"Alright, spill it," Sasha demanded as soon as they stepped out of the office building together at the end of the workday.
"Spill what?" Jesse asked absentmindedly as she nodded at some of her colleagues walking past them.
"Whatever has you so distracted? And don't you dare deny me the juicy bits." She warned with a pointed finger and a fierce mock glare.
"I’m not distracted. I just have a lot on my mind."
"Oh, please!” Sasha scoffed, waving a limp hand in Jesse’s direction. “You’ve been just that touch of red most of the morning and don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve been ignoring the boss’s hot brother."
She turned to Jesse with a salacious grin.
“I also might have seen the two of you together. In his office.” Her brows wiggled suggestively. “You naughty girl, you.”
Jesse gasped in horror.
“Oh, shit, Sasha. No! It wasn’t like that.”
“Hmm … I’m sure it wasn’t, but it sure as hell LOOKED like it.”
Jesse groaned and covered her flaming red face with her hands. Sasha laughed and pulled one hand away from her face, using it to pull Jesse along the crowded sidewalk. She hummed the tune of ‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G’ under her breath.
They stopped at a crosswalk, and Jesse braced herself for what Sasha was going to say next. She was having way too much fun at Jesse’s expense to not say anything more.
She was proven right a few moments later when the crowd started moving across the road.
“Tell me the truth. Did he feel as good as he looked?”
“Oh, God, please stop! I’m dying here.” Jesse all but begged. If she blushed any more than she already was, her head was going to explode. She was sure of it.
Sasha only giggled.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“Take it however you’d like. Just stop talking about it.”
“Fine. I’ll stop for now, but only because Lou is going to want to hear about this, too.”
“Oh, no.” Jesse groaned.
“Oh, yes.” Sasha sang back. “She’s going to fah-REAK when she hears what naughty things sweet little Jesse gets up to at the office.”
A fake gasp.
Jesse made to swat at her, but Sasha laughingly danced out of her reach.
"C'mon, we can grab one of Lou's delicious sweets and then I want to show you the new shop I noticed when I was driving to work this morning. It looks absolutely decadent."
"Fine, but I get to choose the sweets today."
Sasha groaned at Jesse's words.
"But you always go for the weird ones!"
"Not weird, just different."
"Bleh! Weird, different, it's all the same to me."
"Don't be such a baby. Have I ever chosen something that you didn’t like?"
"No, but that's not the point. I like my sweets plain and simple." Sasha said with a firm nod of her head.
That makes one of them. To Jesse, Lou's sweets gave her the freedom to dip into her adventurous side without stepping out of her safe space. It was a drop of water to the parched, hungry side of her that demanded more.
More fun.
More freedom.
More … everything.
But Jesse had learned the hard way that giving in to those urges, chasing those adventures, never ended with anything good.
Well, not never, she admitted to herself as she smiled at something Sasha said. Too deep in her thoughts to really pay attention to the cheerful chatter of her friend.
It was because of that crazy urge for adventure that she moved to the city. Even though she lost her home, belongings, friends, and boyfriend a few months after that move, she still met Sasha and Lou. Both replaced what she lost with more than she ever could have dreamed.
But things had been so ugly for a while and she had drifted, alone and afraid, until she dug her way back out.
Those first few years had scared her.
She never wanted to go down that dark hole again.
"Hey, girls." Lou's voice drew her from her thoughts as soon as they stepped into the delicious-smelling restaurant.
"Hey, Lou." Sasha said as she walked up to the short, rounded woman who ducked under the counter to meet them. Lou quickly wiped her hands on a dishcloth she always kept at hand before accepting Sasha's hug.
"I was starting to wonder when you two were going to show up." Lou said with a smile that lit up her cherubic face as she turned her whiskey-colored eyes towards Jesse who bent and hugged her younger friend as well.
"Blame that on Jess, her head seems to be stuck in the clouds today."
"Really?" Lou asked as she flicked a surprised look at Jesse, who just cleared her throat and looked away, a light shade of pink staining her cheeks.
"Hhmmhhmm, I think it has something to do with the naughty things she’s been up to with the boss’s hot biker brother." Sasha announced with feigned motherly pride. Not even the slightest bit bothered that she had thrown Jesse right under the bus.
Lou gave a long, exaggerated gasp that drew the attention of half of the people in the restaurant.
“Shut the front door! Jesse?”
Sasha nodded.
“Sweet, no-PDA-in-public Jesse?”
Sasha nodded again, her grin somehow growing even bigger.
"Oh, my God! Finally! This calls for a celebration." She announced and grabbed Jesse’s hand, dragging her across the restaurant and through the kitchen.
The few of the staff still in the back gave the women a nod and a smile as they passed by, leaping out of the way of Hurricane Lou. They had all been with Lou long enough to know that you needed to be quick on your feet when she had a certain look on her face.
"Sit here." Lou demanded as she pushed Jesse into a chair by a reasonably clutter-free table at the very back of the kitchen. She rushed off again, muttering to herself as she went.
Jesse glared at Sasha, who was having WAY too much fun at Jesse’s expense, when she slid into the seat next to her.
"I'm glad to see that you find this so funny."
"Oh no, not funny, but freaking hilarious!" She said before she burst out laughing again, causing Jesse to growl low in her throat as her frown deepened.
Her hands came out as if to throttle her friend.
She had known, just as Sasha had before she had dropped that little bomb on Lou, that their friend would completely freak. Making the whole situation into something else, something it wasn't. Especially since she had been so determined to get Jesse laid by some "gorgeous hunk who would thrust her socks off and hump her blind".
Crude, but that was just how Lou was.
"Here." Lou said as she returned with a large plate laden with assorted sweets and placed it in the middle of the table. She turned back towards one of her chefs, who carried three glasses and a bottle of vodka. He quickly scurried away when Lou impatiently shooed him, taking the third chair for herself as she opened the bottle with a wide grin.
"What's this?" Jesse finally dared to ask as Lou started pouring generous amounts of vodka into the glasses.
"Our celebratory dinner," Lou announced with a cheeky grin as she gave Jesse a glass, motioning for her to drink so that she could fill it up again.
"And what exactly are we celebrating?" Jesse asked as she watched her friend pour her a refill.
"Why, you getting laid, of course."
"Lou!"
"What? Sasha and I have been trying for months to get you to even go clubbing with us and meet some people. Now here you are, out of the blue, doing the sexual tango with someone!"
"I never said anything about doing the sexual tango with anyone."
Lou froze for a second, her eyes on a grinning Sasha, who shrugged.
“It could just as well have been.”
“Sasha!”
“What?! You didn’t see it from where I was standing. There was so much sexual tension you could’ve cut it with a knife.”
“Ho-oh-oh! Mama like!” Lou crowed before she downed her drink and slammed it onto the table. She then jumped up from her seat and started doing a strange and rather vivid dance which basically involved her moving her hips back and forth while making noises that had Jesse mentally shuddering even as she laughed.
"Get it, girl!" Sasha encouraged. She took her shot and slammed her empty glass on the table, drawing Lou's little performance to an end.
Lou quickly topped the two of them up.
"To Jesse!"
"To Jesse!" Sasha echoed, tapping her glass with Lou's before both of them downed their half glasses of vodka.
"C'mon drink up, drink up! We want to hear all about your lover." Lou said, drawing out the last word while moving her eyebrows up and down, waiting for Jesse to finish her glass before giving everyone another round to drink.
"That's good. Where'd you get it?" Jesse asked as the burn of the alcohol faded. The sweet tangy taste of vanilla in her mouth was more pleasant than she thought it would be.
"My brother sent it to me, but that's not important. Tell us about this mystery man that you want to keep hidden from me," Lou said, giving Jesse a stern look as she propped her face with the cup of her hand. A pose that Sasha mimicked as they stared at Jesse expectantly.
Jesse sighed in defeat, knowing that they weren't going to let her go until she told them what they wanted to know, and downed the vodka that Lou had given her. Holding her glass out, she watched the clear liquid swirling around in her glass as Lou poured her some more.
"There really isn't much to tell."
"Then tell us what there is." Sasha urged, shifting forward in her chair.
Jesse sighed and looked up at her friends.
"We were talking in his office. About changing the decor and other stuff. I was going to leave but forgot I needed to ask him something. I turned around but wasn’t expecting Jax to be so close. He caught me -"
“On his dick,” Lou whispered softly to Sasha.
“- when I stumbled and kept me from falling.” Jesse finished, her cheeks burning.
“That’s all cute and all, but why are you blushing like that?”
Jesse covered her cheeks with her hands.
“Dish it, sister.”
“He’s just really hot.”
“Yeah, and?”
“Like, really hot.” Jesse leaned forward to reiterate in a whisper. Her eyes darted around the kitchen like she was scared someone was going to overhear her.
“She’s not lying. You’ve seen our boss, right?” Sasha asked Lou, who nodded vigorously. “All tall, dark, broody with that total dark angel feel to him.”
“I will never, not ever, forget the look of Mr. BDE but, please, carry on.”
“Now imagine him but as a total bad-boy-biker-steal-your-panties-with-a-grin.”
“No!”
“Oh, yes”
“You dirty dog, you!” Lou crowed at Jesse and tapped her glasses together. “Feeling up boss man's brother right there in the office. You make me so proud.”
“Nothing happened!” Jesse cried but she knew it was futile. Her friends would take this story and run with it as fast and far as they could.
“But something could happen.”
“I really don’t think so. I mean, have you seen him?”
“Uhm, yes.” Sasha looked at Lou in confusion. “I did describe him as a total bad-boy-biker-steal-your-panties-with-a-grin guy, right?”
“Oh, yes.”
“And that’s an accurate description, right?” This time she looked at Jesse for an answer, her face expectant.
“Yes, that’s a pretty accurate description.” She acknowledged with a sigh.
“Then I’m confused. What am I missing?”
Jesse squirmed under the penetrating eyes of her friends because she knew they wouldn’t like her answer. No disparaging remarks were ever allowed when in reference to yourself. It was one of the first rules they had knocked into her head when their friendship was still in its early stages.
Sasha’s eyes narrowed the longer she took to answer.
“You think you’re not good enough for him.”
It was more of an accusation than a question.
“Not … exactly?” Jesse cringed even as she said the words because she knew that she just fucked up.
Big.
“Excuse me?” That squawk came from Lou.
“You better back all the way up and rethink that answer,” Sasha hissed, poking a finger at the table in front of Jesse.
“I just mean that he’s all, you know, that and I’m just - uhm - me.”
“Just you?”
Oh no, Jesse, she’s going to explode.
Do something!
“Plain! Boring!” Jesse exclaimed almost desperately.
“Now hold a one fucked-off second!” The look on Sasha’s face was akin to witnessing someone slapping her grandma around.
Fuck! Wrong thing to say.
Abort!
Abort!
“I’m just saying that men like Devon and Jax need a woman that can meet them head-to-head but also keep them on their toes. A wild woman. A whirlwind not -” Jesse gestured to herself” - a pleasant breeze.”
“A PLEASANT BREEZE?!” Sasha’s indignant screech was brought to an abrupt stop when Lou tugged at her arm.
“Did she just say Devon AND Jax?”
Jesse slowly closed her eyes when she realized just what she had admitted to.
“You did, didn’t you?” Lou’s grin was the biggest Jesse had ever seen on her friend's face. She tutted and wagged a finger at Jesse. “Keeping naughty secrets? From us? Your best of best friends? For shame, girl, for shame.”
“Jesse?” Sasha prompted when her silence stretched on.
“It’s just a crush,” Jesse admitted softly, her words barely discernible. Her eyes were burning, and she felt moments away from crying.
The silence was almost suffocating and Jesse stared at her hands when it stretched on longer. She almost jerked off her chair when both women reached out to take one of her hands in theirs.
“We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Sasha said, looking close to tears herself.
Lou looked just as remorseful.
Jesse shook her head.
“It’s not you. It’s just -” Jesse took a deep breath, hesitating just a moment before she confessed everything to her friends. “There’s something about Devon that makes me feel like I’m coming home. He’s comfortable and oddly familiar. He listens to me like everything I say matters and he always remembers little things. Like, how I can’t leave the office without all the chairs being pushed in or that I prefer the vegan brownies to the usual ones the guys at the office always get.”
“With Jax, there’s this sense of expectancy. Of excitement. Like he’s ready to go off and find an adventure at a moment's notice and he’s daring me to go with him. All I need to do is take his hand.”
“But Devon is my boss and I only just met Jax today. I don’t even know him.”
Even if everything inside her said differently, Jesse finished silently.
Both friends fell silent as they took in her quiet words. Sasha drew her eyes to hers when she gently squeezed Jesse’s hand.
“You know he’s only your boss for another week, right?”
Jesse shrugged but nodded.
“Then you know there’s nothing really holding you back with Devon.”
“And with Jax,” Lou continues for Sasha, “you just need to spend a little time with him. Get to know him.”
“Exactly. You have a week. That’s more than enough time to get to know him. All you need to do is to be brave.”
Jesse pulled a face.
“‘Brave’ isn’t really in my repertoire,”
“Then I think it’s time that you added it.” Sasha warned