The Girl From Spain (girlxgirl)

Day 10&24/93: Mila

Considering her hurry and desperation to find something, Camila was more than happy with the tiny apartment she had found for a cheap price. Before anyone could have managed to snatch it before her, she had signed the sublease agreement and quickly moved it.

The downside was the distance to both work and Sally. So when Camila finally climbed up all the damn stairs to Sally's apartment after her first day, she only wanted to eat, sleep or cry. Or maybe all of these together.

"How was your day?" Sally asked cheerfully as she opened the door for her.

Camila walked straight to the living room, immediately collapsing on the couch and closing her eyes. She heard Sally's steps, which, her weight considered, were disproportionately loud and tramped, and a couple of seconds later, the couch shifted slightly.

She adjusted her position, resting her head in Sally's lap. "I spilt coffee all over myself in the first hour, I screwed up a conversation with a really nice college because I couldn't find the English word for elevator and I missed not one but two busses by a minute." Camila groaned and rubbed her eyes. "And I had to get up just so early!"

Sally's fingers tangled up in Camila's hair as she caressed the top of her head gently. "Before 9?" she teased.

"7!"

Sally gasped loudly. "Shocking!"

Despite herself, Camila smiled and then confessed, "I described the elevator as the thing that makes you go up."

"Very fitting," Sally praised. Camila opened her eyes slightly and caught the stifled laughter. But as it faded, genuine worry was left on her face.

"Don't worry," she mumbled, yawned, and closed her eyes again. "It was just a bad day. I have no regrets."

Sally said nothing. She just continued playing with Camila's hair and stroking over the skin. The next words were spoken so uncharacteristically soft and quiet, Camila, in her half-asleep state, almost missed them. "I love you."

She opened her eyes and searched for Sally's. A weak smile was on her face as she held Camila's gaze, not breaking the contact despite the fragility and vulnerability perfectly on display. Aside from that, the way Sally looked down on her revealed an almost childlike expression of hope.

Camila's lips curled up and she, just as softly, replied, "I love you."

Because how could she not?

***

If there was one word Camila had to use to describe what it was like dating Sally, it would be fun. From dates that literally never ended to sleepless nights, it all seemed like a dream. And with Sally's successful endeavours to be both honest and romantic, it felt - despite the number of relationships she had been in, despite the times she had genuinely thought to have been in love - like Camila truly had a partner for the first time in her life.

Now, she was contently sitting on Sally's couch, her hand intertwined with her girlfriend's, doing some cultivated online shopping. "That's a lot of money for a fake dick," she commented, leaning unusually close to the laptop's display. Her glasses were in Sally's room and as she didn't want to stand up, she currently did an awful lot of squinting.

"Look at you guys," Jake grinned. His head was popping out of the kitchen's doorless entrance and his shoulder was covered by a dishtowel. "Buying sex toys together, what a beautiful commitment!"

"Right?" Sally asked happily. "How are you doing in there?"

Jake had been expressing the wish to cook dinner for the three of them for a while now. Sally had spent the last weeks unsuccessfully trying to talk him out of it. So, now, he was busy preparing the most basic dish there was - pasta with tomato sauce.

"Splendid!" he replied. "No need to worry."

He disappeared back into the kitchen, leaving two very worried women behind. They paid for the contents of their shopping cart and Camila leaned to face Sally, finally starting the conversation she had dreaded for the past week. "My parents," she said and scrunched up her face in embarrassment. "They want to talk to you."

Seeing all signs of colour leave Sally's face was amusing. "Oh."

"Can you believe it? You tell your parents you want to move across Europe to be with a woman they didn't know you were more than friends with, then you date her for a month and suddenly they want to meet her!"

"Right? So unreasonable."

Camila shoved her shoulder but giggled. "We are having a video call tomorrow. I was hoping you could join us for a while."

Sally nodded. "Okay," she mumbled.

"Thank you." Camila pressed a soft kiss to her lips and leaned her head against Sally's arm. Because of a curiosity that had rested in her for a while, she asked, "Did you... tell your parents about me?"

Sally snorted. "Oh hell no."

The answer wasn't a surprise but blunter than expected. Not able to know that Camila had merely asked to jump into the topic, Sally added, "It's not you. I don't like them."

Camila winced. For someone who had always maintained a close and warm relationship with her parents even if conflicts sometimes happened, these words were harsh. And with the lack of information, she didn't understand Sally but felt like she should.

They had always solely lived in the moment and Camila wanted to change that. She figured that they should learn more about each other's pasts if they aimed for a future. With her finger, Sally drew symbols on the back of her hand. She obviously wasn't too keen on having that conversation so when Jake reappeared, she quickly, before Camila could even decide what to say next, asked, "Need any help?", with a slight nod towards the kitchen.

Camila sighed but didn't want to force anything out of her if she wasn't ready to share. "I'm good," Jake said. I screwed up my time management so the pasta is already done and I'm just waiting for the sauce to boil."

"Very good," Camila praised.

They talked for a couple of minutes before Sally reminded him to check on the food. The "Uh oh", that could be heard from the kitchen about 10 seconds later was highly alerting but unsurprising.

"Good news or bad?" Jake called.

"Good," Sally requested, seemingly bored at the predictable turn of events.

"The sauce is boiling."

Sally pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "And the bad news?"

"Um... We'll always have a memory of this beautiful evening?"

Camila jumped up and followed Sally into the kitchen, groaning loudly.

She would be quite interested in the thought process of the person designing the kitchen who thought having a white tapestry behind the cooker was a good idea. It was begging for this to happen. The formerly white wall was sprinkled with little red dots that she identified as tomato sauce.

While Camila still looked around in fascination, Sally hurried to turn off the heat and place a lid on the pod. Jake grabbed a towel and tried to wipe it away, making it so much worse. The kitchen was quiet for a few moments. "Oops," he said then.

Sally shook her head before she started chuckling. Soon, it transformed into full-blown laughter and when Camila saw the look of sheer fear on Jake's face, she joined. "Come on," Sally said. "Let's eat."