What Connects Us: Jessica and Jeremy

Fragment Twenty-Three

Jessica's eyes flew open as soon as she had realized what she had done. His eyes fixed on hers, and he gave off half a surprised expression and the other half somewhat enraged. She put her fingers to her lips and looked back at him. She hadn't realized what she had done; she did not think, she just did. The instinctive act was liberating to her, and for a second there she felt revived.

        "I-I don't know what happened," she stuttered, as her cheeks turned rosy red. "I'm-I'm sorry," she continued, and she turned on her heels but it was too late. Jeremy had already grabbed her from her right wrist and pulled her back to her original spot.

        "Do you know what you just did?" he asked, his voice laced with disbelief and rage. 

      "I do, and for that I apologize, now please just let me go," she said as her tears were at bay, clouding her vision. His grip tightened with every word she uttered. 

       "Give me one good reason not to fire you right now," he said, as his nostrils flared in rage.

         Her tears started dropping like rain, one drop after the other past her cheek and finally falling on the white carpet beneath her. "I don't have one, really," she said, trying to stiffen her voice. Her wrist felt on fire.

        "Well you're lucky we're not back in New York, because right now you're the only partner I have." 

        His tight grip on her wrist was now too much to handle. "Jeremy, you're hurting me," she said as she tried to wriggle her wrist away. He looked at his hand and released his grip. She grabbed her wrist and turned around to head out of the room to hers.

      "Is it hurting you badly?" he asked. Jessica wasn't sure if he was asking her out of concern or out of fear that she might call his father and tell him his son physically abused her. 

       "Yes," she said past her tears.

       "I'm sorry, I didn't realize how hard I was holding on to it," he said as he approached her. 

        Jessica wanted to tell him that that's what happened when she kissed him, but she was in too much pain to explain.

       "Can I see it?" he asked as he took a step forward. Jessica swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded for him to see it. He grabbed it, delicately this time, between his hands, and studied the still red wrist. 

        "I think we should better get some ice for it, or do you want to go see it at a clinic?" he asked. 

        Jessica shook her head, "I think I'll just add some ice on it."

         Jeremy nodded as he led her out of the room and straight to the kitchen, using the elevator instead of the stairs. Jessica thought he was probably a bit concerned about her wrist, but majorly he was afraid she might tell. 

       She sat on the stool Mark had sat on and waited for Jeremy to get an ice pack from the freezer. She watched him pull out the ice pack from the freezer and cover it with a towel. 

        "Here," he said, as he pressed the ice pack gently against her red wrist. 

         "Thanks," she replied, as she took the ice pack from him with her good hand. Their fingers rubbed against each other, and whatever spark Jessica had thought was there, was cooled off by the ice beneath their fingers, but Jeremy seemed unfazed. 

          "Listen Jeremy," she began. They had both forgotten his adamancy about her usage of 'Mr. Finley' instead of his first name, and that lifted a cloud of hope inside the hopeless woman. "I'm sorry about what I did, I didn't know what I was thinking," she said, as she rubbed her left hand across her forehead.