Hunger in my Heart

Chapter 20

Cheryl lay in her bed in the dark wracked by indecision, Kimberley had said she would come and sleep with her, but then they had parted ways at the top of the stairs and Kimberley had gone to her own room down the hall. That was almost twenty minutes ago and now she was worried that Kimberley had changed her mind and didn't want to come in to sleep with her. Now she was trying to decide if she should go down to Kimberley's room, but she should probably respect Kimberley's privacy she thought. Cheryl almost felt like crying, she had missed Kimberley terribly this past week, having become very quickly accustomed to having her in her bed every night, and to make matters worse, she had to go to LA for a month where she wouldn't see her at all. It was surely a little pathetic she thought.

Flinging the covers back, she had just decided to go get Kimberley, but paused with one leg out of the bed when she heard the door to her room open. Watching Kimberley slip into the room in the dark and quietly shut the door behind her, she realized that Kimberley must have taken a shower as the smell of freshly shampooed hair wafted towards her.

"I was starting to get worried," Cheryl told her quietly.

Kimberley started a little at Cheryl's voice, she had hoped that Cheryl would be asleep by the time she came to bed. She had taken an extra long shower, with an accompanying blast of cold water to wash the memories from Athens out of her head enough so she would actually be able to come in here and sleep with Cheryl.

"Worried, why? Kimberley questioned as she moved around to her side of the bed and pulled back the duvet. Oh god, she thought, we actually do have sides. When had that happened?

"Worried that you had changed your mind about coming to bed with us," Cheryl told her as she turned over to watch her as she climbed into bed and fluffed the pillows behind her and pulled the duvet up to her chin.

"No, I didn't change my mind Chez," Kimberley assured her settling more comfortably in the big bed and staring at the ceiling, she really hoped that Cheryl didn't want to cuddle tonight.

Cheryl noted that Kimberley stayed on her back staring up at the ceiling, she only really lay like that in bed if she was thinking or they were talking, she rarely actually slept like that, typically she slept on her side or her stomach. It made Cheryl aware that Kimberley had a whole lot on her mind still. It was probably not unusual given that she had just broken up a long-term relationship, Cheryl figured. But sometimes she hoped that Kimberley was thinking about her, was as conflicted about what to do about their relationship as her.

Tucking her arm under her head and bunching the pillow up so she could see her friend better, she lay there and just looked at Kimberley's profile for a minute, she was an extraordinarily beautiful women Cheryl thought absently, sometimes when Kimberley would look at her a certain way or smile at her she would literally lose all her breath and her mind would go completely blank. Tonight though it appeared that Kimberley had no interest in looking at her, or indeed even rolling over to sleep as she was still stubbornly staring at the ceiling apparently lost in thought. Reaching out a tentative hand she rested it lightly on Kimberley's upper arm and stroked the skin with her thumb a few times to get her attention. Kimberley turned her head to face her and the frown on her face relaxed into a gentle smile.

"Hmmmm?" Kimberley looked at her in question, apparently Cheryl wanted to talk.

"What's on your mind babe, you've been lost in thought all evening?" Cheryl asked quietly while absently running her hand up and down Kimberley's arm in gentle strokes, not even really aware of what she was doing.

Kimberley was trying really hard to ignore the warm hand on her arm and the way is was making her muscles twitch and all the hair on her arm to stand-up in reaction and turned back to her perusal of the ceiling, she couldn't look at Cheryl and ignore the sensations she was creating. This was not helping her state of mind she thought, which was still immersed in memories and sensations from one of the most erotic encounters in her life. Just remembering that time in Athens had perked up her already primed libido, but it had also sent her into another labyrinth of indecision and confusion. Back then she had been fairly confident that Cheryl had unresolved and unacknowledged gay tendencies. This had been evident in the way Cheryl had only wanted to explore the chemistry between them to 'get it out of her system' before she went and lived in her happy hetero world. As much as Kimberley had wanted Cheryl, she had refused to go there; once Cheryl had refused point blank any sort of relationship she had decided that she had no desire to be Cheryl's fuck-buddy, or worst, her experiment. That would likely not have ended well, she knew. So for her own self-preservation, as well as for the good of their friendship and their working relationship she had extracted that promise from Cheryl. A promise they had more or less been able to abide by for years, with only the occasional, though memorable she had to acknowledge, stumbles along the way.