Chapter 6 #3
Now it’s Riley’s time to be shocked. She doesn’t choke, but her jaw stops moving mid-chew. Raising a questioning eyebrow first, she says: “Please elaborate,” and resumes chewing.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and…” Charlotte sighs. “The way you go about it, me, the whole thing, the way you’re so effortlessly good at prying life changing confessions out of me… I can’t help but think it’s all a game to you. I can’t be the first, nor the last. It feels that way.”
As Charlotte lays out her fears, she hopes she at least sounds apologetic about it.
They approach a set of stairs, and Riley chivalrously motions for Charlotte to go first. As she walks past her, Charlotte can tell Riley is trying to process her words without getting offended.
“The other women I turned into lesbians?” Riley finally breathes out, slowly enunciating the words as she follows Charlotte up the steps. “Do you hear what that sounds like?”
Charlotte reaches the top and turns around, crossing her arms and raising a challenging eyebrow. “Am I wrong?”
Please, her mind screams. Please tell me I’m wrong.
Riley walks up the final few steps too, slightly panting.
“First of all: nobody is turning anybody into a lesbian. If I hear you use that phrase one more time, you will be finding yourself somewhere on the bottom of the lake.” Charlotte is about to call her bluff, when Riley continues: “If you feel like a lesbian, that’s all you, honey.
At most, I suggested the possibility of taking the blinders off.
But what you saw when you decided to do so, that’s always been you. ”
Turning away to continue their walk, Charlotte realizes that there’s really no point in arguing with someone who, apparently, has done so much work on their mental health. Also: a doctorate in psychology is just a ridiculously unfair advantage.
She decides to rigorously change her approach to uncover Riley’s possible debatable intentions.
“I don’t know, Riley. If you want to keep convincing yourself that it has nothing to do with you, maybe you shouldn’t have been so damn good at kissing.”
Charlotte watches the tips of Riley’s ears turn pink from the corner of her eye. Score.
But Riley is still quick on her feet. “If it only took a single kiss for you to realize that you want more, you’ve either been stupidly ignorant or completely blind.
Besides, that’s the second compliment you’ve given me in three minutes.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re trying to woo me. ”
For the lack of a better comeback, Charlotte mocks in a high voice: “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re trying to woo me.” She finishes with a deliberate eye roll. There. Solid argument if she’s ever heard one.
“Secondly,” Riley says pointedly, steering the conversation back to Charlotte’s initial question. “I don’t aspire to be a gateway lesbian, so I don’t usually date baby gays. And I definitely don’t flirt with straight women.”
“But you flirted with me!” Charlotte calls out, immediately regretting it. She watches Riley suck in her cheeks.
“Exactly.”
Eager to change the topic as quickly as possible, Charlotte asks: “So, baby gays? What does that mean exactly?”
Riley’s jaw drops as she stops walking, and she looks at Charlotte like she’s a present on Christmas morning. “Oh my god. Oh my god!”
“What?!”
“I get to teach you the lesbian vocabulary?” she screeches, clasping her hands together. Charlotte waves a dismissive hand. “Please. Please? You’re gonna need it!”
She considers it, because this is the kind of stuff she wanted to reach out about anyway.
“Only if I get to ask questions,” she finally says.
Their sandwiches now finished, they’ve reached the far end of the lake where a pile of rocks connects the pathway to the shore. Riley leaps onto one of the rocks and keeps climbing down, all the way to the water.
“Sure. Ask away,” she says as she turns around to look at Charlotte. She beckons her with a friendly smile.
Charlotte scrunches her nose at the idea of climbing down the rocks with her heeled boots on.
But, not wanting to look like a coward—or worse, boring—she starts descending anyway.
“Just so you know, that includes personal questions,” she emphasizes, almost slipping but catching herself.
Riley reaches out when they’re close enough, and reels her onto the same rock she’s standing on.
“I expect nothing less,” she says encouragingly. She points to a flat rock behind Charlotte. “Let’s sit.”
Riley sits down on a rock across from her, tucking her right foot in under her body. An amused smile appears around her lips as she watches Charlotte try to hide her discomfort upon sitting down on the damp, mossed surface.
Charlotte decides to start on the offense. “Alright.” She slaps her thighs with both hands. “One. How do you know the difference between wanting to be friends with a woman, or wanting to date them? Isn’t that confusing?”
The sound of Riley’s laughter as she shakes her head rings through her body until her brain melts. “Okay, so you really won’t be going easy on me. Fair,” she chuckles.
Charlotte manages to hide a proud glare and wiggles her shoulders.
“How often do you want to rail your friends?” Riley suggests helpfully. Charlotte scoffs and counters: “I can have sex with someone without wanting to date them.”
“True, true,” Riley says, placing her arms behind her and leaning back. “But then there’s a little thing called romance. For me, at least, it’s the thing that differentiates my friends from the people I fall in love with.”
Charlotte licks her lips, imagining Riley on a bed covered in rose petals, fairy lights around the room, and soft sultry music. It doesn’t feel right at all.
“Then what does romance feel like to you?” she asks, more genuine this time.
Riley stares at her for a few seconds before letting out a breathless laugh. “Damn, Charlie. Don’t spare a girl.”
“Name’s Charlotte.”
“My bad,” Riley says solemnly, closing her eyes and placing a hand over her heart. “If I grovel, would you ever forgive me?”
Charlotte’s lips curl up into a challenging smirk. “Don’t change the topic. Is the question too personal?”
“Not at all, just gimme a minute,” Riley replies before tilting her head back and inhaling deeply. Charlotte watches her think, but can’t help admiring her jaw line from this angle. Her eyes follow it down to her neck, which looks so very, very accessible…
“Okay, I think I’ve got an answer,” Riley says, tearing Charlotte away from her thoughts.
“For me, romance can be found in a lot of things. Sharing love languages, you know; quality time, physical touch, acts of service, those kinds of things. Just making an effort to let the other person know that they’re high on your priority list. But what it’s really about…
” She shifts her body on the rock, sucking in the corner of her bottom lip, and continues.
“Okay, consider this. When you’re about to have sex with someone, there’s been some buildup and both of you are excited to get into it, it’s pretty normal to take each other’s clothes off, right? ”
Charlotte nods, curious to know where this is going.
“This may sound stupid, but… I think it’s weird that, once the sex is over, everyone always puts their own clothes back on. What if you help each other get dressed afterwards?
“It’s like saying: ‘yes, I want to honor our physical connection by having sex with you and that’s why I’m taking your clothes off, but also, once we’re finished, I'm able to acknowledge that it’s been enough and I still like you if we keep going about our day with our clothes back on.
’ Judge me for this weird fucking answer, okay, but that feels like romance to me. That feels like… romantic love.”
Riley’s cheeks have visibly started heating up and Charlotte has never seen her this shy before. She even seems to be avoiding eye contact, which is rare for her. The moment lasts, and Charlotte realizes her mouth is open when she feels a gust of cold air hit her teeth.
Yeah, maybe the answer is a little weird.
And yeah, even though it’s about sex, it’s not a sexy answer necessarily.
But shit, the image of undressing—and redressing—Riley in her mind is weaving itself into her very core until she gets so sensitive that the fabric of her own clothes against her skin is too much.
There’s a faint throb between her thighs that she immediately suppresses by squeezing them together, but it does nothing to stop the current infatuation from temporarily paralyzing her.
“Satisfied?” Riley eventually asks her. Charlotte’s eyes go wide in shock.
“Wh— what?”
“Are you satisfied with my answer?” she asks, and the considerate furrow of her brows convinces Charlotte to pull her head out of the gutter because that was clearly not what she was implying, until that look turns into a wicked smirk, and she finishes Charlotte off with a wink.
It hits her right between her legs and it takes an enormous amount of effort to not kick Riley in the hip to make her topple over into the water.
“More questions? It’s now or never,” Riley asks, like she hadn't just attempted to murder Charlotte.
“Now or never? Why, are you gonna pretend none of this happened?” Charlotte responds defensively.
“No darling, but I’m leaving for Switzerland on Monday. Remember?”
It hits her like a ton of bricks. She’d forgotten all about that.
“Oh. Yeah. Of course. So... how long will you be gone?” She tries to sound casual and fails miserably.
“Up until the wedding, probably. I think I’ll be flying from Zurich straight to Mexico, instead of flying home first.”
No, no, she isn’t done yet, she has more questions, more things to learn.
“So how are we supposed to continue planning the wedding together, if you’re on the other side of the world, huh?”
“Aren’t we perfectly capable of making phone calls? Texting? I’ll offer myself up to call the hotel if we need to discuss things with them in advance, so there really shouldn’t be an issue,” Riley replies. “Unless… this is not about the wedding, and you’re scared you’ll miss me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Charlotte scoffs, getting up from the rock. “Let’s go.”
“Ha. Got you!” Riley cheers, following her as she tries to find a path up.
“Complete and utter bullshit—”
“Listen up everyone! Charlie is gonna miss me!”
Charlotte scrambles to hike herself up, but her heel slips and catches in a crack between two rocks.
“It’s Charlotte!”
“Sorry, I keep calling you that in my head in hopes you have a cute nickname for me too. Charlotte’s gonna miss me!”
“If you don’t shut up right now—”
“Charlotte’s gonna miss me…” Riley sing-songs, repeating it twice loudly for good measure.
Charlotte spins around fast, swinging her arm in Riley’s direction to cover her mouth with her hand.
But with her heel still stuck in the rock, she throws herself off balance.
Not only does she hit Riley square in the jaw, but her entire weight lands against Riley’s center of gravity, effectively sending her flying into the water.
Riley lands flat on her ass, the shallow water reaching up to her hip bones. Charlotte lands next to her on all fours, submerging her legs, and her arms up to her elbows. The lake is absolutely freezing.
After a few seconds of complete silence, Riley howls: “What the fuck was that?!”
She turns her head to look at Charlotte, who sheepishly eyes her up from under her own armpit, and snorts loudly.
Charlotte startles herself with her snort, and so her hand flies up to her own face to stop herself from laughing, to stop it from happening again, but in the process she accidentally splashes a large amount of water in her own face.
It takes two more seconds for Riley to start reeling with laughter. Charlotte follows and within moments, they can barely hold themselves up.
“Don’t laugh at me!” Charlotte laughs, flicking a bit of water in Riley’s direction.
Riley sharply points at her. “Stop that. You really don’t want to provoke me,” she threatens. Charlotte raises an eyebrow and lifts her hand to splash water at Riley again, until she hears her say: “I’m serious. I’m dunking you,” and she decides not to test her own luck today.
Creating a cacophony of loud noises in discomfort, both of them get up. They take each other in, both woman positively chilled to the bone.
“I’m sorry,” Charlotte mumbles weakly.
“Yeah, I bet you are,” Riley replies, hoisting herself up on a rock and wringing out one of her pant legs. But when she looks back at Charlotte, she catches the amusement in her face.
Following Riley up the rocks, Charlotte says: “Told you I’d throw you in the lake.”
Riley laughs heartily. “You just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t forget you in Switzerland. Rest assured: mission accomplished.” She scurries all the way up to the pathway and turns around to help Charlotte up.
“I’m afraid you cut my lesson in lesbianism short though. We’ll freeze to death if we don’t go back.”
“Yeah…” Charlotte sighs “Well, do you happen to do private Zoom-sessions for absolute beginners?”
Riley blinks at her. “Actually, no,” she says.
Charlotte nods as she tries to hide the impact of the verbal hit. She avoids Riley’s gaze and silently calls herself stupid, stupid, stupid...
Riley steps forward, closing the space between them. When Charlotte looks in her large, brown, mischievously sparkling eyes, she sees it: an entire story that is yet to be written.
She registers a cold, wet hand on her jawline before she realizes what’s happening. Riley leans in a bit more, and when she talks, the hot breath on her face is a nice relief from the icy palm against her skin.
“But for you, Charlie, I’ll gladly make an exception.”
That stupid nickname has never sounded so sweet as a set of warm lips presses against her cheek. Charlotte closes her eyes. It’s not just a peck—there’s a promise in the intensity of the kiss. And just for this one moment, Charlotte lets herself feel, really feel, what that sensation does to her.
Her right knee buckles, and after they pull apart, they spend the rest of the walk back pretending Riley didn’t noticed that.