fumbling with your heartstrings
+ thesamefire, happy birthday! Give me a character or pairing and prompt, and I'll see what I can do for a birthday drabble.
+ Work is interfering with my ability to watch tennis again. Belated: vamos, Daveeed! Dear Chuck Culpepper, STFU and sit down, I WOULD RECOGNIZE HIM. OK, I am biased, but Daveeed is awesome. Because he's quiet and soft-spoken and ( Read more... )
+ Work is interfering with my ability to watch tennis again. Belated: vamos, Daveeed! Dear Chuck Culpepper, STFU and sit down, I WOULD RECOGNIZE HIM. OK, I am biased, but Daveeed is awesome. Because he's quiet and soft-spoken and ( Read more... )
She grins, and she's totally serious when she replies, "Waiting for a couple of guys like you." But when she turns to face Carey, she's surprised to find that PK's not with him. "Or just you. Where's your other half?"
"Missed his flight from Toronto. The meeting with the Hyundai Hockey Helpers people ran long." An eyebrow arches, curious. "He tweeted about it."
Jess doesn't have a twitter account of her own, deliberately; she checks PK's and Carey's (and others who shall remain nameless) fairly regularly, but not religiously.
"Some of us are not surgically attached to our phones and the internet. I thought you belonged to that clan, too."
"I might've gotten a frantic call as he raced for the airport."
Really, PK is the most ridiculous, now that he's committed to this thing with Carey. Jess finds it adorable. Not that she'd ever tell him so.
Carey sits on the stool next to Jess and signals the bartender. He studies Jess while he waits for his beer.
"You look tired. Good, but tired."
She swirls her glass, watching as the liquid and ice move. "Press crap. You know how it is," she finally tells him.
He sips from his glass, and she almost thinks he'll let it go, but then he says, "Part of it. I like the look, by the way." He gestures at her pencil skirt, camisole and cardigan get-up. "But that's not everything."
Jess takes another sip of her G&T. "It's been a long month."
"This have anything to do with the reason you're not jawing and laughing with Staal on the bench when your lines aren't playing?"
Fuck Carey for being so fucking observant. She takes a gulp this time.
"Maybe. Can we not talk about it right now?"
Carey pauses so long she thinks he's going to disagree. "Okay, for now. Finish your drink. You want to go up to our room and get room service, or do you want see what Columbus has to offer for fine cuisine?"
It's reached the point in the season that Jess is un-fucking-believably tired of hotels and room service, so her answer is an immediate, "Let's go out."
The concierge has a few suggestions, and they end up at a tiny place in the university district, busy, with a small menu that makes it easy for Jess to decide that nutritionists be damned, she's having the risotto du jour.
It's weird, because at first she's not sure how this will work. It's not that she doesn't like Carey. They're friends now, she thinks. But Carey always comes with PK as... not a buffer, but a frame of reference. Now, it's just Carey, and Jess finds that she really likes him by himself, for himself, not just because he's great for PK (and hot and good at sex; like really good).
They split a bottle of wine and talk about the Zane Grey novel Carey's re-reading and the subscription to The Economist that Jess's sister gave her for Christmas (Jess actually enjoys the articles, but she is never, ever admitting that to Jennifer), and by the time the table is cleared, Jess relaxes enough to agree to the chef's dessert roulette.
Which, to her glee, ends up being flourless chocolate cake for her. Carey can have his own damned dessert; Jess is going to skate her ass off this weekend, that cake is hers.
It is possible that Carey stares when Jess takes the first bite and moans when the bittersweet, smooth cake melts over her tongue.
Then he takes a sip of his espresso and tells her casually, "I'm going to make you make that sound again later."
Jess can't finish fast enough.
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But seriously, like right down to the tiny food details, it's like you managed to somehow read my mind and pick things that made me kick my feet in delight!
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After delivering his bombshell (excellent aim, there) Carey doesn't rush Jess. He just leans back in his chair and savors his espresso, his eyes intent as he enjoys Jess appreciating her dessert. She's distracted by the way his fingers curl delicately around the demi-tasse, thinking about them on her skin instead.
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