That Last Little Spark

The cab ride was just as silent as it was last night, except that the quiet tonight was more peaceful and natural than awkward and tense.

But the peacefulness was shattered when Jess gasped and pointed out the window. There was a crowd of people with cameras, moving down the block, scrunched around a person that she couldn’t see. And they were headed right for Pietrasanta.

“Oh no.” she groaned.

“Do you trust me?” Bam suddenly asked, gripping her hand carefully.

“Why?” she asked curiously.

“Do you trust me?” he asked again.

“Yeah...why?” she asked. Bam dug in his pocket and pulled out a twenty.

“You can let us out here. Keep the change.” he tossed the bill through the little window and got out in the middle of traffic.

“Bam! What are you doing?” she exclaimed in disbelief. He ran around to her side of the car and opened the door.

“You go in first. Act casual. And hurry!” He pointed at the door to the restaraunt. The group of paparazzi was getting closer. Jess hurried ahead of Bam, keeping her head down so as not to attract too much attention to herself.

“Bam! Bam! Who’s the girl from the pictures?” the flurry of people and cameras closed in around Bam as Jess slipped into the restaurant unnoticed.

Hidden from view by the tinted windows of the restaraunt, Jess watched and heard Bam talk about things like Jackass and his family, making up a complete lie about why he was really in the city. She couldn’t help smiling, watching how well he handled the cameras. He made a smooth escape when he pointed out a ‘famous person’ across the street and the crowd ran through 2 lanes of buses and taxi cabs.

He looked a little worn when he came through the door of the restaraunt. His hair was tousled and his jacket was wrinkled, but he was still smiling.

“Very smooth exit.” she voiced her thought. “Sending a bunch of people running through rush hour traffic to photograph someone who isn’t even there.” she giggled and smoothed out his jacket.

“Just think of it as real life Frogger.”

“You’re horrible.” Jess laughed.

“How many times have you been here?” Bam asked as the two were shown to their table by Linda, their waitress for the night.

“More than I can count. The girls and I usually come here before going to a show or a club or something. The food is wonderful.” she explained, smiling when Bam pulled out her chair for her.

“You like the nightlife?” he grinned.

“We’re in the city that never seems to sleep, Bam. It’s fun to get carried away by the bright lights sometimes.” she sighed in content.

“What shows have you seen?” he asked, feeling like they were on a first date, they way they were talking right now.

“We saw Mamma Mia...three weeks ago, I think. And then last month we saw Hairspray. The first one we ever saw as a group was Phantom of the Opera. Amazing. And Erica’s talking about seeing Wicked,” she paused when Linda came back to take their drink orders. Surprising Jess, Bam asked for a Coke. She looked at him for a few seconds before doing the same.

“Anyway, Erica was talking about seeing Wicked, but I don’t know if we’ll get to see it in time. They’re going to Paris for their honeymoon and they’ll be gone for the next two weeks. Wicked’s only here for another three weeks. Plus with all of the money they’re spending, she probably won’t have any money to see it. So...some other time, I guess.” she brought her shoulders up in a half shrug.

Bam said nothing. He nodded sympathetically and sipped his drink, trying not to smile so he didn’t give away his surprise.

“By the way, speaking of Erica...a few of the wedding guests bailed at the last minute, meaning that they just lost about two hundred dollars, but Erica wanted to know if there was any family or friends that you wanted to invite. She said she doesn’t want you to feel awkward only knowing me and a few of the bridesmaids. The only thing is that if you invite anyone like Raab or Dunn, or God forbid, Novak, NO Jackass or Viva la Bam stunts.” Jess explained.

“How many people bailed?” he asked.

“Three. She said you could bring anyone, but she was kind of iffy on Novak and Steve-O. Especially Novak.” she added.

“Novak and bridesmaids plus alcohol. No, he can stay home. And I don’t think Steve-O can make it. I’ll figure it out tomorrow. I’ll definitely bring Ape, though. I know she wants to see you again.” he thought.

The evening continued on like that: casual conversation in a warm and almost romantic atmosphere. Bam found that he agreed with Jess when she had said that the food was great. They both shared an appetizer of Mozzarella Frita, fried mozzarella, Jess ordered the Chicken Parmagiana, and Bam, after flipping through the menu a couple of times, settled on the Chicken Pietrasanta. For dessert, they couldn’t decide between the New York Cheesecake or the Gelati and Sorbet, so they got both and split them.

Meanwhile, Jess was forgetting everything about the past few days. The tension, the stress, the worry...all of it was melting away as she and Bam talked more about things that they remembered from their high school days.

As they left the restaraunt, Bam found it easy to blend in among the hundreds, maybe thousands of people that they shared the sidewalk with. Everything was so busy. Taxi cabs and buses dominated the streets. Food vendors shouted over the steady humming of cars and people talking. Over all of that, music played from every store and restaraunt. And he finally realized what Jess meant when she had talked about how it was to get carried away with all of the bright lights of the city nightlife.