Chapter Twenty-Three
June 2025
The couch was smaller than their own at home. Not as wide or long. The length wasn’t that much of an issue. Legs could bend, and feet could hang over, but with a lot less width, it meant, when Grace got comfortable, Caz had to play big spoon, because her arm had been needed around Grace’s waist to make sure she didn’t roll off.
“I could just sit in the armchair.” Grace giggled when the arm tightened its grip.
“You can’t, not after I’ve contorted myself into this position to fit you in,” Caz said half-seriously. She was squeezed up against the back of the sofa, knees bent, and her feet tucked under the cushions. Her other arm was squished underneath Grace’s cushion, her head resting on top.
“Good, because I’m quite comfortable and it feels a little chilly now the sun’s gone down.”
“More like because you’ve caught the sun today. Your shoulders are still pink.”
“It was such a nice day,” Grace said dreamily. “I can’t wait until we have a kid or two running around. We can take them to the beach and you can build sandcastles with them.”
The film played on. Neither of them really paying it much attention. Caz felt her eyes grow heavy and was drifting in and out.
So relaxed.
“What do you think?” she heard Grace ask.
“Huh, what? Sorry, I drifted off then.”
Grace chuckled and wriggled closer. “I was thinking, this is nice, laying like this together, and maybe…it could work for when we get the sperm and you—”
Caz stiffened, fully awake now.
This wasn’t a conversation she was expecting this evening, or any evening before they got home, and the subject would inevitably be raised again.
“How do you mean?”
“I just thought it might be less…invasive for you. I could—” Without warning, Grace raised her left leg and hooked it backwards until her foot rested on Caz’s calf. “And you could then—” she reached for Caz’s hand and moved it backwards too, “slide under my leg and do it, while holding me, but without the—”
Caz understood what she was saying. It actually made a lot of sense and definitely would remove a level of embarrassment, while creating a whole heap more.
“Yeah, okay, I get it…would that work…you know, for you?”
“I think so.” She brought her leg down and reached for Caz’s hand again, slipping it back around herself until Caz was holding her close. “I don’t mind, really, I trust you, but I appreciate that it’s not something one does for a friend usually. I want you to be part of the process, from start to finish, though.”
“I guess I just always thought… I didn’t really think I’d ever have kids, and I never considered what the process would be if I did. I just assumed it would be clinical, with doctors. And I think about friends who have had kids and how…I dunno, but it must have been more…”
“Loving?” Grace ventured.
“Yeah, I suppose. Two people who loved one another so much they wanted to make a baby, and then they did so because they were able to be romantic like that with each other and—”
“Do you want us to be romantic when we do it?” Grace asked, and just the words sent a tumble of butterflies roiling in her tummy.
“In an ideal world—”
“We could,” Grace interjected. “I mean…there’s nothing stopping us from doing that.”
The words wouldn’t catch up in Caz’s head. What did she mean by they could?
“I’m not following,” Caz admitted.
In a moment of acrobatic amazement, Grace twisted until she was facing Caz, noses almost touching.
“You’ve kissed me before,” she said, and Caz swallowed hard.
“I was drunk, and don’t even remember doing it.”
Grace smiled. “True, but I have admitted it was a good kiss. I didn’t dislike it.”
Was this really happening? Caz thought. Was this something new between them or just a proposal for making Caz feel more at ease impregnating her best friend?
“What are you saying?”
Grace rolled her eyes and grinned. “I’m saying, if I were facing you and—” She raised her leg again, opening herself to the position that might work for them. “We could kiss while you—you know.”
Her eyes lingered on Caz for so long that Caz felt mesmerised.
“I don’t think that would—”
“Kiss me,” Grace insisted, moving closer.
“What? No, I can’t…”
“Can’t, or don’t want to?” Grace asked. “I get it, if you don’t want to, I’m sorry if I emb—”
Her words were cut short by a finger touching her lips.
“Can you just give me a moment to think?”
They were too close. And with an invitation to get closer with Grace staring at her like that, she couldn’t stop herself. It just happened. Their lips touched and then her tongue was met with Grace’s, and they were kissing.
“I need—” Caz pulled back before she did something with her hands that would really ruin things.
Somehow, she managed to wriggle free and climb out from where she’d been pinned.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
Grace rolled over and grinned up at her. “Alright.”