An entire minute had passed and still neither had spoken.
Another minute had passed before either of them realised, and both were about to speak when all of a sudden,
“David?  David Jacobs, is that really you?” at which point both turned to look at Ella.  “Jessica, I didn’t realise you knew Mr Jacobs!” she all but cried.
Jessica, glancing at him said, “But I have never met him before now.”
“How peculiar,” laughed Ella, “from the way you two were just staring at one another, I could have sworn…?”
At this point, David took the initiative to speak up, “Miss Cox, it is you then?  Perhaps you would be kind to introduce me to your companion.”
Ella raised a hand to her mouth, “Of course, do forgive me, Miss Jessica Faileas, I’d like you to meet Mr David Jacobs, Mr Jacobs and I were friends when we were a lot younger, and Miss Faileas is an acquaintance I’ve had the pleasure of being friends with since the resettling.”
Jessica offered him her hand which he took, his touch gentle as he raised it to his lips.  The light kiss sent shivers into the bodies of both parties, whilst the entire time their eyes were locked.  “It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Faileas,” he said without releasing her hand and without pulling away she replied, “It’s a pleasure to be met, sir.”
There was another pause.
Eventually Ella spoke, “we must be getting back to your siblings, half an hour is almost up.” 
Seeing smiles suddenly disappear from both faces she hastened to add, “Would you perhaps escort us back to the library?”
Both smiles quickly returned and taking Jessica’s hand, which he still held, he drew it through before offering Ella the other.
The three of them walked back towards the library with deliberately small steps.  The conversation initially consisted of Ella and David talking about the old days, but he quickly turned his attention to Jessica and Ella ended up spending the rest of the walk almost in silence.
When they reached the library, David bowed to them and suggested meeting for lunch the following day, to which both women heartily agreed to.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said looking into her eyes again.  “I’ll look forward to it,” she replied, “Good night, till tomorrow.”
He bowed again and headed with an evident air of regret in the direction of his rooms.
That night neither Jessica nor David got any sleep.

The following morning, Ella arrived to join Jessica and Aurora for the women’s swim.  Clarissa was apparently feeling too unwell to join them and none were in the mood to tell her again that she had brought it upon herself, that so much alcohol consumption could lead to no other feeling in the morning.
After the swim the ladies took to the shower.
“I’m sorry about last night,” Jessica said turning to Ella, “we didn’t mean to block you out of the conversation like that, it’s just, I don’t know, there seemed to be ever so much to talk about and…” here she trailed off.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she replied over the noise of the jets of water, “I was tired and didn’t have much to say,” she gave a sideways glance to her friend, “besides,” she smiled, “you two seemed to be getting along famously, and I didn’t much want to get in the way.”
Jessica smiled widely and let out a breath that contained a laugh and said in a highly sarcastic tone, “Why my dearest Ella, I’m sure I haven’t the slightest idea of what you could possibly mean.”
And bubbling with laughter they left the showers and went in search of Aurora who had planted herself in the pool’s café ahead of them.

By mid-day, Jessica could barely contain herself from sprinting to the café where he had suggested, and even harder pressed not to quiz her friend nonstop about him.  As it was she found it completely impossible to stop her heart from fluttering in such a manner.
When they finally reached the restaurant he was already waiting for them.  They saw him first and it soothed Jessica’s tension greatly by seeing a look upon his face that showed that he was feeling exactly what she was feeling, and found herself smiling for it and even more so for seeing him again.
Upon their approach to the table he saw them and seeing her again with a smile on her face such as that, his own smile rose to his face in greeting.
They all three sat and talked through out lunch.  Once they had finished their food and sat talking about what life was like for each of them as children, before their lifestyles had changed at the end of the war.
After a few minutes Ella took a lengthy glance at a nearby clock.
“I’m afraid to tell you that at this time I must take my leave of you, I promised to meet my friend for a game of squash”
Sensing the waves of disappointment as both of her friends turned to the thought that Jessica was to accompany her, she turned to David, “I hate to drag Jessica along to a game in which she would have little input.”  She paused as though searching her own mind for an answer to which they all suspected before she even uttered, “Why David, are you otherwise occupied this afternoon?”
He smiled gratefully and replied, “indeed no, I have the next two month without a single engagement thus far.”  “Then perhaps you could entertain my friend for a while?” she asked, almost seeming as though her face seemed about to split with the grin that had spread across it, “Miss Faileas, what do you think on my suggestion.”
Trying to appear embarrassed at her friend’s obviousness but failing in letting a slight smile creep onto her lips, she replied, “Well as long as Mr Jacobs doesn’t mind, I should be glad of the company.”
Turning to face Jessica he smiled a warm, almost intimate smile that at the very sight of it her heart began beating wildly, “I would be honoured if Miss Faileas would join me, but I would ask you to call me David.”
Her expression at his request was so naturally enraptured that she struggled to maintain herself, “Of course, David, but only as long as you would call me Jessica.”
Ella’s eyebrows had risen so far up her forehead by this point that they looked about to fly off.  She had just sacrificed her afternoon for the good of her friends and, seeming, she had already been rewarded for her efforts.  “Well you two have a lovely afternoon without me as you can,” and thanking David for the meal, she walked away.
For a little while they said nothing but smiled over \the rims of their drinks.
“You two seemed to have had a lovely friendship when you were younger, I was not so lucky to have such companions until my brother and sister were born.”
“Yes, I remember you saying,” he said with a look of concern on his face, “I also remember that you omitted to tell much of your early teenage years,” and seeing a blush went on to say, “I don’t wish to pry but I must admit to being rather curious.”
She smiled at him, “It is quite public knowledge of how I spent my fourteenth year.  I’ve no doubt that you would hear it from someone or other sooner or later. 
“I, for my families sake, tend to avoid bringing it up.”  She gave a slight sigh and glanced at her shoulder, then back to his gently enquiring eyes and seemed to change her mind, “but I’d like to tell you, I think that you may not be as shocked as many, or rather all, others have been.”

“During my fourteenth year, I was a lonely girl, my father was off trying to sort out the war, my brother and sister were neither of them reached double digits and my mother had been too preoccupied with them to allow much time for me.  I was going through a stage of social awkwardness and I so I had no close friends.
In an effort to get me some more friends, my mother sent me to a weekend club, where several other kids my age would gather.  After a short while there the only group of kids that had notice me, took me under their wing.  We began meeting up after school and at other times, even then I knew that they weren’t good lids but I didn’t care because I had friends.
“They told me that they were Stand supporters, and though I definitely didn’t support the Stands, I refused to give them up.  Besides they never hurt or threatened anyone, they just did things like graffiti walls, smoking, cutting class, not bothering to pay to ride the shuttles, and all of those sorts of things.  One of their mothers was a tattoo artist, she was also a secret Stand supporter and so had no problem dealing out body art to her daughters friends.
“During that year we were constantly being hassled, and rightly so, by the police.  I was even detained over night, but I was cleared because of my father’s work throughout the war.”
Pausing for a moment to catch her breath, Jessica tried to gauge what his reaction was, but his face was still, showing very little of what he thought, save a little concern, but concern for what?  Could she believe that the concern was for her, more likely it was for the fact that he was seen publicly with such a person?
Finding it hard to consider the latter she ploughed on.
“On the day of my fifteenth birthday my father came home, at the time I even held the hope that he had come especially to see me.  However after the evening meal he told us the real reason for his return.
In one months time he was to go in a ship names Saviour into the Earth’s orbit where there was to be a great movement to decide the war, at that he didn’t hold much hope of returning.
“We were all devastated, myself so much so that I resolved to be a better daughter, so that when he left, he’d at least want to come back.
“And so within that month I forced myself to change.  I stayed home more to help my mother with Anthony and Aurora, sunk my head into my studies and even stopped hanging around with the Stand wannabes.  That was the hardest part, to try and tell them that I wasn’t one of them any more, they made me feel so guilty for abandoning them and even turned mean, saying that when the Stands won the war they would come after me.
“I would have caved in if it hadn’t been for my father and mother, their support and guidance through that time was invaluable.
“The day my father left for the orbit he told me how proud he was of me, and that I must look after my family once he were gone.  I promised him I would.
I thought I would never see him again, the farewell was very upsetting, but I felt satisfied that he knew that I wouldn’t let him down.
“And I won’t.”
Here she stopped and sank back into her seat.  Seeing the look of concern growing in his face wrought her with anxiety.
After a few moments he spoke.
“Did your father return?”
Slightly startled at his response she found herself unable to speak, so he spoke for her, “your father was Jared Faileas wasn’t he?”
She found herself nodding.
“Jared Faileas,” he continued, sounding impressed, “one of the three that returned.”
“Yes,” said Jessica, her voice almost at a whisper as that familiar lump rose in her throat, “He died almost a year ago.”
At this David’s attention was brought back to her face just as a tear crept over the edge of her lower lid and down her cheek. “I am sorry,” he said softly moving slightly closer, “I didn’t mean to press so hard, we don’t need to talk about this any more.”
She shook her head and wiping away the tear, she smiled, “it’s alright, I just miss him is all it is.”
He nodded.
“So,” Jessica flourished, “now you know the truth about me.  Do you feel you can risk your reputation by conversing with me?  I will understand if you decide to leave.”
At this statement his face took on a look of shock.  “No indeed!”  He pulled his chair closer still and taking her hand in a comforting manner, “I think it quite strange, but I find I shouldn’t care if you had been a Stand supporter.”  She brought her eyes up to meet his.  “It doesn’t matter to me what you were, it’s who you are now that counts.”  He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it lightly.
“Now,” he said raising them both to their feet, “I believe the air is more circulated around the observation decks and forgive me for saying so, but I dare say you could use some.
At her nod he drew her arm through his and they made their way from the restaurant.