Pacey shrugged. "I just reminded him about what it was like to be in love," Pacey said, hugging her, "about how it is the most blissful...perfect...romantic...thing ever."

Kathleen cut his train off thought off with a kiss. "Well, Romeo, what should we do today?"

"Hello?" Dawson said, answering the phone.

"Hey," said Valerie's sultry voice. It amazed Dawson how a girl who seemed so down to earth in person could sound so sexy on the phone.

"Hey yourself," Dawson said, "what's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to do something tomorrow," Valerie said.

"Can't. I catch a plane for L. A. tomorrow evening and get to L.A. by Saturday. I'm supposed to meet some guy for dinner that evening. I'm assuming they're going to give me time to get ready, unless people in L.A. eat dinner in the morning."

"Oh," Valerie said, frowning to herself, "well, then can I be the first to ask you to the school dance next Tuesday, after the football game?"

"I'd be glad to," Dawson said, glad that she wasn't upset about him leaving, "See you then," he said, hanging up.

"Hasta," Valerie said, before hanging up as well. Hugging herself and doing a little twirl in her room, Valerie congratulated herself on how well her plan was going. The timing for the dance could not be more perfect. Jen and Cliff would be there obviously, because Cliff had to show up for the dance after the football game. When Jen saw Valerie and Dawson together, it would be enough to send her over the edge. Valerie had spent enough time making other girls fume to know that no girl liked to see an ex that she wasn't quite over with another girl. All it would take would be a little pushing and Cliff would be hers....

"Relax Jo," Kat said, watching Joey pace around the living room, "things will be fine. Your little lover boy will be here in a few hours, Scott's busy learning all that he can about gourmet cooking from a Julia Child cookbook and I've almost got the hang of this tray. Chill chica."

"Easy for you to say," Joey said, "your entire romantic future isn't hanging in the balance. What if everything goes wrong? How can I face Dawson then? This was a mistake, I know it was. There's still time to call this off."

"No way," Scott said, walking in wearing an apron, "I did NOT just spend all that time learning to make Poularde rôtie au four, which, by the way, I cannot pronounce, much less spell. What the hell is that anyways?"

"Oven roasted chicken," Joey said, "and I cannot go through with this! Oh god, he's probably in L.A. right now, getting all dressed, and trying to get that one stray strand of blond hair that is always in his eyes out of the way before he meets this so-called film director, which, by the way, he's hoping is Spielberg, because he worships the man in a fanatical obsessive way and will be upset if it isn't Spielberg, but will be even more upset when he finds out it's me and if he gets upset and storms out of here I think I'll die."

Katharine held her hand. "Whoa, stop, you've given me a headache, spouting all that worrying. Relax. If things don't go well tonight, there are other ways to patch things up."

"Name one way," Joey said. When neither Kat nor Scott responded, Joey smiled a half-smile and said,"I told you so. I'm doomed"

Dawson straightened his tie and took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell to the penthouse. A tall, beautiful woman, in her early twenties or late teens answered the door. "Good evening," she said, "my name is Katharine, I'm the associate of your dinner companion tonight. You must be Dawson Leery."

"Yes, that's me," Dawson said, smiling nervously, "I'm a little nervous to tell you the truth. Would you mind telling me who I'm meeting? Spielberg? Cameron? Tarantino?" Dawson said, firing off names of directors.

The woman smiled good-naturedly. "Your dinner companion will be our shortly. She's doing some last minute preparations."

"She?" Dawson said, thinking up some female directors, "Heckerling? Leder? Marshall?"

The woman laughed and said "Have a seat at the table," before shutting the door. Dawson sat down and looked around. It was a beautiful penthouse, whoever lived here had it well off.

Katharine cleared her throat. Dawson stood up to greet the person who had called him. It was then that he saw who it was. Joey. Joey looked beautiful in her long beige dress. For a moment, Dawson forgot that she had broken his heart. Then he remembered. His face hardening, Dawson started walking to the door. "I'm outta here," he said angrily.

"Wait!" Joey said, rushing up to him, and putting her hand on his shoulder, "We need to talk."

Not wanting to face her, Dawson said, "There's nothing to talk about."

Busting out of the kitchen, where she had been listening, Katharine yelled, "Would you just listen to her?! If ya'll don't talk about this, she'll be moping around here for days and that will get all of us upset, and if I get upset, I won't sleep, and if I don't sleep, I get bags under my eyes, and if I get bags under my eyes, I could blow a photo shoot, and if I blow a photo shoot, I could get washed up as a model, and if I get washed up as a model, I'll have to go be a waitress, and if I have to be a waitress, I'll get disgruntled, and if I get disgruntled, you might wake up one morning with a mail bomb in your box." Dawson and Joey just looked at Kat like she had lost it. Kat blushed and said "Switched to decaf this morning."

After Kat had rushed back into the kitchen to help Scott out, Joey turned back to Dawson. "Would you at least stay for dinner? Everyone went through a lot of trouble, would you please just stay?"

Looking into her pleading face, Dawson felt his resolve melt away. "Fine," he said.

The dinner went well, at least as well as it could have gone. Dawson told Joey about what had been going on in Capeside (obviously leaving out Valerie) and Joey told him about things she had seen in L.A. After dinner, Joey popped a copy of E.T. in the VCR, hoping that would make Dawson more at ease. It seemed to work, he got into a discussion about the symbolism of the "moon flight." After the movie was over, Dawson and Joey went out to the balcony to look at the sky.

"Look at all the stars," Joey said, staring up in the sky, "they just seem to go on for infinity. Never changing, always constant."

"Yeah," Dawson said, "me and Valerie were talking about them the other day-"

Joey turned, surprised, to look at Dawson. "Valerie?" she asked, "who's Valerie?"

Dawson stiffened up. "Valerie is this new girl at school. I've kind of been seeing her."

Joey felt like he had just reached into her chest and ripped out her heart. Suddenly, she felt the same old, sarcastic Joey coming out from underneath polished, sophisticated Josephine. "Already moving on, Dawson?" she asked, not caring what he thought, "Amazing how quickly you got over me, considering you didn't even want to talk to me the other day."

Dawson felt fury rise up from within him. "Didn't take you long either," he retorted, "in fact, if I recalll correctly, it was your roving eye that started the whole thing."

Dawson immediately regretted what he had said. "Get out," Joey said through her teeth, "I don't want to be around you right now."

"The feeling's mutual," Dawson said storming out.

As the door slammed behind him, Joey broke down and started crying. And this time, not Scott, nor Amelia Dan, or Katharine could console her.

When Dawson's flight got in on Sunday, Valerie was there to greet him.

"How was your trip?" she asked, kissing him on the cheek.

"Not so great," Dawson said. 'That's an understatement' he said to himself.

"I'm sorry," Valerie said sweetly, "but if it makes you feel better, I rented 'Schindler's List.'"

"That would be great," Dawson said, putting his arm around Valerie, blocking out memories of Joey, ready to start his life over...with Valerie.

To Be Continued In
"Save the Last Dance for Me"

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