Page 75 of Summer Breakdown
Jasmine laughs. “What?” She turns to look at her. She’s so close their noses almost brush. “You don’t know if someone is flirting with you?”
“I mean, if they’re a straight girl at the bar, then probably.” Jasmine looks like she’s trying to work out a complex equation, though Frankie knows Jasmine would get the answer quicker than she is now. “But I don’t know otherwise. I need someone to kiss me or something.”
Jasmine laughs again. She’s so delightful. Then, casually, she kisses her. A dream come true, once on the lips kiss. It’s not enough to be inappropriate. It’s barely long enough for Frankie’s breathing to kick back in. It’s not even long enough for Frankie to get her hands to move to hold Jasmine here forever. But it’s enough to make her heart race. It’s enough to power every filthy fantasy she’ll have for the rest of time. It’s enough to show her that Jasmine is making a move.
Jasmine pulls back. She’s not blushing or anything. She barely looks like she’s changed anything about her day. Like kissing a semi-coworker in the office is something that comes natural to her.
“Clear?” Jasmine asks. Her hand rests against the hand Frankie has on her stomach. There’s a gasp, a scoff, maybe a “fuck off,” but Frankie made the mistake of not looking at Jasmine once, and she’s not going to do it again.
Frankie blinks. “Ye—yeah. Yes. Crystal.”
Jasmine smiles. “Cool.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There’sachildstandingbehind the register. Jasmine is pretty sure the Titans wouldn’t be supportive of child labour, but the fact remains that there is a child behind the register. A child that can’t find her shirts. A child that won’t look at her for more than two seconds.
“It’s alright,” she says. “I’ll get them another time. Can I still get—“ She stops talking because people in the queue behind her gasp. They’ve been scoffing at her for holding them up for at least three minutes. She spins and sees the reason for their excitement.
Ezra. God, he really is massive.
“Ezra!” Lani says. He picks her up before she even has a chance to get her arms up. They decided not to bring her wheelchair in today because it’s the first time a game has been at the weekend, so it’s packed in here. Between sitting for the game and the drive, she’ll be fine to walk for a little while. Still, Jasmine’s been nervous. Lani hasn’t had a fall in a while. She knows that’s not how it works, but it feels like she’s waiting for her to get hurt.
Ezra throws her far too high into the air, and Jasmine frowns at him. He doesn’t know she’s panicking, but still. She almost hit the ceiling fan. If the ceiling fan was ten feet lower, Lani would have been chopped.
“Don’t tell Mum,” he whispers, and Lani wraps her arms around his neck. “You coming through?”
Jasmine wasn’t sure if they should. They’re her friends, but it’s game day.
There’s also a tiny part of her that’s nervous. Frankie hasn’t acted on her kiss, which is fine. Jasmine’s not spiralling about it, but she is hoping Frankie will act on it, if that’s what she wants. Jasmine wants to know if she wants to act on it. There was hope that she’d run to her after training or something. Perhaps she’d turn up at her house in the middle of the night and confess she couldn’t sleep without telling her she was thinking about her too.
But Frankie isn’t like her. Jasmine knows that. So, she’s giving her time. She likes Frankie a lot. Sometimes, when she’s trying to fall asleep, she thinks about her too much. It drifts from fantasies about the moment she finally puts her hands on her, to what she’d do if they took the kids to the zoo, to waking up with her every morning.
Ezra holds Lani by her arms, and she shrieks with glee.
“Are you trying to maim my child?” Jasmine replies, then turns to see the other cute child looking up at Ezra in awe.
“That kid wants a photo with you.”
Ezra bends down to take a photo, holding Lani away from the camera. He holds the back of her jumper with his hand, and she dangles facing the floor, cackling like this is something they’ve done before. She’s going to send him an email about it later. When Lani is back the right way up, Jasmine takes a deep breath, grabs the flowers she bought, tucks them under her arm, and follows them through.
“Hey, champ,” Ezra says, wrapping an arm around Marcel’s shoulder. He doesn’t seem to care that everyone else is gawping at him. Jasmine’s not sure she knew how famous he was. There’s a whole section of the country that would recognise him. Wild.
When they walk through to the back office, the energy is electric. Mali is painting a nine on her cheek. Zach is topless. Kai is topless. There are far too many topless men.Jasmine frowns. Frankie’s not topless. She’s not even here. The flowers feel heavier now.
Marcel is already in conversation with Kai about something, and Lani is talking at Zach as Mali paints her face. She’s probably in the queue for her own face to be painted. It’s nice. Even if she wants to look for Frankie through the blinds. Everyone appears to have a pre-game ritual, and Jasmine wants to know what Frankie’s is.
“Is Frank in her office?”
“Yeah,” Mali replies, “but she likes to be alone before a game.”
“Oh. Okay,” Jasmine says. She’ll put the flowers in water and leave them on her desk later. No big deal. Ezra comes over and sits next to her. He pulls his top off too. He’s stupidly sized.
“What’s up?” he asks quietly, as he unwraps some body tape. Jasmine wonders if he wants her to do it for him. She has no idea how, but she could google it. “And don’t say nothing, because we got twenty minutes till we gotta go.”
Jasmine sighs. “Frankie’s ruining my life.”
“Because she’s not kissed you back?”
