Helplessly; j.g.

Eight

They were still standing in the same places where they'd confessed their feelings for each other, just five minutes earlier.

Neither of them had said anything, they just stood in silence. Rome was looking at the ground, studying her sandy booties, when Jack cleared his throat, making her brown-purple eyes flicker up to him.

"So what are we going to do about," he took a hand out of his pocket and gestured in between them, "this? I mean, is there anything to do about it?"

Rome sighed, shrugging as she lowered herself onto a stool by the island, crossing her arms over her chest as she thought.

"I don't know, Jack," she answered honestly, running a hand through her hair. "I'm moving to Italy. I have to leave next week." She moved her eyes to meet his, which had never left her. "I was going to ask you to help me pack up, but I understand if you don't want to now."

"No, that sounds great. I'll just tell Jack, so he doesn't expect me coming or anything," Jack stammered.

Rome laughed nervously. "Jack, you can still go see Jack, I was thinking of doing it at night. That sometimes helps with staying up and keeping your energy going, rather than during the day," she lied. 

The truth was that she didn't want Jack to miss out on seeing Johnson everyday. She would feel too bad if she was the cause of that. Also, she always liked doing stuff at night better than during the day. There was a secretiveness about doing things at night that made her toes tingle and a smile appear on her face.

But as she and Jack were still wondering what to do, there was no smile on her face and this was one thing she didn't like doing at night.

She decided to make the first move towards him, crossing over to where he was standing. She stood with a few inches between them and Jack turned to face her. 

All he wanted to do was to kiss her. He'd been wanting to do that since she'd said her first curse word. 

"Damn," he spoke.

Rome drew her eyebrows together as she looked up at him. "Excuse me?" she asked confusedly.

"That was the first curse word you said. Also, the first time I'd wanted to kiss you," Jack answered casually.

Rome giggled at the memory and also at Jack's straightforwardness. "Nice to know."

"Aren't you going to tell me the first time you wanted to kiss me?" he asked, his dark eyebrows raised.

Rome smiled at him, rolling her eyes. "Fine, if you insist. It was whenever you went down to the cafeteria to look for some chocolate cake. It reminded me of when I took you to my shop, making you try cake for the first time. It also let me know that you do, indeed, like cake."

"Your cake was better than the cafe's, by the way," Jack said, taking a step towards her.

"Well, I'll be damned if it wasn't," she replied, taking a step towards him. 

Between their steps, there was only about half an inch between them and Rome could almost hear the beating of Jack's heart.

"Can we kiss now?" she whispered, looking at him.

Jack smiled and nodded, dipping his head down and putting his left hand on the side of her face, the other around her waist. He slowly moved his lips towards hers, stopping a few centimeters in front of them.

When a few moments passed and he still hadn't kissed her, she rolled her eyes and closed the gap between them, pressing her lips on his as her arms wrapped around his neck. 

They broke from the kiss after a few seconds, both of them having smile on their faces. Jack's was bigger than Rome's, who knows how that was possible.

"You have an amazing smile, Jack. You should smile more," Rome complimented.

"Well you're the only one who makes me smile like this, Rome. You should stay around more," Jack replied, a raise of his right eyebrow.

Rome sighed, dropping her head. "Jack, I still have to go to Italy. There's no way around that."

"What if I come with you?" Jack offered.

"How would that work?" she asked.

"I could come as your assistant or day planner or whatever they need me to be," Jack said.

"I don't know if that will work. Plus, Johnson is still here. I don't think you should leave him, especially with his condition." Rome sighed, plopping down onto the couch. "It was a nice offer, Jack. Don't think I haven't thought about it. But you have too much stuff here that wouldn't be the same without you."

Jack groaned, sitting down next to her and leaning against the back of the couch. "Can we just go back to kissing? That was a lot simpler than all of this," he whined.

Rome chuckled, leaning back on the couch as well and shifting to her right, slightly leaning into Jack. 

"I want that too, believe me. But after all the kissing, this would still be an issue," Rome reasoned.

"Why are they relocating you, anyway?" Jack asked.

"There was an opening in the branch over there, the opening happened to be my job, and they sent in my application that I filled out, like, a year ago. That was when they said that if there was ever an opening, they would send in everyone's application and if you got it, you had to go there. I thought that I wouldn't be where I am now, so I applied. And they picked me," Rome explained. 

"I came a few months after that, I guess," Jack muttered.

"You did," Rome confirmed with a nod of her head. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, seeing a text from some movers that she had scheduled to come check out her apartment and things. "Jack, I have to go."

"Why?" he asked as she stood and grabbed her coat, pulling it on. He stood and watched her.

"The movers that are moving my stuff to Italy are at my place. They're checking on the doorways and my furniture and what can be flown or shipped over, all that stuff. I'm really sorry, but I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow," she said quickly, opening his door and giving him a wave before stepping into the hallway and racing to the elevator.

Jack was still standing in the same spot he had been standing in when she first left. He closed his eyes, sighing and raking a hand through his hair. He collapsed onto the couch and remembered their first kiss.

Even the memory made him smile like an idiot.

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word count // 1100

so now i'm getting back on track to where i was going in the first place lol. 

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