Chapter 7
JACKIE
After a long day of the blazing sun, sangrias and live entertainment, we literally skipped back to our corridor of rooms, arm in arm.
We giggled like schoolgirls, tipsy and feeling fabulous.
A few passengers in the corridor eyed us with a playful look and laughed along with us. We were all here to enjoy ourselves.
“God, today was so freaking fun!” She blurted out.
Stopping in front of her unit, Sarah pulled out her room key, and we stumbled in after the door fell open from the weight of us leaning on it, unable to stand up straight.
I grabbed the knob with my free hand to keep us upright, and Sarah reached up to wipe the tears leaking from my eyes due to uncontrollable laughter.
Her skin was so soft against mine, and the touch felt so intimate that I got quiet and stared at her beautiful crystal-blue eyes, though her pupils were starting to dilate.
My body started to heat up, sweat forming at the small of my back, but this wasn’t from the outdoors and alcohol.
This was completely foreign. I’d been experiencing this sensation ever since Sarah and I ran into each other that first day, the same one from that kiss fifteen years ago.
I was realizing that this was an attraction to the soft, vibrant woman in front of me.
The woman that I noticed was slowly leaning my direction, but not from being tipsy.
This was a feeling of déjà vu, but on an adult level.
Sarah was about to kiss me, and I was going to let it happen.
For a moment, all we did was gaze into each other’s eyes.
Tension built between us as she inched closer to me.
“Jackie, I want to kiss you, but I also want to make sure you’re okay with that. Please say you are.” Her striking blue eyes still stared up into my hazel ones, this time with unabashed need. I nodded frantically, desperate for the contact.
“Words, Jackie. Use them.” She encouraged me softly.
“Yes, I’m okay with that. Please kiss me.” The words she pleaded for came out breathless with my own want.
Her pillowy lips immediately connected with mine, and this kiss was much more arousing than any time Timothy and I had ever kissed.
Clearing my head of my ex-husband, I joined in and moved my right hand from the doorknob to wrap around her waist to that slight curve just above her ass.
I clung to the rolls on her body and moaned at the feeling of her tongue requesting access past the seam of my lips.
I briefly moved my hand from her back, and she whimpered at the loss of my touch, displaying the cutest pout I’d ever seen.
“I’m just shutting the door,” I whispered against her kiss.
Sarah let out a soft giggle then resumed her kisses.
She stood only a few inches shorter than me at just over five feet, so she was on her tip toes.
She moved from my lips to my cheek, my eye, then my ear.
I savored the movement of her lips in spontaneous places as she began to nibble on my earlobe.
It was my turn to whimper this time. She’d found my spot.
My breathing became labored. Juices of my arousal soaked my lacy panties, practically making them useless beyond this moment.
“I’m guessing you like that, love?” Sarah asked, pulling back with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her pinkened face. Without waiting for a response, the vixen continued, then pulled me toward the bed where she pushed me into a lying position so she could straddle me.
“Fuck, yes. Definitely,” I panted back. We continued kissing, and my hands moved about roaming the hills and valleys of her body.
I could feel the heat from her own wetness hovering just above mine, creating an inferno of arousal with only a few thin layers of material separating us.
It was so different with a woman, in an amazing way.
Then suddenly, I started feeling jittery and a little lightheaded, and I knew what was about to happen.
I was on the verge of a blood sugar drop.
“Sarah, wait. I…I don’t feel so good. Can you take me back to my room?
I need to check my sugar.” I could feel my eyes getting heavier while hers widened with frantic concern.
She scrambled off me and tugged my hand and body in the direction of the door, then to my room.
She pulled my key from my pocket and pushed the door open once it unlocked.
“Where’s your meter, love?”
“It’s by my toiletry kit in the bathroom.” She urged me down to the mattress to sit and found my kit, along with the glucose gummies I had sitting in that same kit.
“Give me your finger.” Her demeanor had calmed drastically in a matter of seconds, her medical experience rising to the surface. She donned her nurse practitioner’s cap to make sure I was okay.
“I knew I shouldn’t have had those drinks.” I started to whine, holding back tears of embarrassment and fear. I didn’t want Sarah to see me like this, but I was thankful for her patience and help.
She prepped my left middle finger with the alcohol swab and assembled my glucose meter. With a quick finger stick, she dropped the blood onto the strip, and the screen started processing.
“Jackie, love, please don’t do shit that to yourself.
You had a few drinks. You had some fun. Sure, it made your sugar plummet, but you know how to take care of yourself.
I’m just here to help you. To be here for you.
” Her tone lacked the pity I was worried would arise.
I hated it when people felt sorry for me.
Countless people lived with chronic illnesses.
The screen on the meter displayed fifty-five. She handed me a serving of glucose gummies, and I chewed them thoroughly and swallowed them.
“Now we’ll check again in about fifteen minutes. Let me set a timer on my phone.”
I leaned my head on Sarah’s shoulder and watched her scroll on the clock app to the timer and move up to fifteen. She hit “start” and set it on the mattress beside her. I felt her wrap her arm around me and rub my back for comfort.
“I’m usually so good about keeping my numbers level. The doctor warned me this could happen after drinking, but I didn’t realize it would plunge so quickly. Thank you, Sarah.” I mumbled, because I didn’t have much energy to put behind my voice.
She kissed me on the temple, and we just had a quiet moment together.
“So, that kiss…” I started to say sheepishly.
“Let’s not talk about that right now. It happened. Once you’re feeling up to it, we can discuss what it could mean. Or not mean” Sarah shushed me in the kindest way possible and shrugged. She had a gentle bedside manner, I was learning.
“Let’s watch something.” She reached for the TV remote sitting on the bedside table and clicked the power button.
It was on the same channel that I was watching sitcoms on earlier, now playing an episode of Golden Girls.
Sophie was just ramping up to tell one of her stories about Sicily. I chuckled softly to myself.
After several more minutes, the timer went off on Sarah’s phone. She prepped my meter again and inquired how I was feeling. I wiggled my palm in a “so-so” manner. Another finger prick later, and the meter’s screen gave us the new results, a number much better managed.
“That’s my girl,” she praised, giving me a soft smile and a light hug. Leaning back from that hug, she pushed my hair behind my ear then rose up from her sitting position. Her smile fell a little, nervousness starting to bubble up in her facial expression.
“You go ahead and lie down. Get some rest. I’m heading back to my room to do the same.
We’ve had a long day.” She turned and walked off, as if she couldn’t get away from me fast enough, which confused the hell out of me.
What was going on with her suddenly? Did she regret the kiss?
Was I a bad kisser? I checked my breath and only smelled the fruitiness of sangria and gummies.
“Shit,” I muttered, slouching forward and putting my head in my hands, feeling exhaustion come on. Did we already screw our chances up again?
Deciding to sleep on it, I got up to start my nighttime routine.
I moved sluggishly as my energy slowly returned.
I brushed my teeth, washed my face free of makeup, and took my insulin.
Changing into an oversize T-shirt and sleep shorts, I slipped under the comforter and put my phone on the charging cord, silencing the ringer.
I shut off the lamp, shrouding the room in darkness.
Sighing and closing my eyes, I asked the Universe for sweet dreams and deep sleep.
The next morning, I awoke feeling even more tired than the night before. Unfortunately, the Universe didn’t deem me worthy of those dreams and deep sleep I begged for. I restlessly tossed and turned half the night and didn’t fall asleep until probably three a.m.
I slid my cellphone across the bedside table and brought it to my line of sight.
With my eyes taking a minute to focus, I noticed I had missed texts from Sarah.
We exchanged numbers the first full day we spent together, realizing that would be the easiest way to reconnect once we returned to Dallas.
Sarah:
Good morning, love. I think I’ll stay in and read today.
Enjoy your last day here.
My heart dropped into my stomach, and a frown overtook my face. She was already distancing herself, and I still couldn’t figure out what I did wrong last night. Or maybe she was just tired and using her last day to relax and stay cool. Stop overthinking, Jackie.
No worries. I think I’m going
to take the day to relax too.
See if any good movies are on.
If you want to join, I don’t mind.
Sarah:
I’ll keep that in mind
Sarah didn’t knock on my door the rest of the day, but neither did I knock on hers.