“Wow, really?” I asked, rolling
onto my side so I could look at him.
“What are you going to do?”
He shrugged. “I have to interview first, so it’s not like
it’s a done deal or anything. I’m not
sure. I really don’t want to move back
to Minnesota, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a job like that here.”
“It’s cool that they even want to
interview you,” I said, getting comfortable against him again. He absently rubbed my shoulder with his thumb
and nodded.
“I was pretty surprised,” he
admitted. “So we’ll see what happens, I
guess. I’m sure they have lots of other
candidates too.”
I wondered briefly what, if
anything, would change between us if he moved back to Minnesota. Jamie and I had been good friends for a long
time, and I was completely guilty of developing some feelings for him while we
were also hooking up (before I started seeing Kevin). I’d never told him because I knew he didn’t
feel the same way and I didn’t want to screw anything up. The timing was terrible, and then I’d met
Kevin and it didn’t end up mattering.
My tiredness from traveling
eventually overruled my thoughts about Jamie and I dozed off a few minutes
later. I woke up when Jamie yawned and
shifted. I squinted at the clock and saw
we’d been napping for about 40 minutes. Groaning,
I rolled away from Jamie and stretched.
We managed to get up and I took a
quick shower. Then Jamie took me out to
do a little sightseeing. On the way
home, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few things for the
week. I cooked dinner when we got back
to his place, and then we relaxed on his couch with a couple drinks.
I couldn’t stop yawning, and Jamie
laughed. “Are you going to sleep with
me?” he asked me.
“Is that weird?” I asked, putting
down my drink and looking at him.
“No, not at all,” he said
immediately. “As long as you don’t care
that my alarm is going off awfully early tomorrow.” Jamie had to work the next day, and I was
going to be exploring on my own for the day.
“I’ll live,” I replied. “Don’t forget that you’re two hours behind
Minnesota time. So ‘awfully early’ for
you probably isn’t bad for me.”
“That’s true,” he agreed. He let me get ready for bed first and I was
practically asleep by the time he climbed into bed next to me. We used to spend the night together all the
time, even before we started hooking up, so it didn’t feel weird at all.
“Just so you know, I will take the
blankets completely away from you if you try to hog them,” Jamie teased
me. I was a known blanket thief.
“Just so you know, I will smother
you in your sleep if you snore,” I shot back.
Jamie laughed. “I haven’t snored since I broke up with my
ex,” he informed me.
“Only because you haven’t had
anyone to complain about it!” I retorted.
“I don’t even have an argument for
that one,” he admitted, grinning. “Now
shut up and go to sleep.”
“Don’t boss me,” I told him,
rolling onto my side, facing away from him.
He chuckled and rolled over next to
me, briefly wrapping an arm around me and kissing the back of my head. “Goodnight babe,” he said.
“Goodnight honeybunny,” I replied,
making both of us laugh. He rolled away
from me again and retreated to his side of the bed. I yawned and got comfortable, and fell asleep
relatively quickly.
The next day I was already awake
when Jamie’s alarm went off at 5.
Despite having fallen asleep fairly quickly, I hadn’t slept well. I never did in a new place. I got up while Jamie was in the shower and I
got some coffee started. I wouldn’t
drink it, but I knew he would.
When he came out of his room,
showered and dressed, he took the cup of coffee I offered happily. He gave me a few tips on getting around town
and some recommendations of things to do and places to eat, then he took
off.
I got in the shower and got
dressed. As I was doing my makeup, my
phone rang. I looked at it and saw that
it was Ryan. I declined the call and
sent a text that said, “I’m visiting a
friend in Seattle at the moment. Can I
call you when I get back to MN?” Several seconds later, it rang again. Exasperated, I stabbed at the “answer”
button. “Did you get my text?” I asked.
“Sure did, did you get my
email?” He worked hard to make it sound casual,
but there was a slight edge to his voice that wasn’t normally there.
“Sure did,” I replied, trying to
make my voice sound even more casual than his.
“Jenna, cut the shit,” he said, and
now he did sound irritated. “What’s
going on with you?”
“Nothing, Ryan,” I replied. “Like I said, I’m in Seattle with my friend.”
“It’s barely after 6 there,” Ryan
pointed out. “I’m sure you’re not doing
anything too important at the moment.”
“You don’t get to decide if what I’m
doing is important or not,” I snapped.
I heard Ryan sigh, then suck in a
deep breath. “That’s not what I meant,”
he said. “Look, I don’t know if I did
something to upset you. Are you mad that
I interfered in your argument with Kevin?”
“No,” I said, “I’m not. I swear.
Ryan, the whole evening was a little weird. I’m glad you came with me, but I wish I had
just not gone at all. The whole
pretending to be a couple thing made things weird for me. I’m sorry I didn’t respond to your
email. I just need a little space.”
Ryan didn’t say anything for
several seconds. “Okay,” he said. “Take as much time as you need. Let me know if you want to do something or
talk about anything when you get back.
Seattle is great, so I hope you have a nice trip.” The words were there but they sounded
empty.
“Thanks, I’m going to try!” I
replied.
“Alright, well, talk to you later,”
Ryan said. I said goodbye and hung
up. I closed my eyes briefly before I
tossed my phone aside and picked up my mascara to finish my makeup. I wasn’t going to let this put a damper on my
trip.