"So this is my place," I said, pushing the door open to my condo and letting Chuu walk in first. She scooted her boots along the doormat to dry them off, then stepped over to the side and untied them. "Can I take your coat?"
"Sure," she said, unbuttoning her black wool coat and then turning around, allowing me to help slide it off her shoulders. I hung it up in the closet along with my own coat. I casually slipped out of my boots as well and the two of us moved together along the hardwood floors underneath as I showed her my condo.
Chuu looked so completely alluring to me. She wore thick black winterweight leggings with a grey pair of shorts over top of them and a dark blue long-sleeved henley shirt, loose and billowy like it was a size too big for her, all the buttons at the neckline unbuttoned and causing the neck to open up wide and show off a white ribbed tank top underneath. Her black plastic glasses still had a bit of fog on them from coming indoors, and she adroitly removed them from her face and wiped them off on her shirt in a totally cute, unabashed way.
When I was younger — hell, even when I was Chuu's age — I probably would have been snotty around a girl like her. Growing up I was popular, pretty, and outgoing and that lead to a bit of pretentiousness that followed me to college and into my adult working life. In fact, I know for certain that I had made fun of girls like Chuu before, to their faces even, for being different, liking different stuff, and acting kind of odd. At 25, I can definitely see how silly that all was. It especially got strange for me when I accepted that I was lesbian. I really got confused about who I was.
A lot of my old friends abandoned me when I came out. When that happened, I realized that they were never really my friends to begin with and I would have been a lot better off in my youth and upbringing had I hung around more people like Chuu. They always seemed to have it together. They never really cared what people thought of them, they just tried to be happy for themselves. All while us, the so-called "popular" kids, tried desperately to fit in, to be liked, and not cause too many waves among our peer group.
"Would you like some coffee?" I asked. "Espresso?"
"Tea would be nice," said Chuu. "This place is amazing, Yves."
Her summary of my condo made me feel a bit awkward. It was true that I lived in a pretty upscale place, one of the benefits of making a good wage and working in financial services. I knew I shouldn't be embarrassed by my success but I didn't want to make Chuu think I was trying to impress her, you know? I was just being me.
"Tea," I repeated. "Sure thing!" Waving Chuu along, we walked together through my modern-styled living room and into my kitchen. I put a small glass kettle on the burner, already filled with enough water for a couple mugs of tea, and turned on the heat
"I'll be so embarrassed for you to see my apartment," said Chuu. "It's a studio the size of your living room."
"Come on," I half-whined, looking away. "It's no big deal."
"This place is just beautiful," Chuu mused, stepping away from me and toward a floor to ceiling window in the dining area next to my kitchen. "The only way it could get better is if you had a computer battle station right over there," she said with a grin, pointing."Dual video cards, quad-core processor."
I laughed."Yeah, but then you'd ignore me," I said.
"No, I'm just playing around," said Chuu. "Half playing." She smirked with her correction.
Pulling the kettle off the burner, I filled our mugs and dropped a tea bag in each. Together we picked up the mugs and moved out of the kitchen and toward the living room, sitting down next to each other on the couch. I really just enjoyed being with Chuu. Being in her company. Being with her made me feel far less lonely, it took my mind totally off of work, and it made me feel like a human again.
