CHAPTER 54
Kristina
“So, it looks like I can get us on a new flight, but they don’t have seats together. We’ll have to try when we get to the airport, or ask someone to switch, which I hate doing.”
“What about first class?” Jennifer asked.
“What about it?”
Kristina looked up from her phone at her new girlfriend, who was still packing.
“Are there two seats in first class?”
“Um…” She looked at the image of the plane on her screen. “I think so. Why?”
“Get those. I’ll give you my credit card info.”
“What? No way. We don’t need first-class tickets, Jen.”
“I want to sit next to you, and if you get them with my frequent flyer account, it’ll be close to free.
I got thousands of points for signing up for a new credit card last year.
I haven’t used them yet. I didn’t even use them for this, which I could have, but honestly, I totally forgot about it until right now. ”
“Babe, save those for a real trip. The flight home isn’t even all that long. You’d want to enjoy a first-class flight.”
“I will. You’ll be there with me.” Jennifer smiled and zipped up her suitcase.
“What about a trip that we could take together?”
“I’m listening,” Jennifer said, sitting down next to her.
“What if, for this flight, we go economy and hope we get seats together, but if we don’t, we just sleep. I’ll be honest: I am exhausted. I could use the sleep.”
“You want to not sit next to me?”
“No; of course, I want to sit next to you. I’m just saying that if we don’t get seats together, we just pass out so that we are rested when we get home.”
“And save those miles for a trip somewhere?”
“For the two of us, yes,” Kristina replied.
“I might actually be able to take real vacations with my new job.”
“And I can cancel lessons for a week and take time away from the orchestra as long as I have enough notice.”
“Sold,” Jennifer said. “Now, book the flights and let’s get you packed.”
When they finished with Kristina’s bags, too, Jennifer pulled everything out to the great room.
Kristina stared into the den for a moment and couldn’t believe that she’d had sex with a stranger in that room.
Now, that stranger was sitting outside at breakfast with another woman who might already be her girlfriend.
Jennifer had been with another woman at the same table, and now, they were together.
“You ready? We should say goodbye. The car is on its way here now. It says seven minutes,” Jennifer told her and put her phone into her pocket.
“Yeah. It just hit me that we’re leaving.”
“I’m going to miss it, too,” Jennifer said and placed her hand on her back. “But I have some really great things to be excited about. Only one of them is my new job. I’m really excited about all the boring, quiet fun we’re about to have.”
Kristina rested her head on Jennifer’s shoulder.
“And that trip we’ll plan soon,” Jennifer added. “Somewhere warm, maybe, where you can walk around in a bikini all day, and I can watch you do that all day.”
“Let’s go before you get all turned on again, or we will miss our flight,” Kristina said with a laugh.
They walked hand in hand outside, where the others were enjoying their breakfast.
“You’re leaving?” Gage asked.
“Yeah. Jen needs to get back, and it just so happens that we live in the same place, so I’m going to fly back, too,” she replied.
“She said that there was a work situation. Is everything okay?” Debra asked as she stood.
“Yeah. Bad part of my job, but I’m okay. Kris is coming with me for moral support, and I am very glad for that.”
“Me too,” Kristina added.
Hugs were exchanged, and surprisingly, it wasn’t weird at all to be hugging a woman she’d had sex with at the same time her girlfriend hugged a woman she had sex with.
“If any of you are ever in Chicago, we could, I don’t know, have a very strange reunion or something,” Kristina suggested.
Carrie laughed and leaned into Gage. Sharon stood at Debra’s side.
Nia had gotten it all right, and Kristina wished she had time to ask her a lot of questions about how she did this, but their flight was in two hours, and it would take them at least forty-five minutes to get to the airport, so she’d have to miss her chance.
“We should go, babe,” Jennifer said.
“Yeah, she’s right. Thank you all for a very interesting week.”
“You two are going to make a go of it, huh?” Sharon asked.
“We are, yeah,” she confirmed. “I have a girlfriend.”
She smiled over at Jennifer.
“Good for you,” Sharon said. “Both of you.”
“Thanks,” Jennifer replied.
“All right. Well, good luck with the rest of the week. I guess we might see you around or something, but if not… good luck. I don’t know what else to say.” Kristina laughed.
The others laughed a bit, too, and Jennifer took her hand before they walked back inside the house, where Nia stood, waiting for them.
“You have everything?” she asked.
“We’re good, yeah,” Jennifer said. “Thank you for this week, Nia. Really, I mean that.”
“You’re welcome.” Nia smiled at them. “You two put in the work, so you should be thanking yourselves.”
“We have to run, or we’ll miss our flight, but yes, thank you,” Kristina added and looked over at Jennifer. “I don’t know how you do it, but you somehow knew exactly what we both needed, and I’m very grateful for that.”
Nia smiled and said, “Safe flight. You two have my info. I’d love it if you kept me updated. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again.”
“Not at another one of these things,” Jennifer stated, looking concerned.
Kristina laughed a little and said, “Agreed.”
“I’m thinking about something else entirely,” Nia noted. “Maybe a wedding.”
“Oh,” Jennifer replied. “Yeah, maybe.”
Kristina smiled over at her and said, “Definitely a maybe.”