First Times

The first time Lisa asked her out

The first time Lisa asked her out, Jennie said yes before she could finish the question. Lisa ran a victory lap around the room. And missed the chair when she tried to sit down again.
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A few weeks later and she realized she had spoken too soon.

Screw the person that invented yoga pants. Whoever it was, they sucked. Sucked. Sucked. Jennie should never wear anything but sweatpants. Baggy sweatpants. With long johns underneath. And thermal snow pants on top.

The first week she'd been too distracted by Jennie's eyes and Jennie's smile and Jennie's laugh. But by the third week she was acutely aware of their surroundings. She thought the lanky café worker checking Jennie out was a one time occurrence.

She was wrong.

The loud boisterous teenage boys gawked. The old sweat drenched men leered. Even the occasional gossiping housewife would look her up and down.

Every time, Lisa had a barely controllable urge to cover Jennie up with a tablecloth.

She knew she had no right to be thinking any of this. She and Jennie were barely friends. Sure, Jennie laughed at her jokes and listened to her stories. Sure, Jennie seemed to really hate going into her apartment after Lisa walked her home. But that didn't mean anything did it?

What made it worse was that Jennie didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, Jennie seemed to be enjoying it. Every week she jogged up to Lisa in shorts so short she had to channel every ounce of her willpower into maintaining eye contact.

And every week Jennie found some reason to lean over the table towards Lisa. Or accidentally drop her keys in front of Lisa and bend over to pick them up. Or sway her hips as she walked across the café floor to the bathroom.

She wasn't sure what she hated more: that all these creepy guys were staring or that she couldn't stop herself from staring either.

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One week, when Lisa was fed up with a group of guys elbowing each other and eyeing Jennie like she was a private show, she suggested they head back to Jennie's place so she could shower and change before coming back to the café.

Lisa figured that since Jennie was probably tired after her run, a relaxing shower would be enough to convince her to head home first, and then she'd naturally put something more comfortable on. It was so logical, Lisa thought, Jennie would definitely agree with her.

"How's the taste? I didn't know fruit that pink existed," Lisa pointed to the terrifyingly pink beverage in Jennie's hand. She had just taken a big gulp, so instead of responding Jennie gave her a thumbs up and a happy nod.

"Listen, I was wondering if we could head over to your place, and maybe you could jump in the shower and-"

Jennie's eyes bulged and she choked so hard on her drink that her eyes started to water. Lisa leapt out of her seat and rushed to her side, kneeling beside her and worriedly rubbing her back.

Once Jennie had recovered sufficiently she stared down at Lisa, still crouched beside her, with wide eyes. "You...you wanna...you wanna come over and watch me shower?"

"Oh God, no! That's not what I meant! No no no no!" Lisa fell over in her haste to back track. The last thing she wanted was for Jennie to think she was some sort of predatory voyeur.

But for some reason unbeknownst to her, Lisa's insistent denial seemed to have the opposite effect she wanted; Jennie actually seemed to deflate a little. Lisa spent the rest of the day wondering why.