“And we’re still on for lunch?” Harlow asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Can’t wait.” She kissed Harlow on the lips and stole one of the sliced strawberries from Harlow’s plate. “For you,” she added and slipped it between Harlow’s open lips.
CHAPTER 34
Harlow was at work. She was at work, when she would much rather be at home with Larissa, making love and having that breakfast in bed that Larissa had tried to make for her. No, cooking wasn’t Larissa’s thing, but it was cute that she’d tried. Well, it had been cuteat first. Then, it had been hot. Sex with Larissa was amazing. It was the best sex she’d ever had by far, and she both had expected that and been surprised by it at the same time. Expected it because she loved Larissa, so even if Larissa was a little behind her on that front, there were real feelings involved, and surprised by it because it had been even better than in her fantasies, and that never happened.
And it wasn’t just the orgasms. It was how Larissa was usually so contained. She had her glasses, her computer, and her notes, and she worked all the time on one paper or another. Harlow had thought so even back when she’d been in Larissa’s class: Larissa never really let go. But now, Harlow was watching her do just that, and she wondered if she was the only one who had ever seen Larissa let go so completely. She smiled at that thought as she walked to her car to leave for her lunch with Larissa. She’d been put on supply pick-up duty, but that could wait until she was on her way back to the office. She wanted to see her girl first.
Well, they hadn’t talked about that officially yet. They’d only gone so far as to say that they were dating, but Harlow knew: they were together. Yes, they still needed to state that fact to one another, but she could wait for that. Hell, she had waited years for Larissa to figure out that they were supposed to be more than friends. She could wait for everything else, too.
“Harlow, hey.”
Harlow turned and noticed Aggie walking behind her.
“Oh, hey,” she greeted.
“What are you doing here?” Aggie asked.
“Having lunch with your sister.”
She had stopped walking so that Aggie could catch up with her, and when Aggie stared at her with a quirked brow, Harlow knew what was coming next.
“You’re dating my sister.”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Should I forego the big sister speech with you because you’ve been her friend forever?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“She didn’t call me last night. I expected at least a text.”
“Why?”
“Please tell me you two have at least kissed,” Aggie said on a sigh.
“Oh.”
“Two dates and no kiss yet? Really? You’ve been waiting how long to kiss my knucklehead of a sister?”
“What? What do you mean, how long?”
“Oh, please… Harlow, I told Larissa the same thing: I was there the night you two met. I saw that look on your face. You’ve been in love with her since you met. She’s been aloof, but it’s been there for her, too.”
“If you knew how we felt, why didn’t you say anything?”
“When hasthatever worked?” Aggie reasoned. “People have to figure things out for themselves. Kids touch the stove to know that it’s hot instead of listening to their parents when they tell them. Adults aren’t much different.”
“But you knew? You knew Larissa felt the same way?”
“I knew that it wasinher somewhere. She’s just been so focused on school her whole life. I’m sure part of that is my fault. Our parents are probably a little to blame, too. They are both from poor backgrounds and are kind of blue-collar. They always told us that they wanted us to go to school for whatever degrees we wanted, and they worked their asses off so that we could do just that without a bunch of debt. Larissa and I owe them both a lot, but it also put pressure on us to succeed. She then had the fact that I’m older and in the same field to deal with on top of that, so she’s been in the books and never really cared about relationships. My guess is that at least part of that was because you were always around, so she never really needed to care about romance because her best friend was there and in love with her. Minus the sex, you two were basically a couple this whole time, even when you were with other people.”
“You said you told her the same thing earlier.”
“What?”
“Before, you said you told her that when we met–”
