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The door opened, a chill slipping into the car as the interior light came on. “I’m just a few miles away,” Vanessa said as she put on her seatbelt. “But thank you for doing this. I’d prefer to be in my own bed tonight.”
“It’s no problem.” Heather wet her lips as she reversed out of the driveway and listened to Vanessa’s directions.
There was no small talk. Heather was too nervous to even think of something to say, and she knew she needed to focus on where she was going, every road, every turn new to her.
It was still hard for Heather to believe that yesterday morning, she’d been daydreaming about Vanessa on the journey here, something she did far too often for her own good.
How quickly things could change.
“This is me up ahead on the left,” Vanessa said, taking Heather away from her thoughts.
Heather pulled into the driveway, barely taking notice of Vanessa’s home, a porch light left on, casting a soft glow against the snow covered lawn.
Heather glanced over at the woman beside her, taking in her tousled dark hair and the way the light illuminated her striking profile. Heather wanted to reach out and brush her fingers against Vanessa’s cheek, to feel the softness of her skin under her fingertips. But she resisted, curling her hands tightly in her lap instead.
The faint scent of Vanessa’s perfume hung in the air between them, sending Heather right back to that night, to when her lips had kissed Vanessa’s neck, to when Vanessa’s fingers had dug into her skin as she shook against her, their legs tangled. The daydream left Heather’s skin tingling.
“Vanessa,” Heather said softly. Her heart skipped a beat as their eyes met, the other woman’s gaze unreadable and distant.
“Thanks for this,” Vanessa said, pushing the door open. “I guess, I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
Vanessa was out of the car before Heather even registered what was happening.
Heather turned off the car and got out, shoving the door closed as she strode after Vanessa. Heather’s breath evaporated into the freezing night air as she caught up to her, Vanessa’s keys already out as she reached her front door.
“Vanessa,” Heather pleaded, her breath ragged. “Can we talk? For just five minutes.”
The click of the door unlocking was almost as loud as Heather’s heart beating hard against her chest. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked, faint but carrying through the cold night air.
Vanessa looked like she was going to say something, but she shook her head ever so slightly as she turned the handle.
“That night we met,” Heather blurted out, “It meant something to me. You have to know that.”
Vanessa was very still, eyes downcast, and Heather wished she had thought of the right way to say this, but there probably wasn’t a right way. Pretending to be Megan’s girlfriend was insanely immature, and now she’d just have to hope that Vanessa would understand Megan’s motivations for asking Heather to do this.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” Vanessa confessed without moving, her voice so soft that Heather questioned if she was hearing things, if she was imagining Vanessa saying the words she so desperately wanted to hear. Slowly, Vanessa lifted her gaze, and Heather’s breath caught at the vulnerability she saw there. “But that doesn’t matter. You should go back.”
Vanessa started to open the door, and Heather’s hand wrapped around Vanessa’s wrist.
“Wait.” Heather waited for Vanessa’s eyes to meet hers. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this to you since last night, but we keep getting interrupted.” She exhaled. “I’m not dating Megan.” She searched Vanessa’s eyes, but her expression never wavered. “She asked me to pretend to be her girlfriend.”
“What?”
“When Megan was back here for Christmas and I guess, telling all of her family about me, her new friend that she’d just met at work, Anna assumed that I was Megan’s new girlfriend. I don’t know what happened. Maybe you were there, but Megan said she couldn’t go back on it, not without embarrassing herself, and now, for this ceremony, she thought it was just easier if I came along and pretended to her girlfriend.”
Heather took a deep breath. She’d rambled her way through that, but it was out there now. “I hit it off with Megan from my very first day at work, but there is nothing between us. Not a drunken grope or kiss or nothing. She’s my wingwoman. And it actually would have been really weird if she’d been with me that night that I met you… Although, if she had been, we would have gone to one of our usual bars, and then I wouldn’t have met you at all.”
Without warning, Vanessa’s free hand slid underneath Heather’s hair, her hand warm against the nape of Heather’s neck, guiding their lips together, and cutting off Heather’s stream of conscious rambling.
A gasp escaped Heather’s lips, and she barely registered the clatter of Vanessa’s keys falling to the floor as Vanessa’s other hand cupped her cheek, parting her lips against Heather’s with all of the pent of desire that Heather knew all about since she laid eyes on Vanessa again a little over twenty-four hours ago.
Heather recovered quickly, her hands on Vanessa’s waist as she kissed her back, trying to convey everything she felt for her, all of the time Heather had spent daydreaming about her, about this, about somehow being in Vanessa’s arms again.
Heather lifted her hand to run her fingers through Vanessa’s hair as she deepened the kiss, parting her lips, their tongues searching, and it was only when Vanessa pulled away that Heather realized she was trembling from the cold.
Vanessa bent to scoop up her keys and grabbed Heather’s hand as she stood up, tugging her inside and shutting the door behind them, pressing Heather back up against it. For a brief moment, their eyes locked, and a ripple of dread ran through Heather’s body at the idea that Vanessa had come to her senses and was about to tell her that this wasn’t happening.
But Vanessa’s hand was on her neck, her thumb lazily swiping Heather’s jawline, as she leaned in to brush her lips over Heather’s once again.
