overtime | clark & martin

twenty-six.

Jessica Williams had three huge problems when it came to dating. The first was that she fell in love with anyone that showed her an ounce of kindness and she fell quickly. The second was that she had communication problems. She wasn't used to being vulnerable, so she took her burdens and feelings and locked them away in a vault. The third problem was that while she fell quickly, she also couldn't help to find the flaws in every person that she dated.

The thing about dating Kate Martin was that she was easy to fall for, easy to communicate with, and as far as Jessica knew, she didn't have a single flaw. Perhaps her only flaw was falling for Jessica.

That was what Jessica was thinking as she sat in her hotel room in Dallas. After spending time with Caitlin, Jessica was in a really weird place. She loved Kate, nothing would change that she was certain of it, but it wasn't as though she could simply deny the budding feelings she had for Caitlin. It was something Jessica wanted to talk about with Kate because she didn't know what to do and she wanted to be transparent with her, but it was also Kate's birthday, and this was not the conversation that you had with your girlfriend on her birthday.

Jessica had already begun looking into different markets. She'd honestly built up a big enough following that she could go to a bigger market like New York and Los Angeles. She was nearing a million followers on Instagram, and she didn't have to stay in Indiana. Besides, if she was going to go back to playing basketball then there was no need for her job in Indiana anyway.

Jessica was taken from her thoughts by a knock on the door and Jessica climbed out of bed to see A'ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and Alysha Clark standing there.

"Hey guys," Jessica greets with a smile.

"Jess, we have some bad news," Kelsey tells her.

Jessica's smile falls, "What is it?"

"We accidentally left Kate at the rest stop," A'ja tells her.

"What?" Jessica demands, her eyes narrowing, "How do you leave someone?"

"We thought everyone got on the bus and so we drove off and then Kate called us and asked where everyone had gone and we were halfway to Dallas by the time we realized," Kelsey explains.

Jessica looks at the three of them surprised, but mostly angry. She'd honestly thought that everyone on the team loved Kate and saw her as a little sister and would literally go to war for her. Now she wasn't so sure if they were leaving her at a rest stop.

"What rest stop was it?" Jessica asks.

"I think it was in Houston," Alysha says.

"Houston? That's like three hours away! I fucking can't believe you guys," Jessica says as she pulls her phone out of her pocket to see if Kate has called her and left any messages, "You three better hope she's okay, or else I'm going to end all of your careers Tonya Harding style."

Jessica dials Kate's number and the phone rings twice before Kate answers, "Hi Jess!"

"Baby, are you okay?" Jessica asks as she steps back into the hotel room, grabbing the car keys of her rental, ready to go and get Kate.

"I'm fine!" Kate answers gleefully, "Are you in Dallas yet? We just checked in and I can't wait to see you!"

Jessica pauses at that, "You're in Dallas?"

Outside of her hotel door, she hears loud laughter, and she opens the door to see A'ja, Kelsey, and Alysha on the floor laughing. They had got her, and they had gotten her good.

"Hold on, people are being loud in the hallway," Kate says as she opens the door. Jessica looks down the hall to see Kate poke her head out. Kate lights up at the sight of her and steps into the hallway. She runs down the hallway and ignores her teammates dying of laughter on the floor as she hugs Jessica.