Date. So this was a date, after all?
“I’ve gotta get going.” Jess stood up, jacket slung over her shoulder. “Thanks for inviting me out, Shan. It’s nice to catch up. Maybe I’ll see…”
Shannon stood up as well. “I’ll walk you out?”
“Uh, thanks. My bus stop is right over there.”
Shannon’s was in the opposite direction, but she didn’t care. To her, it was more important to follow Jess into the cold night and make sure things were cooler between them.
Yet the world didn’t act that way. Just because Shannon intended to think or act one way, didn’t mean her brain and body would comply.
“Take care on your way home.”That’s what she wanted to say. Instead, she brushed her hand against Jess’s and said, “If you want, you could come…”
She stopped. Eyes widened. Chills claimed her beneath her thick winter coat. Only Jess remained nonplussed as she stood beneath the bright lights of the transit mall.
“I need to get going,” Jess repeated. Her bus pulled up at that opportune moment. She pulled out her pass and raised her hand in friendly acknowledgment. “See you around, Shan. Have a good one.”
Jess boarded the bus and was gone.
What happened?Shannon continued to stand there as if she were waiting for the next bus pulling up to the stop.Just like that, she’s gone?
This hadn’t gone how Shannon anticipated. Jess was supposed to be into her. Unequivocally. Unrepentantly. Shannon was the most beautiful woman in the world, wasn’t she? She was Venus. She was a Muse. She was the shit angels cried over when they came down to Earth to reclaim their own.
That was what Jess said eight years ago, when Shannon invited her up to her room and fucked her brains out.
What had changed?
Besides… everything?
