Gravity

Energy

Juliana arrived promptly to work the following day in the hopes of seeing Valentina and clearing the air between them. They had parted suddenly due to Guille's interruption, and it didn't sit right with Juliana. She wanted to talk to the blue-eyed girl, to get some clarification on what was going on between them.

She hadn't been able to get the kiss out of her head. It kept replaying through her head, continuous like a needle scratching across a vinyl record on an old turntable. But instead of lifting the needle when the song ended, it kept spinning and spinning, looping around in Juliana's mind. She felt dizzy each time she remembered the press of soft lips against her own. She could still feel Valentina's soft skin beneath her lips and under her fingers. She could still smell the strong perfume radiating off Valentina's collarbone as she bit into the tantalizing flesh. She could still hear the small moans and gasps spilling from Valentina's lips as she pushed against her. Her mind was swimming with images of Valentina, hair disheveled and chest heaving. But the thing she remembered the most was Valentina's downtrodden expression as she left that night.

The last thing she wanted was to offend the girl, or give her the wrong impression. She wasn't afraid of her feelings, now that she'd let herself feel what her body had been telling her for weeks. What she was afraid of was mixing business with pleasure. She didn't want to overstep any professional boundaries while pursuing whatever this was with Valentina. There was a fine line here, and Juliana had to walk it perfectly. There were no room for mistakes in this scenario, no tripping off the tightrope and surviving the fall. The consequences didn't bear thinking about.

The day passed slowly, excruciatingly slowly, as Valentina failed to appear for her regular greeting of Juliana in the garage at midday. Instead, Juliana found herself driving Guille to a meeting, and Lucia to a dinner with her girlfriends, whilst running different errands in between. The blue-eyed girl was no-where to be seen.

To Juliana's disappointment, midnight arrived without Valentina's presence in her day. There was an emptiness to her, a sinking feeling in her gut, as she packed up that night. She stood in the small office with her phone in hand, Valentina's name lit up on her screen, an empty text box open. She wrote and deleted 10 different messages before giving up with a huff and throwing her phone in her bag. She stomped out of the office and down towards the gate, a lump forming in her throat. She had no idea where it came from, but she could feel the tears start to burn in her eyes. She clenched her jaw and held on tighter to her backpack as she approached the gate, willing herself to hold it together until she got to her car.

"I'm off, Javier. I'll see you tomorrow." Juliana said as she walked straight through the office, avoiding eye contact.

"Okay, Juliana. Have a good night." Javier finished just as Juliana closed the office door.

She stood still for a moment and took in a deep breath. She was on the other side of the wall now, her car parked further down the street in the space allocated for the workers vehicles. As soon as she got a handle on her rising emotions, she walked slowly towards her car, her feet kicking any rock that got in her way.

She dug in the front pocket of her backpack for her keys as she approached her car. Her fingers couldn't locate the item, and she could feel her frustration mounting. It had not been a good day.

"For fucks sake." She muttered through clenched teeth as she searched her bag with more aggression than was required.

"Are you okay?"

Juliana stopped her rummaging and whipped her head up towards the familiar sound.

Valentina was standing on the other side of her car, her head tilted to the side, watching her inquisitively.