“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 tonotsit 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 womanshehad 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.
