Chapter Text
It was as though acknowledging their inebriation had suddenly altered the mood in the air between them. There was a lighthearted tension there, they’d both felt it building. And now their eyes had caught each other’s gaze several extra times, their smiles lingering a few seconds too long on each occasion. The flirty territory that had spanned the length of dinner had reached its boundary. The next expanse lay uncharted before them.
Jess flagged down the waiter. With the pretty new girl’s eyes still following her every move, Jess was only one beat faster, sliding the little check book quickly towards herself, replacing it with her credit card tucked inside. Kayla gave her a halfhearted, disapproving look, retracting her own hand and card back to the purse in her lap. A smile rapidly reformed across her lips, though, and Jess couldn’t help the one widening on her own. “What?”
Kayla’s eyes fell briefly on the member of the waitstaff swooping by to grab the bill. Then, leaning forward on the table gently, she found Jess’s hand with her own. She bounced her fingertips playfully across Jess’s knuckles. ”I want...” she grinned down at the hand on the table. It had interrupted her thoughts, turning over and snatching her fingers in its palm. Kayla raised her eyes to meet Jess’s. They smiled stupidly at each other. “Yes?” Jess waited.
“I want you to take me home with you.” Kayla couldn’t meet the other woman’s eyes then, and she found herself looking at their hands now casually splayed out on the table, stealing anxious glances up at Jess’s face.
Finally Jess mustered a reply, her expression losing all goofiness and becoming completely sober. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...and the rest of your high holy friends- YES.”
To Kayla’s relief, their eyes reconnected and there was enthusiasm and reassurance in Jess’s gaze. Kayla released a nervous chuckle. The hand tightened around her fingers. Jess inhaled sharply. “Iwouldtrulylikenothingmore.” She added this in a rapid tone of suave silliness that seemed to Kayla a uniquely Jess quality. Kayla chuckled again, less nervous now.
Jess didn’t need to work hard to remember the rest of the evening. Kayla had stolen Jess’s phone in the Uber, a brief wrestle for control of the device before Jess conceded defeat and the younger woman triumphantly typed in her phone number. Kayla would later end up changing her name to "Bill" in Jess's contacts on the sly, to mess with her. But Kayla didn't really have to make such an effort. She messed Jess up completely without even trying.
The brief tousle through Jess’s apartment lobby continued down the hall and up the elevator, the pair intoxicated as much by the prospect of this new exploration of each other as by the early evening’s drinks.
Jess couldn’t work her keys when they reached the apartment door, and Kayla slid an arm around her waist to better reach the doorknob, succeeding nearly effortlessly first try, and pulling away in a small fit of laughter. Jess was still too stymied by Kayla’s nonchalant contact with her midsection to take offense. Instead she turned the key the rest of the way and let herself fall backwards into her apartment. As if on cue Kayla matched her pace, stepping forward and grabbing the door, which she pushed out of her way before clicking it shut behind her. Then, there in the dark foyer, the two simultaneously pounced. Jess gripped Kayla’s face in her hands possessively as Kayla’s fingers slid across Jess’s cheeks and into her hair. A frenzied few moments ensued, interrupted only by gasps for air and the shuffling in position of feet.
Somehow they managed to remain upright down the entrance hall til they reached Jess’s bed. Then Kayla tossed them down, delighted with herself for discovering the location of Jess’s most crucial piece of furniture. She hovered over her hostess, still kissing her hungrily. Jess felt Kayla gently pull her hair from its bun. Unhook her glasses from behind her ears. Kayla parted their lips and pulled away to gaze at Jess. Their eyes had adjusted to the dark, and they could just make out each other's expectant faces inches apart. Kayla toyed with Jess's hair until she’d laid out all the older woman’s curls to ring her face.
“Oh my God, why wear it up? I mean look at you! Look at you,” Kayla murmured this softly into Jess’s ear.
“Name two people at our job who deserve to see me like this,” Jess retorted with an impish grin and dramatic flourish of her hand across her face, letting it come to a rest on the small of Kayla’s back above her. She inched her index finger under the fabric of the clothing and traced circles on skin until she felt Kayla shiver.
“Hmmm...I can think of three: Me, myself, and I.” With this quip Kayla lowered herself back onto Jess’s lips, but Jess had had enough of the direction this was heading.
More forcefully now, both of Jess’s hands suddenly found the small of Kayla’s back and took hold. Jess reciprocated the kiss hard, and slowly rolled Kayla’s hips off of her. Allowing her own body to follow, she easily pinned her guest to the mattress. Kayla’s lips released Jess’s. She slowly opened her eyes to look at the woman on top of her as she hiked her thigh between Kayla’s legs. Jess was staring intensely back down at her.
Kayla’s breath caught in her throat and she gave her best smile. “God you’re so gorgeous,” Jess murmured. She leaned in and touched her lips to Kayla’s neck. “You...” She tried to respond, but as Jess’s hands slipped under her clothes she found her voice useless. Only a soft whimper, full of desire, protruded...
“Carr!”
The pen Jess had been biting down on a little too harshly flew from her mouth, the cap bouncing across the cubicle. Ron stood leaning against the partition, eyeing Jess quizzically.
“Yes! Sir. Yessir.” In one swift jerking motion Jess retrieved her writing accessory and was again upright at her desk. She rested her chin on a fist and tried to convince Ron that he held her complete attention. As an afterthought, she crossed her legs. Tightly.
“Sorry if I startled you. I know you’re busy.” Ron raised one eyebrow as he sipped from the coffee mug he’d been holding midair while witnessing the spectacle before him.
“No, no. What’s up, Ron? Always time for you.” Jess made an effort to appear nonchalant as she minimized the email tab on the computer screen behind her. The one with the new message that had upturned her whole inbox that morning. Upturned all her thoughts until Ron intruded into them.
“Did Rachel mention we’re all going for drinks tonight? Always more fun when you come along.”
“Ah, uh, no, she didn’t.” Jess didn’t remember an invite, anyway. Maybe it was in an email she hadn’t opened yet because of...
“Well can you make it? Would love to have you on my trivia team. We killed it that one time.”
Jess thought about her coworkers. Aside from the newbies like Rachel and Ron, the only other people still working in O’Reilly’s production were ass kissing hypocrite sell outs like herself. That reminder was almost too much to bear.
“I have a ton to do tonight, should probably stay late if I want to be even halfway to caught up for the morning.” A flat out lie. O'Reilly Factor was a daytime show; most of their work couldn't be accomplished until morning of. Ron probably knew that, so she hated lying to him. Because Ron was a nice guy. Fox needed more Rons. Less Rogers.
His face became visibly crestfallen. “Won’t be the same, Carr. You’re such a light wherever you go.” Ron sipped his coffee again, and his body language spoke defeat until, “If you’d rather...we could do dinner sometime? Just us.”
Okay, now Fox needed less Rons. And less closets. But Jess was saved from answering as Ron’s phone pinged. “Shit. Bill! How are ya?” Ron answered, waved, and turned on heel, strutting off with purpose in one swift motion.
Jess stared after him for a moment before her thoughts drifted back to Kayla. With time she’d been able to shake the feeling of Kayla’s skin pressed against her own, the image of her afterglow as they joked in bed. What she couldn’t shake was the slowly growing fire Kayla had ignited in her the day she stood up and stormed out of their shit job, ready to take on the world. Jess felt like she had let Kayla down. Let herself down, even. She felt like she was still living a lie when someone her junior had been too smart to tolerate it for very long. She felt like a goddamned idiot. Sighing, she plunged the pen back between her teeth and squared up with her computer.