“Sooo,” she dragged out. “Fancy another night at the opera?”
20
RORY
Rory toed her shoes off and walked into her kitchen. She glimpsed herself in the mirror in her hallway and grinned. She looked good, she looked like herself, she felt right.
She pressed buttons on the coffee machine and turned to Gemma. She was about to ask her about what had happened in the car when Gemma’s phone rang again. Rory ground her teeth and resisted the temptation to throw the damn thing out the window. She had wanted to kiss Gemma, and she felt Gemma had wanted the same. The bounds of friendship were wearing thin, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to fight it anymore. She’d spoken about it to Craig as he cut her hair. It had amazed her how easy it had been to open up to him, and she had shared a lot about her journey. One thing he said stood out above all others. ‘What if someone else finds her while you’re still looking for you?’
He had paused in shaving her neck at that point, and a shiver had run over her. She’d not considered that. She’d been so consumed in her own journey of discovery that she’d forgotten that Gemma was a beautiful, sexy, and singlewoman. Another, more pleasurable shiver, went across her as she thought about that moment in the car when Gemma had tickled the short hairs at the back of her neck. What would have happened if her mother hadn’t called?
She’d also received a message from her own mother, demanding that she return home for the opera.
Rory looked up at Gemma as she walked back into the kitchen.
“That was Teagan.” She waved her phone by way of explanation. “She wants to know if we want to go with her and Brad to The Pub to see a band. I was meant to have asked you earlier, but…” Gemma trailed off while pointing towards Rory’s hair.
Rory pondered the question for a moment. Part of her wanted to cuddle on the sofa with Gemma and build up to kissing her senseless and confessing all her feelings for her. The other, more sensible part of her said that being with other people might lessen the temptation to pull her into her arms. After all, it wasn’t just about what Rory wanted. She knew Gemma had also been reluctant to get involved with her and wanted to remain friends. Perhaps it would be better for them and their friendship to be with other people as friends. Rory wondered how she would feel if Gemma flirted with someone else when they were together? As her friend, it fell to her to be a good wing-woman, even though the thought of it made Rory’s pulse spike. This was exactly why they needed to be together as friends, with other people.
“Do you want to stay over tonight?” Gemma’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “It makes sense as the pub we’re going to is just around the corner from my flat. That way you can enjoy the evening without needing to worry about either driving or train times.”
Fuck. Rory resisted the temptation to hang her head. Not thirty seconds after she had decided that they would be just friends again, Gemma put the vision in her head of sharing a bed together. Perhaps Gemma meant she could sleep on her sofa, although Rory wasn’t sure about how Teagan would cope with a strange person on her sofa. But from what Gemma had said, Teagan seemed like the kind of person who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a stranger crashing on their sofa.
“You mean on your sofa or…” Rory felt her heart thump in her chest and realised it did a lot of that around Gemma.
“Don’t be silly, you can share with me.” Gemma fixed her with a look that Rory couldn’t understand. Great, was she now like Samson and all ability to read her friend had been taken away with her long hair?
“Okay, how about I throw a bag together and then we head off to your place?”
Gemma nodded and grabbed her mug of coffee and folded herself into Rory’s armchair with her phone, presumably to text Teagan back. For a moment, Rory stood in her kitchen and looked into the living room. Gemma looked and acted so at home in her house. She hadn’t noticed it before, but now that she really thought about it, in the weeks since they’d had that first meal here, Gemma had become as familiar in her home as anything else around her. She dashed upstairs and spent far longer than she should have done selecting an outfit. Sighing, she threw the shirt she’d been thinking about wearing onto the bed and grabbed her travel toiletry bag and some underwear and threw them into a duffle bag. She had to travel for work and kept her bag ready for an overseas trip at a moment’s notice.
Having gathered everything she thought she might need, she turned her attention back to her outfit. Gemmawould likely get ready when they got to her flat, but Rory didn’t want the awkwardness of them getting ready together in the same cramped space, so decided to get changed now. She’d got as far as a pair of men’s black jeans and a black sports bra when Gemma appeared in the doorway.
“Hey, Teagan suggested we go for pizza first….” Gemma’s voice drifted off, and Rory spun around to look at her. It wasn’t the first time she had shown so much skin to Gemma. On their day by the swimming pool she had shown far more. But for some reason, here in her bedroom she felt more exposed. She searched Gemma’s face only to see Gemma’s eyes rake over her body. For a moment, Rory expected the same look of disappointment to flash in Gemma’s eyes as she felt whenever she looked at herself, but the look that Gemma flashed her was not disappointment. Far from it. Gemma’s eyes were full of heat, and her cheeks were flushed. Gemma made no attempt to hide her appraisal of Rory’s body, and Rory found she liked it. Her own cheeks felt flushed, and she squared her shoulders to Gemma, silently giving Gemma permission to look as much as she wanted.
For a moment, the air between them hung heavy. In the background, the sounds of suburbia leaked into the room. Her neighbour mowing his lawn, a dog barking, the sound of the ice-cream van as it patrolled the streets looking for hungry children. But none of that mattered to Rory. She couldn’t think above the swooshing in her ears and the silent voice that said she needed to go to Gemma. She swallowed a couple of times.
As she was deciding what to do, her feet moved forward, almost of their own volition. The question that had been plaguing her for the last few weeks: would Gemma still fancy her without the long hair, without the girly outfits,was answered in Gemma’s eyes. Gemma wanted her, desired her, and Rory was done with hiding from that desire. She noticed Gemma moving towards her and lifted her hands to cup her face. Not giving herself time to think, she crashed her lips into Gemma’s. She turned slightly to walk Gemma back to the wall of her bedroom. Gemma let out a slight oof as her back collided with the wall, but Rory wasn’t deterred. She moved her lips over Gemma’s and poured all of her feelings into the kiss. Gemma’s hands reached around her waist and settled in the small of her back. Her fingers skimmed the sensitive skin above Rory’s waistband before a hand splayed over the muscles in her back, pulling her closer.
Before she could think about what she was doing, Gemma opened her mouth to Rory and teasingly poked her tongue out. Rory gently caressed it with her own, moaning into the sensation of their tongues coming together before pulling back slightly. Their lips parted, and for a moment a flash of anger crossed Gemma’s lips. Rory grinned and trailed a finger down Gemma’s front to hook into the waistband of her skinny jeans. Rory walked backwards towards the bed, tugging at Gemma to follow her lead. Realisation crossed Gemma’s face and in a split second, annoyance was replaced with the sultriest look Rory had ever seen. Gemma placed a hand on Rory’s sternum and pushed her towards the bed. The edge of the mattress touched the back of her legs, and she sank onto it, pulling Gemma on top of her.
Quickly, Gemma straddled Rory’s hips and leant forward. Her hair was in a ponytail, and Rory itched to loosen those silky strands and have them hanging around them. Gemma paused for a moment, her eyes searching Rory’s before she dropped her head and captured Rory’s lips again. She bent forward, her top hitched up, and Rory’s fingers quickly foundthe skin exposed between the waistband of her jeans and top. As they lost themselves in the kiss, Rory’s fingers danced along Gemma’s ribcage, eliciting a hiss from the other woman.
“Fuck, Rory.” Gemma lifted her lips from Rory’s before burying her face into Rory’s neck. She kissed the pulse point she found there, and Rory felt a shiver run through her. Her fingers tugged at Gemma’s top, and she lifted it upwards before a hand on her chest stopped her.
“Shit, Rory.” This time, her words were full of regret. Rory stilled her fingers. Every fear she had ran through her, and a chill replaced the fire from earlier. Was Gemma rejecting her? Had she misread the signs? She pulled herself up on the bed and sat up. Her hands were shaky, and her stomach was in knots. She was about to say something when Gemma stood. Rory’s heart pounded as she watched her friend stand before her.
“Sit up there.” Gemma pointed towards the headboard.
Rory was confused, but did as she was told. She adjusted the pillows on the bed and sat as she waited for her friend to explain all the ways in which she didn’t find her attractive anymore.
Gemma stood next to the bed and took her hair out of its ponytail. She fluffed the brown tresses and seemed to have a silent conversation with herself. Rory was torn between sitting quietly where she was or taking the initiative and telling Gemma that it was okay, that she knew she might not fancy her as much now as she used to. Reflexively, she tensed an arm, enjoying the definition of the muscles in her arm as she did. It had only been a few weeks, but she was really seeing the benefits of her workouts. It had helped that she had kept herself fairly fit anyway, but the muscle definition was starting to show.
“Could you stop doing that?” Gemma’s voice was quiet, almost pleading.
Rory relaxed her arms and slumped against the headboard of the bed. “Could you at least throw me a T-shirt before telling me all the ways you don’t like who I am now?” Her voice was sharper than she had intended, all the fears and worries that were bubbling below the surface threatening to boil over.
“What?” Gemma glared at her
