The pause hung for a moment, but after Elise verified that today she didn't have work, Jesse nodded once. It was really cool that her job gave her Mondays off sometimes. Especially since Elise worked in a coffee place. Jesse had never been much of a coffee drinker, but he'd think Mondays would be pretty big days for that. It probably made Elise appreciate the days off more.
“Okay,” Jesse said when Elise made it clear that Jesse and Lily sticking around wouldn't be too much trouble. “Well, we got back a little early, so we don't have plans for awhile.” He smiled. Jesse had to meet Abbie later, but that wasn't until after three. If Jesse had just gone back to Briana's place, he would have probably just slept until then, but if Elise didn't mind, Jesse didn't mind hanging out for awhile. He didn't know how great the company would be, but Jesse supposed they could find out. He was really tired, but with Elise, it wasn't like Jesse could make a worse impression.
He smiled again at her question. “Yeah, military style. You sleep a few hours. I sleep a few hours. She sleeps the whole time.” Jesse's head gestured toward Lily. Since Elise was holding back the flower curtain, Jesse passed through it and stood in her bedroom. He looked at the stacked tubs of art supplies, and at each of the walls. He purposefully avoided looking at the bed, but when Elise spoke, Jesse turned.
His eyebrow arched, but Jesse smiled. “You think I caught zombieism down there?” His eyes widened at her in comic shock. (Which also helped him keep them open.) Then Jesse pressed his lips together and nodded, slow.His expression was serious, but there was a glint of amusement in his eyes, and the corner of his lip quirked. “Maybe I really should lie down then.” Jesse had no idea how much Elise was exaggerating, but he did think it was probably a good thing she hadn't ever seen him when he was in vampire jail, or right after he'd gotten out.
Jesse relented and looked at the bed. “I never really got the whole mint candy thing,” he said. “I mean, I love hard candy, but why would you make something that tastes like toothpaste but causes cavities? It can take about as long to brush your teeth as to dissolve a whole mint and if you're in your hotel room anyway....” He trailed off. Why was he talking? This was probably why people usually didn't visit this early.
His willpower was definitely starting to weaken a little more, but when Elise mentioned Abbie, Jesse looked back at her and nodded. “Oh. Yeah. She called yesterday. She wants to meet later today.” At what Elise said about hoping he didn't mind that she'd given Abbie the number, Jesse shrugged. “It's fine.” He had wondered where Abbie had gotten his number, but since Lanie, Alex, Cassie, Gabe, and Elise had it, Jesse hadn't given it a lot of thought.
He stayed where he was for a moment, and then Jesse followed Elise back into the livingroom, parting the flower curtain and letting the strands fall and coalesce behind him. Jesse didn't need to ask what Elise was wondering if he'd heard. Jesse nodded. “Yeah, Gabe called me. Said she broke it off.” After Jesse's talk with Abbie at the bar, he couldn't say that he'd been surprised when Gabe told him that she'd decided to break the engagement off. Even without Jake in the picture, Jesse had thought it was kind of inevitable. But that didn't mean Jesse wasn't sad that his brother was hurting, or that Jesse didn't feel for him. It was really complicated. Jesse wished the whole situation wasn't what it was.
The next part of Elise's question was the one that caught Jesse off guard. “What? Shanna? You saw Shanna?” Jesse shook his head. “No. But I guess if Gabe's here...” It wasn't quite as surprising to find out Shanna was here, if Jesse's dad thought that Gabe was on some kind of mission. It sounded like things had gotten a lot more tense between Justin and Gabe in the last six years. For a moment, Jesse was still, processing this information. Then something else occurred to him, and his head turned back to Elise and Jesse's eyes widened. “Wait.” He met her eyes. “You didn't talk to her, did you?”