Chapter 10 #3
“I was being honest!” Darcy insisted.
Juliet scowled at the utter ridiculousness. “Please. Darcy, if you want to have sex with just about any straight man on the planet, you could. And you could have had that even before everyone knew your name.”
“But I don’t – it’s not, ugh,” Darcy groaned, clearly agitated.
She leaned forward, setting her wine glass on the table with a sharp snap.
“It’s not about just having sex. It’s more complicated, now, because everyone knows me.
It’s like – I don’t want…” She rolled her lips as she stared across the studio into the now-empty booths they’d been in earlier, obviously searching for the words she wanted.
And Juliet wanted her to find them. Juliet, actually, was riveted to the spot. She wasn’t sure she could take her eyes off of Darcy right now even if the fire alarm sounded right above them.
That thrumming inside of her that hadn’t turned off all day was dialed in.
“Yes, I want to have sex. But even more than that, it’s what I want during sex.” Darcy turned to look at her again, her eyes glinting at Juliet in the dimly lit studio.
“I am all ears.” She’d intended for her words to sound a little glib, like she wasn’t as interested as she was, but they rasped out of the back of her throat like an invitation. “I could, probably, even advise you.”
“Yeah, right,” Darcy muttered, rolling her eyes.
Offense slid through her, and she leaned in closer as she challenged, “For all of the many suppositions and comments you’ve made about me over the last couple of months, Darcy, might I remind you: you don’t actually know me.”
Darcy narrowed her eyes. “Fine. Country Sweetheart Juliet Jacobs, tell me: where can I go to just shut off my mind? I want to turn everything else off except for fucking. Who do I go to, hmm? Who is going to take the control over from me and tell me what they want, and all I have to think about is fulfilling that want? You know where to find that?”
The only reason Juliet even knew she was still breathing was because she could hear how ragged her own exhales had become. Her grip on her own glass was so right, she was afraid she might shatter it in her hand.
Irrationally, she was livid at Darcy all over again. Yes, Juliet had asked for it, but how the fuck was she supposed to know what Darcy was going to say?
“Look in a mirror, Darcy. I’m sure you wouldn’t have any trouble finding a man to let you… service him.” Her stomach was tied in knots as she slipped in her final comment, wondering if she’d put her finger correctly on what Darcy had been telling her.
Darcy froze, sucking in a deep breath as she swiftly turned away from Juliet.
Satisfaction and arousal twisted together inside of her, interchangeably, and she felt herself pulse.
Darcy, apparently, was a way to test all of her sanity. In every way, apparently.
“Honey, look in the mirror and admit you love living in a man’s world,” Darcy sang softly, her voice so low Juliet almost didn’t hear her over how loud her blood was rushing through her ears.
“Why are you singing that?” She barely stopped herself from leaning forward, refusing to put herself closer to Darcy in this moment.
“You love telling me to look at myself in the mirror. Do you realize that?” Darcy asked, turning just enough to look at Juliet over her shoulder.
Juliet felt her heart stutter in her chest. What was she going to do, tell Darcy she was obsessed with how she looked?
“What’s your point?” She asked, proud of herself for managing to sound basically normal, as she was trying to find her equilibrium.
“My point is that comment drives me insane,” Darcy stated, narrowing her eyes at Juliet before she turned away from her, a dry, humorless laugh forced from her mouth. “Because you couldn’t be more wrong; I’m not looking for men’s attention.”
Juliet was regretting her half a glass of wine. She felt sober, but surely she wasn’t. Because it sounded like Darcy was saying –
“You said in your song that I call myself a girl’s girl – and yeah. I am. Like. I really am.”
She wasn’t even aware of how her hand jerked so sharply that the remainder of her wine sloshed over the rim of her glass and fell onto her shirt until she felt it seep through and onto her skin.
Glancing down at it, she felt dumbstruck.
It was as though she could feel a record scratching to a stop in her mind. The world slowed. And everything she’d ever thought or felt in relation to Darcy was being slightly altered. Rended and knitted back together in a slightly different pattern.
Juliet snapped her eyes back to Darcy, not even feeling the wine seeping through her shirt anymore. All of her attention was focused on something far bigger. Far more worthy of her energy and focus.
“Are you telling me you’re a lesbian?” Her question started out a little breathless, but the word lesbian fell from her lips forcefully, like it was ripped from somewhere deep inside. Because it was.
As soon as she said it, though, Darcy seemed to snap back into reality from wherever she’d gone to in her mind. Whatever place she’d zoned out to when correcting Juliet about her lyrics. Her eyes were a little glassy from the wine, and they widened, obvious panic lighting up.
She stood up quickly, like she couldn’t force herself to sit still – to sit here, with Juliet, with her confession.
“Fuck. I, um…” Darcy floundered, before dropping her eyes to Juliet’s chest. “I’m going to get you a hand towel from the bathroom.”
Before Juliet could utter another word, she was gone.
Juliet stared at the door Darcy had disappeared through, blinking several times as this new reality completely reshaped her world.
As the truth settled through her veins thick as honey, her lips ticked up into a slow smile.
So, Darcy was a lesbian. And that quite literally changed everything.