Head Over Boots For You // Jenlisa

16: Let's Pretend

Jennie

Even though Jennie had grown up in a city, she found that city life didn't agree with her as much as it used to. There was traffic no matter the time of day. Honking cars and rushing busses replaced the sound of chirping insects and gusting wind. Everyone passed each other in the street and in the store without even a friendly nod.

It took all of two seconds for Jennie to miss Huntley, with its main street and small shops where everybody seemed to know everybody else. Despite not even wanting to meet new people or make friends, Jennie had been won over by the locals' easy smiles and curiosity about what had brought her all the way out there.

As autumn came over Fort Collins, Colorado, Jennie reminisced about how fresh the air on the ranch had been, how it had filled her lungs with a marvelous crispness as the few trees on the ranch dropped their leaves. She remembered the awe she felt when she could turn in every direction and see only hills of grass and a never-ending, open sky. She couldn't smell sage anymore without being transported back to the ranch, how the entire world seemed to come alive with it when the sagebrush bounced back after the long winter. Even the smell of fertilizer reminded Jennie of the ranch, as if she hadn't already seen and smelled enough cow manure to last her a lifetime.

Jennie was trying her best to settle back into a normal life. She threw herself into her classes and part time research job but was still surprised at how much she had forgotten in just a year away from school. Luckily, it meant that she only had to work harder and study longer than her classmates, which helped keep her mind off of—

Lisa.

Even just thinking about her sent a twinge of longing through Jennie. No matter how hard she studied, Jennie's mind was never that far from Lisa. It didn't matter that she could be reading about ruminant digestion or pulmonary ventilation, Jennie would be struck with random thoughts about her. Memories of them riding out to the cattle. Daydreams about how Lisa would come up behind her while Jennie was cooking and wrap her arms around her middle, resting her chin on Jennie's shoulder. Longing for Lisa's lips, her tongue, her touch, that would come over her at the most inconvenient times.

It didn't help that they were both insanely busy. Lisa was somehow managing the entire ranch on her own, and Jennie had to rush to class and work and wasn't free until late at night. She wished that Lisa had a cell phone so she could just text her whenever she had a free moment. It would make things so much easier, having that constant line of communication, so that every time Jennie thought of her, she could let her know. Jennie had taken to sending Lisa short emails instead, and while it worked for Jennie to let Lisa know she was thinking about her, there was no way for Lisa to reciprocate. She had no cell service at all, and no internet until she finally returned to the cabin after a long day's work. Jennie didn't want to complain, since there was no way for Lisa to be able to communicate with her more often throughout the day, but it was hard for Jennie not to hear from her at all until evening.

But they were making it work as best they could. They emailed every day, called if they each had an extra few minutes, and Sundays were their day to really catch up. And as promised, Lisa had managed to install a webcam onto her computer, even if it had taken her a solid twenty minutes to get the microphone to work. Jennie could only laugh as she watched a silent Lisa becoming more and more frustrated at her computer. After that, they tried to Skype once a week, but it only made Jennie feel more dissatisfied. Being able to see Lisa and hear her voice but not being able to touch her was torture.

But just because Jennie couldn't touch her didn't mean that they couldn't work something else out. Once Lisa got her webcam working, Jennie knew that it was only a matter of time before she proceeded to the next logical step.