Chapter 11 Kimberly
Kimberly
Iwas having so much fun with Gina that I didn’t realize what time it was until I got up to use the restroom. As I slid out of the booth, I pulled out my phone to check for messages and gasped in surprise.
“Oh my God, it’s after eleven.”
We’d been there for three hours, nibbling on the enormous amount of fries we’d ordered – it turns out we really could have shared one basket of them – and making our way through a second beer.
The conversation had flowed easily, much easier than I would have expected, and somehow I felt like I’d learned more about Gina in one three hour dinner than I had in six months of dating.
Maybe she was more open now, maybe I was, or maybe our shared history made it easier for us to share with each other. Whatever it was, it had been nice. That was the best word for it.
When I got back to the table, Gina had already paid the check.
“Let me give you some money,” I said right away. “I didn’t mean for you to pay.”
She gave me an impish grin. “Oh, so you didn’t go to the bathroom as part of a plan to make me pay the bill?”
“Definitely not,” I laughed.
“It’s fine, really. Buying you dinner is the least I can do. Let me just use the restroom too, then we can walk back to the office.”
We’d both left our cars in the nonprofit’s parking lot, so we walked along the quiet streets to Gina’s office, still talking. As we walked, our shoulders brushed against each other, and every touch made my body tingle with an awareness that had been growing inside me all day.
“This is me,” Gina said, stopping by what I realized was the same Camry she’d had when we were dating. It had been old back then.
“I can’t believe you still have this car. It’s almost as old as you are!”
She patted the roof affectionately. “Old Callie the Camry is still running like a dream, aren’t you baby?”
I’d forgotten the way she’d named her car and spoke to it like it was human in the hope that the car would be ‘good’ to her. Then again, her methods seemed to work.
“Still crazy, I see,” I teased.
She turned back towards me and bumped her shoulder against mine as she noticed the car parked one row over in the otherwise empty lot.
“At least I’m not driving a Tesla.”
“Hey, I bought that car back when it was still cool to own one, before everything else happened,” I protested. “Although I’m not sorry when I see how high gas prices are right now.”
She winced. “Yeah. Well, I guess I’d better--.”
The words died in her throat as she noticed how close we were standing to each other.
She’d parked directly under a light, and I could see the question on her face.
Some hair had fallen out of her ponytail as we’d walked back from the bar, and without meaning to, I lifted my hand to slide it back behind her ear.
Gina stilled, her eyes bouncing between mine. “I, uh…”
I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but while my brain wasn’t paying attention, my body was moving forward. I slid my hand from Gina’s ear to cradle the back of her head, then slowly closed the distance between us and touched my lips to hers.
For a second, maybe two, we were both completely still, our lips pressed together in a chaste approximation of a kiss.
Then she sighed and my body remembered what to do.
And then I was kissing her for real. I licked along the seam of her mouth, and when she granted me access, I slid my tongue inside her mouth and slid it against hers.
That’s when we both let go of any remaining restraint we had. I grabbed Gina’s shoulders and pressed her against the side of her car as I deepened the kiss, immediately taking control.
She didn’t seem to mind though. Her hands moved up and down my back like she was getting reacquainted with the muscles there before she cupped my ass, one cheek in each hand.
She’d always loved my ass, something I’d inherited from my Mexican grandmother.
I’d always hated it because it was too large in proportion to the rest of my lower body, making finding pants that fit me right nearly impossible.
When I started feeling dizzy from lack of oxygen I finally pulled back a few inches. Gina opened her eyes, her expression dazed.
“Wow. That was… wow.”
“Yeah.”
Before I could say anything else she was pulling my head back down for another kiss.
Everything around us faded as all my focus narrowed onto the spaces where my body pressed against hers. I’d always loved this. There was something about kissing Gina that made it feel so intimate, so perfect, almost better than sex. Almost. I could kiss her forever.
This time when we broke apart to take a breath I took a step back, knowing that if I didn’t put some distance between us I’d be fucking her on the hood of the car before too long.
We’d made a lot of progress this week, but I wasn’t ready for that yet.
I was still processing all the changes in my ex-girlfriend and trying to sort out the complicated feelings racing through my brain.
The truth was, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to be with Gina again.
As much as my heart was telling me to give her another chance, I couldn’t stop thinking about the issues in our relationship last time, issues that became even more evident once we were separated.
And I couldn’t forget the way she literally tossed me aside, assuming the worst of me, without even giving me a chance to defend myself.
“I know we shouldn’t have done that, but I can’t say I’m sorry about it,” Gina said softly as she searched my face for a reaction.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since I saw that ice cream on your face,” I confessed, wanting to be honest despite the doubts I had. “Or possibly before that.”
There was no ‘possibly’ about it, but this situation was complicated and there was no reason for me to show all my cards yet.
She didn’t know how many times this week I’d fantasized about pulling her down on that crappy little conference table and eating her out until she forgot her own name.
She didn’t need to know that I was going to need to pull out my vibrator and relieve the ache between my thighs the second I got home.
She didn’t need to know that kissing her was like coming home, like finally finding something that I’d lost.
But we both had a job to do, and we needed to focus on that.
Plus our history was fraught. I’d gone down this road with Gina before, and it had nearly killed me. I needed to use my head and not let my hormones be in charge.
“I’d better get home,” I said regretfully. “I’ll meet you here at nine tomorrow?”
She nodded. “I’ll bring bagels.”
“Then I’ll bring better coffee to go with it.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Picking up the laptop bag that I’d somehow dropped while we were making out, I walked to my car, resisting the urge to look back at Gina, even though I could feel her watching me the entire way.
I waited in my car, watching in the rearview mirror until I was sure that Gina was safely inside her car and had gotten it started before I left.
That night I slept fitfully, my mind preoccupied with Gina.
My boss would fire me if he thought I had something going on with her during an active audit, but once the audit was completed, I was free to date her.
If I wanted to, that is. Sure, things had gone badly, very badly, the last time we were together.
But we’d both grown and changed a lot since then. We were more mature, more settled.
But could I ever trust her again, truly? Maybe it was just nostalgia that was drawing us together. I’d let passion blind me before. Was I doing it again? Maybe I was just lonely after going so long without a romantic partner in my life.
The next morning I met Gina at her office with two giant coffees and a plan.
“Can we talk about last night?” I asked as soon as we settled at the conference table.
Gina wasn’t the only one who’d changed over the years we’d been apart. I’d spent some time learning how to have hard conversations, something I’d avoided when we were dating. Well, I mostly avoided them now too, but this was important.
She gave me a wary look. “Sure.”
“I wanted to apologize. For the kiss. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“We both agreed about that last night,” she reminded me. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t wish we could do it again.”
I couldn’t decide if I was happy or freaked out by her words.
“It’s complicated. I’m in a power position over you as your auditor. I need to keep things professional and make sure there’s no hint of impropriety or anything that violates state ethics rules or we’ll both be in trouble.”
“You’re right,” she said. “And I totally agree. But let me ask you something. If we ran into each other some other way, and we were working different jobs, what conversation would we be having right now?”
“I’d be asking you if we should try to date again,” I admitted.
I was as surprised by that admission as she seemed to be.
“But since I can’t do that, I’m going to say that for now we can only be friends.”
“You’re not my friend,” she said, echoing my words from the other day. “You’re much more than that. But maybe when this is all over and your audit is complete, we can figure out whether we can truly be friends. Or something more.”
“I’d like that.”
I resisted saying that something inside me said this was our second chance. I just wasn’t sure if I was going to accept it.