Not that she and Sutton had aromance, she thought, echoing Autumn. She’d been wondering quite a bit this week—and perhaps for the last few weeks—if they truly ever had.
She’d never taken Sutton out on real dates, back when they’d been acquainted. Notreally. She’d never picked Sutton up and surprised her with an outing just to see the delighted smile she knew Sutton would have worn. She’d never taken Sutton out to a club and danced with her so closely it would have bordered on indecent. She’d never taken Sutton out to dinner and held her hand at the table. She hadn’t even done that when they’d eaten their many meals at her apartment. It hadn’t been part of their agreement. Therules.
In fairness, Charlotte had never done any of those things with any woman.
But she’d certainly never done them with the only woman she’d ever wanted to do them with.
She wondered if that was where she should start. She didn’t have the firstcluehow to start a true romance with Sutton, but she thought she could figure it out. She was intelligent and resourceful.
And Sutton loved romance. Charlotte didn’t care what else might have changed in her life, Sutton Spencer adored romance. She wanted to be swept off of her feet. She was certain that instinct couldn’t have disappeared.
Not only that, but shedeservedit.
She hadn’t seemed particularly receptive to romance on Monday, though, after cutting their kiss off and kicking Charlotte out, but maybe it was because Sutton hadn’t been romanced yet.
Charlotte reached for her phone and had unlocked it—Was Googlinghow to romance a womanat age forty after being a lifelong lesbian ridiculous? She felt like it was—when the door to her office opened again.
“Autumn, truly, I’m not interested in your sex li?—”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
That was decidedly not Autumn.
Charlotte froze before quickly turning in her chair to look up in surprise. “Sutton.”
Like anidiot, it was all she could say.
Sutton was here, in her office. Her hair was clipped up, she was wearing her glasses, and her hands were on her hips. She wore form-fitting jeans and a blazer, and… Charlotte could only smile at her from her seat. She’d never seen Sutton looking so casually professional. Back then, it had been very preppy outfits, and Charlotte had loved them.
This was like the amplified version.
She realized Sutton was still looking at her, waiting for a response, so she tilted her head up at her. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t just… do things like that.” Sutton’s voice was strong and sure, and Charlotte enjoyed it despite having no idea what she was referring to.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t got a clue what you’re referring to. You’ve barged intomyoffice,” she pointed out.
She enjoyed the way Sutton seemed to pause at that, her eyebrows drawing down as she faltered for a moment as if only realizing now in this moment that she had, indeed, barged into Charlotte’s office.
It made her just a bit flustered as she wrapped her arms around her waist.
“I mean. You can’t just send hundred-dollar ‘get well’ baskets to my house, both the one from last nightandthis morning.”
Charlotte’s eyebrows furrowed as confusion rolled through her. “Did Lucy not enjoy them?”
She’d deliberated over them, picking the items for the food gift basket the night before to please both Sutton, with soup and vegetables and healthy juices, and Lucy, with a cupcake and a few cookies and some candies. This morning, she’d done the same with a different basket, one with tissues and Tylenol (both children’s and adult) and VapoRub as well as a soft blanket and a cute stuffed animal from a popular franchise that was apparently very hard to find as well as new knee-pads, as Lucy had enthusiastically discussed how hers were scratched so much from learning how to skateboard.
Charlotte hadassumedLucy would enjoy it all; honestly, she was out of her depth with children, but Sutton’s daughter had seemed relatively straightforward and adorable on Monday evening, enough that she’d felt comfortable with sending the gifts and certain they’d go over well.
Sutton tossed her hands in the air. “Of course she liked them! She’s six! And you sent sweets and toys! She’s enamored with you now. But youcan’tdo that. Would you do that for any other colleague who has a child with a cold?” Sutton challenged.
“I wouldn’t…notdo it for a colleague I enjoyed who had a sick child,” Charlotte hedged around the truth they both clearly were aware of.
“Charlotte.” Sutton’s voice sounded almost pained, certainly exasperated, and tinged with so many shades ofsomethingCharlotte couldn’t identify, just in one word. Just in the way she said her name. “Please, it’s too much. And I don’t know what you’re getting at because we—we kissed, and then things got… they’ve been…”
“Ah, so you will admit it.” Charlotte leaned back in her chair, linking her fingers as they rested against her stomach, and watched Sutton’s pacing suddenly stop.
“Admit what?”
