CHAPTER 28
“I have my first date with a woman tonight,” Rory said.
“Yes, you do,” Jill replied. “Nervous?”
“Obviously.”
“Look at it this way: you’ve already kissed her, and you said that the other night was technically a date.”
“Not one we’d planned,” Rory replied. “I smelled like vinegar. I know I did. She was just being nice when she said I didn’t.”
“I’m sorry; what? Vinegar?” Linden asked as she walked into Rory’s bedroom.
“I was babysitting, and Simon had the volcano science fair project thing to do, so I smelled like vinegar because she picked me up from there. I thought we were just hanging out. I didn’t know there would be a whole hand-holding and a goodnight kiss thing.”
Linden sat on her bed and asked, “How was it?”
“The hand-holding or the kiss?”
“Both,” Jill said as she rifled through Rory’s closet.
“My hand was clammy,” she said as she sat down next to Linden.
“That happens. The first time I really held Ash’s hand – like, really held it – mine was, too. I was so nervous. We’ve been friends forever, and I’ve held her hand before, but this was different.”
“Where is Asher, anyway? She’s not volunteering her time to help Rory find something to wear?” Jill asked.
“She’s working on her new business with Monica tonight, who’s been really helpful. Ash won’t be at work anymore soon, and it’s really hitting me, I think.”
“You chose not to leave with her, though,” Rory said.
“Well, not yet, anyway, but it’s getting weird at work, too. Our boss, Carolyn, knows we’re together now, so I get these looks from her sometimes…”
“She thinks you’re spying for Asher?” Jill asked.
“It’s more like she knows that I’m not going to be there long. She knows Asher is an ethical person and isn’t doing anything wrong, but she also knows now that Ash is the love of my life, so it’s not likely that I will be competing with her for long.”
“I thought you wanted to stay for a while,” Rory said.
“I did, yeah. That was the plan. Ash’s business isn’t even launched yet. If we both leave the safety of a regular income, we would probably have to push back all those things that we want to do now that we’ve figured out that we were meant to be more than friends. We want to move in together, buy a house, travel, and get married. All of that stuff takes money, and Ash’s savings will be mostly going into the business, so I thought it would be better for me to stay. Besides, I’ve been the number two in the office for a long time. I wanted a chance to be number one and really show what I can do without my girlfriend there.”
“So, I think you can wear this,” Jill said, holding up a sundress.
“She’s seen me in that.”
“What? Where? The bar? You wore this to a bar?”
“I had a piano recital for Simon that night,” Rory replied. “She liked it, though. She commented on it a few times.”
“Yeah?” Jill held the dress in front of her and added, “You look all sweet and innocent in it, probably. That’s why.”
“Sweet and innocent?”
“Yes,” Jill said. “Is that what you want to go with tonight, or are you looking for sexy?”
“I don’t want to smell like vinegar. My bar is pretty low here,” Rory replied.
“Well, you’ve showered since then, so you should be fine,” Linden said. “Rory, I wouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself. She already likes you. That much is obvious from how much Jill says she stares at you. Just be comfortable.”
“It’s good advice,” Jill agreed with a shrug. “What do you wear to feel most comfortable?”
“My pajamas,” Rory stated as if that should be obvious.
“O-k-a-y. What do you wear to make you feel second -most comfortable?”
Rory chuckled and replied, “I guess jeans and a sweater or something.”
“I can work with that. Brown eyes, so let’s find something that will go with those babies,” Jill said mostly to herself and turned back around.
“Hey, it’s going to be fine,” Linden told her, bumping her shoulder to Rory’s.
“I like her,” Rory admitted. “I’ve been trying to push her away, but I want her. I want this.”
“So, you go out tonight and have a nice time. You just see where it goes, okay?” Linden said with a small smile.
“Found it!” Jill half-yelled.
◆◆◆
“Wow!”
Rory turned around to see what Logan was talking about.
“What?”
Logan chuckled and said, “Rory, you. You ’re the wow.”
“Me?”
“Absolutely.”
“ You ’re wearing a leather jacket,” Rory noted, pointing to a short black jacket that Logan had unzipped over a white T-shirt.
“It’s pleather, technically. Not the same feel, but I could afford it on sale.”
Rory smiled and said, “It’s a wow, too.”
“It’s a jacket,” Logan said, looking Rory up and down. “ That’s a whole look.” She motioned to Rory.
“Oh, trust me, the jacket is a whole look, too.”
Jill had found one of Rory’s three dresses in the back of her closet. She had them for babysitting interviews when she was meeting with a new family, mostly, but she wore them from time to time if the occasion called for it. This one was an evergreen sundress with white and dark brown vines and leaves at the bottom of it. She had not planned on buying it the day she saw it in the store. She’d gotten another one that day and liked it more, but this one had kept telling her to try it on, so she had and had liked it, deciding it would be nice to have a little variety in her wardrobe. She had finished the look with the fake pearls Jill had found in her bathroom and a pair of white ballet flats she’d forgotten that she had. Jill had to dig deep in the closet for those.
“I got you this,” Logan said, holding out an envelope.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Well, I wanted to get you more flowers, but Candace said you were allergic to carnations and that others made you sneeze, too. The rose didn’t seem to do that, but you have one of those already, so I called in a big favor and now owe someone several drinks at the bar on me.”
“Do I open it?” Rory asked.
“That’s the idea.”
“The rose is in water. Want to come in and make sure I’m taking care of it okay? It doesn’t make me sneeze, by the way.”
Logan walked into the apartment and closed the door behind her while Rory opened the envelope and found a greeting card inside. It didn’t look like the ones she always bought at the store, though. On the front, it had a picture of a bar, with a rose in a glass sitting on top of it.
“On the occasion of our first date,” she read out loud and looked up in surprise at Logan, who didn’t say anything but was smiling. Rory opened the card and read, “I’ve waited a very long time for you, Rory. Thank you for trusting me.”
On the inside were those handwritten words and another picture of what looked like several glasses with various drinks in them.
“That’s the Coke.” Logan pointed. “That’s the Shirley Temple, but it has the cherry, so you’ve guessed that one, I’m sure. That’s the Arnold Palmer. That’s the root beer. That’s the drink I made you last night. That’s the coffee from the café. It’s stupid, I know, and I’ve never designed a card before, so I didn’t know what to put on it. The words are okay, though, right?”
Rory looked up at her and said, “You made this?”
“No, Bridgette did. I ran into her at the grocery store the other day and found out what she and Monica do. I went to their office and asked for a favor. I can’t draw anything, so she did this for me. Is it lame?”
Rory smiled wide and replied, “No, this is the least lame thing I’ve ever been given in my life.”
“Really?”
Rory nodded and said, “You are the sweetest, and you have no idea sometimes.”
“I’m really only sweet with you, I think,” Logan told her, shrugging a shoulder.
“I’m going to put this back in the envelope and tuck it in a drawer before we go. I don’t want it to get messed up.”
“Okay,” Logan said.
Rory walked into the kitchen and went to put the card in a drawer but decided against it. She slid the card back inside the envelope, opened a cabinet, pulled out a ziplock plastic bag, put the card inside it, and then put it in a drawer. When she finally looked over, Logan was giving her a curious look.
“It’s handmade, so I want to be extra careful,” she explained.
“God, you’re adorable. Can I just…”
Logan walked over to her and cupped her cheek. Rory was surprised but only opened her mouth slightly, and when no words came out, she went to close it, but Logan’s lips were on hers before she could. It worked out, though, because she was more than ready for another kiss from Logan, and she opened to her completely, standing there in her kitchen next to the flower Logan had gotten her as Logan explored her mouth with tenderness and something more, too. Yeah, that was hunger. Logan’s hands were on Rory’s sides and then around her back, pulling Rory against her. Rory moved her arms around Logan’s neck, and when Logan turned them so that Rory’s back was against the counter, Rory didn’t mind the feel of the hard Formica at her back. Then, she was unexpectedly lifted off the floor and placed on that Formica countertop, and Logan was spreading Rory’s legs to move to stand between them.
They continued to kiss, with Logan not asking for more, but Rory felt like maybe she would. She could feel Logan’s warmth now. She could feel her own warmth, too, and with Logan being this close, she was unmistakably getting wet. Rory wanted more, but she knew it wasn’t the right time to ask for it. Instead, her hands moved into the new jacket, and she ran them over Logan’s back and T-shirt.
“I made a reservation,” Logan told her when the kiss ended naturally.
“You… What?” Rory couldn’t really process anything right now.
She opened her eyes and found Logan staring back at her with a sweet smile.
“I made a reservation. It’s Italian. Is that okay?”
“Garlic breath,” Rory half-whispered.
“What?” Logan said through her laughter.
Rory cleared her throat and said, “Garlic breath.”
“Yeah, I thought about that,” Logan said as she leaned in and pressed her lips to Rory’s bare neck. “But I’ll kiss you goodnight with garlic breath, Rory Winter. I don’t care. I’ll kiss you good morning with morning breath.” Logan kissed the same spot. “I’ll kiss you at the bar with potato skin breath.” Logan kissed her again, and Rory closed her eyes, wrapping herself up in Logan. “I’ll kiss you at that diner with coffee breath.”
“That feels really good,” Rory said. “Do we have to go? Can we cancel the reservation?”
Logan chuckled against her skin, and that felt good, too.
“What would we do otherwise?” Logan asked as her lips moved up Rory’s skin to her earlobe.
Her nose grazed it then, just like it had the other night, and Rory swallowed.
“We could just do this,” she suggested and ran her hands tentatively under Logan’s shirt. “God, you’re hot.”
“Thank you?” Logan asked more than said.
“No, I mean that your skin is actually hot.” Rory pressed her hand against Logan’s back. “You’re hot, as in sexy, too, though.”
Logan pulled back to look at her and said, “I’m touching you, and it does things to me, so yeah.” She pulled back a little more, and Rory’s hands moved out from under her shirt.
Logan pushed Rory’s legs together and helped her off the counter before she leaned down and kissed her sweetly.
“We should go. I don’t want to be late. I haven’t made a reservation in years. It’s kind of fun, knowing they have a table waiting for us.”
“ That’s fun for you?” Rory teased.
“Don’t pick on me. This is my first first date in a long time. The other night counts, but not really because we didn’t plan it.”
“I said the same thing to my friends.”
“Your friends?”
“Jill and Linden came over to help me figure out what to wear.”
“Jill was in your bedroom?” Logan asked. “ I haven’t even been in your bedroom.”
Rory ran her hands over Logan’s chest, up and down, not stopping anywhere in particular, and it felt good to do that. It was like Logan was hers somehow, and she could just touch her now.
“She helped me pick out this dress.”
Logan looked toward the bedroom and back to Rory.
“Fine. She has good taste. I’ll give her that.”
Rory smiled at her and said, “You’re not really jealous, right?”
“I’m not not jealous; put it that way.”
“Logan?”
“Yeah?”
“If I wanted to go out with Jill, I’d be out with Jill right now.”
“Well, that’s mighty presumptuous of you, isn’t it? Just assuming she ’d go out with you.”
“She told me she would,” Rory said without thinking.
“She told you what ?”
Rory laughed and replied, “Before she knew that I liked you, she said she was thinking of asking me out. Calm down there, pleather badass. She helped me pick out something to wear for our date.”
“Did she watch you try it on?” Logan asked, cupping her cheek.
“No, she left before I got changed. Linden did, too. I put this on all by myself.”
“I’d like to take it off all by myself,” Logan said. “But not right now because we’re going to be late.” She leaned in and kissed Rory again.
Rory could only think about Logan taking this dress off her for the entire ride to the restaurant.