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It was Taco Tuesday at the little cabin in the woods and when Owen climbed down out of his truck, he could hear Claire’s laugh through the open kitchen window. He opened the front door of the cabin and hauled in a couple of grocery bags that he placed on the table. Maisie was browning ground beef over the stove and Claire was plugging in a blender; a very large bottle of tequila on the counter next to her.
“I think I got everything we needed …” Owen trailed off when he noticed the tequila. “Claire, are you making margaritas?”
“Yes. Why? I mean, I’ll make a virgin one for Maisie, but we can have the grown-up kind.”
“I thought tequila wasn’t part of your diet.”
“Owen. That was years ago. And a sketchy taco restaurant, to boot. You’re going to have to let that go.” She laughed.
“What’s he talking about?” Maisie asked.
“Our first date.” Both adults spoke at the same time.
“I thought your first date was at an Italian place.”
“No. This was our first, first date. The Italian place was our second first date.” Owen told her.
Maisie looked confused, “Huh?”
Claire interrupted, “If we’re telling that story, I’m going to need a drink first.”
Owen laughed, “Okay, tell me how I can help so we can eat, and I can tell Maisie all about how you broke my heart over tacos.”
Claire rolled her eyes and handed him a cutting board and a knife. “Start chopping.” She pointed to the bag he’d brought in filled with tomatoes and lettuce.
“Yes, ma’am.” He leaned over and whispered loudly to Maisie, “She’s bossy.”
They took everything outside to the table they had set up behind the cabin, overlooking the lake. The sun was low in the sky, ready to dazzle them with a magnificent sunset. Claire brought out the pitcher of margaritas and a separate glass with Maisie’s booze-free version. Owen had salted the rims of their glasses and he took the pitcher from Claire to pour their drinks.
When they’d all settled in around the table, Maisie looked back and forth between the two of them. “Well?”
Claire took a large gulp of her drink, Owen looked over at her expectantly. She sighed. “We were set up.” She started. “My assistant at the time, Zara, told me her fiancé knew this guy, and that we’d be perfect for each other.”
“He worked with me at the raptor paddock, but I didn’t know he was engaged to Claire’s assistant until he suggested I go on a date with his fiancé’s hot boss.”
“Wait, wasn’t she your boss too?” Maisie asked.
“Not really. I mean, Claire oversaw the park, but I was hired by an outside company and not by Jurassic World directly. So, she was sort of my boss, but I didn’t report to her. We had only met briefly, in passing, a couple of times.”
“Got it. Go on.”
“Anyway, I trusted Zara, so I agreed to the date. I’d broken up with someone several months before that and hadn’t really dated anyone else. Life on that island was … small.” Claire said. “It was not ideal for dating.”
“Most of the guys had the hots for Claire. Some of the women, too. But they were all afraid of her.”
“They did not. But I kept my personal life and work life completely separate. People thought I was a bitch.”
Owen leaned over to Maisie, “They totally had the hots for her.” Maisie laughed and Claire rolled her eyes again.
“Lies.” She said, but she was smiling over the rim of her margarita. “So, I agreed to meet at this little Mexican joint that Zara recommended. She said it didn’t look like much, but it was delicious.”
“I got there early to have a beer at the bar. Calm my nerves.” Owen said.
“You were nervous?” Maisie looked skeptical.
“Hell yeah, I was nervous. Once people knew I had a date lined up with the boss, everyone warned me not to go. I’m sitting here, sipping my beer, and this … this goddess is walking up to the bar.”
“That’s awfully dramatic.” Claire said.
“Maisie, you shoulda seen her. She had this little white sundress on and these heels—”
“Wedges.” Claire interrupted.
“Sure, whatever those are. They made her legs look amazing, that’s all I know. And – it was before you cut your hair, remember? She had all this red hair flowing around her. I fell in love right then and there.”
“You did not!” Claire laughed.
Owen clutched his heart, “Head over heels.” He said, winking at Maisie.
“So, he remembers what you were wearing, do you remember what he had on?” Maisie asked.
Claire groaned, “Ugh, board shorts!” at the same time Owen said, “That’s not important.”
“Wait. You showed up wearing board shorts?” Maisie looked incredulous. “Wow.”
“Thank you!” Claire said, “On a date!”
“It was hot!” Owen said.
“Things did not get off to a great start.” Claire said.
“Then they got worse.” Owen said.
“Uh oh, what happened?” Maisie asked.
“Well, when the hostess showed us to our table, I put my hand on Claire’s back and gestured for her to go ahead of me.”
“Except he grabbed my ass.”
“I did not grab your ass! Or, I didn’t mean to, anyway. My hand just sort of hit the wrong spot. I was nervous!”
Maisie covered her face with her hands, “Oh no.”
“When we sat down at the table, he immediately ordered two shots of tequila.”
“I thought maybe it would loosen us up a little bit.” Owen said, in a matter-of-fact way. “But Claire said tequila was not in her diet plan.”
“Different time for me, “ Claire said, waving her hand dismissively, “I barely ate, and I didn’t drink much of anything if it wasn’t a very large cup of coffee. I was under a lot of … stress.”
“So much so, that she brought along an itinerary for our date.”
“Oh god, I forgot about that part.” Claire said, laughing. “I was terrible. But, organized.”
“What did you need an itinerary for?” Maisie asked her.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t even remember what was on it. Do you?” She asked Owen.
“We never actually looked at it, we were too busy glaring at each other.”
“He ordered enough tacos to feed six people. And after he downed the two shots, he ordered more of those, too.”
“By then I realized our date was not going to end where I’d, uh … anticipated it ending so I thought I’d at least get a little buzzed.”
“I think four shots of tequila had you more than a little buzzed.”
“I ate most of the tacos because Claire wouldn’t touch them. She picked at a chip the whole time.”
Maisie had put her elbows on the table, chin in her hand; watching them like a ping pong match was happening at the table. “You didn’t even eat?”
“Nope. But, at that point it was just because I was being stubborn and determined not to have a good time with this guy. I was contemplating firing my assistant.”
“Did you? Fire her, I mean?”
“No. Though, maybe I should have. She might still be alive.”
“Whoa. She died?” Maisie asked.
“Yeah.” Claire said quietly. “On the day the park collapsed, she was … um … eaten.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Maisie wasn’t sure what to say. She’d heard the stories about what happened that day, she knew a lot of people died that way.
“It was my fault. All of it was.”
Owen put his hand over Claire’s, “It was not your fault. Not at all.” He told her.
She smiled sadly at him, then looked over at Maisie and took a deep breath, “But. The date.” She said, going back to the story, “The date was not going well. We barely had anything to talk about, so we just talked about work.”
“Claire wasn’t real big on sharing personal details about herself, so we talked about the raptors I was working with. Sorta felt like an interview at that point.”
“When the waitress came by, I just handed her my credit card without even seeing a check.” Claire shook her head, “God, I really was a bitch, wasn’t I?” She laughed. “I’m so sorry.”
Owen squeezed her hand, “Don’t be. We just weren’t meant for each other then. I still got to go on a date with the hottest girl on the island, so it was a win for me.”
Maisie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, “You guys are so gross. So, what happened after? Was it awkward at work?”
“Nah.” Owen said. “We didn’t even see each other again until the day everything happened. She came by my trailer to tell me the owner wanted me to look at the new paddock. She was all business then, calling me Mr. Grady. Wearing this white business suit and heels. She’d cut all her hair off, too.”
“I was going through some things.” Claire said.
“The rest, as they say, was history. We spent that day just trying to survive.”
“And that’s when you started dating for real?” Maisie asked them.
“Yeah. We really only had each other in the aftermath of what happened, so we stuck together. For survival.” Owen said, smiling over at Claire.
“And your second first date obviously went a lot better than the first.”
“Yes! Now, our second first date ended exactly –” Owen started.
“Owen!” Claire was shaking her head. “She doesn’t need that part.”
“Right. Anyway. We got along much better the second time around.”
“Until we broke up, and I kicked him out.”
“You didn’t kick me out. I left!”
“Because I told you to.”
“Yeah, so I left. I left you!”
“Oh my god, we aren’t going to have this ridiculous conversation again.” Claire was laughing. “Anyway, we split up for about a year before those damn dinosaurs threw us back together again.”
“It’s worked out this time.” Owen said.
“Yeah. It has.” Claire leaned over to kiss him. “This time it’s perfect.”