Empty: that was truly the only word that could describe how Jess felt laying naked in a stranger’s arms. Alright… fine to be fair… he wasn’t exactly a stranger… but he wasn’t exactly anyone she truly cared about. Rather, he was just the first… person she had intimately been with since she broke up with Dorian… over a year ago now. He was just a man that she had considered an acquaintance… one that she had just happened to run into again last night. He was just a man she had used to feel… anything… even if for a fleeting moment.
After being in a depressive state for over a year, Jess was finally… well… she’d never be okay after what happened but she was getting to a better place. Well… or maybe she was just getting better at pretending - so good, in fact, that Dan had let her move back into her parent’s home in London to start in-person classes for the Spring semester. Well… fine, Daniel checked in on her multiple times a bloody week as did Jezebel… though maybe Jezebel knew that Jess was just getting better at lying… and Andy came by a few times after her lack of calls (though she hadn’t yet told him the full extent of what had happened)… even though she felt terrible every fcking time because he should be spending time with his family… and her mum checked in on her too… and, of course, living by herself was a big no in her family’s book. But… she was getting there apparently… wherever there might be. It was… okay… living back at home that was. At the very least, Jessica had her little 7-year-old siblings and… and she had 2-year-old Paige and Kiara to keep her company though was it strange to say that… that hurt even more? That seeing and interacting with Paige and Kiara every day… while making her smile, also hurt deep down… for more reasons than one. Maybe one of those reasons was due to Malachi Azure… knowing that those kids would always be a mix of her and him… even if they weren’t hers. But at this moment, the reason being with them hurt, even more, was that if Jessica’s babies lived, they would be one now… but that was irrelevant right? Life moved on. That being said, from what Jessica knew… and that was very little… Dan and Anna had decided it was time to find Kiara a new home. While Jess always knew they were going to separate the little ones - Jess’ mother never showing enough to pull off more than one kid this time around - Jess never agreed with that sentiment. Part of her even wondered if Anna had any hesitations about separating twins… hell… look at what happened between the two of them with Jess left when she was 8. But at the current moment, Jess had no fight left in her. Her days had been hollow… and honestly… she was just trying to get by herself.
Maybe that’s how Jess found herself in a stranger’s bed. Simply a feeble attempt at filling whatever hollowness she found in herself. Looking over at the man’s sleeping features, Jess allowed her mind to wander back to one of her first interactions with him… her mind and heart-aching knowing that there was another player in that story.
Flashback:
“Jesssssss,”
There was a frown on her boyfriend’s features as he pulled her back into bed, a laugh meeting her lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him move his lips down her neck for… well… not the first time.
“I’m sorry love, but I have to. My coworker who was supposed to do the last teammate’s profile got food poisoning and Liam… something is apparently only free today,”
“Who caressss. Do the stupid article without him,”
A sigh met Jess lips as she looked at Dorian. In retrospect, she knew why he didn’t want her to go. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in person in weeks and Dorian had to catch a flight back to Miami tomorrow morning. The man had already stayed a few days longer than his team after their recent loss against the Oxford Soccer team, but apparently, with a test coming up, he couldn’t stay any longer than tomorrow morning. Long story short: long-distance bloody sucked.
“Just one hour. I’ll be in, out, and you won’t even be done with your morning workout”
“Weren’t you the one to say that this should be considered the morning workout?”
Jess laughed as he flipped the two over, hovering above her causing a soft moan to leave her lips. Trust her… at this point, she didn’t want to leave the bed either. “And I’m pretty bloody sure you were the one to say that it doesn’t count? Now come on, drive me to the field? Pretty please? And then you can take my car to the campus gym or whatever and pick me up later?”
“Remind me? Who in their right mind gave you a license?”
“Excuse you, darling, I’m a bloody excellent driver.”
“…”
“Fine I’m… decent.”
“…”
“STOP GIVING ME THAT LOOK I ONLY HAD TO CALL A TOW SERVICE LIKE FOUR TIMES AND IT WAS ALWAYS IN THE BLOODY STATES WITH YOUR STUPID ARSE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE. Anyways, stop bloody changing the subject.”
“One hour?”
“One Hour, I promise.”
For a meeting that was only lasting a fcking hour, tell her WHY Jess was left waiting for 40 minutes by herself because Liam… Knightly was bloody fcking busy. No. Screw him. Screw any man that thought he could waste someone else’s time because he was what? A fcking Joc?. No screw this. Jess was leaving, and she would just write this arse out of the athlete profile. Honest to god - who the bloody fck did this man think he was? With her mind set, Jess grabbed her bag, wrote a sweet little note that said “Thanks for wasting my time arse” and walked towards the door - only for it to open in her direction.
“Fck… hey I’m so sorry”
Jess gave the man a look of utter frustration, before smiling, opening the door wider and looking in the direction she left the note. “I’d say it was okay, but wasting someone’s time usually doesn’t fall under that category. I’ll be leaving now. You can go back to… whatever it was that distracted you for the last 40 minutes when you were the one to specify this meeting time.” With that, Jess walked off - not caring what left the man’s mouth in the room. Though, lo and behold, she found herself being followed by said many who was now holding the note.
“Hold up… wait… can you just hold on for a second…”
Jess rolled her eyes, sighing as she turned around with her arms over her chest. “I believed I held on far longer than a second already, Mr. Knightly.”
“If I remember correctly, we had an hour and… as of right now… I still have… 18 minutes left? Look I’m really sorry about being late… but are you saying you’re not a woman of your word?”
“… really you’re going to call me on 18 minutes when you wasted over 40?”
"Hey… a lot of things can happen in 18 minutes.
“That sounds disg…”
“Not like that… I mean… just give me a chance… at the very least to apologize. There’s cake? It’s more leftover celebratory cake after our win… but… it can be apology cake too? Please… can I just…”
“Fine… 17 minutes and cake… lead the way.”
Okay… well at least the cake was good. Honestly, she was surprised the team fridge had this much bloody cake leftover especially after it had been at least 2 days since the game - but then again, a bunch of athletes who cared about their bodies were eating it so was it a surprise? Not really. That being said.
“Hey can I have the rest of this?” Jess questioned, pointing to the remaining cake she had yet to touch. Look, 17 minutes wasn’t a lot of time for eating - especially when she spent 14 of those minutes speeding through questions she needed him to answer. Thankfully, he cut to the chase and answered as fast as he could.
“If I say yes, will you finally forgive me for being late?”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Then go ahead, the rest of Congr of Congratulations is yours”
Jess noticed a smile on his face and looked down at her questions list noticing that she was done. “So… 2 minutes left… why were you late?”
"Would… I was invested in devouring cake be an acceptable answer?
“Usually… yes. Today, no.”
“… well how about if I told you I just found my girlfriend and my teammate screwing in the showers?”
“Wait… are you… full frontal and…everything?”
“Yeah… you could say I saw… everything… and then I confronted them… and broke up with her… and then I just… needed to be alone for a second and…”
“… and ended up late?”
“Pretty much…”
“I’m sorry… do you want half my Congr?” Jess asked, pushing the cake towards him which resulted in a laugh.
"No…no the Congr is all yours. I actually… have a flight to catch in a little so I should head to the airport… thanks for waiting… I’m sorry again. "
“No… I’m sorry… for assuming and also being rude earlier?”
“Nothing to be sorry about… I guess I’ll see you later? Well… I hope… I appreciated the company.”
Shooting him a smile, Jess nodded. "Maybe… and look. Your ex and your teammate… you can do better alright? Have a good flight.
End of Flashback:
Liam Knightly… over the years, Jess had seen the man in passing. The two exchanged an 18-minute conversation every time they saw each other - through now it was just a running joke. Anytime they did see each other, one of them pulled the other aside to just have that 18-minute catch-up - never any longer. Well… not until last night, that is. Suffice to say, one thing led to another and the two ended up in his apartment using that time… to do other things. Though in retrospect, they were far past that 18 minutes and had been for a while now.
Here’s the problem though… Jess’ mind was elsewhere for most of the night… and could anyone really blame her?
Flashback
With her legs wrapped around his waist, Jess felt her eagerly pressed against the wall outside his apartment. She felt his lips move from her own, towards her neck - and honestly, Jess was thankful that she was drunk enough to enjoy it. God knows if she wasn’t - she wouldn’t be here. Unlike Dorian who… had slept with someone within days of their breakup… who knows maybe even hours of it… Jess hadn’t been able to even think about it. Even now… even fcking drunk… Jess’ mind… her stupid fcking mind… brought her back to memories she didn’t want to think about.
“God you’re so beautiful,” she heard Liam whisper
“God, you’re so beautiful,”
A flash met her mind of Dorian’s words years ago… and she found herself pushing away from Liam for a second. Though, meeting his confusion, Jess grinned before kissing him again, pushing distracting thoughts out of her mind. “Open the door and pour me another drink?” Jess responded to his words.
End of Flashback
It didn’t make her feel better… how did men do it? How did men sleep around and forget about all the other sht? How did Dorian… how did he do it? After another second, Jess pushed herself out of bed and moved to Liam’s living room - unable to sleep with… a particular someone meeting her thoughts. Rather, Jess found herself going to the couch, laying down. Maybe it was because she was still drunk… maybe… she just wanted to hear his voice… but she found herself pulling out her phone and calling a number she hadn’t… called in months. Not since… well not since she called him when he was at that club.
And… well… in a similar fashion, she reached his voicemail. * You’ve reached Dorian DeLoughrey. I’m away from my phone right now but leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can. But… at least she heard his voice… even if it was in a prerecorded message and so Jess did what she always did best. She left a voicemail. “Hey stranger…I miss you.”
@Littlefeets - Paige and Kiara Mentioned (Aka Kai’s Kids)/ and Jezebel too
@astxrism - Dori Mentioned
@novella - Kiara Mentioned
@CerealKiller - Andy very briefly mentioned
. So YES, yes, he joined her when he could. That meant coming to frat parties while Elodie did rush stuff and he hung out by himself (usually finding one way or another to entertain himself - yes, yes he did win his fair share of beer pong). It also included looking at Elodie’s homework and thanking the UNIVERSE that he wasn’t taking Intro to Statistics - like what the hell were all those numbers about? Don’t ask Riker - because he had absolutely no flipping idea.
. Riker just wanted to dance with Elo.
confused 
babies are multilingual unlike the typical grown American.
That meant that…that both Shay and Zoe would be stuck with the mean nannies who always invited their friends over and ignored them when daddy wasn’t home. Booooorrring. So obviously, Zoe was crying. Well, their dad wassss leaving tonight so Shay could understand why Zoe was sad. Honestly, if Shay hadn’t made her BRILLENTLY plan, then she would be sad too. Buuuuut, Shay had made a plan soooooo SHE WASN’T SAD. yay.