The Eternity that Follows (6 page)

When Joey broke up with Stephaine, he wasn’t at all
interested in dating someone new. He had just started working for
Ted, and he wanted to get himself settled in life before giving any
of his attention to any girls. He felt he had his whole life ahead of
him to have sex, plus he figured he was just too selfish to care for
someone other then himself. He focused his attention on his work,
and then he meet his next girlfriend was also from Mandala,
Savannah, who was much different from the Mandala cheerleader.
She wasn’t into the party scene or in with the popular crowd. In
fact, she had been an eighteen-year-old virgin, Joey being nineteen
himself. Joey and Savannah dated for a year and a half, six of
those being months Joey spent in jail for assault. She had written
him letters everyday, confessing her love, and visited him often.
When Joey was released from Jail, he realized he had no feelings
for her, but felt he couldn’t break up with her right away. They had
sex the first night he got out, which he knew was to happen
through the letters she wrote to him. In her letters she told him
she was ready, and couldn’t wait for him to get out of jail. After
making love to her, Joey realized he did have deep feelings for her.
They made love for months, and Joey thought they were going to
spend the rest of their lives together. He was forced to break up
with her after she confessed to sleeping with someone new saying,
‘I just wanted to see what it would be like, to be with someone
else.’ Joey was unforgiving and had his heart broken.

That was a few months before he turned twenty-one. The
night of his twenty first birthday, Gavin brought him out to
Mandala, and his crew of old, high school football teammates were
out at the bar they went to. They quickly accepted Joey back into
the group, and claimed he was the one that stopped talking to them.
Joey got extremely drunk that night, and wanted to simply take a
girl home, this was after he had heard countless tales from his prior
teammates about how easy the women in Mandala were, and how
good casual sex felt. Just a one night stand with a lady that you
didn’t care for. From the time Joey turned twenty-one till the time
he got his DWI, he had random sexual encounters with more than
twenty of girls he had meet, mostly in Mandala. Joey tried to
shrug his sexual past from his mind, thinking about how he had
goodness in his heart when it came to sleeping around, but the fear
of how Gabriella would recact crept up on him.

When Joey had first gotten out of jail from his DWI, he
was done with the Mandala girls, and sleeping around. He thought
long and hard in jail about how many girls’ hearts he had broken,
and vowed never to be that way again. He sat there night after
night remembering the night he had lost his virginity, and how he
wished he could take his whole sexual past back. He stopped
sleeping with women all together until he met, Diana and she
broke down his guards. He was hooked after the first night of
being with her, but as he was making love to her, he realized she
wasn’t his vision of his dream girl. Joey gave up on finding his
dream girl, and continued his relationship with Diana. When she
broke up with him for another man, and confessed she had been
sleeping with him for their whole relationship, Joey was crushed
and heart broken, but he remembered back to his blueprints, that
were beginning to be put to life, and realized she wasn’t his dream
girl anyway. He vowed another vow of celibacy, but gave in time
to time cause well, men had their needs.

Both Joey and Gabrielle spent their days thinking about
each other and their sexual past. They both felt regret on their
decisions of sleeping around, and both wished for a romance to
spark between each other. They both wanted the same thing, a
love that would last forever.

Gabriella was surprised, Danielle had called to make plans
for that Sunday night, being it was unlike Danielle to go out on
Sunday night. Danielle mentioned, her boss was off on vacation,
and she didn’t have to go in till late to answer phones. Gabriella
was pleased they would be going out together. She couldn’t help
but wish to see Joey out, and was thankful she didn’t have to be
with all her other friends for the night. She didn’t like how Jemma
disapproved of Joey so quick, and both Sara and Josephine had a
tendency of taking sides in matters like this. Gabriella hadn’t even
spoken to her friends all day, avoding their phone calls. Gabriella
and Danielle decided to go to Cascades’s since it was a clear,
beautiful, and warm summer night.

Gabriella decided to check her facebook before going out.
When she saw Josh’s friend request, she recognized him as being
Joey‘ friend, she then grew intriguingly excited. When she went to
his page, she saw that he was from Candlewood. She grew even
more excited as she clicked on his profile picture to see the rest of
the album. In the second picture of the album, was a picture of
Josh and Joey.
“Wow Joey! You’re so dreaming.” She said, aloud as she saw the
picture. She went through the rest Josh’s profile album, but there
were no more pictures of Joey. There were many pictures of Josh
and some girl with a tag name of Anna Banana. Anna was a
beautiful girl, she thought, and Josh wasn’t bad looking himself.
Gabriella found her self back to Josh’s second picture, dreamily
starting at Joey. She right clicked the picture, saving it to her
computer. She then heard Danielle’s beep outside, and quickly ran
out, smitten, realizing she had spent a good ten minutes looking at
a picture of her dream man.

Joey heard from Josh, Gabriella accepted his friend request,
and that she was single. Joey then coursed Gavin into going out to
the bar with him when Gabriella updated her face book status
saying she would be at Cascades for the night. He was happy she
was single, and he was glad to have the chance to see her again.

Gabriella and Danielle had been sitting down at one of the
tableson the deck for twenty minutes, sipping their amaretto sour
drinks. Gabriella had just finished telling Danielle all about her
encounters with Joey. She also filled her in on the things Jemma
had said, and how his friend had requested her on Facebook.
Danielle could tell how excited Joey made Gabriella as she was
bubbly and smiling throughout her stories.

When Joey walked in, he walked down to the bar that
aligned the deck. Gabriella spotted him right away, after all she
was on the lookout for him. She pointed him out to Danielle
simply saying,
“there he is,” before he would notice her sitting there. She didn’t
want to get caught pointing him out.

Danielle looked over while Gabriella got a good long, hard
look. He had his back turned to her, as him and Gavin were
waiting to purchase a drink. She hadn’t recognized his friend at
all, and had never seen him around Mandala before. She noted that
Joey had a cute butt, and although he was tall and lean, he was
filled with muscle. She started fantasying over what his back
looked like naked. She had a thing for muscular backs, often
fantasying about touching her dream mans back while he made
love to her.
“I can’t see his face” Danielle squealed.
“Shh.” Gabriella protested. “I don’t want him hearing you, just
don’t look any more.”

Danielle burst out into laughter causing people to turn in
their direction.
“You’re so cute, Gabriella.”

Gabriella wasn’t laughing, but Danielle’s comment had
made her giggle along with her friends loud laughter. Joey heard
the laughter, and turned his head over, spotting Gabriella. He
proceeded to turn his whole body, and Gavin followed as he felt
Joey turning, being their shoulders were touching at the crowded
bar. Joey then back handed Gavin’s chest and announced,
“there she is.”

Gabriella was now looking at him, and noticed how he
excitedly grabbed his friends’ attention, and she was sure he was
pointing her out.
“Wow she is gorgeous.” Gavin replied. Even though he had
already gathered that from her profile picture on Facebook.
“Woah he is hot.” Danielle said to Gabriella.
“I know shh.”
“Shh for what? It’s not like he can hear me. Why is he just
standing there looking at you?”

Joey’s back was now leaned against the bar and he was
looking at Gabriella. She wished she were standing too as she
started to blush from his stare. Joey was unsure what to do. He
turned his body back to the bar, and took a sip of the drink Gavin
had ordered him while he was staring at Gabriella. She 'so damn
beautiful', he thought, as her beauty made his sexual drive race.
He took a sip of his drink, and proceeded to face forward.
“Go talk to him” Danielle said to Gabriella, with a giggle knowing
she would never do such a thing.
“I can’t go up and talk to him. I don’t know him.” Gabriella said,
frustrated. She would have hoped he would have come over and
talk to her.

Joey plainly stood at the bar sipping his beer. He was
scared to turn back around. He wanted to get out of there fast. He
couldn’t help himself before, but stand and stare at her for a few
minutes. Gabriella had looked right back at him. At times, turning
back from his stare to chat with her friend, but his eyes kept
drawing hers back to his. He realized he couldn’t wait to meet this
girl anymore, he would begin to drive himself crazy all week
thinking about her. He had to do something, but he wasn’t sure
how to approach her.

Joey still stood there, drinking his beer, not paying much
attention to Gavin. He started to think about his business. He
decided, a girl in his life wouldn’t hold back his career goals. If
she felt deep enough about him, she would be patient he had to
work late every night, and wouldn’t be able to take her out during
the week.
Joey then grabbed a quick draw slip from the stand in
front of him, and a pencil too. He jotted down Gavin’s address.
He downed the rest of his beer, and then ordered Gavin to do the
same. He walked over to where Gabriella was sitting. He was
confident, he was feeling secure, he had noticed how she had
started at him with the same intentions he had. He reached the
table and placed the quick draw slip with Gavin’s address down on
the table. And simply said,
“me and my friend are throwing a party Friday night. You should
come.” And then he walked away, grabbing his friend first, and
was then right out of the bar.

Joey realized after, he had put her on the spot, and that his
behavior was rude of him. He hoped she would find the
thoughtfulness to his gesture. He wasn’t much for small talk, and
he wasn’t one to introduce himself to a girl unless he wanted to
take them home. Gabriella was different to him though. He
wanted to treat her better than the way he had treated women in the
past.

Joey and Gavin had just reached Gavin’s Camaro. Gavin
held off a moment before unlocking the doors with his remote.
“Dude why did you write my address down and give it to her?”
“You’re having a party Friday night.” Joey said, with a wide
smirk. Gavin started laughing hard.
“Are you kidding me?” He said, not being mad at all.
“I didn’t know what else to do.” Joey said, seeing the humor in his
hosting a party at Gavin’s house without his permission. He
started laughing too.
“Does she even know your name?” Gavin asked, bringing Joey
down with his question.

Joey started to wonder if she did. He had hoped she asked
her friends about him last night at Mackenzie’s. He was sure they
all saw him standing over the man he knocked out. He knew
Jemma was familiar with him. That thought led to what Jemma
must have said about him. He started to panic, knowing girls
didn’t portray him in good light, especially when they were
jealous.
“I hope she did her research about me.” Joey finally said.
“So you just assume that she’s into you?”
“Oh she’s interested.” Joey smirked again, recalling the way she
had looked at him.
“Well how do you know?”
“The way she looks at me.”
“Got it.” Gavin said, not wanting to press his friend on the issue.

After Joey had left the bar Gabriella was smitten.
“Aww.” She said after Joey was out of ear shot.
“Was he inviting you or me?” Danielle joked.
“Well I guess both.”
“No, I was just kidding” Danielle said, feeling bad for taking away
from Gabriella’s moment.
“Well I know he was talking to me, but he wouldn’t expect me to
come alone.”
“You’re so funny sometimes. Are you excited or what?”
“Yes, but I’m scared. We haven’t even met yet. I feel awkward
just walking into a party.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a party you bring a few friends with
you, and you may even know a few people there. Plus if he invited
you to go, he’s going to have to talk to you.”
“Okay, but you have to come.”
“I don’t know if I can. Shawn has plans to go out with his boys
from work and I don’t know if I can get a sitter.” Danielle said,
unsure if she wanted to go to some random guys party anyway.
“Well try. I can’t bring Jemma, she doesn’t like him, and I can’t
ask Josephine or Sara and expect them not to tell her.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll try my hardest to come with you.”

The girls finished up their drinks, mingled a little at the bar
and then retired home. Gabriella placed the quick draw slip by her
bedside and fell asleep smiling. Joey too, was at home in bed, kept
up from a smile, and then falling into a sound sleep.

It was a long week for both Joey and Gabriella. Joey spent
the week working hard at work, while also planning the party. He
contemplated over and over in his head if he had approached
Gabriella the right way. He was scared all week that she wouldn’t
even bother showing up to the party. He feared that to become the
case, and wondered how he would approach her again, if she stood
him up. He found confidence in himself though, when he thought
back to the way she looked at him. ‘She was sure to come,’ he
thought, he just knew she would.