Chapter 3: I'll Miss You

Summary: Again with the whole, giving away the plot thing...so...LAST CHAPTER! WOO-HOO!

Note: Can you guess who Alfredo's daughter is? Or the mommy??? I don't know! Hope you like it!!!!!!!!!! (As you can tell I'm extremely happy what with all the exclamation points!!!!!! :) Don't ask me why I'm happy b/c I can't answer that question!!!!!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Okay I'll stop now. Here's the story!!!!!!:

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

Christmas time. My favorite time of the year. Everyone's so happy and caring, and they always leave me big tips! Unfortunately, I'm not having such a good tipping day. Apparently, nobody's has the Christmas spirit today. Phooey! I walked over to a table.

"What can I get you?" I said, not bothering to look up. Stupid customer probably won't tip me anyway.

"Coffee and warm fries. They're just so good. And a smile wouldn't hurt either," the person said. I looked up to see...POSEIDON! My face lit up.

"HEY! Took you long enough to stop by, sheesh!" I scolded him. "I'm hurt."

"I'm sorry. How can I make it up to you?" he asked me. Well...there are quite a few ways, but I don't think those would be appropriate to say when a six-year old and Alfredo are standing this close...or just two six-year olds...

"I might forgive you if you come over to my place for a bit," I said thoughtfully.

"Might, huh? Well, I guess I'll have to settle for those odds," he said, smiling. I smiled back.

"I'll be right back with your coffee," I told him, going back behind the counter.

"Isn't that the guy that you left with around spring-time earlier this year?" Alfredo asked. Man, that guy's got a good memory.

"Yeah. So?"

"So, I'm just sayin' he hasn't been here in a while querida Sally, and just in case he's a deadbeat..."

"Stop it! I don't even like him that way!"

"Sure sure. I see the way you look at him. It's amour!" he sighed.

"Is amour even Spanish!?" I laughed.

"Maybe, maybe not, but that's not the point!" he said.

"I've got to serve some coffee Alfredo!"

After my shift, we head straight over to my apartment, and thank goodness I had Alfredo come over to help me clean it! It's so clean, it's almost shiny!

"I see you decided to do some extremely late spring-cleaning," Poseidon noted.

"Yeah, well, that's me, always procrastinating." I take him to the kitchen, because I'm hungry! He sits down on one of the chairs and I look through my freezer for a TV dinner. After finding one that sounds fairly appetizing, I put it in the microwave.

"Do you want anything?" I asked. What do gods eat? Besides fries and coffee?

"No thanks."

"So...how's married life suiting Clifford and Fauna?"

"Good so far. Fauna's pregnant actually. She wants to name the baby after her nephew, but Clifford pointed out he hasn't done anything yet. I don't think she cares though," he told me.

"Really? What's her nephew's name?" I asked him.

"Grover."

"That's a nice name," I told him. What's with satyrs all having weird names? Clifford, Grover, Pan? What the heck?!

"Yeah." We sit in silence for a while. There so much I want to say but every time I get up the nerve, I remember that promise he made never to have kids. Do pregnancy pills work when you do it with a god? Is that a stupid question for me to be thinking about?

The microwave beeps and I take my dinner out. I sit down next to Poseidon and dig in. He stared at me. Not in a creepy way. Like I was the only person that existed and he was perfectly fine sitting here with me. At least that's how I hope he was staring at me. I started the conversation first, and we talked about everything. We get along so well, like we were meant to be together. NO, SCRATCH THAT! We can't be made for each other. For some reason I start thinking about Alfredo. With him and his dirty mind, I start thinking about sex. Because of that promise, has Poseidon gone without sex for around sixty years? I mean, I wouldn't care but that's because I haven't had sex yet. If you've never had it, you can't miss it. What's he done...then it dawned on me. The water nymphs. He can have sex with them. I suddenly felt extremely jealous. Why do I feel jealous? He's not my...anything. Why do I feel jealous?! This is so weird!!!

"Have you read any good Greek or Roman books lately?" Poseidon asked, pulling back to reality.

"Um...I just finished this one book about Roman assassins. I'd been wanting to read it for a while but the first one was never checked in. I loved it and I just bought them all," I told him.

"Sounds interesting." By that time I had finished my dinner. I threw it in the trash can, then stood for a second.

"Do you want to see them?" I asked. He smiled and got up to follow me into my room. He looked at the books and started reading the back. I flopped down on my bed, nervous for some odd reason. He sat down next to me after a while and began to read the book. I laid down on my pillow and put my legs across his lap. I started playing with my hair, twirling it and braiding it. He leaned back a bit, against the wall. It was all so peaceful. We didn't have to talk. We could just...be.

At least until the heat went off.

"Stupid Gabe," I muttered. I felt Poseidon laugh, shaking the bed. After a while I started to get cold. I shivered a bit and I guess Poseidon noticed because he started to rub my leg. It was so sentimental, that I couldn't help but think about what would happen if I put my hand over his at this very moment. I closed my eyes but all I saw was him. I sat up quickly, too quickly, and he gave me a funny look.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Just cold," I mumbled, or something like that anyway. He pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my arms. What would happen if I turned my head just a bit, enough to catch the corner of his mouth with mine? Would he pull away? Or would he lean in, kissing me back? What if, what if, what it? He suddenly kissed my hair. LET'S HOLD UP HERE! Put the dump truck in reverse and slowly back it up here! I thought he didn't want to tempt me? Well, that was tempting all right. I couldn't take it. I turned my head and kissed the corner of his mouth. He froze for a second and I thought he was going to pull back. I started to pull away but then he pulled me tighter and kissed me back.

Alfredo always said that when you kiss "the one" for the first time, you'll know. It'll be instinctual, like animal attraction. Well, forget animal attraction that was too tame a phrase for it. Electrical attraction seemed like not enough either! It was like in "Juliet Dove, Queen of Love" when they were describing the Greek words for love. One was agrape or something like that. It didn't translate to a word in English. It was a love that was so right, so pure, so meant to be in the stars, that there was simply no word to describe it. THAT'S what this felt like.

He laid me back onto the bed, never missing a beat. I'd never been kissed like that. It was like he was in no hurry, he had all eternity to kiss me, but at the same time, he only had a few minutes, so he was getting everything he could out of it. I knotted my hand in his hair, pulling him closer. His hand was under my shirt all of a sudden. This is going really fast. I remember thinking that. What's going on? Why don't I want him to stop? Why am I...oh. His shirt isn't on anymore. Did I do that? He changed from my lips to my neck. I shivered, but not from the cold. It's going so fast.

But at the same time, this is perfect. We're perfect, together.

ONE MONTH LATER

I'm really confused. I'm at work right now and Poseidon is waiting for me, but he's really jittery. He's tapping his fingers, his foot, shaking his leg. I don't understand it. We've been so happy the last month. He comes over every night and we hang out. So why is he so nervous?

"Alfredo! I'm leaving!" I call to Alfredo.

"Come here for a second!" he calls from the refrigerator. "That boy...if says 'We need to talk'...you be prepared for the worst alright?" he says to me.

"Alfredo! He's not going to say that!"

"Why? Cause you are 'soul mates'? I thought I had a soul mate. She was beautiful. I compared her beauty to Aphrodite herself. But to me, she was beautiful on the inside too. She told me no one had ever told her that before. She disappeared for a while, said it was 'family business'. She showed up almost a year later, dropped a baby off and I saw her ride off with a biker guy. I was so mad. Sometimes your 'soul mate' isn't really what you think they are," Alfredo says. I never knew who the mother of his baby girl, Silena, was. He calls her Silena B. though. She likes Junie B. Jones, so he calls her Silena B. I don't know what the B. stands for though. From that story it sounds like she really was Aphrodite.

"Alfredo don't worry. If it'll make you feel better, I'll call her later okay?" I say. He smiles sadly, pats my back, and goes back to his stove. I hang up my apron and run over to Poseidon.

"I'm ready," I say.

"Good."

"WHAT!? I CAN'T BE PREGNANT! THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! WE JUST HAD SEX! YOU CAN'T KNOW AFTER ONE MONTH! IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A MONTH! IT'S BEEN THREE WEEKS!" I scream at Poseidon. He looks like he is in pain. "Sorry for yelling," I say to him hurriedly. I climb onto the bed with him. He just looks at me sadly.

"It's true. Don't ask me how I know, I just do," he says.

"But...okay. So I'm pregnant. What do we do with the baby? She or he is going to be powerful. That's going to attrack a lot of big bad scary guys. How do I keep she or he safe?" I ask him.

"Camp Half-Blood. The baby will be safe there. Just a warning: all half-bloods are dyslexic and have ADHA, so don't blame the kid too much," he tells me.

"Camp Half-Blood. Wait, if I bring my baby there, will I ever see it again?"

"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is the baby will be safe," Poseidon tells me.

"What do I do?" I ask him.

"I need to leave."

No. My heart is breaking, I'm choking. He can't leave.

"NO! You're not leaving!"

"I have to! If Zeus finds out, do you know how much trouble I'll be in!? Hades will have a fit too. It won't be pretty. Possibly a civil war! I have to pretend nothing is happening," he says. It sounds like he's pleading with me asking my permission to leave. I don't know what to do.

"I'll watch over you. I'll try to help you whenever I can!" he says. He's on the floor in front of me now, on his knees. He's holding my hands, and for once, his eyes aren't bright. They're stormy, dark, and sad. "Alfredo can help. Just ask him if his daughter can do special things, and he'll help you. Please," he pleads. One tear slips down his cheek. I kiss it away.

"Alriht. I'll miss you." I say.

"I'll miss you too." Poseidon gets up, kisses my cheek, and walks to the door. He stands there for a second. I lay down on the bed, clutching my stomach.

"I've never met anyone like you Sally Jackson," he says. And then, so quietly, I might have imagined it: "I love you."

I like to think that I really heard that one.