One More Weekend (Sapphics in the City #5)

42. Sy

42

SY

The night replayed in my head even as the light started to peek through the window in my bedroom.

We stayed out late, despite Jenna’s early flight this morning. And when we got home, Jenna asked to sleep in my bed since hers had been disassembled.

Nodding, I looked at her in my doorway. My buzz had faded, and all I felt was a pit of sadness overwhelming my entire body. I moved aside, letting her into my sparsely decorated room.

She climbed into my bed, curling up under my duvet and settling on my chest. After a moment in the dark, Jenna lifted her head to meet my eyes. Like magnets, our lips met in a slow, strong kiss.

We forced ourselves apart, instead wrapping my arm around her and pulling her close. I held her like that all night, unwilling to let her move even an inch.

But somehow, she slipped out.

I rolled toward the empty space she’d left, patting the mattress to make sure she’d really gone.

From the sounds outside my door, I knew she had gotten up, preparing to leave the house on time. Even here, I could hear her feet padding against the floors from one end of the apartment to the other.

It was finally here, the end of our lease. At least the end of our lease as we knew it.

There was no more avoiding it, just embracing it.

So I hauled myself out of bed, my body aching from my performance the night before. I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, opting out of a bra for the day.

Maybe I should have planned to work today, but when it was time to make my schedule I thought it’d be the last thing I’d want to do on the day Jenna walked out of here.

Now, I was desperate for a distraction.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror on the back of the door, ruffling the blonde hairs into a vague order before sucking in a deep breath.

Gripping the doorknob, I forced myself to pull it open.

As soon as I did, a rush of noise flooded into my room. The sound of a tape gun rolling across a cardboard box drowned out the peaceful morning I’d just left behind.

“Hey.” Jenna offered a smile as she turned around. Even now, she couldn’t hide the disappointment.

Rubbing my eyes, I looked around the apartment. I couldn’t remember when all the moving boxes had started piling up but now they were inescapable. Every corner was filled with the life we’d built together being divided up and shipped out.

“Have you eaten?” I squinted my eyes in the sunlight. From the look on her face, she hadn’t; too anxious was my best guess.

Shaking her head, Jenna waved off my concern as she stacked up another box. “That’s the last one for the movers when they come.”

Laughing, I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to eat?”

“That’s what the airport is for.” Jenna hardly looked up from her suitcases, now stacked by the front door. I knew it wasn’t personal, that her distance was how she processed the stress. But I would have given anything for her to let me make her breakfast one more time.

There wasn’t anything left for me to do, so instead, I nodded and sat on the couch while she flitted around the apartment.

And then she slowed down, her eyes flicking across the apartment as she scanned for anything she might have missed.

That’s when I stood from the couch and threw on my sandals. “If you forgot anything, I can always ship it over to you.”

“Yeah, for sure.” Jenna bit her lip as she stopped in her tracks and looked around our apartment. It was almost empty, the vast majority of the decorating having been a result of her thrifting.

“Ready?” I asked, gripping her larger suitcase in my hands.

“No,” Jenna confessed before striding across the apartment and slipping on her Nike’s.

With her luggage in hand, we headed down the steep stairs one more time. She spent a moment in our doorway, saying goodbye to the place before following me downstairs.

When I pushed open the front door, her Uber was already waiting by the curb. I smiled at the guy as he offered to place her bags in the trunk. Jenna got her stuff inside and turned back to me.

She looked up at the building, the window of my bedroom visible from all the way down here.

I twiddled my fingers at my side. “I have no idea how to say goodbye to you.”

Shaking her head, Jenna scrunched her nose as she tried to hold back the tears in the corners of her eyes. “I don’t think we do. I think we say thank you, I’ll see you soon.”

She was right. Of course she was right. ‘Goodbye’ hurt too much.

Reaching out for her, I pulled her into a tight hug – my arms wrapping around her waist as she threw hers over my neck. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to take in every ounce of her smell before she drove away.

I wanted to remember every hint of her, maybe it would help me sleep at night.

“I stole a shirt, by the way,” Jenan confessed into my neck, a wet spot taking over my t-shirt as a tear fell.

Giggling, I nodded. “I would’ve been insulted if you didn’t.”

We stayed like that for too long, until the driver cleared his throat in the car.

Into her gorgeous light brown hair, I said all I could. “Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

Nodding, Jenna pulled herself away. She met my eyes one more time before waving and disappearing into the car.

I stepped away from the curb, crossing my arms as I watched the black sedan pull away from the apartment building and into the flow of Manhattan traffic.

I stayed there until she was out of sight, trying to hold every glimpse of her that I could.