Chapter Text
It’s one of their days off when Lupe drags Jess out of the house. She won’t say anything about where they’re going, but makes Jess wear a skirt and bring her wallet with her. Jess isn’t too pleased about either of those facts, the skirt for obvious reasons and because she’s pretty sure she’s about to get talked into paying for something for Lupe. She’ll buy her beer at the bar, sure, but Lupe can pay her own way during daylight hours. But then again, maybe that’s not what’s happening, because Lupe’s got that dumb purse she carries sometimes, holding it in both hands like it’s got something precious inside.
It’s hot, like every day in Rockford seems to be, the sun beating down on them as they walk downtown. Jess misses the temperate summers of home, the joy of feeling a mild warmth on her shoulders after the unending winters, sun gently warming her skin without the harsh baking it seems to do here, evenings still cool enough to need a fire most nights. She rolls up the sleeves of her shirt as far as they’ll go, trying to expose more skin to the pitiful breeze that’s just blowing the hot air around more than anything else. She can already feel the back of her neck burning, turning a mottled red.
They eventually make it downtown, Jess still being led blindly, Lupe still ignoring her increasingly vocal requests to know their destination. Just when Jess thinks she might just give up on this outing altogether, Lupe slows to a stop outside a tall building with a couple of low steps and huge columns, obnoxiously ostentatious in exactly the way Jess absolutely hates. She looks up to see the words Rockford Bank & Trust carved into the facade and can feel hives start to break out on her arms. Lupe’s already climbing the stairs but there’s no way Jess is following her—not in there. She makes it to the top before looking back around for Jess, making a face when she sees that she’s still on the ground.
“Okay,” Lupe starts, putting her hands up like she’s trying to calm a frightened animal.
“What’s this about,” Jess barks, already getting a feeling that she’s not going to like it.
“Jess. Esti and I have been talking, and. Well. It’s getting a little absurd for you to be keeping all your cash under your mattress at this rate. It’s been all season, and I know you don’t spend much, so you must have, what, close to a thousand dollars under there?”
“Shh,” Jess hisses, glancing around them. “Don’t say that in public.”
Lupe just rolls her eyes. “Uh, that’s exactly why you need a—”
Jess shoots her a threatening glance. “Don’t say it—”
“For fuck’s sake, Jess,” Lupe interrupts, “You need a goddamn bank account already.”
Jess is just shaking her head, arms crossed. She can’t believe she fell for this. She pats her pockets, then her cuffs, for her smokes, cursing when she can’t find them. God, this day could not get worse.
She hears Lupe clear her throat and looks up to see her holding out a cigarette, maybe something like a peace offering. Jess climbs over both steps at once to take it from her, lets Lupe lean in to light it, but then turns to face away because she still doesn’t feel like talking to her. They smoke in silence for a few minutes.
“You know, Esti’s the one who suggested it,” Lupe eventually offers.
Jess snorts. “Try again, García. That kid’s barely old enough to know what cash is.”
Lupe clicks her tongue, irritated, follows it with a noise of acquiescence. “Well, she agreed it was a good idea, at least."
Jess finishes her cigarette, stubs it out against one of the stupid columns, and tries to think about how she can get out of this. She wishes it weren’t so hot, that her mind didn’t feel so hazy and soporific in the August air. She rifles through her brain for a little while, hoping to land on an idea, testing out and rejecting a few duds before landing on what seems like the obvious solution.
“Got it.” Jess snaps her fingers and Lupe turns back towards her at the sudden noise, a little glimmer of something that looks like optimism sprinkled across her features. Jess smirks internally at what she’s going to say next.
“You have one of these things, right?”
Lupe laughs, sounding kind of skeptical, and her mouth hangs open for a second after the sound dies out, before she closes it abruptly and shakes her head. “Assuming that by one of these things you mean a bank account, like normal people have, yes.”
Jess shoots her another look at that, because if there’s one thing she’s never been, it’s normal. Lupe’s better at putting that on, pretending that she fits in, than Jess ever will be, ever wants to be. But Jess doesn’t hold it against her, because she somehow knows that Lupe will always leave that world behind and come hang out with her, both of them at home among the outcasts.
“Okay, I’ve solved it then. If you’re so worried about me storing my money the way I do, I’ll just put it in your bank account for safe keeping. Just keep it there next to your money.” Jess nods, feeling pretty proud of herself that she managed to come up with such a brilliant solution under these trying circumstances.
Lupe’s screwed up her face and looks like she’s thinking (too hard, Jess thinks, offhandedly; if she made this face while she was on the mound, Jess would be out there like a shot, ready to reassure her, talk through the pitches, whatever else Lu needs in that moment).
“Well, see, Jess, a bank account isn’t exactly like the mattress. You can’t put it in different piles. It just all goes into the safe together.” Lupe’s looking increasingly like maybe she regrets this whole exercise, which Jess is secretly feeling pretty victorious about.
Just to call her bluff, Jess throws out, “So? Like what’s mine isn’t yours already?”
Lupe’s just staring at Jess now, still holding her lit cigarette. She hasn’t taken a drag since Jess came up with her brilliant plan, and she jumps as the cherry burns down and hits her finger. She tosses it on the ground and grinds it under her heel. If Jess didn’t know any better, she’d say Lupe was gathering her thoughts. Probably just trying to think of a way to one up Jess here, since that’s what she’d do, given the circumstances.
Finally Lupe looks up, one of Jess’s favorite expressions on her face: a little bit goading, a hint of you ready?, but mostly just pure confidence. She’s seen this expression most often on the field or when they’re about to face off in the umpteenth arm-wrestling contest of the night at Vi’s, or occasionally when Lupe sets her sights on a particularly attractive woman. It looks different in the daylight than it does at the bar, or without the smell of grass in the air, no smear of infield dirt across her cheek. Jess looks a little longer and ignores the tight feeling in her chest, because she knows that’s just indigestion at the thought of giving someone her government name.
“Fine, then. You can put it in mine.” Lupe sounds a little resigned, but also somehow calculating, like she’s under the impression that she’s won this battle. Joke’s on her, though, and Jess crows, because now this is a problem for another day. She claps her hands together and leaps off the steps back to the sidewalk, ready to head back home to get out of the fucking sun.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going? We have to go deposit your cash.” The tone in Lupe's voice somehow suggests that Jess is being the obtuse one, here, which makes no sense at all.
Jess turns around again, and now she’s both confused and a little wary. “How’s that, now?”
Lupe’s still holding that dumb purse close to her body, and suddenly Jess gets it.
“Oh, you’re a dead man, Lu,” she breathes. “How’d you do that?”
Lupe says nothing, just arches an eyebrow and shrugs one shoulder. “I knew this was going to be a one shot thing, so I got it while you were playing cards with Esti last night.”
Hmph. No wonder Jess hadn’t slept well. She’d thought the mattress felt different. She sticks her tongue under her lip, tries to think. She eventually throws her hands up.
“Well, shit. You’ve really got me in a bind here.” She’s still mad at Lupe, isn’t gonna let her live this one down for a long time, but doesn’t see what choice she has. She doesn’t exactly want them to risk carrying the money back home again.
Lupe’s watching her, a little sheepish but also pretty self-satisfied. Jess finally sighs, climbs the two steps so they’re on equal footing again, bumps her shoulder against Lupe’s. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Lupe’s face softens into one of her real smiles, and she nods before pushing at the heavy door. Jess can feel a shimmer of cool air waver towards them, the cool marble of the interior finally providing some relief from the relentless heat.
“Just so you know, you’re buying the drinks tonight,” she grumbles at Lupe’s back as they slip inside.
Lupe just smirks over her shoulder at Jess. “Sure thing, McCready. My account’ll be good for it, after all.”