Page 12 of Finding Jess

“Don’t worry,” Tiana said with a chuckle. “I’m not gonna ask to stay with you. I have a friend here who said I can crash at her place ‘til she moves.”

Tiana threw the bag over her shoulder. “So,” she said, smiling between them both, “when do I start?”

***

Sam ran a rough hand down her face, blinking at the laptop screen.

“Sorry,” Liz mumbled from behind her desk, giving her an apologetic frown. “Is that going to be too much work to set up? I don’t know anything about the software stuff, just the reporting we handle.”

Sam shook her head, blowing out a breath. “No, it’s fine. Just a little more than I was expecting.”

After spending another hour with Liz going through the details, she quickly realized why Howard had picked this firm as the one to test out the software on. The systems they had in place were archaic, to say the least. So if it worked there, it’d be all but guaranteed to work at every other firm they owned.

But that also meant that the project would be twice as much work as they anticipated. If they wanted to stick to the two-week timeline they’d planned on, she’d need to carve out a few more hours of work each day.

“I know the feeling,” Liz said, leaning back in her chair. “I wasn’t expecting this on top of all my other work.”

Sam glanced up at her as she continued scrolling mindlessly through her phone, only stopping to take the occasional sip of her pink smoothie.

The day before, when she’d first seen her, it’d felt impossible to stop thinking of her as the twelve-year-old girl she’d last known. But after spending a couple more hours together, she knew why.

Turned out, she actually hadn’t changed all that much.

“So,” Liz said suddenly, setting the phone down on her desk. “You and my girlfriend—” Sam’s eyes flitted up, catching the slight emphasis she placed on that word. “You guys had a thing?”

The look on her face somehow seemed both oddly amused and challenging at the same time.

Sam held her stare for a moment, wondering how Jess would’ve broached the subject. She also couldn’t help but wonder if a ‘thing’had been Jess’ exact description, or Liz’s altered version.

“Yeah,” she answered, leaning back in the chair as she blew out a breath. “Sorry. I was caught off guard yesterday and didn’t really know how to say that.”

Liz stared at her for a moment, her hardened gaze morphing into an amused smirk.

Then she waved a hand in the air, as if brushing the awkwardness away. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone is someone’s ex’s ex. Especially in the lesbian dating world.”

She let out a laugh, and Sam forced a smile as she nodded.

Then Liz glanced up at the door behind her with a smile. “Speaking of.”

Sam turned around, stopping as she saw Jess freeze in the doorway.

“Oh,” Jess said, a stunned look adorning her face. “I’m—I’msorry,” she stuttered, eyes bouncing between Sam and Liz. “I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.” She glanced back at Sam for a split-second before her eyes returned to Liz. “Are we—still on for lunch today?”

Liz’s eyebrows knitted together as she peered down at the silver watch on her wrist. She groaned, shaking her head. “I completely lost track of what time it was.”

Sam stayed partially turned around, watching Jess, who carefully avoided her gaze.

“That’s okay,” Jess said, with a small shake of her head. “Its fine if you’re too busy.”

Liz looked at Sam then. “Wanna come with?” she asked, although it seemed more like a polite formality than an actual invite. “So we could finish—“

“No,” Sam replied, just a bit too fast. She smiled, shutting her laptop. She dropped it into her backpack before grabbing her helmet off the floor. “That’s okay. I have to get going, anyway.”

She glanced back at Jess, whose eyes now seemed to be fixated on the motorcycle helmet in her hand.

Sam swallowed, moving it slightly out of view as she looked back at Liz. “I think I have enough to get started, so we probably don’t need to meet again until Friday.”

“Oh, okay,” Liz said, standing from her desk. “What time on Friday are you thinking? We’re hosting a networking event for some of the other firms we work with at the conference center down the street, so I might need to cut out a little early that day.”

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