Never before had Jaime been so nervous to go on a date. He remembered his first date with Jessica back in high school, how he stuttered and ran a hand through his crazy curly hair with that dreadful blonde streak that didn't look right unless he straightened his hair into spikes. Jaime and Jess had dated for almost eight years before they broke up. The love wasn't there anymore. He loved her as a best friend, and she continued to be his best friend, but he wasn't in love with her as a lover.

Now, here he was, fiddling with the steering wheel as he waited for seven o'clock to flick onto his watch. The tour had ended three days ago and Jaime had been in his apartment for the last two, trying to catch up on sleep. It had been a fairly long tour, spanning over the time of two and a half months. Every day, just as promised, Jaime and Winnie had talked on the phone about their day. The topic of their date only came up once just a week before the end of the tour.

"What should I wear?" Winnie had asked him.

Jaime answered, "Something comfortable."

Because, truthfully, Jaime was trying to get comfortable going back into the dating world. He took Jessica on dates every Thursday night, usually something new and exciting, or if he was on tour, they would sit in the back lounge and watch a new movie or play one of the video games or simply be in each other's company. With Vanessa, who he dated for all of maybe a year, it wasn't like that as much. He had met her through Frenchi, being her cousin and all, and Vanessa was extremely high maintenance, unlike Frenchi was.

If Jaime wanted to go on a date, it was to an expensive restaurant where Jaime cringed everytime he swiped his credit card, and then back to her place for drinks and sex.

Don't get him wrong, Jaime did not hate sex, but he looked for something more in a relationship. He looked for what he had with Jessica, a friendship first and foremost before turning it into a romantic relationship.

Jaime took a deep breath and looked down at his feet. He had on his lucky pair of flip flops. Today was going to be a good day, no matter what.

His watch beeped as soon as it flicked to seven o'clock. Jaime stepped out of his SUV and walked up to Winnie's little apartment. It was provided by Disney since she had been there for so long, and Jaime loved the little touch of Ariel that was around her front step. A few other employees were going to and from their own apartments, but Jaime didn't particularly care about them.

All Jaime cared about was the little Disney Princess in apartment A13 that he had come to pick up for a date.

He ran a hand through his hair, making sure there were no odd angles in the spikes before knocking on the pastel purple door. He waited about ten seconds and when he received no answer from Winnie on the other side, Jaime knocked again. With no answer, Jaime turned and looked around. Her little blue car was parked two down from the open space Jaime had slipped into. This was apartment A13. He checked the tarnished silver-coated letters.

A13.

So, Jaime just sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. His last resort was jiggling the door handle to see if it opened. It did.

Jaime rushed in, frightened of why the door would be unlocked. He looks around the living room. The walls were covered with pictures of Disney and her many travels around the world that Disney had given her. There was no Winnie. He checked the kitchen, the side office; both were empty.

He took the stairs two at a time. The first door he came to was the bathroom; the light was off and the door was open. The second door was Winnie's big bedroom. The door was cracked, and the only light was coming from the window that lit the room only dimly. Jaime expected the worst.

He expected to walk in to find her body bloody and dead. He expected to find her eyes staring cold and dead a him. He expected to find her with another guy, crushing his hopes of ever being with her.

However, what Jaime found made his eyes soften and his heart beat slowed down.

Winnie was passed out in her big teal blue bed, a wastebasket on the side of the bed closest to her with a bottle of Pepto and a few empty Gatorades sitting on the bedside table and an old towel lying across her pillow. Her red hair was pulled into a messy bun and her skin was ashy white, clear signs that she had been sick for a fair amount of time.

Jaime sat, softly, on the edge of the bed, and gently shook her shoulder.

"Win, hey, Winnie, sweetie."

She slowly opened her eyes, still half asleep.

"Jaime?" she whispered, her voice cracked and tired. "What are you doing here?"

Jaime chuckled. "I was coming to pick you up for your date."

She's suddenly awake and sits up, but regrets it as soon as she does, Winnie drops her head in her hands and groans. The nausea is back, and Jaime makes her lay back down.

"I'm so sorry, Hime," she says, her voice not as bell-like and sweet like he remembers. "Hanna took me to get Chinese at this new place and I haven't stopped puking since last night. I meant to call you but I left my phone in her car and couldn't. I'm so sorry, Jaime, I really in."

He knew Hanna as one of Winnie's closest friends from Disney; she played Cinderella. Jaime shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Win. I'm just worried about you getting better. Do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

Winnie shakes her head. "No, it should pass by tomorrow. They have Georgina filling in for me until I get better."

Jaime nods. "Do you need me to pick you up anything? Are you hungry? I can make you something light to eat."

She smiled up at him. "Yeah, if you don't mind. There's some rice and bread for toast in the cabinets."

He smiles back, "Okay, give me a few minutes and I'll go make some for you. If you need anything just yell, m'kay?"

"M'kay, Hime."

Jaime leaves her bedroom, sighing to relief to himself, and make his way back into the kitchen to make a little rice and toast for her. It only takes me about ten minutes at most. He puts it all on a plate, grabs a fork and a banana. Holding another bottle of Gatorade under his arm, Jaime treks back up the stairs. She's straightened up, having thrown the empty bottles into the clean wastebasket and straightened the towel on her pillow.

"Rice and toast for the sick Princess," he says, a bit of a tease in his voice, before it sits it in her lap. Winnie smiles, says a small thanks, and slowly eats the meal he made for her. Jaime sits about three feet away, on the other side of the bed, watching her, looking for any signs that she'll be sick again.

"Well, this is an interesting first date," Jaime jokes mid-way through their silence. Winnie giggles, but it's not as bubbly as he remembered it being over the phone. "Maybe next time we'll actually get out of the bed." He adds a little wink, not meaning to add the innuendo in there but his male tendencies couldn't stop him. A faint blush dusts her pale cheeks, but it's nice to finally see some color on her.

Once she's finished, Jaime takes the plate and fork, going back downstairs to put the dirty dishes in the sink. Jaime takes a few moments to himself, his two hands helping him lean against the counter as he stairs at his feet. So much for lucky flip flops. They were completely useless now. She was sink and he couldn't go on his planned date. Maybe it wasn't meant to be?

Jaime leaves the kitchen, but is surprised when he finds Winnie sitting on her couch, wrapped in a blanket, with the beginning music of a Disney movie playing on the television. He knows she should still be in bed, but all he can think to say is:

"I thought you said no dinner and a movie date?"

Winnie gives him a full out laugh, and she has to quickly calm herself before her body rejects the rice and toast.

"Sit down, Jaime, and watch Toy Story with me."

Jaime never turns down getting to watch Toy Story. Never. Never ever.

He jumps onto the couch, sliding to sit beside her, and wraps his arms around her shoulders. Jaime slips out of his "lucky" flip flops and props his feet onto the coffee table as she does the same. About twenty minutes into the movie, while Jaime is too mesmerized by the scene playing out of Woody and Buzz, Winnie pushes her blanket off her over-heating body and simply cuddles into Jaime's side. He looks down, enjoying the feel of her so close to him, and uses his free hand to hold hers, letting his arm keep her close to him. The two watch the movie with a happy smile.

It's the first smile to mark their growing relationship. They are friends, first and foremost, but there is something else there. It was like everything suddenly became clear and the blur of everyday life seemed to ease out, and even though they were both chasing after their dreams, they seemed to be running in the same lane, right beside each other.

Jaime held Winnie close to his side even after the movie was finished and the credits rolled down. The screen was flicked off with a simple push of Winnie's finger over the remote. They sat in silence, but they listened to the silence of each other.

Just after nine o'clock, Jaime shifted himself and slowly began to get off the couch. Winnie looked at him, not quite ready to end their "date".

"You need to go back to bed, Win. I'll stop by in the morning to check on you, okay?"

Winnie frowned, something Jaime never liked to see on her face, but she nodded nonetheless. Jaime smiled at her, a soft half-there smile that Winnie saw right through.

"I'd kiss you but I don't want you to get sick," she tells him, and the blush is back on her colored cheeks. Jaime chuckles and kisses her forehead. "Maybe next time."

There is was, that feeling. It was the feeling Jaime got everytime he spoke to Winnie, or simply everytime he thought about her. Her smile, her laugh, her dream that had come true. She was sick, she had ruined the perfect date idea he had, and yet he felt so warm. It felt warm and real and the brightness in his eyes could have lit up all of Los Angeles for a year. Everything was seen in a new light, and Jaime was okay with that. He had found a new Jessica-

No, he had found something better than Jessica.

"Yeah, maybe next time. Good night, Win."

"Night, Pooh bear. As soon as I'm better we'll go on a real date."

Jaime just smiled and kissed her head again, but left soon after. He climbed into his big black SUV, and after taking one last final look at Winnie's apartment A13 for the day, Jaime backed out of the spot and drove back to San Diego. He had plenty of time to think while he drove from Winnie's little apartment outside of Anaheim to Jaime's beach apartment in a suburb of San Diego.

Notes

So much for a first date...
Comments? Questions? Ideas?
What should Jaime do for their first official date?
should I place more scenes in Disney?
Thanks to all my readers, so far!

edit: sorry for the block text. something went wacky.