Ellie turned her head and searched the dance floor. Bodies, lights, movement.
And then, across the crowd, there she was. Becca. Standing at the far edge with Mia beside her, and she was already looking at Ellie, had seen what had happened, and her face in the strobing light was flushed and carrying an expression that Ellie knew intimately because she’d worn it herself so many times. The widened eyes. The parted lips.
The jealousy feeding the arousal.
Their eyes met across the room.
And Becca, slowly, with a small, confident smile, nodded.
Go for it.
Ellie turned back to Alexa, put her hand on the back of Alexa’s neck, and kissed her again. Properly this time. It was Alexa’s turn to be surprised, but when she got past that she kissed Ellie back hungrily, her hands pulling Ellie closer and Ellie let herself fall into it… the different taste, the different feel, the different everything.
They kissed for a long time. Long enough for the song to change, long enough for Ellie to stop being aware of the crowd,long enough that when they finally broke apart, breathing hard, foreheads touching, Alexa laughed in disbelief.
“Four years of spring break and that was a new one.”
Ellie smiled, but then she looked across the dance floor and the world tilted beneath her.
Becca was kissing Mia.
Not the messy nursing-student kiss from Saturday. This was real, charged, mutual… Mia’s hands were cupping Becca’s face, Becca’s fingers were in Mia’s dark hair, the two of them were pressed together, and the loop, the jealousy-arousal loop that had been quiet all evening, roared to life so hard that Ellie’s knees nearly buckled. There was the plausible rival. Mia was confident, gorgeous, funny, the kind of woman Becca could genuinely fall for, and she was kissing Ellie’s wife like she meant every second of it.
Alexa saw too and pulled Ellie back towards her, kissing her again, hungrier this time, her hand sliding down from Ellie’s hip to her ass, and Ellie let herself be kissed, the sensation of Alexa’s mouth and the image of Becca and Mia tangling together into something she had no name for, something new and vast, somehow terrifyingly more wonderful than anything her and Becca had done before.
Then they were interrupted.
Mia and Becca appeared out of the crowd, breathless, flushed, grinning, Mia’s hand in Becca’s. They came together in a huddle, the four of them close together, and Mia leaned in and put her mouth to Alexa’s ear. Ellie couldn’t hear what she said. But shesaw Alexa’s eyes go wide, saw her look at Mia, saw Mia nod, then Alexa looked at Becca, then back at Ellie.
Alexa’s voice was steady despite the flush on her own cheeks. “So, we’ve got some rum back in our room,” she shouted over the music. “You guys want to come back for a drink?”
Ellie looked at Becca. “Give us a sec?” she shouted back, but she smiled with it, wanting to reassure them.
They headed out to the courtyard where there was fresh air and they could actually talk. Becca took both of Ellie’s hands.
“You kissed her,” Becca said. Her expression wasn’t accusatory though, it was excited, like something unbelievably cool had just happened.
“I did.”
“I watched you kiss her.”
“I know.”
Becca’s grip tightened on Ellie’s hands. “El, it did something to me. Watching her kiss you and watching you kiss her back. I felt it. The jealousy and then something behind it, something… fuck, that was hot, something that made me want to…” She trailed off and shook her head. “I kissed Mia because watching you with Alexa made me need to.”
Ellie nodded, smiling herself. “Becca. Do you want us to go back with them?”
Becca’s expression was careful, reading Ellie, containing her excitement. “Do you?”
“I’m asking you.”
“And I’m asking you. Because this is different, El. Tonight you kissed someone. You’ve never done that before. I don’t want to rush past that and bounce you into something you don’t want.”
“You’re not rushing past anything.” Ellie squeezed her hands. “I’m asking you because I’m worried you’ll think I’m only saying whatever because you want me to.”
“And I’m asking you because I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you.”
They looked at each other for a long few moments, the courtyard music all around them, and then the absurdity of it hit them both at the same time and Becca started to laugh.
