After the breakup, Jada had become a bit of a recluse. She trained Adam with their normal schedule, but all free time was spent by herself and they hadn’t watched wrestling together in weeks. She spent a quiet Christmas with her parents in Dallas while Adam retreated to his mother’s for the holiday. Jada had gone to LA to retrieve her stuff when she said she would and put most of it in storage with the help of her brother, Leif.
Adam looked down at his watch for the hundredth time that morning. It was 8:15am and Jada hadn’t show up yet for their eight am run. Adam was about to call to see if everything was okay when he heard his front door open. He rushed to his foyer. “Is everything okay? You’re never late.”
Jada laughed as she reached down to pet Luger. “Happy New Year’s Eve to you, boy.” She looked up at Adam and patted his chest. “And Happy Wednesday to you.” Adam gave her a confused look as he followed her into the living room. “Sorry I’m late, but I got a phone call this morning that took longer than expected.”
“Really? From who?”
“Lance.” Jada let out a sigh and sat down on the couch.
“Lance?” Adam sat on his coffee table across from Jada. “What did he want?” Adam didn’t like the sound of Jada’s voice. She seemed happy to be talking about Lance.
“He wanted to know how I was. Today would have been our one year anniversary. Well, technically tomorrow. He wanted to know if I had been thinking about him and if I wanted to get back together and forget that any of this had happened.” Jada had a huge smile on her face. She sat back on the couch and propped her feet on Adam’s lap.
“And you said?” Jada closed her eyes and laughed to herself. Adam knocked Jada’s feet off his lap and grabbed her shoulders. “What did you say?”
Jada touched the tip of Adam’s nose with her finger. “Fuck off.” She smirked to herself. “Since I broke it off I had wondered if I made the right decision and hearing his voice this morning, I knew. And he took it this time. He didn’t try to fight it. We ended up talking and apologizing for how we had been treating each other lately and by the time we hung up, we were at an okay place.”
Adam smiled and hugged Jada. “I’m so proud of you. And it’s so nice to have you back. I haven’t seen you smile in weeks.”
“It feels good to be back.” Jada stood and started walking towards the front door with Luger in tow. “The only sucky thing is this is the first New Years in forever I haven’t had plans.”
“Well you do now.” Adam smiled as he grabbed his car keys and followed Jada out the door. “You and I are going to dinner and watching the ball drop from the comfort of my couch.”
Jada turned around and kissed Adam on the cheek. “Perfect.”
After their afternoon workout, Jada went back to her apartment to get cleaned up for dinner. She glanced at the clock in her bathroom and saw it was getting close to seven pm. She put the final touches of makeup on before she stepped back to look at herself. Adam had said the evening would be casual, so Jada had decided on a pair of perfectly fit olive Capri’s and a brown halter tank with pink polka dots. ‘Gotta love seventy degrees in December,’ Jada thought as she slid her pink heels on. Jada started digging through her purse to get out any items she night need. She placed her driver’s license and some cash in her pocket as the doorbell rang. She looked out her peephole and opened the door. Jada smiled as she took in the sight of Adam. He had on black pants and a fitted green polo shirt on with his hair pulled back. He was freshly shaven and held a bouquet of daffodils.
Adam smiled back at Jada as he handed her the flowers. “I thought it was only fitting.” Jada took the flowers and walked into her kitchen to find a vase. “You know how hard it is to find daffodils with time of year?”
“I would assume next to impossible.” Jada placed the flowers in the water filled vase. “Thank you. It means a lot that you found them for me.”
“I just wanted to make tonight special for you.” Adam opened Jada’s front door. “Ready to eat?”
“Heck yeah.” Jada started to walk out the door then turned to face Adam. “Thanks for doing this tonight. You know you don’t have to…but it means a lot that you want to.” Jada kissed Adam on the cheek. “And because you’re being so sweet, no rules tonight. Eat whatever you want.”
Adam laughed. “If I had to of known that this was all I had to do to have a steak, I would have brought you flowers sooner.” Jada shook her head as the pair left the apartment to head to Adam’s car. Adam drove them to a local steak house where they both enjoyed steaks and beers. After a drive around Tampa to show Jada the parts of town she hadn’t seen yet and a stop at a liquor store to pick up some more beer, the pair ended back up at Adam’s house sitting in the backyard with a beer in their hands and feet in the pool.
“I’m going to have to work triple time to work tonight off, aren’t I?”
Jada laughed. “Yeah.” She took a sip of her beer. “But I’m giving you tomorrow morning off.”
Adam furrowed his brow. “Why?”
“‘Cause there’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to run at eight in the morning. I haven’t drank in a long time and this shit’s already hitting me hard.” Adam patted Jada’s thigh as she finished her beer. Jada set the empty bottle in the pile behind them and glanced down at her watch. “We missed the ball drop.”
Adam looked at his watch and laughed. “Yeah, by about twenty minutes.”
“Oops.” Jada shrugged her shoulders as she giggled.
“You know, it’s bad luck to not kiss at midnight.” Adam said before he finished his beer.
Jada looked over at him. “I guess that means we’re both screwed for the next 365 days.”
“366…It’s a leap year.” Adam corrected. “Let’s fix that.” Adam placed his hands on either side of Jada’s face and whispered. “5 4 3 2 1.” He leaned in and kissed Jada softly.
After a few moments Jada pulled away, momentarily sobered. “Adam, we can’t.”
Adam ran his thumb over Jada’s bottom lip. “Can’t we?” Adam leaned back down towards Jada’s lips and was met halfway. Adam tangled his hands in Jada’s hair as she ran her hands under the back of his shirt.
When Adam moved from Jada’s lips to neck, she pushed him back. “Adam stop.” Adam pulled back and looked at Jada, flushed. “This is nice and apparently something we both need and want,” She paused and shook her head. “But if it’s going to really happen, I want it to happen clear headed.” Jada looked down. “I’m sorry.”
Adam ran his hand under Jada’s chin and made her look up at him. “Don’t be sorry.”
Jada nodded. “I better get home.”
Adam shook his head as he helped Jada stand. “Neither of us can drive right now. Crash in the guest room. I’m sure I’ve got a t-shirt you can sleep in.”
Jada smiled and nodded. “Oh, can I sleep in one of your hockey jerseys?”
“Sure.” Adam laughed as the pair stumbled into his house.
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