“Why didn’t you tell me that you were single?” Helena asked. “I thought we were friends more than just client and matchmaker, at least toward the end. You didn’t ask me out, Becky.”
“I got scared. You are…” She motioned to Helena. “I mean, look at you. You’re gorgeous and successful. You’re kind, funny, and so smart; I could barely keep up with you sometimes. I was going to ask you out at drinks, but I didn’t, and then, we stopped hanging out, and I tried to move on to no avail. Last night, all I could think about was the fact that someone else was touching you, and I have no right to think that. You’re not mine. We’re not together. We were, at best, friends, but it still hurt, even though Nia reminded me that even if youwerewith Jennifer, it could just be sex and nothing more.”
“It was.”
“Oh.” Becky looked down at her hands because Helena had just confirmed what she’d been hoping hadn’t happened. “Right.”
“Did you not–”
Becky shook her head, interrupting Helena’s sentence.
“I spent most of last night talking about you to poor Carrie, who got stuck with me. Then, I found Nia, who told me that there was a reason for it all or something like that, and I went back to Carrie to apologize for my shitty behavior. We just talked. She’s very nice. Not my type, but nice. Jennifer isyourtype, I take it?”
“No,” Helena said.
Becky tilted her head, hoping Helena would continue.
“We both just… needed it. I talked to her about you, too. She was stressed out because of her stuff, and I was stressed out because I didn’t know you were single, and I thought you were in a room with Carrie, having sex. I–” Helena stopped and sighed. “It was tension-relieving sex, Becky. Biological. Fast. Overimmediately. Technical, even. No emotions to it or anything like that.”
“How did Nia know–” Becky shook her head rapidly. “Never mind. You can sleep with whoever you want, obviously. It’s why you’re here, right? The whole matchmaking with a twist thing, and that twist is sex. Her marketing slogan should be, ‘Matchmaking with a tryst.’”
She laughed, but it wasn’t genuine.
“I didn’t know that you were single until yesterday, and I thought you were with Carrie last night. Did you hear that part?”
“Yes.”
“When Jennifer and I were… doing that, she told me I could pictureyouthere. It was partly why I did it.”
“There?”
“Between my legs,” Helena said.
“Right,” Becky repeated.
“And I did,” Helena added and moved closer to her. “I wanted to go out with you, too, but you had a girlfriend. At least, Ithoughtyou did. Being friends with the woman you like and could maybe even fall for is really hard, and you had someone. So, last night, when Jennifer suggested that she go down on me and I picture you there under my dress, I did, and I wished it was true.”
“You wanted it to be me?”
Helena nodded and said, “I think about you all the time. I had a date the other night, a second one, and it wasn’t great, honestly.” She laughed a little. “I felt so detached from the whole thing, like it wasn’t even me out with her. And when it was over, I just… I wanted to call you and talk to you, but I didn’t think I could because I wanted more than friendship, and you had someone.”
“I don’t. I’ve wanted you since the first time you walked through my door, Helena,” she replied.
Helena moved into her space then, placing her hands on Becky’s shoulders, and Becky spread her legs to let her move between them. Her hands went to Helena’s hips on their own accord, and she couldn’t believe that this was happening.
“God, you’re here,” she said and looked up at her.
“Iam. And we’re both single.”
“I don’t just want this, though. You know that, right? I want more. I wantuswhen we go home, too, not just now. Not just sex.”
She rubbed up and down Helena’s sides.
“Can we start with sextonight,though?”
Becky smiled at her and asked, “You want to? Are you sure? We can wait. We can just talk tonight.”
“I wanted you last night, remember?”
