ꨄThe Debutanteꨄ

39.

TW: Talks about s*xual force and r*pe like scenarios. Do not read if the topic is triggering for you, it is understandable.

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Road Trip: Day 6

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Anika slowly opened her eyes, looking around the silence-filled van. She noticed that she still hadn't received any sign of Cookie. She planned to stay parked in the same spot to wait for her to come back, but she hasn't.

The van has been sitting in that spot for hours. By now, they were supposed to be in Boston. To be seeing more and spending more time together. But that isn't the case.

Anika has been waiting for Cookie to come back since yesterday. On their fourth day here, they had their argument. Now, it's the sixth, and Anika had no idea where Cookie was. Her phone was left in the van, getting occasional texts from employees at Empire, a few calls from the same, and a few emails.

Even though Anika didn't want to stray away from the spot, she had to go somewhere to shower and eat yesterday. She headed to a gym not far from the current location, taking a rather uncomfortable shower in a place she didn't know how many people had been in. It wasn't her taste at all, and rather dirty in her own opinion.

She later went to a diner to get something to go, and she parked right back in the same spot they spent the night in. Anika constantly replayed the scenario through her head. That night, the moments they spent together.

Anika kissing her skin, hearing her hearty laugh make her soul happy. Her soft lips and her smooth skin. Anika exhaled, wishing she was back to that same moment with her. But when she thinks about how it became ruined so quickly, she was disappointed with herself.

One mistake was all it took. Going too far, touching too much. She thought back to what Cookie said to her.

"Look me in the face, and tell me you didn't bring me out here for that!"

She didn't. Although she wishes that she could say that at that given time. It was just too heated. So much that she wanted to say at once. But it probably wouldn't have mattered, since Cookie had already mentioned that she didn't feel the same about Anika as she did about her. Anika felt that she probably shouldn't have confessed that she possibly liked her on a deeper level.

But how could she not? Cookie was everything that Anika liked in a woman, despite her past. She was determined, she had a sense of humor, protective and at times and even a little shy as much as she was assertive. It was hard for Anika to remember that she was new. That she was inexperienced. She swore that she would let Cookie come to her whenever she was ready instead of the other way around. But sometimes she got confused.

Sometimes she didn't know when was the right time, and she didn't want to ruin it by asking. She didn't want to make Cookie uncomfortable. Sometimes Anika had a hard time keeping her boundaries. She was so used to other women being comfortable with this. She had never been with someone inexperienced before. This was just as new to Cookie as it was to Anika.

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A few more hours had gone by this morning. It was warmer out, now. Spring was starting to approach quickly. The small remains of snow melting at a quick rate. The sun beaming, making it seem as if there was hope possible.

Anika had gone back to the local gym for another shower in their awful showers filled with hair and lime. She headed back to the same diner, ordering two breakfast meals instead of one.

Once returning to the van, she noticed that Cookies phone was ringing. Usually, she didn't pay attention to who it was. She didn't have issues with trusting Cookie, the woman's fear was obvious when it came to Anika. Nobody would go through all this just to go with someone else.