Page 63 of Before You Say I Do
She didn’t want to be kissed by anyone but Jordan.
Chapter 23
Jordan didn’t ever recall running sohard or so fast, but today she needed it. Karen was lagging behind as Jordan ripped up Brighton seafront. Even the circling seagulls avoided her, knowing she meant business. The June weather was hitting the late 20s, but the seafront still held a pleasant breeze for running. However, even the sun on her face couldn’t change her mood. She was running to forget.
It was only when she stopped that her body remembered she wasn’t a natural runner, and she began wheezing for Britain. That was how Karen found her moments later: doubled over and gasping for breath. Her flatmate guided her to one of the weathered benches overlooking the sea. They sat, until Jordan got her breath back.
Only then did Karen speak. “What’s going on? I don’t see you for five days. Then when I do, you demand we go for a run and then you take off like you’re Paula Radcliffe. Which we both know you are not. So what gives? Why have you come back from your weekend away trying to break world speed records?” Karen shaded her eyes with her hand. “I take it this has something to do with a certain hot bride-to-be.”
Jordan frowned. “Don’t call her that.”
“What should I call her?”
Jordan thought for a moment. “Trouble.”
“Oh dear.” Karen sat forward and fixed Jordan with her stare. “Tell me.”
“We kissed.” Jordan’s tone was matter-of-fact. As if this was nothing at all.
It was the opposite of that. Before Karen could reply, Jordan continued.
“Then she fucked me in the plane toilet.” Her body reacted as she’d known it would. As if Abby was right there, her fingers inside her all over again. It was too recent. Too exciting. Too much. “And now she’s cancelling arrangements and I don’t know if I have a job or a business anymore because I might just have buggered it all up. And for what?” Jordan sat forward, and put her head in her hands.
She’d spent last night alone, trying to convince herself the situation wasn’t as bad as she thought it was. But when she said it out loud, it sounded a whole lot worse.
“Holy shit,” Karen replied. “If I clamber over the whole ‘you kissed the bride’ vibe, the thing I’m stuck on is she fucked you in the toilet? She fuckedyou?” Karen couldn’t sound any more surprised if she tried. “Is Little Miss Sunshine not so straight?”
It had taken Jordan by surprise, too. “It seems like she’s not.” She sighed. “But that’s beside the point. The upshot is, I now have a bride who’s getting married in,” she held up her right hand and splayed her fingers, “five days. Someone I’m contracted to work for. Plus, I’ve added to my tally of one-night stands. With someone I really didn’t want to have a one-night stand with. It’s not ideal.”
Karen shook her head. “It’s not. I know we joked about this before you went, but I didn’t expect anything to happen. What’s different about her?”
Jordan had been asking herself that constantly since she’d left Abby at the airport. All the way home. All night long, lying in her bed, willing sleep. Why had she kissed her in the kitchen? And yes, Abby had been the aggressor on the plane, but she could have said no. She could have stopped her. But she hadn’t wanted to.
She’d wanted Abby just as much as Abby had wanted her.
She still wanted Abby.
But she had to stop thinking that.
“I don’t know. We had such a great time together over the weekend, really getting to know each other. She got under my skin. There was an attraction there. I could feel it, but I didn’t know if it was reciprocated. Until we were in the hot tub together. We nearly kissed then. I thought we’d managed to avoid it. To stay professional. Until the night we left when we kissed. And then the plane… I can’t explain it. It just happened.”
She sounded like a cliché. She didn’t need to see Karen’s face to know that. Jordan had heard enough ‘I just landed in her vagina’ defences to know exactly what they sounded like. Made up. But it really had just spiralled out of control right at the end, and she had no idea how.
“But now we’re back and we have business to attend to. Wedding business. But she says something’s come up, and we can’t meet up. So I don’t know what’s going on.” She shook her head, squinting as she looked up at the sky. “It’s a mess. That’s what I know for sure.”
“Wow.” Karen stretched her arms above her head, giving Jordan a look. “I mean, you’ve really buggered this up good and proper.”
She could always count on Karen to be blunt.
“Kissing the bride is one thing. Not agoodthing. Joining the mile-high club with her is quite another.”
Jordan got up. Sitting and talking about this was turning up the noise in her head. She liked it better when she’d been running. Then, she’d just focused on the sun on her skin, and the wind in her hair. Nature could be comforting at times.
“Let’s walk and talk. Or maybe run and talk.”
Karen nodded, as they both began pumping their arms, taking long strides along the promenade. In front of them, a woman was struggling to contain a husky. To their right, a small boy in a red T-shirt was elated with his ice cream, which he proceeded to face plant into.
“Look on the bright side. At least you got laid.”
