughed to herself.
"Oh, okay. Well, I thought since I was going to the boat show in the morning, that we could make a breakfast date out of it. We could go to that new little restaurant down the corner from ours, Panchito's, and try those Breakfast Cakes that Julio was talking about at work. But, since I'm leaving so early in the morning, I was hoping you'd still be awake so I could ask you to go with me and give you some kind of warning." He was nervous.
"What time?" She already knew her answer but tried to stall.
"Uh... what? Oh, what time? Well, I was thinking of leaving before sunrise because the sunrise at the beach is so beautiful."
"Ooh," she slipped "That sounds nice." It really did.
"Yes, I can go... so when's before sunrise?"
"About 6:30." He sounded hopeful.
"Okay. Sounds good. I'll be ready to go then. Thank you for thinking of me." Her heart smiled.
"I always think of you... I mean when it comes to going to the beach." She didn't know the half of it.
"Okay, that's good. Was that it?" She wondered with her heart practically beating out of her chest, now. She reached down to feel the warmth emanating from her neck and front of her shirt.
"Yes, that's it. I look forward to seeing you. Oh. What time do you work tomorrow?" He crossed his fingers hoping they'd have plenty of time.
"6:00 p.m. until close." She answered
"Oh good. I go in at 5:00 p.m."
"Yeah." For some reason, this made her happy.
"Alright well... I'll let you get back to whatever it was that you were doing."
"Okay." She said. His last comment sounded a bit suspicious. What did he think she was doing?
"Alright, good-bye." He said.
"See ya tomorrow." She said.
"I look forward to it." He repeated and they hung up.

Okay, now she needed to get to bed. Madison didn't want to look older than her age in the morning due to lack of sleep. She covered her keyboard and shut the computer off. Her story would have to wait. Perhaps their second date would give her some ideas. Would she tell him about these stories one day? She didn't know because she didn't know how far their friendship would go, if you could call it that. There was way too much chemistry there to call it that, but for now that's what it would be referred to as. She chuckled to herself.
Folding down the covers on the bed, Madison said her prayers. She prayed a prayer of thanks for this new man in her life. She prayed and thanked God for getting her through the dissolution of her marriage. He had gotten her through rough patches, lately, and she trusted He would continue to be with her and loving her as she did Him. It would be an awesome day the next day...

At the sound of his alarm, Jack POPPED UP out of bed like a piece of toast. He was in the shower before his eyes were even all the way open. Oh it felt good. Hot water on all of his tired muscles. The night before had been extremely hard at the restaurant because it was finally Valentine's day and every Dick and Jane were there... married couples, singles having their dates, married couples with children. And for some reason they all wanted drinks from the bar so the dishes were piled so high on the tables. With one exception.. Madison's. She always removed the empty dishes from her customer's tables as soon as they were done with them. She liked to create a clean environment for them to talk and relax. They would laugh at her corny jokes and then when she would walk away, Jack would see their smiles continue on with each other. She had a 'genuine' touch that made people smile and feel good. He always liked that about her even when his love interests were elsewhere. Which was all fine and dandy because she was still married, then, anyway. So now, with his back feeling sore, this hot water felt so nice. The thoughts of having Madison holding his hand later were exhilarating. Hopefully, he could control himself more and keep attendance on where his hands were. Darn those hands. Madison made him feel so good about himself he would treat her special. She was special. He kept repeating to himself. After his shower, he threw on his clothes that he laid out the night before... not because he was a neat freak, but because he had trouble getting any sleep after their phone call. He threw on his favorite jeans.. his new ones he bought from JC's. His favorite shirt was there on the hanger and in a flash it was on his back and he was spraying on his cologne. It would be a great day!

Madison awoke to the sound of faint talking. What is that? She looked over at her alarm saying 6:01 and thought about what time she was supposed to get up. OH NO! I was supposed to be up by 5:30! I still need a shower! Stupid alarm... stupid alarm...she kept muttering to herself. She had set it but forgot to put it on 'beep' instead of 'radio' and since she had went to bed with her radio playing softly, that is what the alarm was trying to wake her up with. It had been going on like that for thirty-one minutes with no luck. It was a preacher speaking quietly when she woke up. He must have been talking the entire time, because she seemed to be having sweet dreams of what he was saying when she awoke. She remembered one of them where she was flying in and out of people's homes and feeling so good and free. She would sweep in and say hello and just fly around their top and bottom floors and fly out and on down the street to the next one. Odd that they all happened to have their windows opened. It was a unique dream but had to be the most pleasant dream she had ever had! Wow. I wonder what brought that on... time to get ready. She too had laid her clothes out. It was nerve wracking enough being shaky around him, so she had to be as prepared as possible. She laid out a sun dress and sandals. She had just bought that sun dress for the sunnier days they were having in February. Lately, there had been some warm ones and she was just trying to move Spring along. She literally ran into the kitchen, started the coffee and ran back to the shower. She turned it on and while the water was heating up, she grabbed her razor and cranked the radio up. This time the CD was playing. She was jamming to her music in the shower. Oh she tried to hurry so much she practically cut herself shaving. Slow down... You have time. But, still it was hard to take her time. She was running late after all, and so excited to see him.

When the doorbell rang, she approached it looking and smelling pretty. Oh man did he ever look good. She was beginning to wonder if this was lust she was feeling because each time he came up to her or even passed by her in a room, she practically had to reach out and catch her heart in front of her because it jumped out of her chest. But, he was so special. She knew there was truth to what they were feeling for each other... she hoped so anyway.

They both walked out of her door, leaving feeling pretty good about their day to come. The boat show was awesome. The newer models were there and that was okay. But the cool parts were the tricked-out boats and the fishing boats. One boat had these terrific flashing lights installed all around the bow. They would not only flash in solid colors, but each large bulb itself, would change colors. So, one moment you'd see a spray of green lights and then suddenly they were all purple. They were linked to the stereo system, which rocked, and going along with the rhythms. Ooh Madison could not help but shake her rear to the music. Darn it if Jack's eyes didn't drop down that low. Nope, he thought, I'm having pure thoughts about her from now on. She was going to make this difficult, it seemed. Just then she looked at him and smiled.

All of a sudden, a large boom distracted them both from their thoughts and they looked out onto the ocean. One of the boats had exploded out in the water. Jack could see one man swimming along the side and waving his hand. He must have jumped out before the actual explosion. Black smoke was rising up above them. Just then, they looked over and saw something else out in the water. It was another boat rushing up to help the man and any other passengers. It turned out that the young man they hired to repair something on this boat bought an 'auto' part instead of a 'marine' part. That had caused all of the exhaust fumes to back up into the motor causing a fire which led to the explosion. The smoke could be seen for miles.

"Wow. I'm glad there was no one else on that boat!" Madison exclaimed after hearing the announcement.
"Yeah, luckily for the repair guy, he took it out for a spin before inviting the owner aboard. That was kind of a dumb thing to do. You'd think they knew better." He replied.
"Yeah, it's hard finding good help these days." And they just both smiled at each other and moved on down the dock.

Panchito's was close to the docks where the boat show was being held. It was a pretty short distance down the shore. Jack looked forward to the quiet while they walked.
"Madison." He said as soon as they got away from all the excitement."
"Yes..." Her heart skipped a beat for some reason.
"Do you have any idea how much I like you?"
"What?" She heard him but was excited by his boldness.
"I love being around you all the time. When I'm not around you, I feel there's something missing. Sometimes, I feel like it's my smile missing. Am I being too forward?"
"No, it's cool. Go on." She practically cooed.
"Well, I would like to see you a lot in the future, but not just at work. Work is work. We are so busy most of the time, and when we have a moment, everyone is standing there. So that's hardly a place where we can talk. You know?" He asked.
"Yes." She answered.
"Well, what do you think about your future being with me?"
"Well," she said smiling that beautiful smile, "Let's continue to get together so we can know each other better. I think about you a lot, too, and don't see why we cannot keep hanging out."
"But, I like you a lot more than a friend."
"Okay. I feel something for you. It's like each time you come around me, my heart kind of goes crazy. It's weird." She sighs.
"Cool. I want to hang out with you so much. I can't wait for the places we could go... together."
"Me, too." She smiled.

Just then they arrived at the back steps of deck leading up to Panchito's. It was almost as colorful as the tricked-out boat back at the dock. There were red and green lights hanging all around the deck and led them inside, as well. These were not red and green lights for Christmas time. It was a deeper green with red reminiscent of the Mexican flag. There were also many white decorations around to prove that fact. They found a all wooden booth and sat. Madison looked at the table top and its decorations around it and looked up at Jack. He was looking dead at her. She smiled a shy smile. He just continued smiling. At that time, a waiter walked up and laid out chips and three kinds of salsa on their table. One was red. One was green. And the other looked like some kind of melted cheese. They ordered their drinks and Madison wondered how in the heck she was even going to eat with her stomach doing tosses and turns around this Jack. She would have to try.

"Hey this looks good but for some reason I'm not hungry." Jack said.
"Yeah, me either. It's weird. I didn't eat anything this morning... just drank some coffee." She remembered that stupid alarm clock.
"Yeah, me too..." He said smiling "Oh well, we'll have to try."
It was truly strange how he could repeat things out loud that she only thought in her head. This was a good sign... a very good sign, indeed.
They both looked in their menus and found some different versions of the Breakfast Cakes Julio had bragged about. Just then the waiter approached them.
"Hi. My name's Enrique. I'll be your server today. How are you both doing on this lovely morning?" He began.
Just hearing the word 'lovely' made Jack instinctively look at Madison. Embarrassed, he smiled.
"We're good. We just left the boat show." Jack told him.
"Oh, is it pretty cool?" Enrique inquired.
"Very cool. You should totally check it out. Make sure and go into the 'Trick Out My Boat' section. They have the neatest gadgets on those boats. There's one we picked out should we ever get rich." She looked at Jack teasingly.
Jack felt flattered that she included him in her future. It was a sweet gesture on her part and made him feel very good.
"I'll definitely have to do that. For our special, today, we have our new Panqueque De Manana... these are a sort of pancake but there made with a thicker tortilla that is deep-fried and covered with butter and powdered sugar and has a side of warm maple syrup. We serve them with Papas Freir or 'fried potatoes' and 2 eggs, your choice scrambled or fried." He was very good at his job. That was a lot to memorize.
"That's what I came for." Jack stated.
"Yes, me too." Madison agreed.

They completed their order and then just relaxed into each other's eyes and had a moment of silence that was so warm you would've thought their hearts were going to melt. They began to talk again about life and the future and it was so sweet. These two people were so nice and kind, it was no wonder they had met each other. It was good fortune because they deserved each other. Laughing came easy and words just flowed. The silences were all comfortable and they both felt it.

It was in the middle of one of Jack's sentences that Madison remembered her idea of writing about them. Should she tell him? Not yet, she thought. This conversation is too interesting... maybe another time.
They spent two entire hours in that restaurant. All of the people were so friendly and it was so heavenly all lit up. It was a happy place. They both enjoyed the surroundings and each other.

Afterward, they both walked out on the back deck and found some stairs to an upper deck. Jack grabbed Madison's hand playfully and led her as they both giggled up the stairs. At the top, he pulled her in for a kiss. This time he made sure his hands were both holding hers. He could do this forever, he thought... Being with her. It was what dreams were made of.