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I step up on the other side of the street without any pain, just a slight stiffness I sense will fade by morning. “I know. They told me I was lucky it wasn’t worse. But I promise, I’m fine. Just a little sore.” I stop by a sign announcing that rideshare drivers should pick up their riders here, but our car hasn’t arrived just yet. I glance back at Jess with a sigh. “But I should probably skip the speakeasy and take it easy for a night. You can have the tickets if you want. Maybe Evie or Harlow would like to go with you?”
“Evie and Harlow are always busy, but I’ll ask them if they want both tickets,” she says. “I’ll text them on the way back to our place. I, however, will be staying with you to monitor your health and well-being and be prepared to call 911 again if needed because clearly you can’t be trusted to call them yourself.”
“To be fair, the doctors didn’t do much aside from a few scans to make sure I wasn’t bleeding internally and telling me not to lift any large boulders. And I planned on avoiding boulders for a few days anyway.” I grin. “But if you feel the need to babysit me for the evening, I won’t complain. Though I know you were looking forward to babysitting something cuter and fluffier. Sorry you didn’t get to bring Handsome home today and that I botched Operation Cat Recapture.”
“Don’t apologize for that. Any of it,” she says. “I was never going to take a cat home today. I have an appointment to pick Handsome up on Wednesday, after I get back from visiting my parents and have a day to recover from visiting my parents. And Amy texted earlier to say Miss Piggy turned herself in not fifteen minutes after we left. Apparently, she decided life on the streets wasn’t for her and she wanted more dry food and a nap in the shade beneath the cat jungle gym.”
“Miss Piggy?” I echo. “Do I want to know?”
“I mean, yeah. I want to know, but Amy didn’t explain. Maybe the cat just really likes to eat. Maybe she’s assertive in matters of love and business like her Muppet namesake.” She shrugs. “Or maybe she has a thing for frogs.”
“Speaking of frogs, there’s an amazing French restaurant around the corner from my hotel and I know you love escargot with extra garlic. Any chance you’d let me treat you to takeout in my room as a thank-you for saving my life?”
She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling when she says, “I didn’t save your life, goober. Don’t be dramatic. But yes, I’d love to have a fancy French dinner with you. But maybe we should take a rain check and do it another night. I really do want to keep an eye on you tonight, and we have an extra bed at my place. Cam moved in with his girlfriend not long ago, but his bed and furniture is still in his room. And he left some of his clothes there for nights when he decides to sleep over after we hang out. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you borrowing some pajama pants and a t-shirt or whatever.”
I almost confess that my hotel suite has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living space overlooking the city—so we’d have plenty of space if we went there—but rethink it at the last minute. Jess already seems a little weirded out by the change in my financial status and she has no idea I can easily afford a five-thousand-dollar-a-night hotel room. It seems best to keep that under my hat for now.
Besides, it would be nice to spend time with Jess on her own turf, where she feels comfortable letting her guard down.
I feel like there’s still so much unsaid between us.
“Okay, thanks,” I say. “I’ll just plan on buying a toothbrush at the bodega on the corner and crashing with you tonight, then.”
“Good.” She exhales, her shoulders relaxing away from her ears for the first time since early this afternoon. “And if you’re still not totally okay in the morning, I can cancel my trip to see Mom and Dad. They’ll understand if I explain what happened. They always liked you.”
“Yeah?” I say, spotting the SUV from the rideshare turning into the hospital grounds. “That’s good to hear.”
“Well, theymostlyliked you,” she says, before adding in a softer voice, “They didn’t like how sad and confused I was when you disappeared. After a few months, I had my mom call your mom to make sure you were still alive.”
“Really?” I glance back at her, my brows furrowing. “Mom never told me.”
“My mom asked her not to. She could tell how embarrassed I was.”
I take her hand, giving it a quick squeeze as the SUV pulls up to the curb. “I’m sorry. I was an idiot, but I’m not anymore. I promise.”
Her lips curve in a tight smile. “I know. And Mom must know, too. She texted to let me know you were in town, but that’s it. No freak-out calls or showing up on my doorstep or anything. You must still be okay in her book.”
As we load into the car, I’m grateful for that, but I want to be okay in Jess’s book, not just her mother’s.
Jess is the person who matters most, but I can tell she isn’t ready to let her guard down with me just yet. She doesn’t trust me the way she did before and…why should she? I bailed on her, selfishly putting my own need to put my crush behind me ahead of our friendship.
If I could go back and change things, I would, but that’s not the way space-time works. At least not yet. Maybe someday time travel will be a thing, but until then I’ll have to hope two weeks is enough to prove to Jess that I deserve a second chance at her heart and that “one and done” isn’t going to work for us.
We’re meant to be so much more than that, and I’m starting to think she feels it, too. At least, she lets me take her hand again when we’re settled in the backseat and hold it all the way to Manhattan.
And for now, that’s enough to keep the hope burning in my chest.
More than enough…
CHAPTER NINE
Jess
By the time Sam and I make our way up the stairs to the apartment—with me forcing him to stop on every landing to make sure he really is still feeling okay—Evie and Harlow are waiting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee in their going-out clothes.
“Are you sure you guys don’t want to go?” Evie asks. “If Sam’s feeling better, we don’t mind at all.”
“For real,” Harlow said. “I mean, I love jazz, but I also love catching up on sleep.”
