I Volunteer | Jack Schlossberg | Friends to lovers

Just a dream!

One month later

Annie's vision was blurry. She couldn't fully make out where she was, but from what she could see, it was dark. She was in a bed, maybe? And she felt a tingling in her lower stomach—a burning, almost—but it felt good. When she looked down, she saw a head full of thick, dark curls positioned between both of her thighs.

She instantly felt the warm, wet sensation of a tongue on her clit, and had to clutch the bedsheets on either side of her to keep herself steady. The tingling in her stomach started to expand lower as it grew stronger. She was seconds away from riding that feeling all the way to an orgasm, when a car horn started honking outside the window, distracting her. Except it wasn't a horn at all, it was her alarm. And it was a dream.

Her mood was off that whole day. At work, she kept replaying the dream over and over again— just like she had done with the kiss for the past month. She had a stack of texts from Jack that she hadn't gotten around to responding to, but knew she couldn't avoid it much longer. Believe it or not, she was actively trying not to push him away. It wasn't going great. 

In the month that had passed, she'd had a lot of conversations with both her sister and Alex. She needed to sort through the situation with someone other than herself. She tried explaining to them respectively that her feelings for him were growing, and that all she wanted was for that kiss to have kept going where she knew it was headed—but her fears about his motives being different were keeping her stuck in this headspace of almost... being mad at him. 

"It's like, I'm pissed that he kissed me, but I'd have been pissed if he didn't," Annie said as she paced back and forth in Alex's room. "Neither option was ever going to guarantee he has feelings for me." She paused and turned to Alex. "And what's worse is that sometimes I really do think he likes me. I mean, you know the shit he does. He goes out of his way for me," Annie pointed to herself. "But if he does like me, why the fuck hasn't he done anything about it?"

"Oh, you mean like kissing you?" Alex asked snarkily. Annie shot her a death glare, and Alex snorted. "You've assigned this narrative that he was just horny so he decided to make out with you. But you still need to consider the other theory, that he kissed you because he shares the same feelings you do."

"Okay, but if he likes me, why hasn't he told me?"

"Why haven't you told him?" Damn it, she's on a roll, Annie said internally. "You know what you need to do, babe." Alex reached out and held Annie's hand. "I know you're scared. You have every right to be scared, especially considering your last relationship. But you're going to end up hating this man if you have all of these expectations for him that he doesn't even know exist. Give him a chance to tell you his thoughts."

Annie sighed. "Okay, you're right," she said, nodding. "I'll talk to him about it next time I see him."

April had moved slowly, and May was dragging on just as much. Luckily for Annie, her fast-paced workload kept her mind off of Jack—at least during business hours. In the eight months that she'd been with the library, event turnouts had skyrocketed, and all of their social media pages were performing much higher. She felt like she was actually doing something right.

On a Friday in late May, Susan took all of the departments and interns out for lunch, with the exception of a few senior staff and the volunteers to hold down the fort. They went to a little Italian hole in the wall and filled up on pasta, bread, and cheese.

On her way back into the building, Annie found herself thinking about Jack—wondering where he was, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her—but quickly shook the thought out of her mind and shifted to the mental to-do list in her head.

She had just walked into her office when something moved in her peripheral vision. Before she could fully process that it was Jack, she had already let out a shriek. "Not so fun being the one who's getting scared, is it?" he said as he laughed.

"Was this your master plan?" she asked with her hand on her chest. "To sneak into my office and scare me?"

"No," he said still chuckling, raising both hands up with his palms facing out. "It was just a bonus." He paused and did a survey of her face. "It's nice to see you." Then he smiled her favorite smile—the one that brought his cheeks higher.

She glared at him through the side of her eyes, but once she saw that smile, she softened. "It's nice to see you too," she said as she grinned and rolled her eyes. "Are you here for Profiles in Courage stuff?"

"Yep. Kinda hard to believe we're already starting the cycle again."

"Yeah, and kinda hard to believe this is my third time around."

"Once you're in it, you're in it," he said with a small solute. "How was lunch with Susan?" She lowered her brows in suspicion. "What? The guy at the front told me. I'm not stalking you."

Her brows shot up now. "For the record I didn't think that until you said it," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. He chuckled and shook his head. "It was good. Although, I'm so full I might have to unbutton my pants for the rest of the day." She put her hands on her desk and leaned over, faking like she was out of breath.

"Should I give you some privacy?" he joked as he started to back away.

"I will at least have the decency to wait until after you leave to unbutton my pants. Goodness, I am a lady, Jack." The air suddenly felt heavy.

Jack took a breath, like he was preparing to say something he wasn't super comfortable saying. She was worried he might bring up the unanswered texts. "Can I just say something? And then we don't have to bring it up ever again." He asked as he sat down in the chair facing her desk. 

"Yeah, sure." Her stomach began to twist into knots as she took a seat in her desk chair.

"I respect you, like probably more than anyone other than my parents." She scoffed. "I'm serious, Annie. And my actions contradicted that." He placed his hand over his heart. "So I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry, and I promise that nothing like that will happen again. Your friendship is so important to me, and I never want to make you feel uncomfortable again." 

Friendzoned, again, she thought. But then she heard Alex's voice in her head, reminding her not to assign her own meaning to his words. It was time to give him a chance to speak for himself. 

She gave him a soft smile. "I respect you a lot too," she began. "And... to be honest... it didn't make me u..."

The words "it didn't make me uncomfortable, in fact I enjoyed it and didn't want it to stop. But I had to stop it because  I wasn't sure we were on the same page about it. I like you, and I didn't want this to just be a hookup situation," were right on the tip of her tongue, when she was interrupted.

"Jack!" Susan said as she passed by Annie's office on her way down the hall. She stepped inside to give him a hug. "How are you, darling? How's work?"

"I'm good, work's good. Ready to dive back into awards mode," he said as he rubbed his hands together with eagerness. 

"Well, the committee is lucky to have you," she said as she placed her hand on his cheek. "You let me know if you need anything while you're here, ok?"

"Yes ma'am, thanks Susan," he said with a grin as Susan slipped out of the room.

It was suddenly silent. She was working up the courage to resume their conversation, but before she could restart her sentence, Jack beat her to it. "Alright," he said, clapping his hands together loudly. "So now that that's settled, shall we call Alex and Michael to join us for a drink after work?"

The moment was over, and she knew it. Disappointedly, she said, "Sure." 

"Sure?" he gave her a questioning look. 

"Yes...I meant yes." She smiled, and he smiled back. "But you need to be prepared for two things," she said.

"And what might that be?"

"First, they're dating." His brows raised and his mouth opened a little. "Second, they're going to give you shit for only seeing me the last few times you've been in town."

"I'll make it up to them," he said with a wink.