Kisses and Other Necessities

《 kisses and forever 》（2）

dear all, this is the second part. the last part is already written and will come soon (after editing and a few small tweaks), and Sean and Flora will make an appearance there. meanwhile, i hope you enjoy Jake and Jessica's story x

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When Jessica woke up again, she was still wrapped securely under the sheets with Jake. He had no proper food at his place, but she wasn't hungry for dinner and thought his presence alone could sustain her. After he tore open a package of peanuts, they resumed catching up.

"I didn't finish telling you about that visit back to Riverside High."

"Hmm," she said with a comfy sense of laziness, liking the alternating pattern of chatting and napping. When they were together, they could just be. There was nothing pressing to attend to. "Please continue."

"After giving our speech, Sean and I took a walk around campus and ended up on the basketball court. We played against the varsity team and beat the crap out of them, even though Sean's completely forgotten how to play basketball. I'm so good, Jess. Not my aim, I mean, that too, but I can see immediately what's wrong with the team and what they can do to improve."

"You aren't good, you're brilliant. I thought you were going pro."

"Yeah, I did, too, but too late for that now. I'm old and out of shape," he said dramatically, even though he was every bit of the hunk he'd always been. He'd told her before that his three-point percentage dipped his senior year, resulting in his failure to get picked in the NBA draft. It devastated him, and later his dad suffered from a transient ischemic attack, which made him forget about pursuing a professional career in basketball altogether. "Anyway, they like me there, so for some weird reason I agreed to coach them every Thursday evening."

"You. Are. Incredible. You're the star-player-turned-legend."

He shook his head. "I want to ask you something important."

"Go ahead."

"Do you think...um, do you think I'm one of those people that peaked in high school?" Without waiting for a reply, he rushed on. "Last week we had a 40-something guy in our bar who came in wearing his varsity jacket, and it made me sad."

"No..." Jessica started slowly. "You were awfully popular in college, too."

He sighed. "That's not—"

"Jake, you were the top one percent of high school athletes to receive a full scholarship to play Division I basketball," she said as she started to count off her fingers. "You graduated from a great school, took over the family business, and now you're the president of a budding company. You see your parents every month, you have the best relationship ever with your sister, you own a bar with your buddy, you travel with your best friends every year...you still do, right?"

"Yeah, sometimes it's only a weekend but the three of us do try to meet up every year."

"Honestly, not many people get to do that. Also, you get invited back to your school to give speeches and coach the team, you've got a spectacular place to live, not to mention you adopted the cutest cat to keep you company."  

Jake's lips stretched into a smile. "Well, when you put it like that..."

She pointed a finger dotingly at his temple. "You're so lucky and you don't even know it. Of course you didn't peak in high school. In fact...this sounds tacky but you're the winner in every stage of your life: voted Most Gorgeous every year in high school, star athlete in college, CEO and hot bachelor in your twenties...but put all the titles aside, you win at life because you remain this warm, sweet, funny, positive guy through it all. You make people happy, and you don't change at all."