CHAPTER 23
REESE
Reese pressed send and tossed her phone on the desk before touseling her hair.
She stared at her laptop and fidgeted with the corners of a stack of paper cluttering her desk.
Friday afternoon had left the cubicles around her deserted while everyone was using the extended company lunch break to take advantage of the warm weather.
She checked her phone compulsively as her mind raced.
It felt like her heart was now permanently stationed in her throat.
She swallowed with difficulty and tried to distract herself with the slew of emails waiting in her inbox.
The sun streamed through the giant windows and warmed Reese’s desk as she rested her chin in her hands.
Her phone lay under her monitor, seemingly taunting her with its noticeable silence.
She swiped her fingers under her eyes, trying to wipe away the bags that had taken residence there for the past several weeks while the office buzzed with activity around her as the hours dragged on.
She had just finished sending a weekly report to her manager when her phone noisily vibrated against the plastic docking station on her desk.
Reese lunged for it so frantically, she accidentally knocked over the metal water bottle next to her.
The loud crack echoed in the lofty office space, causing several of her nearest coworkers to startle.
Even Reese had taken an involuntary gasp at the sound.
Hands shaking, she swiped the screen open and felt her chest tighten.
KIRAN
I’m going out tonight if you wanted to grab the last few boxes
Reese sighed in slight disappointment. She and Kiran had been on strictly civil terms for weeks now.
He hadn’t gotten angry or combative when she finally told him that they needed to break up—for good this time.
Instead he was surprisingly attentive, listening and agreeing as she explained that she’d fallen out of love.
It wasn’t as though this was a complete shock, seeing as he agreed that it had been a long time coming for both of them.
The conversation had carried late into the night, day after day as they discussed how to separate the lives they had once built together.
There were no tears or guilt, no blaming or name-calling.
Instead it had all felt sort of anti-climatic.
Like Reese had built it up in her head for no reason at all.
It wasn’t until she began packing up her things in boxes that circumstances changed.
At first it was casual. Doors shutting behind him a little more forcefully than usual, or his coming home later and later with no warning.
It became a nightly occurrence that he would come home, often drunk, noisily knocking into the furniture or dropping things in the hallway.
And since Reese had taken to sleeping on the couch, she never made it more than a few hours before she’d end up waking to him petulantly running the dishwasher or vacuuming upstairs in the middle of the night.
It wasn’t until her boxes started to look a little worse for wear every time she left the house that Reese began to feel on edge.
The cardboard boxes neatly stacked in the corner would mysteriously end up dented or corners torn with dark size-11 footprints smudged on the sides.
When she came home from Sunday morning practice to see her belongings scattered at the bottom of the stairs, Reese finally broke down and called Lida.
In all her life, she would never forget the timbre of Lida’s voice when she picked up after the first ring.
It was as though she had known what happened before Reese could even choke out the words.
And the look in her eyes made Reese grateful that Kiran didn’t make an appearance the entire afternoon.
She had seen that look of pure rage in Lida’s eyes less than a handful of times before and she shuddered to imagine what it would be like on the receiving end of it.
Lida and her captain, Sloan, had shown up at the apartment within thirty minutes.
Mercifully, they each gave Reese a strong hug before wordlessly tossing her things into random boxes and plunking them in the back of Lida’s minivan.
Reese had prided herself on not crying until that point.
But as she watched two of her friends immediately step into action with no questions asked, she was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Between the three of them, the boxes in the corner had all been stuffed to capacity and taped shut.
Her most important belongings were taken to Lida’s tiny apartment in Old City, and the rest was left in the living room along with a strongly worded note from Lida.
Reese didn’t have the resolve to read what she’d written.
And it was probably for the best that she didn’t know.
But clearly Lida had a way with words, because every day that she came back to retrieve more boxes, they were left completely unscathed.
In the meantime, Reese had been crashing on Lida’s couch until she could formally break the lease and remove her name from the apartment she shared with Kiran.
The exceedingly thorough photo evidence taken by Sloan had come in handy when the landlord asked for proof of hostile tenancy.
It was cramped, sure, but when Reese finally slumped into the blue couch in Lida’s living room, surrounded by her entire life crammed into cardboard boxes, she was finally able to take a sigh of relief.
The first she’d been able to enjoy in a long time.
And she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders as she reveled in the fact that she was starting a new and exciting—if not nerve-racking—chapter.
Reese reread the text from Kiran before deciding against a response.
She pushed back from her desk and resigned herself to scrolling through social media.
Several posts down, Reese instinctively double tapped the screen when she saw the first picture of Fincher on stage.
She scrolled through the pictures and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw a close up of Jette on her signature silver kit.
Her dark hair was messy and damp and Reese’s stomach swooped as she remembered what it felt like to run her fingers through those waves.
She had really tried not to reach out to Jette since they left Las Vegas.
The hurt in Jette’s eyes still stung Reese but she wanted to respect the space that Jette said she needed.
And she definitely couldn’t talk to her about everything that had happened with Kiran.
It was too soon for her to reach out. It was selfish to even want to, she thought.
But Reese was counting down the days until the tour ended.
She had checked instagram every day, making note of where they were headed and how long it would be until Jette came back to Philly.
Reese opened the link in the official band’s bio to see what city was next.
The New York dates were entirely sold out but Reese still clicked through optimistically.
New York was only a couple hours away and Reese’s stomach fluttered as the impractical thought crossed her mind.
Impulsively, Reese browsed through event pages and feverishly skimmed through hundreds of posts offering tickets for resale.
She glanced at the clock before swiftly stuffing the laptop in her bag and swiping her keys off the desk.
It was rash, she knew, but something deep inside of her felt like she couldn’t sit still for another minute.
Jette hadn’t responded and for all she knew, was very purposefully avoiding her text.
But Reese didn’t have time to second guess herself now.
She peeled out of the parking lot and cracked the windows, embracing the cool air that rushed through the car as the city skyline grew closer.
Lida had all but pushed her to get on a plane and tell Jette face-to-face the realization she had on the flight home from Las Vegas.
But Reese couldn’t forget the hurt in Jette’s voice and eyes the last time they talked.
She deserved more than words and Reese wanted—no, needed—to prove to Jette that she was serious.
She didn’t have the slightest clue what she was going to say to Jette.
Hell, she didn’t know if she would even get the chance, but she had to at least try.
Reese hadn’t completely turned her life upside down just to wait and keep her feelings hidden away safely.
And the unanswered text she sent Jette left a pit of nerves in her chest as she approached the ticket counter.
The venue was filled to maximum capacity and the roar of the crowd hurt her ears as she shuffled among the bodies lining the walls.
Overhead lights dimmed and when the band finally took to the stage, Reese felt like she’d been given a full blown shock to her system.
Jette’s jewelry and silver eyeshadow caught every fragment of light overhead, making it look like she was sparkling on stage.
Reese’s breath hitched, leaving her chest heaving as she watched in awe.
Though it had been weeks of absolutely no contact between them, it hadn’t diminished the almost magnetic pull that Reese felt towards her.
If anything, Reese felt it even stronger now.
It radiated from her bones. Her fingers ached, truly ached from wanting to be able to reach out and touch her.
As if in a daze, Reese swayed back and forth with the crowd for what felt like hours.
She hadn’t bothered to grab a drink or snack from the bar at the back of the giant venue, it hadn’t even crossed her mind.
Now that Jette was back in her sight, there wasn’t a chance she was going to turn away, not for a moment.