SILVER LINED DOUBT. [JESS MARIANO]

THIRTY-SIX.

Marley scowled to herself, knowing Jess couldn't see it from this angle. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I know."

"And I'm gonna be fine too," he said. Before Marley had the chance to question him, he already had an answer. "I'll be a good guest. Engaged. Talkative. Adjectives."

She tugged on the jacket he was wearing to stop them. "That's not at all what I was worried about," she said, making sure to look him in the eye as she spoke. "I am so far beyond worrying about that for you. You're not, like, seventeen anymore."

"I know. But, I've been out of it lately," he said with a shrug. "Just wanted to make sure you knew I'd be all good. I'm all here right now."

Marley's eyes turned soft at his words, and this time, it was her turn to sigh. Out of it was an understatement, to say the least.

It'd been approximately a month since Jess had come back from San Fransisco and though all of the boys seemed to be ecstatic to be back, that feeling only lasted a couple of days. Due to Truncheon's sudden growing popularity, they'd returned to more work than they'd ever had, which meant longer hours and eventually turned into weekend work as well. Jess was out of the apartment more than he was in it, and when he wasn't, he was at his desk in his room, working on a novel he'd been workshopping for a while.

Apparently, he'd had some sort of plot epiphany while in San Fransisco and hadn't been able to stop writing since. Marley was emailed updates or chapters about twice a week for her to go through and edit, and then the cycle started all over again. And she had absolutely no problem with this. She, out of literally anyone knew about hard work and the hoops you sometimes had to jump through to get it all done. It was how she managed to secure the job with Oliver McCrae.

Yeah. That was a new development. Marley had rocked out her interview and in turn, had been offered the job about three weeks afterward. She was estatic about it and took approximately a day to figure out all the logistics of everything and how it'd all go down when she started working for him this summer. It was set in stone after they'd negotiated her pay and that was that. This summer Marley Acosta was set to be a working woman.

And while that was celebrated and wonderful, it was put on the back burner for the moment. That was totally fine with her. She hadn't complained about it. She knew Jess and their friends were busier than ever. And besides, these days especially, she loved reading Jess's work and she loved editing it even more. She loved talking about it with him, as it reminded her of their diner days when they'd stay after closing to figure out The Subsect, and she loved the fact that he still got the same look when he was talking about something he was passionate about.

The thing she did have a problem with, though, was that he wasn't all there. He was exhausted all the time, a bit more snarky than usual, and just simply not... there. In any capacity. He forgot things (his keys or wallet, plans they had, things he was supposed to do, such as feed Bowie or call Luke), dismissed a lot of their usual banter that Marley tried to initiate, and hardly left his room. This dinner at Carla and Andy's was one of the first things she'd been able to do with him outside of their apartment since he'd been gone. He wasn't himself and that was clear.

Marley really hadn't said anything about it, especially not after they'd just labeled this relationship. She didn't want to gain the title of 'nagging girlfriend' just yet, but she hadn't masked her worry about him. She felt like their usual roles were reversed and she absolutely hated it. Perhaps she'd be a little bit more sympathetic when Jess was trying to deal with her crazy work ethic next time.