ILLICIT AFFAIRS | WLW

All Of The Girls You Loved Before

Catherine Kingsley sat beside Blair Anderson on the leather sofa in her office, the quiet of the room thick with unspoken tension. Both women knew that this conversation was long overdue, that it would be the one to finally unravel all the hidden threads between them, yet neither of them was in any rush to start. The silence between them was awkward, yet there was also an unacknowledged comfort in simply being together, a familiar energy that crackled despite the discomfort of the moment.

Blair fidgeted with the coffee cup in her hands, her thoughts swirling in a chaotic mess. She had bought them both coffee, trying to steady her nerves, but now that they were here—alone, in this intimate setting—her heart was racing. She glanced sideways at Catherine, who was sitting quietly beside her, an unreadable expression on her face.

Catherine had always been good at that—keeping her emotions concealed behind a mask of cool indifference. It was one of the things that had drawn Blair to her in the first place, that aura of control and authority that seemed unshakable. But now, sitting so close to her, Blair could see the subtle signs of tension in the way Catherine's hands were clasped together, the slight tightness around her eyes. Even Catherine was feeling the weight of this moment.

Finally, Catherine broke the silence, her voice soft but steady. "Blair, you can ask me whatever you want," she said, turning to meet Blair's gaze. "I promised you I'd be honest with you today, and I intend to keep that promise."

Blair's heart skipped a beat at the seriousness in Catherine's tone. This was it—the moment she had been waiting for. She had so many questions, so many things she wanted to understand, but she wasn't sure where to start. For a long moment, she hesitated, her mind racing through the tangled web of emotions she had been carrying for weeks.

But where did she even begin?

After a long pause, Blair settled on a question that had been nagging at her ever since she had first seen Grace and Catherine. "I guess the first thing I want to ask is...Grace. Did you two have a relationship? Was she one of your students too?"

The words came out quicker than Blair had intended, but they were out there now, hanging in the air between them. She felt her heart skip a beat as she waited for Catherine's response, bracing herself for whatever answer might come.

Catherine turned her head slightly, her gaze flickering toward Blair. She could see the apprehension in Blair's eyes, the vulnerability that Blair was trying so hard to mask. It was moments like these that reminded Catherine just how young Blair really was—not in the patronizing sense of age difference, but in the way Blair's emotions were still so raw, unguarded, compared to the carefully controlled life Catherine had built for herself.

Catherine let out a quiet breath, choosing her words carefully. "Grace was a student of mine," she began, her voice measured, "but I wouldn't call what we had a relationship."

Blair raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. Catherine could see the flicker of confusion, maybe even disappointment, in her eyes. Blair hadn't asked it directly, but Catherine knew what was really at the heart of her question. Blair wanted to know if she was special, if what was happening between them—this connection, this attraction—was something different from whatever had come before. Blair didn't want to feel like she was just another name on some invisible list of students Catherine had seduced.

"I don't do relationships," Catherine continued, her voice calm but firm. "I never have, not in the way most people would define them. I'm... not the type to get involved like that."

Blair felt a pang of something—disappointment?—at Catherine's words. She had always known that Catherine wasn't the type for relationships but hearing her say it so plainly still stung. It made Blair feel like she was just another fleeting thing in Catherine's life, something temporary that could be discarded once the novelty wore off.