The bouncer led her away with a hand on her arm. I loved that Grace and her team were taking care of the obviously intoxicated woman before someone did something like spike her drink or press her into doing something she didn’t want to do.
“We should get you out of that wet dress,” Grace said.
My brain almost broke with all the filthy images that flashed by.
“It’s getting late. I’m going to go home. It’s like a million degrees out,” I reminded her. “It’ll dry off before my Uber arrives.”
“Okay, well at least let me walk you out.”
We walked side by side through the club, then headed down the stairs to the main level. There was a long hallway where people lined up to get into the club, and even though it was almost eleven, people were still waiting to pay their cover charge.
“You do a good business here, huh?”
Grace smiled proudly. “Yeah, we’ve spent a lot of time making this a place people want to go to. We charge a fifty dollar cover, which keeps a lot of the unsavory people out – although not all of them – and encourages people to behave while they’re here.”
We stepped out into the humid night air and I glanced around for a cab. The street around us was quiet, and it felt like we were the only two people outside. For some reason I felt reluctant to leave.
“No cabs, I guess I’ll call an Uber.”
When I looked up, Grace was staring at me. Instead of opening the app, I dropped my phone back into my pocket and stepped closer.
“Thanks for inviting me tonight. I had a really good time,” I said softly.
My eyes bounced between hers, trying to interpret the sudden shift in mood between us. I couldn’t read her expression. Then again, she was usually a mystery to me.
“I’m glad. You’re welcome to join us any time. We do this every month.”
Grace’s gaze was questioning, and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was right now. I moved a little closer, testing the water, and the next thing I knew I was pressed up against the wall of the building with Grace’s mouth covering mine.
Grace
Dancing with Nicole had been confusing. It felt completely natural to have her in my arms and yet… She was my business partner, at least temporarily. She was annoying and stubborn and so damned beautiful in the moonlight that I couldn’t help but answer the question in her eyes.
I swung her back against the wall, my lips covering hers in a rough kiss. It had been too long since I’d kissed her. Too many weeks seeing her on Zoom or being across the table from her in meetings, remembering how soft her lips were, dying to kiss her and unable to do a damned thing about it. Even when she was arguing with me, something she did a lot, there was still something about her that made me want to take put my arm around her, take her home with me, and keep her forever.
Let’s just say that was not normal for me.
I’d always been a casual hook-up kind of woman. With working the equivalent of two full-time jobs, I didn’t have time for romance or daydreaming. I worked harder and longer than anyone I knew. And my space was sacred. I never brought anyone home with me. Other than Mr. Mittens of course.
My therapist would say that I kept myself overly busy to avoid feeling my feelings. That I kept most people at a distance to keep myself from making new connections. To avoid relationships other than the ones I’d had since grade school.
Maybe she was right. After all, I paid her a fair amount of money to tell me what was wrong with me. Why I always felt this sense of otherness. Separateness. Inadequacy. Why I continued to look for ways to make money like I was one paycheck away from living in a cardboard box under the train tracks. Why I kept striving to prove myself over and over again – to my parents, to my business partners, to the men in this field who thought women didn’t belong.
At some point along the way I’d decided that I wasn’t quite enough. That no one would want me only for me. That was the deep dark secret my therapist had rooted out on my second visit. We’d been talking about it ever since.
But with Nicole I was dreaming of long vacations on the beach, strolling through farmer’s markets, driving through the country looking at the fall leaves. Things that I’d never done in my life.
She’d recoiled when I suggested that we fuck each other out of our systems, but she wasn’t recoiling now. Her arms camearound my waist, hands cupping my ass and pulling me closer while I kissed her like I couldn’t get enough of her. And I couldn’t.
I pressed my body against her softer curves, my tongue dueling with hers as I explored her mouth. Her fingers dug into my flesh, and I moaned as I deepened the kiss even more.
Raucous laughter broke the silence as a group of people left the building, and I jumped away from Nicole as if she’d turned electric. We were under a streetlight so I could see her clearly. Her pupils were wide, her expression dazed, her nipples pebbled and pressing through the thin fabric of her dress like tiny little headlights despite the oppressive heat out here. I could tell that Nicole was as affected as I was by the kiss.
But did she want more? Did I?
“I, uh, I guess I should go,” Nicole stuttered.
She waved at a cab that turned up the street, and he slowed down for her. Nicole hurried forward, opening the back door before turning back to me.
