Jet
Eveand I sat in the little waiting room, both slumping into our seats while the harsh overhead lights shone down, and the woman working up front ignored her ringing phone.
“Remember when we did this in Montreal?”
“After the night of the Russian twins,” I nodded. “How could I forget?”
Eve tapped her sneaker against the linoleum floor. She was wearing a tight, fashionable pair of jeans and a worn T-shirt that hugged her just right. She’d even done her makeup properly, all of which made me feel like a grub in my sweatpants and gym shirt.
“I can’t believe you dressed pretty to get an STI test.”
“You never know who you’re going to run into at this place,” she said with a glance around the waiting room. “And at least one of us is single.”
I tightened my brow. Was I single?
“This is weird,” I confessed. “I always just got tested as a regular thing. I used protection and got tested every two weeks, like clockwork.”
“So then why is it weird to get tested now?”
“Because I’m getting tested for someone.” I struggled to explain, but like anytime I thought about Peyton lately, the emotions that stirred up were more than I knew what to do with. “I’m going to get tested and then go and tell another person the result. That’s… weird.”
Eve laughed. “In your world, I’m sure. Most people would call it responsible. I take it you’re going to stop using condoms, then?”
“What?” I asked, then glanced around the room. There were just a few twenty-somethings, scattered about and looking totally uninterested in things that weren’t their phones. “I mean, I don’t know. I just wanted to know, in case it came up.”
“So you didn’t talk about it?”
I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Not technically.”
Eve laughed. “Sweet, clueless Jet. Now is the time to start working on those relationship skills you never bothered to develop.”
I gritted my teeth. Peyton had gone for my cocky, flirty attitude, but my skills pretty much ended after a couple fun hookups. “Ugh. Relationship skills, really?”
Eve laughed. “And next thing you know, you’ll be picking out curtains and talking about retirement funds,” she teased.
“Highly unlikely.”
“Except you like him enough to get an STI test.”
I turned in the uncomfortable seat to face her. “It sounds so romantic when you say it like that.”
“Are you holding back because of your brother?”
“Obviously,” I answered, although it was only the partial truth. “Sure, he’s given us a half-hearted pass, but I’m not about to push it.”
I held back the full answer, that I still had to grapple with these growing feelings. I’d come to Pittsburgh to settle into a new phase of my life, and more and more, Peyton seemed like the guy I wanted to get cozy with. Eve knew I had some interest in Peyton, but I hadn’t even admitted the full truth of that interest to myself yet.
I’d never wanted to get cozy with another person. Or maybe I’d never let myself even consider the possibility. I felt like how Peyton said that he felt, not even sure what I wanted, but somehow increasingly aware that I did want it.
Fucking needed it, in fact.
“Brown?” The woman up front called my name, interrupting us.
I headed back to get some blood drawn, then waited for Eve. She had a new mix she wanted to share with me, so we got coffees and headed over to her place. Spring was becoming actual summer, and the sun beat down on us as we walked through the hilly Pittsburgh streets.
With my mood lifted, I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to Peyton, just saying that I hoped he had a good day. We had plans to see each other in a couple of nights again, but one of us ended up texting the other most days, and we always immediately texted back, quick little exchanges that made me smile like a fool.
When he didn’t text back right away, and then still didn’t the whole time I was hanging at Eve’s, I had to force myself to not worry about it. He was busy, so it was no big deal. But still, another part of my brain told me that I probably had done something wrong, something I didn’t realize. I’d upset him, and now I should move on.
