After Damario’s door slammed in her face, Lisa was left with nowhere to go. She had moved out of Panorama Heights, Jason has a girlfriend so his place was out, she was definitely not going home to her father’s, and her uncle Eric lived in Seattle which, because of Jason, was out of the question. She could have stayed with Crosby, but she was afraid of confirming his prediction that because Lisa cheated on Damario, Damario would end up breaking up with her. She was truly on her own for the first time in a long while. After mulling through her options, Lisa eventually decided to purchase a temporary tiny home. It would be moved to The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Vegas, where she could spend the rest of her off season.

And then the contract offers started coming in. Before even looking at them Lisa knew there were some places she wasn’t going to choose. First, Vegas. Though she spent her rookie years there, the thought of staying there became an adverse one when every now and then Lisa would run into Damario on the street. Albany and Queens were next, and though her brother lived in Albany, New York was completely out of the question because of her father. Seattle? Maybe. Maybe she could convince Jason to change his mind and be with her. But what would the Summit need Lisa for when they had Leon Delmont?

A quick look at the offers shocked her. There were offers from Albany, Baltimore, Vegas, offers going into the tens of millions. They were in a bid war for her. This felt unexpected to her since her attention had been on other matters. But the longer the bid wars continued and scared off other buyers, the more it narrowed down which were the two teams she had to choose between: Las Vegas and Baltimore. And when Vegas came to terms with the fact that Lisa could not stay with them a sign-and-trade between Vegas and Baltimore was conducted.

And that was that. Starting the 2020/2021 season, Lisa was a Baltimore Spirit. She sold her tiny home and moved out east. It was a new start for her. Alone. There was one gleam of hope, however; Crosby was traded to Baltimore almost immediately after her sign-and-trade. At least she had him to give her some sense of normalcy. But as she waited for the season to start, the loneliness grew inside her, despite her meeting with her new teammates during practice. All she could think about was what she had lost. Eventually an impulse to make things “normal” again grew strong enough where just days before preseason was to start, she flew out to Seattle. She needed to see Jason.

A knock on the door and Lisa could here his voice on the other side telling her to wait one moment. Jason opened the door and without warning Lisa jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him close.

“L-Lisa?” Jason asked in shock. Lisa said nothing, only burying her face into his neck.

“Who is it?” a voice sounded from inside his apartment. The voice shocked Lisa enough to loosen her grip.

“Hang on,” Jason said to Lisa and leaned back into his apartment to call back. “It’s my friend, the one I told you about. Give me a bit, I’ll be right back.”

“Oh. Okay,” the voice called back. Jason closed the door to his apartment to stand alone with Lisa in the hallway.

“Hey,” Lisa whispered.

“Hey,” he said back, confused as to why she was there.

“W-who was that?”

Jason sighed, “That’s June.”

“Is she your…?”

“My girlfriend, yes,” Jason confirmed. “What are you doing here?”

“The hell do you mean what am I doing here? I’m here for you!”

Jason ran his fingers through his now short hair and paced away from Lisa. “I did tell you I was in a relationship. What happened to Damario?”

“I’m done with him! Listen, you were right. You were right from the beginning. I should have listened to you and went with you from the start. Damario was just my savior during a rough time. He wasn’t anything more to me compared to you!” Lisa stopped to grab her composure. It was a fact to everyone that Lisa tended to get riled up and shout out the first things that came to mind. It was a fact that even Lisa could not ignore. She took her breath and began to talk calmer. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for the shitshow.”

“Y-yeah,” Jason rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah. I’m sorry, too. It’s really been a shitshow, hasn’t it?”

Lisa made her way to the wall opposite his apartment and dropped her head back, allowing it to knock against the wall. “Sorry to show up out of the blue, too. But that seems to work best.”

Jason chuckled. “Yeah. I guess I taught you that.”

The roles had been reversed and they both knew it. There Lisa was, right at his door despite knowing that he was already in a relationship, there with the intent to get Jason to leave his girlfriend and be with Lisa. No one needed to say it. They both laughed to themselves at the irony of the situation. But now the question was will things turn out exactly as it had before, or will a different result end up happening?

“I’m going to be blunt,” Lisa began. “I want you to break up with her and be with me.”

“No.” A quick and direct answer.

Lisa pulled her head off the wall. “I know what you’re going through. Don’t make my mistake. Let’s just skip the fights, let’s skip the regrets and confusion and sadness. You’ve wanted to be with me all year, and honestly, so did I. But I was afraid of hurting someone even though no matter what someone was going to get hurt. Let’s not drag this out for her and let’s let her go before you end up hurting her the way I hurt Damario.”

“No.” Another quick and direct answer. “I don’t want to be with you.”

“I’m sorry, but weren’t you the one to take me back to your room and throw caution to the wind? You said ‘fuck it’ that night, not caring about anyone other than the two of us. Or am I misremembering this? We wanted each other and we both said yes. But then right after that, right after finally caving in and taking what you wanted you started a new relationship? Everyone was going through some tough emotions then, but I don’t think this June girl is the result of a honest decision, if I’m honest.”

“It was.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No, not at all.”

“Oh. So, you’re just a hypocrite.”

Jason let out a slow audible sigh. “Lisa, we’re both hypocrites. We’re both doing the complete opposite of what we were so adamant about in the past. We’ve grown and gone through new experiences and now we’re here on the opposite side. But I’m not leaving June. And it’s not out of some sort of vengeance or anger towards you.” He made his way towards Lisa and joined her against the wall, both of them staring at the door to his apartment. Their shoulders touched which meant the world to Lisa at that moment.

“It sure feels like you’re doing it out of spite,” she said softly.

“I know. But I promise it’s not.”

“Then why? Why is this different than when you did this to me? Why did you think it was okay for me to leave Damario, but it’s not okay for you to leave your new girlfriend?”

Another sigh. “Because. Because I’m not torn between the two of you. I want to be with June. I only want to be with June.”

Lisa laughed, looking up at Jason. “Oh. I see. So, when we slept together, that meant nothing to you?”

“Lisa,” Jason sighed out. “Of course, it meant something to me. It meant a lot. But… It did teach me something. And talking with my own therapist we both agreed with what it taught me. I wanted something I didn’t have. Yes, you were always good to me. Yes, you’re my best friend and someone worth being with… then.”

“So, are you saying I’ve changed and now you don’t want me?”

“Well, no. I mean, yeah, you’ve changed, but so have I.” Jason took a breath. “It took a lot, Lisa, for me to come to terms with it. And to be honest with you (and I really don’t think I should be saying this), I’m still fighting with coming to terms with it.”

“With what?” Lisa huffed.

“You’re not what I need. You’re what I want. Sure, there are a lot of great qualities with our relationship, and us being together wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing per se, but I’d be stuck in a state where I wouldn’t grow beyond the me I am at the moment.”

“Like hell you wouldn’t,” Lisa shoved Jason with her elbow. “You’re the one always saying how you’ve done so much growing and changing because of me!”

Another sigh. “And that’s true. I have done a lot of growing, but that was just the beginning of my growth. Trust me, I still believe meeting you was the best thing to ever happen to me. I’ve changed a lot of who I am because of you.” Jason stood straighter, allowing his weight to slightly come off the wall. “I’ve done so much introspection and learning that I honestly am shocked with how much I’ve changed in these past five years when compared to the rest of my life. I am so grateful for you. But now I need to move on to the next stage of my growth. And the fact of the matter is you were becoming my new Sharice, a type of normal I was going to rely on.”

“Yeah? And what the hell’s wrong with relying on normal? You gonna tell me that once you get used to your new girlfriend, you’re gonna break up with her so that you can have something new?” Lisa snarked.

“No, Lisa. Of course, that’s not what I’m saying. Let me put it this way: I have a way with turning ‘Jason’ off. Where I just stop looking at me in general and asking what I really want. My emotions dictate what I want or say or do. I end up clinging on to what feels good in that moment. With Sharice, it was comfort in having a shoulder to constantly lean on. With you, it was a combination of things; being attached to the first signs of a good thing just because they happened, and wanting something I couldn’t have.” At this point Jason was no longer leaning against the wall with Lisa. “But the biggest thing I had to come to terms with was that neither you or Sharice was a choice. It was me grabbing on to the first good thing and desperately wanting it to never leave. But I want to be in a good and happy relationship, not a desperate one, and my therapist agrees.”

“What’s wrong with being desperately in love?” Lisa asked coming off the wall to finally face Jason. “Desperation happens for good reasons, too. You telling me that this would have been a bad thing?” Lisa gestured between the two of them. Jason was unable to look at her. He stood quiet with his gaze on the ground. Lisa placed both hands on his cheeks and hunched over to look up at him and catch his gaze. “You love me, and I love you. It’s the honest truth,” she whispered to him. Her eyes glistened in the florescent light and a warm smile grew on her face. “It’s okay to be desperate for that feeling. Especially when the feeling is reciprocated.” Jason’s gaze slowly fell off of her and to the floor once again. Lisa decided that she was going to take this opportunity to show him what she meant. She wrapped one hand behind his head and gently caressed his face with the other as she leaned in and kissed him, pinning him back against the wall. It was a soft but passionate kiss. She held there giving him everything she had: the genuine her, the caring her, the her that said that this was going to be a good thing. But when she pulled away from his lips, she saw that his somber gaze remained on the floor. She could see a bit of blush coming through his fur, though. Maybe another kiss? But she was stopped when she noticed that something had caught Jason’s attention.

When Lisa turned to face what was behind her, she saw a short margay with a bob cut. Her eyes were large but soft, not the gaze Lisa was expecting to see. Jason stood up straight and wiped his lips. “Lisa, this is June, my girlfriend,” he said.

“Oh! Uh,” Lisa stammered.

“June, this is Lisa… the girl I was telling you about.”

“I can see that.” June’s voice was as soft as her gaze and had not even a tinge of anger to it. “You are exactly as he says you are,” she smiled. Remembering how Jason’s ex-wife was towards her, Lisa was rooted to her spot waiting for the eventual eruption that would ensue from kissing this woman’s boyfriend. But it never happened. June was as calm as one could be.

Jason then finally came off of the wall he shared with Lisa and moved towards June on the opposite side of the hall, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. Lisa looked the two up and down. They looked like a proper couple standing together like that. Did she ever look like that with Jason or Damario? “I’m sorry, Lisa. But my answer is no. I hope you can understand,” Jason said calmly to her.

Lisa let her weight slump back against the wall. “Really? So, that’s it, huh?” Lisa muttered with her chin pressed against her chest. Jason nodded back. “Heh. Wow. Well, you’re lucky, June.” June’s smile grew larger as she hugged Jason closer to her side. June agreed.

Not having anything else left to say to her, Jason turned around, guided June back into his apartment and entered in after her. “Goodbye Lisa. I wish you all the best. You really do deserve it.” And as the door shut, catching the last glimpses of what was going to be her partner, Lisa was forced to take in that she was, in fact, alone. Jason had chosen where he now stood, and it was no longer alongside her.