“You can call me whatever you want if I can go back to sleep. I’m exhausted.”
I wasn’t done yet though. “Just to be clear, if you’re my girlfriend, that means that we’re exclusive. You’re not going to date any other women. Or men. Well, any other people.”
This time she didn’t try to hide her sigh. “I’m not sure when you think I’ve got time to date these other fictional people, but I assure you that between work, keeping up with my friends, and spending time with you, I can’t possibly squeeze in someone else to date.”
“I need you to say it,” I said stubbornly.
“Christina Robbins, you and I are exclusively dating. This relationship is going somewhere, to be determined at a later date. I like you, you like me, and the sex is incredible.”
“Great,” I said happily.
“But I just want to be clear that if you ever drag me out of bed for a heart to heart conversation in the middle of the night again, I will stab you in the neck with my knitting needles.”
My lips twitched. “Understood.”
“Now will you come back to bed so I can wake up next to you and eat you out?”
“Sounds good.”
“Great.”
We finished our tea in silence, then rinsed out our cups and headed back to bed. I pulled Julia into my arms, her back to my front, and pressed a kiss on her cheek.
“I’m glad you’re my girlfriend now.”
“I had no idea you were going to be such a girl,” she mumbled.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Talking about your feelings, wanting reassurances and labels, I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“Talking about your feelings is healthy. You should try it sometime.”
The funny thing was, I was generally bad at that myself. For some reason I felt okay speaking freely with Julia, even though I could tell it made her uncomfortable. Obviously, she wasn’t in as deep as I was with her. Not yet.
“I’d rather try to get some sleep,” she grumbled.
As I held her close, listening to her breathing, I wondered what would happen next with us. I was glad that I’d insisted on us talking, and even though Julia seemed the tiniest bit annoyedabout it, I had the impression that she was also relieved. Like most people in new relationships, we were going to have to navigate the best way to communicate with each other. Tonight had felt like a test, and I was glad that we seemed to have passed the test.
Julia
“Idon’t know why I’m nervous,” I said, smoothing my hand over my perfectly smooth skirt for the third time in a minute.
We were going out tonight with Chris’s besties, an official unveiling of our relationship. I’d met April before at that ill-fated dinner date that my mother engineered on my last birthday, but so far I hadn’t met any of Chris’s other non-work friends.
This seemed like an important event. I wanted them to like me, which was weird because I never worried about people liking me.
“They’re going to love you,” Chris said, coming over to loop her arms over my shoulders.
“I know they’re important to you and I also know that sometimes I’m a little too much for some people.”
“Too much for who?” she asked.
“I think it’s whom,” I said inanely.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not too much. My friends have heard a lot of good things about you. Well, recently…”
“Wait, you talked to them about me before we were… dating?”
