CHAPTER 19
JETTE
The sun slowly rose over the horizon, casting a hazy light over the sky streaked with clouds.
Reese’s breathing had slowed to a normal pace against Jette’s sternum and the steady rhythm helped her relax.
Reese pulled her closer and pressed her lips to the hollow of Jette’s throat.
Jette tightened her arms as she fought to ignore the empty nagging feeling that persistently hovered in the back of her mind.
“What time do you have to leave?” Reese croaked quietly. Her voice sounded thick as she nuzzled into Jette’s neck. Jette instinctively rested a hand on the back of Reese’s head and slowly stroked her messy hair.
She looked to the nightstand and squinted her eyes, trying to focus on the red numbers glowing in the dark.
“In another hour,” Jette sighed. Reese hummed tiredly and the vibration tickled Jette’s neck and chest. Under the covers, Reese’s leg slid between hers languidly, further entangling their bodies. “What about you?” she mumbled.
Reese yawned between sentences, “Not ‘til tomorrow night. We still have another game tonight and Lida booked the flight home around our future hangovers.” She let out a soft chuckle as Jette trailed her fingertips over Reese’s hip and watched the goosebumps creep up her sides.
“Are you getting back to Philly late?” Jette asked.
“Very,” Reese groaned. She shifted onto an elbow and looked down at Jette. In the dark, Jette could barely make out the details of her face but she swore she could feel the heat of Reese’s gaze.
“You’re gonna have a nightmare of a time finding an Uber home,” Jette added through a yawn.
Nestled against her side, Reese stilled enough for her to notice. She hesitated before pulling her hand away from where she’d been drawing delicate patterns on Jette’s sternum. “Well, we don’t have to worry about that,” Reese said.
Jette’s eyebrows came together in confusion. “Is one of your teammates picking you up?” Reese was still uncharacteristically rigid next to her and for once, Jette struggled to read her expression.
“Kiran’s picking us up,” Reese answered plainly.
The name hit Jette like a bucket of cold water. “Ah,” she said tersely. The abrupt mention left a lump in her throat as she shifted uncomfortably. The room felt noticeably colder without Reese pressed against her and Jette fought off a shiver.
“He offered and I didn’t want to turn it down since he’s been making more of an effort lately,” Reese blurted out while Jette felt her head spin. “I guess he wants to talk things through after spending some time apart,” she added.
Jette couldn’t seem to form words. Her chest tightened as a bitter taste rose in the back of her throat and Jette couldn’t swallow it down fast enough this time.
Despite her best efforts, her mind began to spiral.
Reese was still dangerously still next to her and seemed reluctant to meet Jette’s eyes.
Jette swallowed with difficulty. “So he’s taking the breakup pretty hard, I guess,” she finally mustered.
The air felt still and tense like in the moment before a storm.
Reese hadn’t mentioned Kiran in ages. Not that they’d done much talking in the weeks before Vegas, anyway.
But Reese rarely talked about him or their relationship.
Jette didn’t mind that part. She would rather never talk about him again.
To be honest, she’d prefer if he didn’t exist at all, but that wasn’t exactly a possibility.
But the sudden mention left Jette feeling alarmingly unsettled.
“We’re not,” Reese seemed to stumble over her own words. “I mean, we’re on a break. But we didn’t really lay out what that means for the future.”
Jette felt like she wasn’t fully in her body anymore.
Her head spun blindingly fast as the words sank in.
They weren’t broken up. Reese was not, and was never truly available.
Nausea settled deep in her stomach and Jette had to focus on breathing in through her nose to try and quell the uneasy feeling climbing up her chest. Her fingers tangled in the sheets at her sides before covering herself in a hurry.
She felt wildly exposed in the cramped bed.
“You’re not,” she stammered. The words stuck in her throat as though she was willing them not to be true. “So you’re still with Kiran,” she clarified quietly.
Mirroring Jette, Reese pulled the sheet over herself as she tentatively leaned closer to Jette. She shook her head slowly before answering, “No. We’re on a break.” The word break echoed through Jette’s mind as the silence grew between them.
“What does that mean?” Jette’s tone came across sharper than she intended.
Reese’s eyes flickered to her hands. Jette frantically hoped that this was just a misunderstanding but the way Reese was avoiding her gaze made Jette’s chest ache.
Reese’s chest heaved as she steadied herself.
“I told him I was unhappy,” she began. Green eyes finally met hers and Jette wanted to feel the tension lift from her shoulders but her body remained almost painfully stiff.
“It wasn’t just the kiss,” Reese blurted out.
“I didn’t tell him about that part. It didn’t feel necessary.
” The words stung even as Reese looked at her pleadingly.
“But I told him I wanted to take a break from the relationship because I needed to figure some things out on my own.”
Jette could only feebly nod in response.
She could hear the obvious discomfort in Reese’s voice and part of her wished she hadn’t said anything.
Jette desperately wished that for the next hour, they could both lie here and pretend nothing else existed outside of the hotel walls.
Her skin still faintly prickled when she found her voice again.
“But you’re planning—” she cut herself off and looked at Reese questioningly.
“I don’t know how to say this without—you know what, fuck it.
I’m just going to ask.” She looked Reese in the eye but it was as if she was nearly unrecognizable.
“Are you planning on getting back together with him?”
“I mean, I don’t—”
A knock at the door made them both jump.
Reese fell silent before finishing her answer and Jette felt her heart rate spike.
Rolling over, Jette noticed the time now gave her less than half an hour until she had to be on the tour bus.
Jette quickly threw on a pair of pajamas to answer the door.
She peeked through the peephole to find a fully-dressed Finley waiting outside.
Jette opened the door and tried to hide the tightness in her throat.
“Morning,” her voice still sounded gravelly.
“Morning babe,” Finley answered brightly, handing over a paper coffee cup.
“I thought you might need a coffee…and I was right. You look like hell,” her warm gray eyes scanned Jette’s outfit and fixated on her messy curls.
Jette rolled her eyes and took an appreciative sip.
She inhaled sharply as it scalded her tongue.
Finley raised a singular eyebrow as she noticed the clothes on the floor.
Her eyes widened mischievously as she looked back to Jette’s tousled hair.
“Oh shit, you totally have someone in there, don’t you? ”
“I—don’t worry about it. It’s no one,” Jette blurted out. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss this at length while standing in her pajamas. She shook her head and silently pleaded for Finley to drop it.
Finley’s mouth opened scandalously and she jokingly peered over Jette’s shoulders, straining to catch a glimpse of the bed.
Jette swatted her away with a flustered giggle.
“Okay, fine. But we're so talking about this later,” Finley conceded with a pout. “Just make sure you’re in the lobby by eight or Nat’ll be grumpy all day. ”
Jette nodded and slowly began closing the door, “Got it. I’ll see you then.” Finley winked before the door closed with a thud. Jette scooped the clothes off the floor on her way around the corner. Reese was still sitting in bed with the sheets tightly tucked under her arms.
“Who was that?” Reese asked curiously, eyeing the coffee cup in Jette’s hand.
Jette set the cup down and loosely folded the clothes in her hands. She set Reese’s mesh shirt on the foot of the bed and answered, “Just Finley. She wanted to make sure I was awake in time.”
“And that you were caffeinated,” Reese added pointedly. Jette didn’t know what to say back to that. She quickly shuffled her belongings back into the open suitcase by the window before taking another sip. Jette’s unanswered question seemed to fill all of the space between them.
“Are you—” Jette began.
“Why’d you tell her I was no one?” Reese asked simultaneously. The room was now brightly lit as the sun continued to rise in the distance, illuminating the evidence of last night scattered around the room. Reese’s expression was tense when she finally met Jette’s eyes.
Jette’s lips parted in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“When she asked if you had someone in here, you said ‘Don’t worry, it’s no one’.”
Jette shook her head, “I didn’t mean it like that.
” She dropped the last of her clothes into the suitcase.
“Honestly, I would’ve said just about anything to get her to leave,” Jette joked half-heartedly.
“I wanted to get back to you so we could keep talking.” Reese stared back at her questioningly and Jette nervously tried again.
“I don’t have to explain anything to her.
She’s my friend. Well actually, I guess Finley’s technically my boss.
And I didn’t want to get into all the intimate details with her.
Especially when you and I were in the middle of…
” She gestured between them, at a loss for words.