Please remind me (who I really am)

Chapter 9

According to her phone, it was 3:15am. It turned out that the sofa, which was so comfortable for sitting on, was just this side of uncomfortable for sleeping on. Lisa was just too tall for it, so her knees and legs were aching from the multiple strange positions she'd contorted herself into while trying to sleep.

She'd played several different games on her cell, read several chapters of her book, and channel-surfed through the TV, in between attempts at going to sleep. There was just no getting around the fact that she just didn't fit on the sofa, but she didn't want to go up and sleep in Rosé's bed because she'd told Jennie she'd be on the sofa. What if Jennie needed something? Lisa doubted that Jennie would think to head into Rosé's room.

She hoped Jennie was sleeping much better than she was managing to do down here. Jennie had moved around her room for a few minutes earlier, before she'd padded to the bathroom and back. There'd been no more sound after that.

Lisa was also simply very aware of Jennie's presence in her home. The thought that Jennie was actually in her bed was enough to chase any semblance of sleep away from her entirely, and she gazed at the ceiling, her fingers steepled in the near-dark, listening to the sounds of the occasional car as it passed on the street. Dimly, she wondered whether sometime in the next few months, she should try to organize a book signing by one of her favorite LGBT authors. Now that Pride was over, she needed to schedule some events in the bookstore for the summer.

She was just contemplating which authors she should try to invite when she heard the door to her bedroom creak open extremely slowly. Lisa didn't have to strain her ears to hear Jennie creeping across the hallway and down the stairs; the house was very quiet, and Lisa was alert to any movement. Jennie snuck into the kitchen, took a glass out of the cupboard and moved towards the tap. Belatedly, Lisa realized she hadn't told her that the kitchen tap had been on the blink for the last few weeks, spraying water like a fountain at the slightest provocation. Just as she flung the blanket off her knees, she heard a stifled yelp from the kitchen along with the hiss of the tap and the sound of water cascading onto the floor.

Skidding into the kitchen, Lisa found Jennie hurriedly turning off the tap and looking around for a towel to mop up the mess. Lisa was about to announce herself when her words died in her throat- Jennie had dispensed with the jogging bottoms. She was wearing only the hoody which was luckily long enough to cover her modesty, because Lisa didn't have any idea whether Jennie was wearing any underwear. Jennie's pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight shining through the window as she moved through the kitchen, giving her an otherworldly look. Lisa was taken aback by the wave of desire that washed over her as her eyes traveled up Jennie's bare legs, so much so that when she realized what she was doing, she stepped backwards and knocked into the door, making enough noise that Jennie startled and crashed into the worktop. Thankfully, she didn't have the glass in her hand, otherwise Lisa was sure she would've had to spend her night cleaning up glass shards.

"Shit!" Jennie exclaimed, clutching a hand to her chest. "Lisa! I'm really sorry! I- the tap just... well, exploded for lack of a better word. Damn," she said, as she stepped into a puddle. "I'll clean this up. I made a huge mess, at least, I think I did. I can't really see."

Lisa chuckled to herself and turned on the nearest lamp, illuminating the fact that Jennie had indeed made a huge mess. Luckily, she seemed to have borne the brunt of the water rather than the floor; the front of her hoody was soaking. Lisa moved over to the kitchen towels, pulling a ream of them off the roll and then ducking down to mop up the mess. She felt, rather than saw, Jennie step away from her, and heard her yank the hoody down. Ah, so she'd remembered her state of... undress. Lisa kept her eyes averted this time, concentrated on cleaning up the mess, and then dumped the wet towels into the bin.