One For The Road ✔ | A short novella |

12. Las Vegas - San Diego

Chapter Twelve

Las Vegas - San Diego

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"You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how." Gone with the Wind- Ellis

Las Vegas, The Strip, 9.48am - August 20th

Ellis

Jessie barrels rolls over the messy, un-made bed and flashes a hint of red lacy knickers under her pyjama shorts. 

It's as if she's determined to send me over the edge with her. And if we didn't have to be packed and downstairs within half an hour, I probably would. I know I would, though it scares me to my core. 

Before, the possibility of seeing Jessie in knickers or much less was just a never gonna happen keep on dreaming fantasy. A hopeful wish. 

Now, with the opportunity literally grabbing at my waistband, it's fingertips running through my hair, I realise that I never thought about what that would actually entail, which is crossing the line, once and for all and waving goodbye to the Ellis and Jessie of yesterday, the last ten years.

It's complicated and confusing not that you'd ever be able to tell with the way she's acting. It's as if we've woken up after any other night. Like it's always been this way. 

And the thought of having sex with Jessie, whose soft lips soon land on mine as she kicks her suitcase off the bed to the floor with wild abandon so she can pull me down onto it, is as terrifying as it is electrifying and all too real. And maybe I'm not ready yet.

Because there's the kissing of late last night and during it and in the hazy morning sunlight, and in the bathroom when I got out of the shower, and when I got a little carried away, kissed her neck as she packed and whispered words about how she seeing her in tiny shorts made me feel, and then there's this. It's a transition that might be too fast. 

If she could hear all the crazy thoughts wrapping themselves round my head she'd probably unwrap herself too and laugh at me, call me sensitive or a worrier. 

I know she'd tell me to deal with the consequences after, not during but then I wouldn't be me. Over thinking is as much a part of me as she is right now, her lips biting down on mine. Goading me into cementing a new part of our relationship. 

Something 'just' friends don't do. 

"I think we're going to be late to check out," I say, between stolen breaths. I wriggle side ways out from under her putting a pause on any potential proceedings. "And we've got to get out on the road before the traffic get's bad."

Lifting her knee up, she huffs but relents and lets me sit up. "You do worry a lot. I know you say I do, but you too do and at the very worst of moments." Her eyes widen and she tugs at the hem of her t-shirt. 

I rise to my feet and back into the TV unit and discarded suitcase. "Uh well, I know but we can..." I'm so tongue tied and caught up in picturing things I really shouldn't to speak coherently. "Uh... We can reconvene for another time? When we get to San Diego?"

"You make it sound so sexy," Jessie says laughing. She flops off the side of the bed so she rolls down onto the carpet, to continue stuffing socks and sweets and souvenirs into her backpack. 

Shrugging, I pick up her case and spread it out on the bed. I need to busy myself and mind with something horribly mundane. 

"So, are you ready to find out if we've got our ticket out of dodge or if we're just destined to spend the rest of our lives in Newton-Berry," she drawls, poking the laptop on the sofa with her feet. "I'm thinking we might as well get it over and done with."