Holding On

Fourty-Four

George was pretty fluent in Spanish and French, and was good at Italian as well. While she had limited knowledge about all the three languages, even though she could pick up facets and keywords of the little Spanish she understood in a conversation to know what was being talked about.

George shrugged, rolling his eyes. "It's not like she needs it." He smiled, snaking a hand around her waist. "Anyways, Sugar, he's just asking whether you've been to a festival like the Jazz fest before. Well, the answer, I think, is no Gustavo."

Emma nodded at Gustavo when he looked at her enquiringly as if he doubted George. She couldn't help but chuckle. "True. This is my first time."

"Then I bet you gonna love this. It's gonna wet your appetite so much you gonna want to return every year. You know it's... "

"Come on, mi amor. There's plenty of time to tell them all about it in the car, and when we get home, esta bien?" Amanda still holding Amy, chastised softly. Her American accent sounded a bit funny on the Spanish words.

"Of course, baby. Mi corazon." Gustavo agreed in a sexy, capricious voice before kissing her softly on the lips. Amy quirked a brow and glanced at Em.

"Who would've thought?" George began to tease as they made their way towards the parking lot. "It'd taken so many friends in the university to convince the two of you to confess your feelings. You should be compensating all of as."

A spasm of fear shot through Emma as her mind for some inexplicable reason, recalled Zain. She hadn't seen or heard from him after the episode on the night of the fashion show. That'd given her enough time to recover and return things to normal with George, and she should be grateful. But knowing Zain, she couldn't help but feel that he was just prancing around somewhere. Waiting to strike.

**~**

The New Orleans Fair grounds was bustling with excitement as people sashayed in. Visitors and natives mingled, chatting animatedly about their expectations and experiences of the first part of the festival. As she, her husband and child, Gustavo and Amanda, jostled through the sea of bodies, Emma wondered whether there would be any space to breath when everyone finally arrived.

Leading the way, Gustavo made sure to introduce his 'brother', 'niece' and 'sister-in-law' to everyone he knew. It was hard not to laugh at some of the funny expressions of the people as they seemingly glanced at their white faces and skin, and then at Gustavo's much darker one.

The day and experience went by brightly. There were several tents/stages set up on the Fair grounds which they explored. Among which were the jazz and heritage stage, acura stage, WWOZ stage, gospel stage, kids stage, food stage, and more.

Each stage had a variety of performances of it's own to offer, but they all added up to the eclectic blend of French, Mexican, African and several other cultures that characterized New Orleans and its inhabitants.

For Amy's sake, Gustavo and his 'amor' offered to take shifts with them at the kids tent so they could go in turns to other grounds where they could truly experience without Amy as a hindrance.

"Hey, are you guys hungry yet. You wanna eat something?" Gustavo asked after George and Emma had returned, their shift having ended.

They'd been going about with so much fun and excitement they barely noticed it'd been quite a while since the festival had begun. Even though they'd ate in the morning and it wasn't quite time for lunch, some little snacks wouldn't hurt. "Why not?"

There were an assortment of hand-cooked food displayed by several vendors: crawfish beignets, cochon de lait sandwiches, alligator sausage po' boy (sandwich), boiled crawfish, softshell crab po'boy, cajun jambalaya, jalapeño bread, oyster patties, muffulettas, red beans and rice, and crawfish Monica.