Jessica's Fate

Chapter 102

~A~

It had been two weeks since the commendation ceremony and Josh was ready to get back to his usual team and job.

Working day shift sucked.

Stacking day shift on top of other things sucked. He'd rather have had his entire day free to spend with Jessica. As it was, he had most of the day.

And it had been a full day today, he mused, staring up at his ceiling.

He'd ended up catching a tip that lead straight into a case at the end of the day yesterday. He'd stayed on and worked it with his team over night and they'd caught the perps just before the graveyard shift ended.

Which meant doughnuts with Jessica this morning. She'd headed off for her half day of class and he'd gone home for a nap. If he hadn't worked all night, then they would have had dinner together last night and just met up for lunch after her classes.

Because today was Halloween costume shopping day.

Apparently, it was a big thing.

He wasn't completely convinced the way she was that he'd make a passable Captain Hook. She swore he was perfect. He just wasn't so sure about the eyeliner and jewelry she deemed 100% necessary to pull it off.

He was going to be the most authentic Captain Hook.

Apparently.

But going to this party together was going to make her happy. Dressing as Captain Hook and Emma Swann from the tv show, Once Upon A Time, was making her ecstatic. So, he was in.

At least he was off work until tomorrow. He could take a few hours and decompress because Jessica had begged out of more time together. She was having a girls night with Sang. He was fine with her plans; he knew she didn't have much time to hang out with her before Paris. And while he could have chosen to meet his team for pizza and the game, he didn't do that either. He was considering opening the team chat with his brothers because they hadn't actually chatted in a while and things were on the verge of changing in Chicago since it was getting closer to the end of the year.

Besides, he had new relationship impacting things to mull over as well.

He snorted and ran his hand through his hair. Of course, he had relationship impacting things going on because it couldn't ever be as simple as it was supposed to be.

He had absolutely no clue about what to do now. It was a lot to process and something was going to need to be done. But maybe he should just ignore it and talk to his best girl about it.

It was too much to think about and he didn't want to do it on his own. He just wasn't sure anything could be done about the new threat to his happiness without destroying Jessica in the process.

And as much as they had agreed on the terms of their relationship, he really didn't want to destroy her. He cared about her too much to let that happen.

He wouldn't have anything to think bout if he'd just gone straight home after shopping with Jessica earlier. But he'd felt like having a latte and spending some time reading a book on his e-reader. So, he'd gone to a coffee shop and spent time outside on a lovely afternoon. He didn't think much about it when the shadow had fallen over his table.

Until he looked up and found his father staring down at him.

"God, what a mess." Josh mumbled, scrubbing his hands over his eyes and wishing he could erase their meeting out of his head. He had to figure out what to do before he went crazy and Jessica was bound to notice he was going off his rocker. He grabbed his phone, thumbing open the group chat and starting the family therapy session he desperately needed. ~I'm screwed. U guys around? ~