Page 74 of Summer Breakdown
“I assume everyone is flirting with me,” Kai says and Frankie rolls her eyes.
Ezra shrugs. “Depends how obvious they’re being. I could tell that you were flirting with Zach, but he had no idea. Embarrassing ’cause you were decent, and Zach spent his entire time googling how to flirt.”
“Shut up, man. I can flirt now.”
“What did you do before Mali?” Jasmine asks. Frankie watches Jasmine work. From the angle, she can only reallysee her jaw and sometimes her cheekbones, but she doesn’t mind. If she drops her eyeline she can see her shoulders, the dip of her collarbone. But occasionally, Jasmine moves back and looks at her eyes instead of her lips, and she smiles at her, so Frankie mainly keeps her eyes on her in case she looks at her again.
“I don’t remember a single moment of my life before her.”
“God, the dramatic romance works for you.” Jasmine’s hair falls in front of her face, but Frankie moves it behind her ear for her before she can. “Thanks.”
“What about you, Ezra?” Mali asks. “Can you flirt?”
“Obviously.”
“Do your arms do the heavy lifting?” Jasmine asks, her hand resting against Frankie’s neck.
Ezra humphs. “We’ve seen you flirt,” he says to Jasmine. “We know your face does most of the work.”
Jasmine laughs, and Kai jumps in. “Jas is ace at flirting.”
“Not with you, pretty boy,” Ezra replies and Kai grunts, lying down on the desk. Dramatic but an appropriate response to Jasmine not wanting him.
Oh, how Frankie wants Jasmine to flirt with her again. She’d even take her flirting at work, and Frankie has a semi-cool reputation here. It helps with keeping everyone in check, but she’ll melt the moment Jasmine smiles at her. She’s already deeply ruined her air of authority with Jasmine being around. She hears the way people call her soft. The other day, Kai pushed back on running laps for the first time ever. He made a joke about getting Jasmine outside for Frankie to get distracted. She almost kicked him.
But more than that, she wants Jasmine to want to flirt with her. She wants her to want her. She’s not sure she’ll survive the hope of it all.
Jasmine looks at her. “Blot together.”
Frankie rubs her lips, but Jasmine catches her chin. “Blot, not rub.” She does the motion, and Frankie follows it like her life depends on it. She hums like she’s satisfied. An annoyingpart of Frankie’s mind perks up at the idea. She shuts it down.
“There,” Jasmine says. “Beautiful. Wanna see?”
Frankie nods.
“Oh my God, Frankie, you look so hot!” Mali says, but she’d tell anyone they looked good if they’d put some effort in, so she doesn’t trust her niceness. Jasmine shows her, and she guesses it looks nice because Jasmine is good at makeup.
“If I say you look fit will you bench me?” Kai asks.
“Yes.”
“Tight, I can’t be arsed today. You lookhot.“ Kai’s gone running to the changing rooms before she can throw anything at him.
She doesn’t like it on her, but she’s not mad at it. She just doesn’t like her lips. Or her face.
“Wanna take it off?” Jasmine asks.
Frankie blinks. Is that rude? Perhaps.
“It was just for fun,” Jasmine says. “If you don’t want to coach with it, I won’t be mad.” Jasmine gets her in a way few people do. Like she’s thinking about what Frankie wants, but from her perspective, not Jasmine’s.
“No?”
Jasmine shakes her head. “Not at you.” Frankie smiles, and Jasmine wipes it away for her. It doesn’t take long, and when she’s done, she spins, her bum perched on the desk between Frankie’s legs and sort of… leans against her. It’s nice. Frankie rests her hand against Jasmine’s waist and her chin over her shoulder.
“What about you, Frank?” Mali asks, looking between her and Jasmine. “We know you can flirt, but do you know if someone is flirting with you?”
“I don’t think I even knew you two were flirting before you got together,” Frankie says. “I have zero flirting identification skills.”
