Page 68 of One More Weekend

JENNA

A shout filled the Terminal,startling me out of my haze for more than one reason.

“Jenna Chambers!”

My head swiveled toward the familiar voice, my face turning white as if I’d heard a ghost.

Everyone around me started looking around themselves, looking for whoever this maniac was searching for. But when they saw my obvious recognition, the crowd started to part.

And there, just outside the security line ropes, Sy stood with a heaving chest. Her face was deadly serious until she laid eyes on me and a smile took over her face.

My forehead wrinkled. “Sy?”

Nodding, Sy ducked under the ropes, moving through the crowd toward me as she nodded.

She stopped just a foot in front of me, sweat beading at her temples as she caught her breath. By the looks of it, she’d left the apartment not long after me.

“You didn’t give me back your keys.” She eventually gasped out.

“Sy, I could’ve mailed them…” I started before she raised her finger, bending over to catch her breath.

Looking up at me, Sy shook her head. “Plus, if management realizes you moved out they’ll kick me out. So you’ve put me in a very precarious situation to lie for months on end.”

The line started moving again.

I shook my head at her as I wheeled my bag a little further. “Well, they won’t find out and if they do, I’ll tell them it was my idea.”

“Won’t work. Because I won’t find a roommate willing to do the same split and it’s not fair for you to pay for something you’re not using.” Sy clenched her jaw.

Shuffling along the line, I scoffed. “Sy, you seriously didn’t come all this way for this.”

Everything in my body wanted to nod, to say those were enough of a reason to stay but I forced my feet to keep moving.

Sy shook her head. “I think you haven’t explored the amazing freelance opportunities that New York has to offer yet.”

From beside me, a woman in line giggled at Sy’s jokes. Whether I was convinced or not, my fellow passengers seemed to agree with her. So long as I kept moving, no one in line minded the little show that Sy was putting on.

Before I could answer, we’d reached the front of the line. There, the security guard held out her hand. “ID and boarding pass please.”

Just as I was about to hand it over to her, preparing to have to say goodbye to Sy again, Sylvia shook her head. “Jenna, stop. Please.”

Turning to look back at her, I saw the pain on her face, all the want she had hidden from me from the day we wanted, sacrificed on the altar of a perfect friendship. And I knew she couldn’t hold it back anymore.

It was like everything she could possibly say to me was written on her face. I’d never felt so loved under anyone’s gaze.

“I shouldn’t have played this so cool. Because I don't feel cool about you. Jenna, I burn for you. And I think if I let you get on that plane I might not ever forgive myself for not finding out what we could really be.”

With misty eyes, Sy shrugged. “I just forgot that there’s one more place in the city that I have to take you.”

“Just give me one more weekend.”

My breath hitched in my chest. It was everything I’d ever wanted to hear, the things I’d felt for Sy for the last eight years that I feared would never be reciprocated.

And there was no fucking way I was getting on that plane.

Wrapping my arms around her and letting my hands off my clutched luggage, I nodded into her chest. “Just one more weekend.”

48

---