“All right,” Lucy said, suddenly deciding it was all too complicated to work out. “Okay then. Um yes, thank you, I’ll stay.”
“Good,” Erica said. “Finally.”
Lucy thought she was teasing, but suddenly wasn’t sure. She wanted to cry again, and not really for anything to do with what Erica had said, but more just because Erica was sweet and kind and wanted her here. She wanted to cry, so instead of actually doing it, she grabbed Erica before she started, and hugged her, and held on a little desperately. Erica seemed a little surprised by the hug. She hesitated for a moment, and then hugged Lucy back.
“I really missed you,” Lucy said.
“Me too. But go sleep.”
“I really did.”
“I know, but you’re kind of fucked up and you should sleep.”
“Okay,” Lucy said. “Yep, I will.” She almost let go, then held on a moment longer. “Hey, um,” she said. “We can fuck. If you want.”
Erica moved her head back, and looked at Lucy, surprised. “What?”
“Do you want to?”
Erica seemed almost embarrassed. “Not right now.”
“Later?”
“Yeah, maybe later. Perhaps. But not right now.”
“I’m not so stoned I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lucy said. “If that’s why you’re saying no.”
“Not really,” Erica said. “No. Just go to sleep.”
“If you want to, I really don’t mind.”
“Go to sleep,” Erica said. “And no. It’d feel too much like taking advantage.”
“It isn’t. It really isn’t. I know what I’m doing.”
“Still no.”
“And I am of you anyway,” Lucy said, thinking. “Taking advantage.”
“Probably,” Erica said. “But I don’t mind. So go and sleep.”
She pushed Lucy gently, trying to push her towards the bedroom, but Lucy hesitated for a moment, holding onto the edge of the bench so she didn’t actually move.
“Go away,” Erica said. “Please. I really need to work.”
Lucy looked at Erica’s face, and decided Erica meant that, so she nodded, and slid off the stool. She took a few steps, then stopped and turned back. “It might cheer me up,” she said. “If we have sex.”
“And sleeping might too.”
“I just mean, if you wanted to, then it would be good for me as well. So it wouldn’t be taking advantage.”
Erica sighed.
“It wouldn’t,” Lucy said.
“I remember this,” Erica said. “Don’t think I don’t. I remember exactly how you get when you’re horny, and how much you nag.”
“I don’t nag.”
“Oh you do so. All the time.”
“I don’t…” Lucy said, then stopped, and thought, and wondered if it was true. At least with Erica, anyway. She remembered getting quite demanding sometimes, now that Erica pointed it out.
“You do,” Erica said. “You completely do. I still remember exactly how you jumped me that first time, and don’t you dare think otherwise.”
“What?” Lucy said, and then started to remember. She still seemed to need to concentrate carefully to think, so she stood there and concentrated, and then started to remember. Remembering made her want to smile, and she had to concentrate to smile, too, so she started doing that. She grinned at Erica, half-forgetting why, and Erica just sighed, and sat there watching.
Then, after a moment, Erica smiled back.
YOU ARE READING
Losing Everything
RomanceLucy loses everything that matters to her, her partner and job and business and all her money. She loses everything, and in doing so she reconnects with an old friend, Erica, and begins to fall for her instead. And as she does, she realizes that e...
