Chapter 28 Chocolate Cake
CHOCOLATE CAKE
The last dregs of daylight were draining from the sky by the time Catherine pulled up outside their building and cut the engine.
Her skin tingled from the sun, and her body hummed a happy tune from all the time outdoors.
No, from all the time in the presence of Jules — the least you can do is admit it to yourself.
Their time together was slipping away like a Sunday afternoon, and her chest ached for more. She wished they were still in the lake trying to ward off the indecent invasion of nudists, or laughing and debriefing over cans of gin and picky bits in the forest, but all good things…
Jules stifled a yawn against the back of her hand. “God, I’m shattered. It must be all that fresh air! I’ll sleep well tonight; that’s what they say, isn’t it?”
Catherine yawned in response.
Jules unclipped her seat belt and Catherine wanted to clip it back in to keep her there for longer, just the two of them in this joyful little bubble of her car, where life wasn’t complicated and she couldn’t fuck it all up by sleeping with her neighbour.
You’d think at her age, and with her experience, this wouldn’t be so difficult.
But Jules was already closer than she should be. Jules lived in her building and literally slept in the room above her. And Catherine hadn’t let anyone get this close since… Francesca.
But that was then, and this was now, and she so desperately wanted to bottle the precise moment Jules twisted around in the passenger seat to face her.
As if watching it all from a distance, Catherine turned her own head.
She never wanted Jules to stop looking at her the way she was right now, both soft and searching.
Jules’s lips hitched into a smile that felt like a dare, and even though she was still, her entire presence seemed to lean in.
Every synapse in Catherine’s brain lit up with the desire to close the space between them.
Her entire nervous system hummed with the command to cup Jules’s face in her hands and capture her lips; to reclaim the breath Jules was so effortlessly stealing from her.
But Catherine couldn’t move; she sat frozen on the knife-edge of indecision.
Jules spoke before Catherine could act. “You’ve probably had enough of me for one day… but if you don’t have plans this evening, do you fancy ordering a takeaway and finishing that bottle of wine we opened last night?”
Catherine may have restrained her internal screams of delight, but she lost the battle with the smile that spread thick and fast over her lips. “Yeah.” She nodded slowly. “I’d really like that. I mean, it was a nice bottle of wine; it’d be a shame to leave you to drink it on your own.”
And just like that, the evening took on a new shape.
Her Saturday night wouldn’t consist of eating leftover picnic snacks as she attempted to channel all her pent-up energy into a new jigsaw puzzle.
It would’ve been futile, as she’d have fixated on every creak and crack from above until her imagination took the reins and galloped off.
After a refreshing shower and a change of clothes, for the second night in a row Catherine found herself at the top of the stairs tapping on Jules’s door.
“It’s open,” Jules called from within. Catherine moved inside, and Jules met her in the hallway, waving a small stack of takeaway menus.
She’d changed too and looked adorably cosy in leggings and a plaid shirt. Damp hair hung loose over her shoulders, and her skin still glowed from the heat of her shower.
“Pizza, Chinese or Thai?”
Catherine shrugged. “You choose; I’m not fussy.
” She bent down to say hi to Juni, and he wound around her feet as she followed Jules through to the lounge.
Catherine instantly felt just as at home as she had the night before.
Jules had lit the candle, and two glasses of wine sat waiting on the coffee table.
Jules patted the sofa next to her, and as soon as Catherine sat, Juni jumped up and insisted she continue fussing him.
“He’s not like that with anyone else, you know.”
“Really?” A little bubble of pride rose in Catherine’s chest as she softly scratched Juni’s ears.
“Yeah, really. He even hisses at Will.” Jules glanced back at her phone. “Don’t know about you, but I’m famished. I’m going to go with pizza. Shall I just order one big veggie one and we’ll share?”
“Sounds good to me. Let me give you some money, though.”
Jules shot her a withering look and tapped their order into an app. Juni made himself comfortable on Catherine’s lap and, with all his purring, it took her a second to realise her phone was buzzing in her pocket.
Penny:
How was the big date? x
Swarmed by skinny dippers! But all’s well that ends well. I’m at hers now x
Penny responded with a stream of aubergine emojis. Catherine scoffed a laugh and quickly locked the screen.
“What’s so funny?” Jules passed Catherine’s wine to her and sat back as she sipped her own.
“Oh, nothing. Just my silly friend.” Catherine’s phone buzzed again, and even at a quick glance, the long string of splash emojis had her blushing and turning the screen face down.
“It just occurred to me that I don’t have your phone number.” Jules folded her legs underneath herself. “Like right now, if I needed to get hold of you, how would I do that?”
“Well, I’m right here, so…”
“No, but I mean if you weren’t here, then what?”
“Well, you know where I live.”
“Alright, smart-arse. I mean if you were out, or I was out. Say I’m at the shop and decide to thoughtfully check whether you need anything, you know, like a cup of sugar.”
The corners of Catherine’s mouth twitched. “A cup of sugar, from the shop?”
Jules smiled and shook her head. “Okay then, a bag of sugar.”
“I don’t take sugar; it’s unlikely I’d ever run out.”
“God, you’re actually really annoying.”
“Thank you, I do try.” Catherine bit down on her grin. “I mean, you could always leave me a note.”
Jules narrowed her eyes. “Right, so I’m standing in Tesco Express and suddenly overcome with the desire to do my neighbourly duties—”
“Neighbourly duties?”
“Yeah, to check whether you’ve run out of milk or you have the munchies, and you want me to write you a note?”
“Yes, I see your point. That would be inefficient.”
“Too bloody right.”
“Okay, well in that case I can give you the number for a great psychotherapist.”
It took Jules a second, but she laughed. “Well, I think I have PTSD from the near-miss with the naturists today, so I could probably do with a little therapy.”
“Any time. Although it’d be a conflict of interest now.”
“Why?”
“Because I know you.”
“Do you?”
“Well… a little, I guess.”
“Do you know how much I wanted to kiss you earlier?”
“I, er…”
“I don’t want to make things weird between us, but I think it’s best I tell you that I like you. And if you don’t feel the same, then at least it’s out there in the open, and I can move past it.”
“No, I like you too… I really do.”
“Good, okay.” Jules nodded. “That’s good. Phew, it’s not just me then.”
“No, I wanted to kiss you earlier too.”
“And… what about now?”
“Yes, also now, but…”
“What?”
“Juniper’s asleep,” Catherine whispered.
Jules laughed and kept her eyes on Catherine, taking a slow sip of wine before placing her glass on the coffee table. She leaned over, scooped Juni off Catherine’s lap and popped him onto the floor, and with a disgruntled meow, he sauntered out of the room.
Jules scooched closer. She gently prised the glass from Catherine’s hand, placing it down before meeting her gaze with an unmistakable look of want.
Catherine swallowed. “I think I’ve run out of excuses.”
“I think you have, too.” Jules leaned in, her lips so close Catherine could almost taste the kiss.
The air between them fizzed with desire, and Catherine’s body thrummed at the sensation of Jules’s breath so close to her lips, their noses nearly touching.
She reached up, cupped Jules’s cheeks, and closed the gap.
Soft and slow, until Jules’s hands found her neck, her fingers threaded in her hair and the kiss deepened, grew urgent.
Jules pressed forward and Catherine yielded, slipping beneath her, breathless and wanting.
The room narrowed to just the crush of their lips and the heat between them, and Catherine released a soft sound — half sigh, half surrender.
“Is this okay?” Jules murmured.
Catherine answered by fusing their lips together again because it was more than okay; it felt fucking amazing.
She wasn’t thinking about what came next.
She wasn’t thinking at all. Just feeling — the heat of Jules’s skin, the press of her warm mouth, and the way her own heart felt like it was trying to climb out of her chest.
But then her brain kicked in with the unhelpful vision of someone else sharing this intimate moment with Jules whilst she sat trapped in her apartment below listening to the creaks of the ceiling, and the moans of pleasure beyond.
“What is it?” Jules pulled back, swiping a thumb across her kiss-swollen lips. Catherine didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. She just looked away, embarrassment prickling as it unfurled inside her.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, sorry. It’s not you. It’s just…” She couldn’t think with Jules’s body pressed against hers and the taste of Jules still on her lips.
Catherine shifted a little awkwardly and Jules withdrew her weight, putting distance between them; only a small gap, but it may as well have been a canyon, because Catherine instantly mourned the loss of where their bodies had pressed, and couldn’t fathom her way back to that closeness now.
A deep wrinkle formed between Jules’s searching eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Catherine said. “I get a little caught up in my head sometimes. I don’t mean to get ahead of myself, but what if things go sour between us?”
“Sour? We’ve literally just kissed. I don’t see—”