December 19th
Jess woke to a slew of text messages, and her social media mentions had exploded overnight. Sure enough, the video of her dance with Nik had gone viral, and everyone had seen it.
She squinted at her phone as she brewed a cup of coffee. Most of the texts were from Naomi, but Rhianne’s name was in there, too, along with messages from her mom and her sister. Fuckin’ fantastic. Those could wait.
There was only one text from Rhianne and eight from Naomi, so she checked Rhianne’s first.
God, she was never going to be able to look at Rhianne the same way after that Rudolph boob thing.
Rhianne:Saw the video. Omg. Were you on a date with Nik? Did you KISS again? Are you with him now? Tell me everything.
Jess groaned and set the phone down on the counter. A hit of caffeine was in order before she could read the rest, which would undoubtedly be worse. She doctored her coffee with a heavy pour of almond milk to cool it down and a dash of stevia for sweetness, guzzled half, then picked up her phone again. She checked Naomi’s first, not yet ready to see what her family had to say.
Naomi:YOOOOOOO
Naomi:THAT VIDEOOOOOO
Naomi: ::three screaming face emojis, three heart-eyes emojis::
Naomi:Are you going out with him???
Naomi:Also you guys are amazing dancers, that goes without saying.
Naomi:It was SO CUTE
Naomi:But like
Naomi:What does it meeeeeean??
Naomi never said in one text what she could say in twenty, and with approximately ten times the correct number of vowels.
Jess wished she had an answer for the last question. Clearly Nik liked her, but how much?
I’ll stay, if you want me to.
She wanted to believe him, she really did, but her track record—and his, for that matter—did not support his statement.
Another text came through from her mom, so she checked those next.
Mommy:Hi baby! I saw your video on TV!
Mommy:You looked so beautiful, Jessie.
Mommy:Daddy and I hope you can come visit soon!
Jess shut her eyes against the subtle guilt trip. What her mother didn’t realize was that being home was incredibly stressful for her. Her parents had fought constantly when she was a kid, her dad even going so far as to leave for long stretches at a time. But now that she and Jaina had moved out and it was just the two of them? They were inseparable!What the fuck, guys,she wanted to say to them.You couldn’t have sorted out your shit earlier so you didn’t pass that baggage on to your kids?
So no, she didn’t visit as often as she could, or should, but she still visited more than she wanted to. And if deep down she still worried that her presence would ruin their relationship again, well, who could blame her?
She checked Jaina’s text last.
Jaina:Sis! What’s up with you and that hottie in the video? You got something going on there?::winky face emoji, eggplant emoji::
Jaina used that damned eggplant emoji more than anyone else Jess knew.
Before her eyes, texts from Joel Clarke—one of the other pros onThe Dance Off—and two of her friends from rooftop yoga appeared. She didn’t even dare check her social media notifications.
Everybody wanted to know what was up with her and Nik. And he seemed to be the only person in her life who hadn’t reached out this morning.
