Chapter 34 #2
“Would you like to take a shower with me?” She slipped the fleece material off Frankie’s shoulders and skirted her fingers over bare skin, trailing them down Frankie’s arms as she pressed up onto her tip toes to whisper in Frankie’s ear.
“I have a very good detachable shower head that works wonders on achy muscles…and other tender areas.”
Frankie turned into Jules’ touch, seeking out her lips. “How could I possibly refuse an offer like that?”
Jules awoke to the sound of Frankie’s soft breathing at around three am and couldn’t fall back to sleep.
She squinted at the clock in her bedside table then rolled onto her side and stared at Frankie’s silhouetted frame, watching the way her chest rose and fell with every inhale and exhale.
It was surreal when she really gave it some thought, the fact that six months ago the woman sharing her bed was a stranger.
She didn’t know what to expect when she and Cam made the move to Halifax and never even planned on putting any effort into dating.
Dating had always been a failure, had only left her heartbroken and insecure.
She definitely didn’t expect anything to come from a chance meeting with a woman at the gym who was far too cool and way out of Jules’ league, but now here they were.
Now Frankie Stevens was asleep beside Jules, and Jules loved her. How amazing was that? How lucky was she?
“Babe,” Frankie mumbled sleepily, rolling over and pressing herself against Jules. She slid a hand over Jules’ hip and nuzzled her face against her shoulder. “You're awake.”
Jules smiled to herself and pressed her lips to Frankie’s forehead. “Shh, go back to sleep.”
“Hmm?” Frankie lifted her head then pushed herself up onto her forearm. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m okay.”
A moment later, Frankie turned on the lamp next to the bed and the darkness in the room was replaced by soft light.
She sat up against the headboard and Jules suddenly wished she'd kept her eyes closed, had pretended to be asleep despite the thoughts circling in her head, had been able to quell the desire she felt to be more with Frankie until daylight because now was not the right time to have this conversation and yet…
“Jules, talk to me.”
“It’s fine.” Jules waved her off. “Really. Let's go back to sleep.”
Frankie stroked her cheek and tucked some hair behind her ear. “I was asleep, you weren’t.”
”It’s silly.” Jules looked down, unable to hold Frankie’s concerned gaze.
“I just got to thinking about how we met, how far we’ve come since then.
I don’t know, it just made me emotional or something.
” She forced back a laugh as her vision blurred.
A tear managed to slip out before she could keep it from happening and Frankie quickly wiped it away.
“Hey, no tears.” Frankie scooted closer and cupped Jules’ face in her hands. “We’re going to be okay. We’ll make it work, we’ll figure everything out with work and your brother and —”
“Am I your girlfriend?”
The question hung in the air between them and Frankie smirked.
“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
“Frankie…”
”Jules.”
“I’m being serious.”
Yeah, so maybe they'd skipped a few steps and maybe it was obvious to Frankie but Jules wanted to define it, she wanted to have the conversation where it was decided that they wouldn’t see other people, though they were both beyond that now anyway.
She didn’t want to be anyone else’s, she wanted to be Frankie’s, and maybe that made her a sap too caught up in what society said relationships needed to be but she didn’t care.
She’d questioned a lot of things in her life – from why out of every car on the highway that day was it their parents car that had been hit, why there was such little family left to care for her and her brother, why the world felt like it was closing in on her in those early years and why sometimes it still felt that way now.
But Frankie, the woman she'd fallen in love with, she had never been a question. She was the answer.
“I guess we kind of skipped over that conversation, didn’t we?” Frankie smiled and took Jules’s hand in her own, gently caressing the back of her knuckles with a featherlight touch that made Jules shiver.
“A lot happened pretty fast, so…”
“Mhmm, that’s true.”
Jules nodded, looking down at their hands and then Frankie scrambled over her and stood beside the bed.
“Come on. Get up.”
“No, Frankie…it’s, it’s fine. Really.”
“Jules,” Frankie pleaded. “Please.”
She gave in, heaving a sigh, and slid off of her bed to join Frankie beside it.
“Will you, Juliette Clarke, be my girlfriend?”
It was absurd, it really was. It was three o’clock in the morning and they were dressed in boxers and tank tops, their hair messy, the room lit by one small lamp, but somehow in the hushed quiet of the early hours it felt more intimate than any moment between them had.
Frankie took her hand and pulled her close so their bodies were flush. Her green eyes softened and she smiled so wide it made Jules’ own cheeks hurt.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” Frankie repeated, her voice light and sweet. She dipped her head, coming close enough to kiss Jules but stopping just before their lips touched. “Say yes.”
It was the best question anyone had ever asked her and Jules smiled, knowing there was only one right answer.
“Frankie Stevens,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around Frankie’s neck. “I thought you’d never ask.”