Part 3

No, I did NOT forget that I so rudely left you hanging for much longer than was reasonable! I suppose a year and a half is quite long enough so today I present the third part of the "love story," as it's been called. Part four is in the works, as well, kids.

Now where did I leave off... oh yes, the part where a lovestruck Jason had just begun pursuing the woman of his dreams. (You are advised to re-read parts one and two if your memory needs refreshing.)

So onward.

Not surprisingly, Jason started showing up everywhere. Mostly wherever Jess was.

He was invited to celebrate a birthday with Matt's family on April 1st, and ironically posed for a picture with Matt and his future in-laws.

Matt later enjoyed ruining a picture with Jess and Becca (his wife). We really don't know.

Later that month Rebecca managed to snag discounted tickets to the International Festival, and the group made plans to attend together. It was a hot Saturday afternoon when the six of them (Rebecca and April and their husbands, plus Jessica and Jason) squeezed into a pickup truck and made their way downtown.

On the way they stopped at a gas station to fill up. The Jasons went into the convenience store for some snacks and April began a silly conversation inside the truck. Something about Jessica and Jason ending up together.

Jess laughed at the teasing but thought nothing of it until April began to pray:

"Dear God, please let Jason and Jessica get married."

Jess retaliated: "Dear God, please let April have triplets."

After finding parking downtown, nobody had a clue where to find the festival. Jess, however, knew to call her mother, who always knew where everything was. And at last they stumbled upon it, sprawled out in the middle of Houston in all its hot, sticky, crowded glory. It smelled like all the glorious foods one generally finds at a carnival and then some: funnel cake, roasted corn, hot dogs, some Asian-style meat on a stick (!) with peanut sauce, and so on. It was a jumble of colorful costumes and commercialized booths with something to sell and performers and spectators. They passed a karaoke booth and April was almost persuaded to show the current performer how it was done. They entered a drawing at another booth and were given red piggy key chains with some cryptic Chinese symbol in the middle.

The six-some soaked all of this up and then sat beside the wading pool with their fried and roasted treats to watch the ninja show. Yes, a ninja show.

Jason 2 made sure to sit next to Jessica. He threatened to push her into the pool, but as warm as Jessica was she preferred to stay dry and warned him that there would be consequences for such an action.

Some drunk guy didn't mind though, and decided to go splashing around in the pool before security managed to convince him to behave himself.

After the ninja show, everyone was ready to leave (but not before the girls could redeem their last food coupons for some pickles). It was still fairly early and someone suggested ice cream. And so that is the happy thing they pursued by driving to Piccomolo.

Then after a long day of international and local adventures, it was time to part ways.

Jess later discovered that the day at the international festival had been one of Jason's favorite times spent with her, and had only convinced him more that she was something special.

(But she already knew that.)