Sure enough, when she opened the door she was greeted by her favorite girl who proceeded to run smack dab into Jill’s legs nearly knocking her down. “Hey girl…guess you missed me,” Jill said as she knelt down to receive the barrage of kisses.
As she stood up to see about sending the dog sitter on her way, she stumbled backward nearly falling on her ass…fortunately Meredith acted quickly and caught her before she hit the floor. “Good save,” Jill giggled as she took a couple of wobbly steps toward the living room with her date close behind and Molly strolling at her side.
“Hey Jeanine…thanks for hanging a bit longer than was planned.” Jill’s words were slightly slurring. But when she stepped into the room, the woman standing there was not whom she expected to see, “Casey, what are you doing here?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to see Molly, she seems to be the only friend I have these days. I sent Jeanine home. I hope you don’t mind.”
Jill quickly closed the distance and pulled her friend into a hug, “Of course I don’t mind. I knew we should have left with you.”
“No, don’t be silly. You guys were having fun, you don’t need a sad-sack bringing things down.”
When Casey looked over at Meredith, she noticed the look of death and knew her presence there was not welcomed and not wanted. If Meredith had gotten this far, chances are Jill was ready to take the next step and by the look of her friend’s neck, Meredith was in a predatory mood. Casey pulled herself away from Jill’s embrace, “I’ll leave you two alone now. Oh, and I just got back from walking Molly about twenty minutes ago, so she should be good for the night.
“You don’t have to leave,” Jill said as she started to feel very woozy. Her eyes skittered around the room trying to find something to focus on that wasn’t spinning. Suddenly she felt very cold but could also feel sweat begin to surface under her arms and on her chest.
“Hey, are you alright?” Casey asked with concern as she watched the pallor leave Jill’s face.
Jill’s head started to spin as the cold sweat began to envelop her, “I don’t think I am,” she said when her body started to involuntarily sway. “Oh shit, I’m going to be sick.”
Jill darted off toward the bathroom with Molly quick on her heels as she padded out of the room, white as a sheet with her right hand over her mouth like it was some magical device to hold off the hurling before reaching the toilet. When she rounded the corner seeing her porcelain savior, she tripped over one of Molly’s squeaky toys and crashed into the door then pinballed to the hamper knocking it over and then landed on it.
Meredith and Casey entered the bathroom at the same time after hearing the commotion, wondering what happened and making sure Jill hadn’t broken her neck. What they found was a very drunk and sick woman while her face hung into the toilet letting the contents of her stomach depart. The bathroom looked like a tornado had just come through, there were clothes strewn about, the wicker hamper busted into bits and the waste can upended while Molly laid on the bath mat in front of the whirlpool tub.
Meredith stood in the doorway observing Casey tending to the sick woman hurling her guts into the toilet. The bathroom was a disaster, her eyes found the splintered wicker and trailed the drops of blood which laid a path on marble tile from the crumpled up hamper to porcelain god Jill was now worshipping. Not sure what she should do at the moment other than watch and that prospect was not sitting well with her. It was bad enough to hear someone barf, but seeing it absolutely disgusted her…a complete turn-off. “Um, I think I’m going to head out.”
Casey’s attention was captured by the insensitive woman leaning against the door jam, “Are you kidding me?” She couldn’t believe how inconsiderate Meredith was being right now. After all, she could use a little help putting Jill to bed, and she thought Meredith cared about her, but it was apparent at that moment she really didn’t.
“I can’t deal with this Case, tell her I’ll call her tomorrow.” And with that, she turned around and disappeared from the doorway.
Casey shook her head as her focus returned to the ill woman while she rubbed her back and held her hair. “It’s okay. You’ll be alright.”
Several minutes later, Jill had herself propped between the wall and the toilet with tears streaming down her cheeks. Some because of the violent and sickening nature of vomiting, but mostly because of her mixed up emotions and she began to babble in her drunken-crying state.
“I don’t know how to change it, how we got to this place.”
Casey stood at the sink wringing out a washcloth with water as cold as it would come out of the faucet as she looked past her reflection at the pale woman with her legs drawn into her chest.
“She’s so amazing, so beautiful.” Jill wiped the tears from her cheeks, “And those eyes. All I wanted to do was kiss her…but I did it again.” Her head dropped to her knees when she couldn’t contain the onslaught of more tears. And through sobbing and double breathing, she said, “She hates me...Oh God, why is the room still spinning.” The cold sweating made her begin to shiver.
Casey was confused, sure Meredith was frustrated, but she didn’t hate her. “Here drink this.” She handed Jill a glass of Alka-Seltzer. After Jill drank the liquid and was able to keep it down, she helped her up and into bed.
Jill stood holding onto her friend while her clothes were being removed, “I’m so sorry Case. I didn’t mean to fall for her.”
“The secret to stopping the room from spinning is to lay propped up with a cold cloth on your head. Lie back.” Once Jill was situated she covered her with the duvet. “There is a waste can next to you in case you get sick again. Molly is right next to you and I’ll be over on the sofa. Just close your eyes and pass out.”
Jill’s teeth were chattering, her limbs shaking and her head woozy. She looked up at her friend with a small grin and closed her eyes.
Casey pulled an extra pillow and blanket from Jill’s closet and situated herself on the Coco Chanel sofa against the wall opposite of Jill’s bed. Casey wondered who would actually have a sofa in their bedroom, but with the size of the room…why the hell not. As she rolled to her side to give herself the best view of Jill a bell went off in her head and she sat straight up swinging her legs off the side of the sofa. “Holy crap! She’s in love with Jackie.” The realization twisted her face up in confusion as she began to recollect when she saw them interact at the dinner party, the way her eyes lit up when her focus was on Jackie and every time she and Jill would talk about Jackie and the look Jill would have wash across her face…. “Fuck!” Casey was astounded, she wondered if Jackie knew and if Jackie felt the same way. But of course, there was that bitch Suzanne to consider and as much as she was taken aback that her friend was coveting her girlfriend behind her back…she would rather see that coupling than Jackie with that viper.
Jackie lay in the silent darkness well past the bewitching hour as her sister would call it. She continued to mull over the argument she and Suzanne had after they left the club. Not in the mood to listen to any more of her lecturing and accusations, she thought it was best to go home. She was tired of explaining and defending herself and certainly tired of Suzanne’s bitching.
“Why do you care anyway?” Suzanne’s voice layered with blatant irritation. “It’s really none of your business.”
“She’s a friend…I care,” was the last thing she said when she stepped out of Suzanne’s Mercedes and slammed the door without a ‘goodbye’ much less a kiss and she stalked off toward her front door without even turning around to wave. She was pissed off and didn’t think she had to explain herself.
But as she lay there in the dark trying to close her ears to the sex sounds coming from her sister’s room, all she could do was ask herself the same question, ‘why do I care?’ It was beyond her why the woman affected her as she did. The way she talked down to her, calling her foolish and petulant…making her feel stupid, like a child being chastised. But she did care. She genuinely cares about Jillian Abbott and for
some reason, that woman was under her skin.
She felt horrible about what she screamed out when Jill was leaving the bar, it was a cruel thing to say and she hoped Jill would accept her apology when she saw her at the next client meeting which was going to be in a few days. But why would she wait, if she was truly sorry and sincere, then she should apologize right away.
When all the noise stopped, her eyes began to flutter, and she giggled thinking how mortified her sister would be if she knew the ears of her little sister were in the other room. Originally she’d told Joni she wouldn’t be home, assuming after hanging at the club and a night of booze and dancing, surely she and Suzanne would want to engage in naked activities back at her hotel room. But it didn’t pan out that way.
When her eyes finally closed and she began to drift off to sleep, the image locked in her eyes was the face of Jillian Abbott and her sweet smile while they danced. As sleep took her deeper into its realm and into dreamland, she found herself in a room full of the cloudy mist from a fog machine. She walked through its denseness unable to see anyone around her, then the piano started to play a familiar tune and she felt the pull of desire…the longing of her heart as she desperately searched through the haze for the woman who had charmed her way right under Jackie’s skin. As the piano played its deep soulful chords, Jackie felt an urgency to find the woman she yearned for with every heated breath.
Suddenly a figure appeared encased in the fog that covered the dance floor. Jackie swiftly closed the distance between them, she felt an urgency to pull this woman into her arms and meld into one as their bodies swayed to the haunting melody.
Jackie pulled the phantom close to her…the cologne was familiar and sweet and Jackie drank it in through deep and long breaths. She couldn’t see the woman’s face, but there was a familiarity and when the apparition touched her it electrified Jackie’s skin. Her breath felt like a warm summer breeze grazing the skin of Jackie’s neck, her lips were smooth, and her kiss was heavenly. When she saw the vision smile her knees weakened instantly. This was the woman she had been waiting for all her life and when she looked into the woman’s eyes she could see past the passion, the desire, and love…she could see into this woman’s soul and in there she could see her own reflection. This was her soul mate, her twin flame. She could feel it in every fiber of her being…this person was the one and she knew she was now truly alive. And when the woman’s face came into view, tears fell from Jackie’s eyes. “Oh dear God…it’s you. I always believed I would find you.”
As Jackie’s kissed the apparition in her dreams her eyes flew open wide and confusion clouded her mind, “Holy shit! Jill?” She sat up while feverishly rubbing her palms over her face in an effort to wake up and try to think clearly. Surely she did not see Jill’s face in her dreams. She was just a client and a semi-friend. There were no feelings there and maybe a slight attraction and although the woman was gorgeous, she wasn’t for her…especially since they couldn’t get along for five minutes without a lecture or an argument. Besides that, she was in love with Suzanne. Suzanne was the woman of her dreams; she was sweet, charming, sexy and could do things to her that would make her eyes water.
“It was just a weird, crazy dream,” Jackie said as she stepped out of her bed and tripped over the high-top chucks she left in the middle of the floor that nearly sent her crashing into her armoire. Laughing as she righted herself, “I’m sure if Jill tripped over my chucks a lecture on irresponsibility and carelessness would ensue shortly after.”
Quickly she tiptoed to the kitchen in need of coffee and since she didn’t smell any, she knew Joni and her beau were still fast asleep. And from the antics she heard last night she figured they were exhausted. The corners of her mouth turned up into a sly grin when she decided to make coffee and whip up breakfast for everyone. Surely the bacon would waft down the hall far enough to wake the sexual acrobats and bring them out in search of food. And when Joni looks at her with that look that she always does, she will know; and if she knew her sister she would play it off with a casual question. ‘Oh, so when did you get in,’ secretly hoping Jackie would say ‘this morning’. But there was going to be no saving face for the big sis today….oh no. Jackie had full intentions of not hiding anything in her face and letting her know she got in around 1:30 a.m.
“It’s gonna be fun to watch the stoic squirm this morning,” she chuckled when she loudly began to pull the frying pan from the cabinet.
Chapter 19
Jill shuffled from her bedroom to the living room like the walking dead cursing the giant picture windows which were allowing every drop of sunlight into her apartment. She groaned in pain from a splitting headache while trying to shade her eyes as she continued forward to the smell of coffee. She didn’t remember much of the evening and was hoping the very fuzzy memory of her being bare-assed in the elevator was a dream and not what actually happened. She would die if it did because she knew there were security cameras there and surely would have her bare ass on their security footage.
“Oh the humiliation,” She grumbled incoherently.
It was after 9:00 a.m. when she opened her burning eyes and half wished she was dead. It was Friday and she was due at the shelter by noon, but there was no way she was going to make it in today. She wasn’t even sure she could call them in the state she was in; hopefully coffee would help.
Molly usually had her up by 7:00 a.m., but she was sure the poor pooch had no luck in trying to wake her and had probably made a mess on her floor…she was hoping not on the carpet. However, when she walked past the entrance to the kitchen she stopped, and did a double take.
“What are you doing here?” Jill tried to smile at Casey, but it caused too much head pain.
“Taking care of you and your dog. That was quite a birthday celebration you had.” Casey didn’t turn around when she spoke, she couldn’t look at her knowing what she knew. It was still too much to take in and she wondered how much Jill remembered.
“What happened? I don’t remember too much about last night,” Jill asked when she examined the scrapes on her arms.
“Well that isn’t surprising considering how drunk you were.” Casey poured her a cup of coffee and turned to face her friend.
“Oh my God…you are a lifesaver.” Jill took the offered cup of coffee, sipping at the steaming brew slowly. “You were here last night…?” Jill paused as she searched her memory banks. “Oh, yeah, I remember. You were here when Meredith and I got back.” Her face turned a slight shade a green when she recalled all the hurling she’d done. “I guess she left. What time did you leave?”
“I didn’t.”
“What do you mean you didn’t?”
“You seriously don’t recognize that I’m wearing the same clothes we went out in last night?” Casey rolled her eyes, “I was here when you two came home, she split when you started puking. I put you to bed and slept on the sofa in your room to make sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit in the middle of the night.”
Some of the memories were sketchy, but they started to come back… her behavior at the club, toward Jackie, the elevator and now this; she was mortified and completely humiliated. “I’m acting like a crazy college kid. I can’t believe I waited until I’m forty-six to go off the rails. I guess Meredith is pretty much done with me.”
Casey let out a cocky snort as she began to whip the eggs. “Don’t shake your head at me, you need to eat something. Toast and eggs, even if it’s just a little. Get something in you.” After she had poured the eggs into the butter-soaked hot frying pan, she pushed down the toast. “Um, no I don’t think Meredith is done with you. She said she’d call you today. But I don’t know why you care.” Casey mentally kicked herself for saying the last statement. She really didn’t want to discuss what she meant by that statement and she certainly didn’t want to have the conversation about how Jill was in love with Jackie.
Jill was quiet for a moment, her gaze left her friend’s face and she began to look around the room,
not at anything in particular just in an effort to remove her eyes from Casey’s in case they would reveal something she would prefer to be left unsaid. Molly pressed her body weight into Jill vying for her attention. Glad for the distraction, she knelt down and rubbed her dog’s face while planting kisses all over Molly’s snout. “Hey girl, is Casey taking good care of you?”
When she stood back up, the wooziness in her brain caused her to sit down immediately. “Oh shit.” In an effort to settle her stomach, she gulped down more coffee although she knew it probably wouldn’t settle it, hopefully the warm liquid would help. “I don’t ever think I drank that much booze.”
“You were certainly hammered.” Casey set the plate in front of the woman now holding her head in her hands. “Eat some of this please.”
When Jill lifted her head, the sight and smell of the food made her stomach churn at first but after she had taken a couple slow bites, the nausea eased up. “So what do you mean when you said you didn’t know why I cared?”
Casey inwardly winced, she was hoping that comment would have been let go. “Just from some of the things you said last night. Don’t you remember anything you said?” Casey was hoping she didn’t, since she didn’t know if she would be able to contain her resentment for Jill because of her feelings for her ex.
Jill shook her head as she chewed a mouthful of toast and eggs. “No, not a lot and nothing past the puking stage. Why? What did I say?”
“Um…” Casey was uncertain about what she should divulge. If she repeated everything she said about Jackie it could create some tension between them and if she was wrong or misunderstood what Jill was saying last night then she would feel foolish. Either way she wasn’t going to say a word about it. “You were just saying how you wanted to get it over with…but she’s too intense, too intimidating.”
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