There's Always Tomorrow - AQ

Chapter 4:

Was this move impulsive? Yes. For both of them. Adrianne didn't know what had possessed her to offer, but she was glad the blonde accepted. And once Quinn walked in the door with a box in her hand and saw her new home, she was glad she did too. It was an apartment, decent size, but compared to the dorm she had be stuck in for the last three years, this was heaven. It had old, dark grained, stretched up wood floors that span the entire apartment. There was a bathroom to the left of the door and a small foyer that opened up into the living area with the kitchen on the right.

"You're bedroom is to the left off the living room. Mine is to the right off the kitchen." Adrianne explained, her voice motivating the blonde to walk a little further into the apartment to allow the brunette to enter as well. The living room looked cozy with a long tan couch, an end table at each arm and a long coffee table in front of it. The TV was against the wall her bedroom shared with the living room and a desk and computer were on the far wall. "I never use that computer and since you have the smaller bedroom, feel free to make it your editing station."

Quinn had stopped again as Adrianne disappeared into the blonde's bedroom and came out empty handed.

"Are you okay?"

The blonde nodded. "I just realized how small that dorm room was."

"Are you going through shock?"

"I think so."

"Do you need to sit down?" Adrianne took the box from her friend as she nodded her head and then slowly ventured around the living room to the sofa. The brunette smiled as she took her seat and then left to put that box with the other. When Adrianne returned, Quinn was laying on the couch. "So? How do you like it?"

"It's comfy. It's long. I can actually stretch out on it... I only have one question before I say I love it." Quinn stated as she folded her hands behind her head and crossed her ankles.

Adrianne crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame, smiling at how cute the blonde looked like that. "And what's that?"

"You haven't had sex on it, have you?"

"Not yet."

"Okay. Good. Then I love it." Quinn sat up suddenly. "Oh my God. I've known you this long and I've never asked. Are you dating anyone? Is she going to be okay with this?"

"She should be seeing as she doesn't exist." The brunette teased, waving her hand and calling for them to finish unloading Quinn's car.

"Okay. So no girlfriend... Are you looking for one?"

"Are you offering?"

Quinn laughed lightly as they exited the apartment and descended the outdoors stairs to the parking lot. "I was offering to help you find one. If you were looking. What's your type?"

You. Which is why this move was probably the worst idea I have had in a very long time. "Um... Someone mature, intelligent, genuine, has to have a sense of humor. If she doesn't then our relationship will never work out. I'm too damn sarcastic for anyone uptight. Someone who can hold a conversation. Someone who's patient, caring."

"Nothing about how she looks?" Quinn asked as she opened the back door of her car and handed a box to the brunette.

"No. Let's put it this way. My last girlfriend was short, blonde with brown eyes, and self described as 'chubby'. The one I dated before her was about six feet tall, super skinny, and brunette. The one before that was a stunningly gorgeous woman who was half white, half black. The one-"

"Are you a serial dater or did these span over years?" Quinn asked looking up to her from her slouched position half in her car. Adrianne had to take a second to answer that question. Not because she didn't know, but because she was staring at the blonde's ass in her peripheral vision.

"Over years. In the last six years I have had four lasting relationships. The others were just women I went on several dates with but never sparked. But what about you? Are you looking for a boyfriend?"

Quinn laughed comically and stood up, shutting the car door with her foot and following Adrianne back up the stairs. "Not looking."

"Well, on the off chance I find a guy who doesn't provide me with the desire to strangle him, what do you look for?"

"Um... I don't know. The type of guys I normally date never worked for me, so clearly I'm not the best at selecting them."

"So no cliché tall, muscular jocks, with over styled hair and supermodel smiles that don't even know how to spell their own name. That should narrow it down." Adrianne teased as she kicked their door open and walked back to the bed room.

"You make me sound shallow."

"Your choices would prove that assumption to be correct, but since you're still living by someone else's beliefs, I wont hold it against you." Quinn frowned slightly as Adrianne took the box from her and set it down with the rest. "Look around you. You live with a gay woman who is use to people disagreeing and mocking her lifestyle. I'm not going to do it to you. I would be a hypocrite. Be who you are. You're safe here. The only thing you could do that would make me think any less of you, is if you chose to continue to live your life by their rules because you're too scared to be yourself. You have no excuses anymore."

"Is this why you asked me to move in?" Quinn asked in a playful manner.

"No. I thought it would be nice having some eye-candy around."

~/~/~/~

Things had settled nicely in the apartment. Quinn had second guessed herself at first. Especially when she found out Adrianne was a bit of a nudest. She walked around in a towel or robe or just a really baggy shirt, but that was about it. Quinn didn't really mind. I mean, it was Adrianne's place but it was a little distracting sometimes. The first time it happened, Quinn had walked out of her room, seen Adrianne in nothing more than a towel, and turned around and went right back in. She wasn't sure what was making her so... effected by it. She just felt like she was somehow invading the brunette's privacy. But when it happened the second time and Adrianne just smiled at her, she realized that she didn't mind and there was nothing to worry about. The blonde had no idea that Adrianne was really just trying to silently motivate her into acceptance with her wardrobe, or lack of wardrobe.

Over the last two weeks, they had formed this odd pattern that revolved around their ability to just somehow know what the other wanted or needed. Even during the mornings while they were cooking two separate breakfasts (which turned out to be the one thing Quinn could cook), they intuitively flowed around each other, never saying anything. It was almost like a dance they did, one moving out of the way just as the other needed to be there, and both somehow finishing at the same time so they were able to sit down and eat together before heading off to class.

"So... what do you have going on today?" Adrianne asked as she picked at her eggs and bacon across the table from Quinn.

Quinn sat in her chair, only leg curled underneath her, the other pulled up to her chest as she ate her pancakes. "I have a test and that's it. I'm officially done for the day. You?"

Adrianne dropped her brow. "You seem very calm for having a exam today. You've been freaking out for, like, the last week about them all." Quinn shrugged. "Did you get laid and I don't know about it or something?"

"Ha! No. Unlike someone who didn't come home until three in the morning yesterday."

"It was just a date and we only talked." Quinn arched an eyebrow and Adrianne smiled mostly at the slight flicker of jealousy she saw in those beautiful hazel eyes. "And maybe some other stuff."

"So when do I get to meet her?" Yep. Quinn was definitely jealous and wasn't doing all that great of a job at hiding it either as the light left her eyes and her smile fell slightly.

"You don't." The blonde's mouth dropped open at the rejection. "I don't think it's going to work out between us."

"Us as in you and her, or us as in you and me?"

"Me and her. What are you talking about. I get along better with you than I do my own family. You're like my other half." Quin diverted her eyes and smile down to her food. It took all of Adrianne's self-control not to lean over the table and pull the adorable blonde into a kiss. That was the real reason she didn't think she and the other girl would work out. She liked Quinn. She wanted Quinn. She just had to be patient and wait for her to figure out what she wanted, but at the same time she was human, damn it. She had needs of her own that needed to be satisfied. "So, what are you doing after your last test?"

"I have some editing I have to do."

"You always have editing you have to do."

"That's because people don't normally look as much like a model as you do in real life."

Adrianne smiled uncontrollably. "Did you just hit on me?" She teased causing Quinn to blush and look away.

"Not at all. Complimented you? Sure."

"I guess I could settle for that then."

"Good because that's all that you're getting."

"I'll take it. But if you wait until I get back from class, I'll help you out with the pictures. I'll keep you company while you go cross eyed, editing out pimples and stubble and all those other imperfections that make us human."

"Hey. It's what they're paying me for. And maybe if enough people start paying me, then I can start paying you and you can get out from under your Daddy's thumb."

"I'm not under his thumb. If anything, he's under my mother's thumb and I'm just her baby."

Quinn smiled genuinely and pointed her fork at her room mate. "You're lucky, you know that. To have parents like yours."

Adrianne nodded gently. "I know I am." Inside, her mind was screaming to ask about Quinn's parents, but she had a test in an hour. She didn't want to sabotage her. She could always ask tonight.

~/~/~/~

"Look at that smile on your face." Angela, a tall, multiracial woman teased as Adrianne approached her friend sitting in the lecture hall already. "You finally banged your roommate, didn't you?"

"Could you have just a little more class than that? And no, I haven't 'banged' Quinn yet. I'm being patient."

Angela huffed a laugh as she watched the brunette take a seat next to her. "You have no patience."

"I do for her."

The other woman pivoted and leaned back against the armrest of her chair as she studied Adrianne curiously. "I want to meet her."

"No."

"No? Don't tell me no. I want to meet her."

"But I am telling you no. You don't get to meet her until she actually comes out. You're too forceful."

The dark skinned woman cocked her head sideways. "I'm too forceful? Honey, I'm a pussy cat compared to you."

Adrianne smiled brightly. "I don't think any lesbian should be able to say the word 'pussy' in normal conversation. It's just awkward to hear."

"Your mind is and will always be in the gutter, won't it?"

"It does best there."

Angela arched an eyebrow and turned back around in her seat. "If you didn't get into her pants, then why are you grinning like you did? Or did you get into someone else's pants?"

"Jealous they weren't yours?"

"Please."

"I know you like to beg, but there's no need to remind me. I mean, we did date for nearly a year. I'm well aware of that little... fetish." Adrianne grinned over her shoulder in memory of the... well, memorable nights they had shared.

"You know how good you are, so why do you always need to hear it from someone else? You know what, don't answer that. But seriously. Answer the other question."

Adrianne sat back up and readied her notebook. "I think she's coming around. Any day now and she'll accept it. Send me my toaster."

"Go get it yourself." She said flatly as Adrianne playfully nudged her with her elbow. "What makes you so certain that she's about to flip?" She asked, resting her elbow her desk and propping her chin in her hand to look at her ex. "I thought you said she was the toughest case of denial you had ever seen."

"She is. But she has already been working on moving away from whatever it is in her past that's holding her back and learning to make herself happy. One thing leads to another then to another then to-"

"Your bed?"

Adrianne pursed her lips in response. "It's not just about sex. I mean... She's killing me with how naturally sexy she is, but it's not just that I want to get her in bed. I really like her. She's intelligent, charming, has an amazing sense of humor. She just gets me."

"No one can 'get you'. You are truly unique. Forceful, yet are a softy at heart. Protective, but pushy. An absolute sex addict."

"I am not."

"You are too. You're also an emotionally complicated person, so I don't see how some chick you just met a month ago can 'get you' like that."

"But she does. I shoot a sarcastic remarks at her and she throws one right back at me. I get a little goofy and flirty, she's right there. And yes, she flirts back. She wont admit that it's actual flirting yet, but she does. She also blushes whenever I joke about certain things with her."

Angela looked out of the corner of her eye to her desk as she thought. "Well, if she does all of that, maybe she's just looking for that little push. And God knows you're good for pushing if nothing else."

"I'm good for a lot of things."

"Deflate your ego, please. It's suffocating me."

~/~/~/~

Quinn swore she was starting to go cross eyed staring at the computer screen. She leaned back in her chair and ran her hands down her face as she groaned. Just as she finished letting out her frustrations, she heard Adrianne walk in the door. She looked over her shoulder and was met with a big smile. The brunette always seemed to be smiling, just like...

"So, are you ready to throw the computer out of the window yet?"

"Just about." Quinn stated, turning around to look at the screen as Adrianne approached, grabbing a chair on her way.

"Good. Because the asshole from upstairs is parked right outside and if you throw it hard enough, you could hit his car." Quinn actually thought about it. There was a guy that lived right above them that gave his bed a workout every other night. Adrianne had already pissed him off in the past and Quinn's plea to respect his neighbors was responded with an offer to show her what he was doing to cause all that noise. She nearly threw up in her mouth. That was also the night she found out just how protective Adrianne could be, having to nearly hold the woman in their apartment so she didn't run upstairs and give him a piece of her mind. Thankfully, just a simple touch could snap her out of her rage.

"I'll think about it. How were you classes?"

"Boring, as usual. How was your test?"

"Piece of cake."

"What kind?"

"Hmm... I think it was angel food cake."

"Nice. Saintly even."

"So, are you going to entertain me while I finish up this series?"

"Of course. I can't allow you to suffer alone."

Quinn smiled out of the side of her mouth and went back to work. This was one of the biggest pluses of their friendship. The could talk about anything. While Quinn was use to keeping quiet or having to talk around certain topics or people's emotions. Adrianne just didn't give a shit. If what you said wasn't what she agreed with, okay. Not a problem. She'd listen to why you thought what you did and try and explain why she didn't. She didn't get worked up over it. It was all honestly, healthy, and open discussion which allowed them to talk non stop for hours on end. There was no fear of being judge. No fear of upsetting her or hurting her feelings and then spending the rest of the night with a guilty conscious. Being around Adrianne was... freeing.

The blonde moaned and dropped her forehead to her arm that was resting on the desk top.

"Oh come one now. You're almost done." Adrianne comforted her, taking the opportunity to scoot over and gently run her hand through the blonde locks. Quinn didn't pull away so she just continued. Once the blonde did sit up and look at her, she let her hand rest on her shoulder, the back of her fingers barely grazing her neck.

Adrianne couldn't even stop the faint smile on her lips let alone the impulses she had been denying for the last month and leaned forward, pressing her lips gently to Quinn's. The reaction was instant and Quinn stood up, knocking her chair over as soon as their skin touched. "What are you doing?"

The brunette remained in her seat, mouth hanging open as her brain searched for a reply. She could have sworn this was what Quinn was wanting, expecting even. "I was... I just thought that..."

"Whatever you thought... you thought wrong." Quinn stated, her back pressed against the window as if she thought that was a logical escape route.

Adrianne slowly stood up and Quinn slid further against the wall, closer to her bedroom. "Quinn, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I just thought that you were feeling the same thing."

"I'm not gay. You can be gay and that's... you know, that's cool. I don't judge you." She explained nervously as she made her way around the room, keeping her distance from the brunette who turned as the blonde circled her. "I just need you to respect that I'm not."

"Of course, I just thought that-"

"I'm not." Quinn stated forcefully, pointing her index finger towards Adrianne who could only nod her head. Angela had definitely been wrong. Quinn was not ready. The blonde bounced her hand toward Adrianne. "I'm not."

"Okay."

"But umm... right now, I just... I just need to go."

"Quinn, look. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I-" She stopped as her friend held up her palm, silencing her.

"I know. I just need some air. Time to... I just need to go."

Adrianne didn't know what to say, or do, or even think as she watched Quinn walk out the door. The only positive thing she could think about was the fact that Quinn would have to come back if for nothing more than to pick up her stuff. At least it would be an opportunity to talk to her once the shock wore off.