Those Who Wait

by Haley Cass

  are worth a little trouble ;) That, and I figured that you

  might be too skittish to actually use my phone number.

  The world came to a fast halt and there was a bizarre weight that was sinking in her stomach. Even as she didn’t want to look, her eyes narrowed at the accompanying picture with the message. This Alia Haddad had beautifully darker skin, and sleek long black hair with dark eyes to match. Pretty and playful-looking.

  Exactly who was this woman? Why was she messaging Sutton about last night, and what was that about a phone number? The wheels in her mind were already starting to turn and she found that it took a lot in order to not click on her icon to find out more about who this woman was.

  That uncomfortable heaviness that had set in only burned a little brighter inside of her, though, the more she thought about it. What exactly had happened at that event?

  Had she done something that had brought on Sutton’s wanting to sleep with Charlotte? The idea that another woman might have put that in motion, that another woman might have been the reason that Sutton had come to her, full of the desire that had broken Charlotte’s previously perfect record of self-control, made her feel almost nauseous.

  Okay, and the unmistakable jealousy that she was feeling was merely about sex. Because regardless of her romantic design, if she had any woman in her bed, she should be the only woman on her mind.

  She hadn’t even realized Sutton had come back until she could smell her subtle perfume as she came to stand next to her. Her eyes roamed up Sutton’s body, until they met baby blues, which were alight with teasing as she sat back down in her chair. “I told you that it could be disturbing to watch.”

  “Yes,” she murmured in agreement, before she realized that Sutton thought the expression on her face was because she was fazed by whatever mixed martial arts video Alex was supposed to send. Frowning, she shook her head slightly, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she sat up straight and schooled her features back to a nonchalant expression. Her voice was deliberately light as she handed the phone back to Sutton. “It actually wasn’t your sister.”

  Sutton’s forehead crinkled, her eyebrows coming together in clear confusion as she turned her attention toward the message Charlotte had just read.

  And she kept her gaze trained on Sutton’s face, because that pretty face didn’t hide a thing. Her eyes widened as she read the message, her face flushing as even the tips of her ears turned red. She was flustered, Charlotte realized, and embarrassed. Sutton narrowed her eyes as she huffed out a breath, and her fingers hesitated over the screen, as though she was unsure of whether or not to answer, and even whether or not to accept the friend request.

  Charlotte was usually a patient person. Not that she enjoyed having to wait for things that she wanted, but her chosen lifestyle was one in which she must play the long game. But her curiosity couldn’t wait now.

  Turning in her chair to face Sutton completely, her legs crossed at the knee and brushed against Sutton’s. She couldn’t help but ask, “I thought you said last night was a disaster?”

  Because it clearly couldn’t have been that bad, when there was this admittedly beautiful woman going out of her way to seek Sutton out the following day, after having apparently given Sutton her number.

  Sutton’s blush remained even as she vehemently shook her head, before haphazardly tossing her phone back to the table. “It was a disaster!”

  Charlotte knew that she wasn’t lying; that just wasn’t who Sutton was. But there was so much more there that she hadn’t gotten the answers to. And she had thought that maybe it wasn’t that important to know all of the details, but it was. Because last night was still weighing between them, and it wasn’t as though Charlotte was going to be able to forget about it no matter what.

  She took in the frustration that was mixed in with the myriad of other emotions moving over Sutton’s face, and that was all it took for her to take on an intense distaste for Alia Haddad. Given Sutton’s reaction to her, Charlotte had no doubt that Alia was directly involved in the disaster of last night.

  It wasn’t difficult to imagine that the woman who was now seeking Sutton out was one of the vultures Charlotte had imagined would be there. Sure, she was pretty, and young, and apparently had been working at the event instead of looking for a date.

  But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still a vulture.

  “But, you got her number?” She couldn’t help but push for an answer, despite the fact that Sutton clearly didn’t intend on using said number.

  Sutton used the back of her hand to push up her glasses as she groaned. “It's not – she… we weren't… she worked there!” She looked up at the ceiling as if she wished it would open and would suck her right out of the room.

  A few beats of silence hit them and Charlotte took a deep breath, hoping it would loosen the knots that had settled in her stomach. She ran her eyes over Sutton’s face, before she gently reached out to place her hand on the one Sutton had curled into a fist in her lap. “We are going to have to talk about what happened, Sutton.”

  The hand under hers flexed and Charlotte could feel it shake slightly. Sutton sucked in a sharp breath then, and insisted, “No. No, we really don’t have to.”

  Charlotte narrowed her eyes, because there was something more here, and now she couldn’t let it go. “We do, because we’re friends, and this is what friends do.” Well, it was what she and Sutton were going to do, anyway. “Now, tell me about… Alia Haddad,” she couldn’t help the grimace that her name came out on or the dark tone.

  But there was something about this woman that she already didn’t like.

  Sutton’s eyes searched hers and she wondered what it was that she was looking for, what she was thinking as she let out a defeated sigh. Elegantly sloped shoulders slumped before she shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say. She… works for the app, so that’s why she was there last night.”

  How unprofessional. Charlotte silently urged her to carry on by lifting an eyebrow.

  “Before I left, she stopped me to buy me a drink.” Sutton rubbed her palms along her thighs as she trailed off.

  She bit her cheek; what, was this woman trying to get Sutton drunk?! She’d been right. Vulture. “Why did she stop you?”

  Though, she had a guess that she figured was very accurate.

  Sutton pulled her braid back over her shoulder as she gave Charlotte an unsure look. “I… well, she watched me on my dates.”

  Obviously a stalker.

  Oblivious to Charlotte’s inner judgement and rapidly growing dislike for this woman, Sutton continued, “And she could tell that I was having… a difficult time. So she – I mean, we – I don’t know. Talked,” she finished, her tone weak as she brought her hand down to tap against the table.

  “You just talked? She didn’t… try anything with you?” She was having difficulty finding the connection there about what must have happened to cause Sutton to come to her apartment proposing sex.

  Sutton’s light blush made her feel like she had her answer, even before she shook her head. “No? Not really. She – I mean, she flirted. I think.” Sutton frowned thoughtfully, and it was ridiculously cute. “But it didn’t matter. Like I told you, I was a disaster, and she knew it.”

  “So, she had nothing to do with you coming to my apartment?” She didn’t like how much she needed to get the clarification.

  Sutton opened her mouth, then closed it on a hum, before finally giving in and letting out a heavy exhale, “She might have talked with me about how having sex with, um, a friend could make me less nervous,” she murmured, nervously.

  There it was. That was all she needed to know in order to be sure that Alia Haddad was responsible. Even as she glared at Sutton’s phone, though, she shook her head at herself. As much as she had heavy suspicions about the reason behind why this Alia was advising Sutton about being more comfortable in her sex life, she knew that she herself was responsible for things that happened the night before.<
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  She drew her hand through her hair, catching Sutton’s eyes with her own as she quietly told her, “I think that we should continue talking, about . . . everything else.”

  Sutton quickly shook her head, her voice higher than normal, “Ah, no. We really don’t.” Before Charlotte could gently insist that they should, Sutton was already rambling on, “I just – I get it, you know? I know that you were just trying to be a good friend, and I know that you don’t want me back. And, and that’s okay, because you can’t control who you’re attracted to, and I shouldn’t have even put you in that situation in the first place. That was thoughtless and selfish, and I’m sorry. I really am. But I really don’t want to talk about it,” she finished, frenzied, and slightly out of breath.

  But Charlotte couldn’t – her brain had frozen, and she stared at Sutton as her mind processed what she’d just said. Her gaze was fixed on Sutton’s plump lips, which were slightly parted as she took in quick breaths, a tingle starting in the pit of her stomach, even as she was convinced she must have heard wrong.

  She was certain that she’d heard Sutton incorrectly, because… there was no way she’d just said what Charlotte had heard. How did Sutton do this? How did she manage to take a conversation and turn it on its head, rendering Charlotte speechless so easily?

  “What did you just say?” She demanded to know, focusing all of her attention on Sutton because she had to be sure that she wasn’t imagining things.

  Sutton’s blush intensified and she groaned, before she threw her hands in the air, the picture of exasperation. “I said that I know that you don’t want me and that it’s obviously not your fault, but I’ve spent all night thinking about it already and I would really rather just forget about it.”

  Charlotte sat straight up, an urgency racing through her despite all of her previous thoughts about nothing happening between them again. But she couldn’t help it, because Sutton looked so distressed, and – how could they have been on such different pages?

  How could Sutton even think that Charlotte didn’t want her?

  “Is that really what you thought?”

  Sutton stared at her for a few seconds, as if she was the one who couldn’t believe what Charlotte was saying. Her tone was colored in exasperated embarrassment, “Of course it is! And it’s totally… fine. I understand,” she grew quiet and small, her hands linking together. “But it’s kind of mortifying. I’m sorry that I left the way I did, but I couldn’t face you after realizing that.”

  There was a quiet pleading in her tone, as if begging Charlotte to understand. But she couldn’t even wrap her mind around this. Sutton thought that when Charlotte was fucking her, she wasn’t turned on.

  “Is that why you left? You were upset because you thought I didn’t want you? Not… any other reason?” The words left her slowly despite the need that was burning through her to know the answer.

  And Sutton licked her lips which… Charlotte blew out a slow breath as she followed the action, before she sighed. “Yes. God, how much do I have to say it?”

  Fuck. It was all she could think about, now. The fact that Sutton had only left the night before because she thought Charlotte didn’t want her. She had no idea how aroused she’d been, how close she’d been to sliding off her shorts and having Sutton touch her – or touching herself right there next to her.

  Or how much she wanted her right now, staring at her all wide-eyed with her glasses, breathing slightly erratically. How Charlotte knew how easy it would be to dip her hands under the sweater she was wearing, stroking her fingertips over the soft skin of her back. Her hands tingled with the want of it.

  Sutton heaved a deep breath. “I honestly just really want to move on from it. I mean, you said earlier that we could –”

  Yes, Charlotte had said earlier that they could! But it was far easier to say that and to try to forget all of the details of Sutton crying out her name when she was positive that Sutton had been so upset by it.

  “– and of course I don’t blame you for it, like I said, it’s my fault for even proposing it in the first place, but –”

  And she thought maybe she would regret this, but she just couldn’t help it.

  She leaned in, capturing Sutton’s mouth with her own. She caught the widening of Sutton’s eyes and her sharp intake of breath as her lips melded to those soft pink ones, mid-sentence. There was no stopping herself from nipping her teeth into Sutton’s bottom lip, then swallowing the gasp Sutton let out into her mouth.

  Sutton tasted slightly like the wine they’d shared and just like… Sutton. Like she had last night. Charlotte could feel her body positively vibrating with tension before she melted with a whimper into Charlotte’s mouth, which she felt zing through her entire body.

  How could they have been on such different pages? She couldn’t even understand it; she couldn’t understand how Sutton could have felt Charlotte’s mouth on her own like this, felt the way she sucked on her bottom lip, the way her hands came to brush up her sides lightly, and think that she had no desire for her?

  Releasing the hold she had on Sutton’s lip, and then licking her own, she pulled away slowly to face Sutton’s stare. The stare where those blue eyes were reflecting so brightly at her, shocked and amazed. Meanwhile, her hands lightly stroked back down Sutton’s sides and fell into her lap.

  The breathy, mystified way Sutton asked, “Why?”

  Charlotte shook her head slightly, baffled. “I should be asking you that! Why would you possibly think I don’t want you?” She slid her hands over Sutton’s thighs, only taking a moment to appreciate the length and warmth of them, before she shook her head from a mixture of sexual frustration – if only she’d known that last night – and bewilderment. “God, I answered the first ever message I got from you – despite the fact that it was from Regan – about hooking up.” It just made no sense to her. “We had sex!”

  She’d literally been inside of Sutton, had ground down against her last night.

  But Sutton was shaking her head. “But – not really!” she flushed, before pushing on, “I mean – you… touched me, and I liked it. But you didn’t let me touch you,” her voice dropped to an embarrassed hush, “You didn’t even take off your clothes, and then after, you rolled away.”

  Charlotte dropped her head back on a groan at the misunderstanding, curls falling down her back. “I was trying to be a gentlewoman! I didn’t want to be a vulture who took advantage of you!”

  “But I wanted you to take advantage of me!” The words burst from Sutton’s mouth and hung between them, clearly shocking her for even saying it. It certainly shocked Charlotte, and the words sent even more licks of arousal through her. Sutton made a valiant effort to recover, clearing her throat, “I went to you because I trust you, and I wanted to . . . well, to learn about being with a woman. But I didn’t even get to touch you back.”

  Jesus. Charlotte took back everything she’d thought about her self-control in the last day. Because she so wanted to take Sutton again right here and now, just so she could feel how much she wanted her back. The thought that it was all reciprocal – that Sutton wanted to touch her in return – was enough to bring back almost exactly how turned on she’d been the night before.

  She could picture it so easily: straddling Sutton right there in that chair, guiding her hand to where she apparently wanted to touch . . . She took in a breath and shook her head, trying to clear it.

  It wouldn’t even take much, really.

  Rather than a complete lapse of control, Charlotte leaned forward again. But paused when she felt Sutton eagerly lean in as well. She could feel Sutton’s breath against her cheek, and she closed her eyes, as she whispered, “You are such a smart woman, Sutton, but so wrong.”

  This time when she made contact with Sutton’s lips again, it was soft. Just a brush, really, and it was so fascinating to her that the simple contact made her mouth tingle, the warm spread of want sliding through her easily.

  She really, truly wanted Sutt
on to feel that she wanted her, too. In the back of her mind, she wondered how bad Sutton’s sexual experiences had been in the past if her self-esteem immediately jumped to that conclusion.

  It was wrong that someone as beautiful as Sutton thought that Charlotte didn’t want her, especially after all of the flirting – God, all of the comments she’d made that were jokes-but-not-quite-only-jokes – and her desperation of last night, too.

  This kiss was a gentle apology, because she could only imagine what Sutton had been feeling earlier.

  But it was Sutton who broke the contact this time, though she didn’t go far. She was close enough that her mouth brushed against Charlotte’s, making her breath catch at the accidental touch, as she whispered, “I thought we were just going to forget about last night and keep going on with the same friendship as before?”

  She sounded painfully confused and Charlotte squeezed her eyes closed. It was mostly just annoyance with herself, because – yes, perhaps this was not the right route to go. “We… are, yes.” She let out a low, slow breath, attempting to calm her raging libido, before she pulled back to take a few breaths of fresh air. Air that didn’t smell enticingly of Sutton’s perfume, which could easily seduce Charlotte into, well, seducing Sutton back into bed.

  With another deep breath, she re-crossed her legs and smoothed her hands over the skirt she was wearing. And couldn’t pretend she didn’t enjoy the thrill she got when she saw Sutton’s eyes slowly track over the length of her legs.

  “That is – we are friends. And we will continue to be,” she clarified, “But, just so you know: you have nothing to apologize for about last night. You didn’t put me into any sort of situation that I didn’t want to be in. That kiss was so that you know that I find you incredibly attractive.” An understatement, but a dignified one. “And I don’t want you to doubt that, despite the fact that last night was that one-time only sort of thing.”

  There. Okay. Misunderstanding completely cleared up. Charlotte could go on without thinking that she’d taken advantage of Sutton. Sutton could go on without the ridiculous notion that she’d taken advantage of an un-wanting Charlotte. Everything could go back to normal.