CHAPTER 24
Stella opened the door and took Violet in.
“Fuck. You look sexy,” she said. “I was right to suggest the heels.”
Violet smiled and asked, “Can I come in?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
She moved out of the way to let Violet walk inside and smiled at the fact that Violet was carrying a bag.
“Let me get that for you,” she said, taking it from her. “I’ll take it to the bedroom for you. Have a seat.”
“A seat?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, in the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”
“Um… Okay,” Violet replied. “Where do you want the wine? Bedroom?”
“No, that would also go to the kitchen. There’s a corkscrew in the drawer with the silverware. You know where that is, right?”
“Yes. But why am I not going to your bedroom?” Violet asked.
“With the wine?”
“Oh, wait,” Violet said, smiling. “Never mind. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
“Okay. Good.”
Stella laughed a little and walked Violet’s bag back to the bedroom.
Quickly, she looked around, checking to make sure everything looked all right since she’d set up some flameless candles earlier.
She had them in a box in her closet for power outages, but she’d decided when Violet had agreed to come over earlier to get them out and go for a mood.
Everything looked okay, so Stella went back out to the kitchen and found Violet leaning back against the island, looking around.
“What’s all this?” Violet asked.
“Dinner,” she said. “You didn’t eat already, did you? I took a chance because you usually eat later. I thought maybe dinner around eight would be good.”
“Dinner?”
“Yeah. Did you eat?”
“No, I didn’t. But dinner? Stella…”
“What?”
“What happened to your actual dinner plans?”
“Jen had a date. I told you.”
“She just got a date at the last minute?”
“She’s on dating apps a lot. She said she matched with someone, and the woman was free, so she’s meeting her for drinks. I planned on staying in and waiting for you to get here at nine, but I thought I’d see if you wanted to come over earlier, and you did, so I made us dinner. It’s just pasta.”
“That’s what the wine is for?”
“What else would it be for?”
“I don’t know. Sex.”
“Sex? You want to have sex with wine?”
“No, I thought you would maybe, like, pour it on me or something and drink it off my body. I don’t know what you’re into.”
“Yes, you do. We’ve had sex before. We’ve had a lot of sex before.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean I know what you’ve planned tonight. I mean…” Violet motioned to the stove, where the pasta water was boiling. “Clearly.”
“I don’t understand what the problem is, Violet. Are you not hungry?”
“Of course, I’m hungry. I had a handful of baby carrots for lunch and skipped dinner.”
“So, what exactly is the issue?”
“Stella, this is a date.”
“It’s a meal, Violet.”
“There are candles on the table.” Violet motioned to the kitchen table behind the island. “And cloth napkins.”
“I have a set of them. I bought them, like, two years ago because I thought I’d have fancy dinner parties. That hasn’t happened, so I thought I’d just pull them out tonight. I even watched this video on YouTube to learn how to fold them. That is called the bishop’s hat fold.”
“You learned how to fold a napkin for dinner?”
“It literally took three minutes.”
“But we don’t do this, Stella. We don’t have dinner,” Violet argued.
“We had dinner together last night.”
“Pizza with my friends. I didn’t cook for you or… fold cloth napkins. God, are those candles, like, fragrant or something? It smells like autumn in here.”
“I only had the cinnamon apple kind.”
“Stella…” Violet began as she stood up fully. “What is going on? I thought I was here for us to sleep together, and I brought my dildo and this lube that came with it.”
“You did?” Stella asked. “Yeah, I want that, too. Is it flavored by chance?”
“No, it’s–” Violet shook her head. “It’s just supposed to make it more sensitive down there to make it, you know, more intense.”
“Well, I’m certainly down with making your orgasms more intense.”
She moved into Violet and took her by the hips.
“Wait. Stella, this is a date.”
“Did I say that? I’m pretty sure I just said it was dinner. Should I not have offered you carbs and, therefore, energy before we have sex for hours?”
“But the candles…”
“So? There are more in the bedroom, too.”
“What?” Violet moved out of her grasp and marched down the hall. “Stella!” she yelled.
“Sometimes, I hate my name,” Stella muttered. “They had to love A Streetcar Named Desire. Couldn’t have another favorite movie to name their kid after…” she added of her parents as she followed Violet’s yell. “What is it?”
“Candles,” Violet stated, motioning exaggeratedly with an open hand around the bedroom.
“Yes, like I told you. They’re flameless and don’t smell, though. Do you, like, hate autumn or something?”
“Stella, you can’t do this. We don’t do romantic nights where you cook for me and we have sex to slow music with candles flickering in the background.”
“It was to set the mood. I mean, fuck, Violet…”
“Yes, that’s why I came here: for you to fuck Violet. I wore a business suit and my best heels, and it wasn’t for dinner and mood lighting.”
“You’re freaking out, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m confused.”
“That I might actually want to talk to you for an hour before we sleep together?”
“Yes. We’re not supposed to do that, Stella.”
“We’ve been doing that, Violet. We did that this morning.”
“We were talking about my company this morning.”
“Okay. Well, we did that the night you told me all about your company. We’ve also been texting, and it wasn’t all just about sex. You messaged me just the other day to ask if I’d seen a movie.”
“We were watching it at home. I thought I’d ask if you’d seen it.”
Stella crossed her arms over her chest and said, “So, you can text me random things and talk about your life, but the moment I cook dinner and think about lighting for after dinner, I’m the idiot?”
“I never called you an idiot.”
“Oh, you did. It was just ten years ago, when I tried to get a candy bar out of the vending machine.”
“What?” Violet asked. “Oh! Yeah, I remember now. I walked by you, and you were shaking the thing.”
“I wasn’t shaking it. I smacked it a few times because the thing got stuck, and not everyone had endless money for food while they were in another country.”
“If you didn’t have money for food, why were you buying a candy bar?”
“I had enough money for the candy bar. I didn’t want my money to go to waste, so I smacked the machine. You saw me and called me an idiot as you walked by. The candy bar fell down, by the way.”
“Good for you. Why are you holding this over me ten years later?”
“Because you’re acting like I’m totally crazy for thinking that you might want to talk to me before we have sex.”
“I don’t think you’re totally crazy. This just came out of the blue for me.”
“How?”
“Stella, is it…” Violet took a deep breath and let it out. “Is it really just dinner and some mood lighting, or is there something more to it? Please be honest with me.”
When Jen had texted Stella earlier that she had found herself a date and was canceling her dinner with Stella, Stella had instantly thought of having Violet over for dinner.
She’d also thought about how it had taken Violet a long time to fall asleep, and she’d held her in the hopes that it would help.
It still took a while, but Violet had eventually fallen asleep, and at some point, Stella had rolled away.
She only knew that because when she’d woken to go to the bathroom, Violet had been wrapped around her body.
She hadn’t wanted to move, but she’d needed to go, so she’d slipped out, and when she’d gotten back into the bed, Violet had, again, been facing away from her, so Stella had taken a chance.
She had moved in to hold her once more. Now, she considered how best to answer Violet’s question, and based on how Violet had acted so far, she wasn’t sure that she should be honest. If she were honest, Violet would probably leave.
If she lied, she could convince her to stay, and they could be eating pasta soon and be in bed right after that.
“It’s a date,” she replied, deciding to be honest after all. “Well, it’s not, technically, unless you say that it is because I didn’t ask you out before you got here, and you should probably consent to being on a date with me.”
“You want to go out with me?”
“Well, stay in with, but… I don’t know, Violet. I like you, okay? I didn’t expect to, but I do now, and I liked sleeping over last night. I also liked it when you were here the night you got drunk and we didn’t do anything. It was nice. I liked the text messages and–”
“Stella, we said this was just sex.”
“I am aware. But, Violet, you held me last night.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Last night, I woke up with you holding me.”
“No, you were the one holding me.”
“I held you when you were still awake, yes. You didn’t exactly push me away.”
“I wasn’t awake.”
“Then, how did you know that I was holding you?”
Violet looked around, her eyes flitting, and Stella knew what she was about to do.
“You’ve got to go, right?”
“Yes. My bag?”
“I put it on your… the other side of the bed.”
Violet turned around, saw her bag, picked it up, and put it over her shoulder.
“You know, Jen warned me, and I didn’t listen because I thought there wasn’t a chance I’d be able to put how you made me feel back then behind me.
It’s like you make me feel like the idiot you called me, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to let that go, but then I thought about how you must have not seen me as an idiot after all because you saw me at least as a worthy opponent in everything academic.
I still didn’t think I’d get past it, but we are very compatible in bed, so I thought if it’s just that, I can.
Then, we started talking, and, I don’t know; something changed.
I don’t care about how things were in school anymore.
It seems so silly to worry about that when you’re here now, and you’re different.
I mean, I know you’re the same, too, but you’re also not, and I actually like who you are now. ”
“But, Stella, this isn’t what we agreed to.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you.
And Jen is absolutely going to tell me that she told me so, but I can’t help it.
I liked hanging out with you last night, Vi.
I liked this morning, too. I lost track of time.
Do you know how rarely I do that?” She smiled at Violet. “But if you’re not there, I… get it.”
“I’m not,” Violet replied quickly.
Stella met her eyes then and saw something in them. She could tell that Violet wasn’t telling the truth; at least, not the whole truth.
“Keep the wine. I’ve got to go. Good night, Stella.”
“Yeah, good night.”
Stella didn’t walk her out. She waited until she heard the door close and went out to lock it behind Violet as she looked out the window and watched her drive away.
Then, no longer hungry, Stella turned off the stove, blew out the candles on the kitchen table, and left the napkins and everything else to deal with later.
Walking back into her room, she sighed because she’d ruined it.
When she flicked off the candles, she wanted to call Jen, but she didn’t want to ruin her friend’s date, so she decided to start a bath, added some bubbles to it, went back out to the kitchen, and popped the cork on the bottle of wine that Violet had brought.
She poured herself a glass and, a few minutes later, slipped under the bubbles and into the water.
Stella knew that Violet felt something for her.
They no longer hated each other, sure, but it was more than that.
Still, Violet couldn’t admit it, and Stella wasn’t in the business of convincing women to go out with her, so instead of doing that, she soaked in her tub, dried off when she was finished, and walked back out to the kitchen to grab a snack.
Deciding on Davy’s ice cream, she carried the tub to her bedroom with a spoon and heard her phone ping.
She hoped it was Violet, apologizing or maybe asking to talk, but it wasn’t. It was Jen.
“Hey. Your date’s over already? It’s only nine o’clock,” Stella said after she dialed Jen instead of texting her back.
“It’s not over yet. She’s in the bathroom. The dinner was amazing, though, and we’re about to go to a late movie. She’s crazy hot, and I’m thinking about making out with her during the movie and asking her to go back to my place. I need you to tell me not to.”
Stella laughed a little and asked, “Why?”
“Because it’s a first date and I want another one. I don’t want to put out right away.”
“Okay. So, don’t.”
“Right. Okay. But she’s really hot, super funny, and–”
“Jen?”
“What?”
“How about if you want to have sex with the woman and she wants it, too, you do that. If you think you should wait, you wait. Okay? Don’t worry about it being a first date.”
“Yeah. I guess. Hey, real quick, before she gets back: I texted because I thought you said Violet would be there at nine. Is she running late or something?”
“Um… Yeah. She’s on her way now.”
“Okay. Well, have fun and pray that I have some fun, too.”
“Yeah, I will,” she replied.