No Experience Required

by Kimberly Cooper Griffin

  Once she hit her rhythm, her thoughts soon drifted to last night. Tightness filled her middle as she remembered the feeling of Jane’s lips against hers. All the drama with Anaya seemed insignificant now. Izzy increased her pace as she played back the minutes on the platform.

  The kiss changed everything. She couldn’t think of Jane as just a friend anymore. She was so much more. But what did it mean? And, more importantly, how did Jane feel? Was it possible it hadn’t been as earth-shattering for Jane as it had been for her? The thought made Izzy stumble, and she stopped with her hands on her knees, panting on a street she’d already run down. So deep into her reverie, she’d completed her loop and was several blocks into a second loop. She considered turning back, but before she had made up her mind, she was running again, with Gus looking up at her with his happy smile.

  “Guess we’re doing ten miles this morning, buddy,” she said through deep breaths. “Good thing we don’t have any meetings first thing.”

  She turned up her music and matched her pace to the drumbeat of Outkast belting out “Hey Ya!”

  * * *

  No one knows exactly when people first started referring to the stages of intimacy using the euphemism of American baseball, but it seems to have caught on around WWII. And people, especially in American culture, have used it ever since.

  First base is the tentative first touches, the long stares, the stomach-dropping moment when you let the other person know you like them, and the elation of incendiary first kisses when you find out they like you back. The experience usually includes holding hands, embraces, maybe even some face-touching, and running fingers through your partner’s hair.

  Some people round right through first base on their way to second—or farther on their first date. Others take their time, waiting for the third or fourth date for a first kiss, sometimes longer. Either way, the first kiss is generally regarded as the classic thermometer for chemistry between two people and the very definition of first base.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Since she was late, Izzy drove in to work. Traffic was light, and within fifteen minutes, she leaned out the driver’s side window of her Tesla, waving her employee badge in front of the card scanner to enter the underground parking garage. She was just rolling up the window when her phone vibrated in the cup holder in the center console, and the Bluetooth connection chimed on the hands-free display on her dashboard. Audie. She was glad the window was up. On a normal day, Audie tended to say inappropriate things, but on the day after Izzy’s date, there was about a hundred percent chance of it, and Izzy didn’t want the speakers of her car to broadcast her business to anyone who might be walking through the garage. Izzy’s precaution paid off. Before she even said hello, Audie’s voice boomed through the Tesla.

  “Where are you? Tell me you’re in a naked hibernaculum. I’ve gone by your desk three times already to see how your date went last night, but no Izzy. Please tell me this is because the rescue mission was a false alarm, and you woke up in a strange bed on the other side of town and decided to call in sick so you can stay horizontal with the scary beauty.”

  Izzy groaned. Scary beauty was right. She backed into one of the charging stations in the parking garage. “I thought you were in Vegas.”

  “When you called, I was in the airport getting ready to board my return flight. So, was I right? Did you go home with the hottie from the dating site?”

  “No, I did not. But Jane came to save me, not Hector.” Izzy tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she thought about Jane.

  “Hmm. He didn’t tell me he was going to delegate when I spoke to him.”

  Izzy imagined the discussion between Audie and Hector, their commentary about her nonexistent love life and how it could change with the right woman. She thought about Jane again and then shook her head.

  A dramatic sigh issued from the car speakers. “You mean I’ve been stalking the closed door to his office all morning for no reason, when all I had to do was interrogate Jane about the reconnaissance mission? I just saw her. At least she’s in a good mood today. Why doesn’t anyone tell me anything? Why aren’t you at work, then?”

  Izzy heard something in Audie’s voice that she guessed might be worry. Audie knew all about Izzy’s bipolar issues. “I just pulled into the parking garage after running a few extra miles this morning.”

  Audie chuckled. “Ah, I see. Were you running off the tension, so to speak? Do you have a case of blue balls?”

  “Disgusting. I’m not even going to respond.”

  Audie laughed. “Hurry up and get up here. I need to hear all about your disastrous date.”

  She transferred the call to her phone to continue and got out of her car. “I’m in the parking garage. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

  “Cool! I can’t wait…Damn!”

  “What?” Izzy held the phone to her ear with her shoulder and removed the plug from the charging station so she could power up the Tesla.

  “I just checked my calendar. I’ll be in a meeting for the rest of the day.”

  “Let’s do lunch, then.” Izzy plugged her car in and grabbed her laptop bag.

  “They’re bringing lunch in. Curse this day! I’ll hunt you down if I get out early. Otherwise, I’m coming over for a beer tonight, and you’re going to spill the details. I’ll bring the beer since you never have any at your place.”

  Izzy laughed and hung up. When she got to her desk, she didn’t even take her laptop out of her bag. She just dropped the bag onto her chair and headed to the other side of the floor. She hadn’t made up her mind about what she was going to say, but she refused to sit at her desk with the awareness of Jane’s proximity taunting her until they somehow bumped into each other. Butterflies filled her stomach.

  When she neared Jane’s desk, all of the developers, including Jane, were standing in the corner huddled around a huge monitor. It was the morning scrum, when they prioritized their work for the day. Disappointed, and not wanting to interrupt, Izzy was just about to turn around to go back to her desk when the group broke up and started to filter back to their desks. Jane saw her and smiled. A surge of anticipation overcame her. She stood by Jane’s desk and watched her approach. She really liked the way Jane walked.

  “Hey, there.” Jane came to a stop right in front of her with a shy smile.

  “Hey.” Izzy’s mouth was dry. Standing this close to Jane, she could smell the herbal scent she remembered from the night before.

  They stared at one another. Izzy’s brain had fallen into a recursive loop consisting of memories of their kiss, followed by questions about what it meant, back to the kiss, ad nauseum. There was no room for words.

  “You got home safely last night?” Jane finally asked.

  “The train station is only a block from my house.” Izzy had no idea how she accessed words from the contention in her brain.

  “It’s close to my house, too,” Jane said.

  Were they really talking about the train? Jane must have thought the same thing because she rolled her eyes and laughed.

  “The train is the last thing on my mind. You wanna get some coffee?”

  “Sounds perfect.” So, she wasn’t the only one.

  “Come on.” Jane picked at her sleeve, pulling her toward the breakroom.

  Izzy fell into step beside her. She would have followed her anywhere.

  When they arrived at the orange breakroom, a couple of guys on Izzy’s team were playing air hockey at the far end of the room, and Xiying from the security development team was putting a bag in the restaurant-sized refrigerator. The thwack-thwack of the plastic strikers hitting the puck on the air hockey table rang through the room, as did brief blurts of competitive smack talk from the two document-control managers.

  “See you at the weekly interlock meeting, Izzy,” Xiying said as she passed Izzy and Jane on her way out the breakroom.

  “Sounds good.” Izzy watched Xiying leave and almost wished she would stay to distract them. Jane’s pre
sence, inches away from her, was like a solid thing pressing against her, and all she could think about was last night. But she definitely wasn’t ready to talk about it. She had to move, put some distance between them.

  She walked to the espresso machine and, with a shaking hand, selected a cup from the stack next to it. Several cups came up at once, and she had to restack them. Finally, she got her cup under the spout and started to brew a cup of coffee. During her struggles, Jane went to the Peanut M&M’s and filled a cup. When she came back, she leaned against the high counter island across from her and popped one of the candies into her mouth. Wasn’t she even a little nervous?

  Jane smiled. “I’m stress eating.”

  Maybe it wasn’t one-sided. Jane was stressed in what way? Stressed they kissed and shouldn’t have? Or stressed they’d kissed and wondered what was next? Stressed about something Izzy hadn’t yet thought about? God, she was so out of her element, and the tension was making her insane.

  “Why are you stressed?” Izzy leaned against the counter next to the machine. How did she manage to sound so casual? This wasn’t casual. Audie would have high-fived her for being so cool. That was on the outside, though. Inside, Izzy’s guts were roiling.

  “I think you know.” Jane looked away from Izzy. Was that a crack in her façade?

  The espresso machine burped out the last of the coffee, and Izzy turned to take the cup from under the dispenser and put a new one in its place for Jane. The distraction gave her a moment to catch her breath because, for some reason, she was having a hard time breathing. God, it seemed like she was always having a hard time breathing lately.

  “Oh.” Her heart beat like a hammer in her chest. Were they really going to talk about this here at work? Could she handle it?

  With a loud hoot of victory, a clatter came from the air hockey table, and the thwacking of the puck stopped.

  “Championship defended once again!” Quan pumped his fist in the air.

  “Not for long, buddy!” Jack slapped Quan on the back.

  Quan looked at Izzy, raised his fists in the air above his head, and started humming the theme to Rocky.

  Izzy waved and two guys exited the breakroom, discussing the finer points of the game. They had no idea Izzy was about to faint from whatever was going on with the herd of buffalo in her stomach. How did they not feel the power of whatever was happening between her and Jane in front of the espresso machine?

  Izzy turned toward the coffee machine to check the progress of the brew.

  “Izzy.” Jane’s voice was close to Izzy’s ear. When Izzy turned, Jane was right there, inches away. She put her hands on Izzy’s shoulders. Izzy stared into those infinitely deep chocolate eyes and opened her mouth to say something, but Jane’s lips were suddenly there, pressed to hers. Her body responded with an intense heat that coalesced into a fireball in her middle. The kiss was everything. Nothing around them mattered. Jane’s mouth tasted of chocolate and peanuts.

  Izzy opened her lips, inviting Jane’s tongue into her mouth. She reached up to cradle Jane’s face, sinking her fingers into her hair, kissing her without restraint. They leaned into each other. Jane’s hands slipped to her chest, twisting into fists holding the fabric of her T-shirt. Izzy had never felt possessed like this, nor had she been so willing to be possessed. She abandoned all control and kissed Jane back, releasing all the pent-up confusion of the last ten hours, allowing herself to be swept away by the soft press of Jane’s body and the pliant lips sliding against her own.

  Voices in the hall just outside the breakroom pulled Izzy from the haze of desire that had descended upon her. She quickly pulled away, dropping her hands from Jane’s hair. Her back banged into the counter, and she turned to pick up one of the coffee cups just as Hector and one of his developers walked into the room. Hot espresso splashed over Izzy’s hand.

  “Shit!” she said, grabbing a paper towel. She barely felt the sting of the burn, but it gave her an excuse to keep her back to the doorway while she pulled herself together. Oh Lord, what a kiss! A tingle ran up Izzy’s spine.

  “Hey, smooth moves! You still thinking about your date last night?” Hector laughed as he came up beside her and grabbed a cup, thrust it under the spout, and pushed the brew button. “I need details. Let’s catch up at lunch, okay?”

  Izzy turned around and exchanged a look with Jane. “Sounds good.” She definitely planned to omit some details.

  Hector turned his attention to Jane. “Do you have a minute to chat about the sprint we were talking about in the scrum meeting this morning? Monica has an idea we want to work on.”

  “Sure.” Jane looked completely normal. Her beautiful clear skin was the same as it always was, and Izzy saw no sign of their interrupted kiss. Izzy handed Jane one of the cups of coffee as she started to follow Hector out of the breakroom. The look Jane gave Izzy over her shoulder was the only thing indicating they’d shared a moment capable of melting the countertops in the room. The desire in her eyes burned like a simmering caldera.

  * * *

  If the chemistry is right and the attraction is there, second base is almost inevitable. It’s just a matter of getting there. Second base is a hand slipped under a shirt, that skin-to-skin touch, exploration above the waist, the grinding of hips, the titillating promise or hope of something more. Second base is a safe place to hang out if you want to get to know your partner better outside of the bedroom before “going all the way.”

  Second base is foreplay, heavy petting, the buildup of desire. If your partner doesn’t spend much time at second base and wants to move directly to third or beyond, you can get a good idea of how they will be when you have sex. If that’s what you’re into, great. But if you’re looking for something different and you want some buildup before you get busy, you’re going to want to make this preference known early on, or you’re going to set yourself up for frustration down the road.

  Chapter Twenty

  The morning flew by for Izzy. Her mind was on Jane and their kiss as she went through the motions of her job. Somehow, she made it through a meeting right before noon and was relieved when Hector told her he couldn’t join her for lunch after all. The issue he’d been looking for Jane to discuss kept both of them from taking a break. Glad to have some time alone to think, Izzy grabbed a sandwich and took it back to her desk, where she tried to submerge herself in reviewing a stack of documents.

  By three o’clock, she had finally settled into her normal rhythm and was engrossed in some edits when she felt a presence behind her. She knew who it was immediately because heat spread across her body. When she turned, Jane was standing with an apple in her hand and a smile on her face.

  “I’ve been heads down for hours. I need a break. Want to go for a walk?” Jane took a bite of her apple.

  Izzy swallowed hard. How had she never noticed how sexy Jane was when she ate? “Is that all you’ve had today?”

  Jane’s eyes were on Izzy’s lips, and Izzy’s heart thumped.

  “Hector had pizza brought in.”

  Izzy dragged her eyes from Jane and closed her laptop. They headed toward the sidewalk that looped around the campus in a sort of landscaped greenbelt. They’d taken breaks and walked this path a few times before, but it was different now.

  When they were out of earshot from the building, Jane stopped.

  “Things were pretty intense in the breakroom. And last night. I just had to say it, to get it out on the table.”

  Jane’s expression was open, vulnerable, and Izzy was relieved to see that Jane seemed as affected by the kiss as she was. She glanced away before she closed the distance between them again. When she looked back, she saw what appeared to be insecurity on Jane’s face and wanted to make it go away.

  For a writer, she was having a difficult time finding words. “It was awesome,” she said. Pathetic and insufficient as the words were, they were true, and she was relieved to see Jane’s expression of insecurity fade.

  Jane slid her hand up Izzy’s arm,
and a flash of the same excitement she’d felt when Jane had led her to the breakroom flared within her. She wanted another kiss, and it scared the hell out of her. What was happening? Her controlled life was in jeopardy, and she couldn’t stop the threat. More interestingly, she didn’t want to.

  They started walking again. Jane’s hand fell back to her side, and Izzy thought about reaching out to hold it, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  Jane’s voice was quiet. “I wasn’t sure if you were okay with me kissing you.”

  “I kissed you back.” In fact, she wanted to kiss her now, hide behind a tree and kiss her until they both turned into puddles. Where was her sense of control?

  “But I started it. I didn’t know if you were just being nice.”

  Izzy snuck a glance at her. “I definitely wasn’t just being nice. Does it matter who started it? Maybe I did.”

  “I’m pretty sure it was me. I’ve been wanting to do it for weeks.”

  “Really?” Izzy stopped walking. “Weeks?”

  Jane turned and walked backward, smiling while she gazed up through her eyelashes at Izzy. “Really.”

  Izzy jogged to catch up with her. “How come you didn’t say anything?”

  “You were interested in Anaya the Playa.”

  “It was just research.” Jane’s raised eyebrows forced her to be more truthful. “At least at first. I got a little curious on a personal level at the end, but you saw how that went.” She ran a hand over her face.

  “Audie never said anything to you?” Jane asked.

  “Why would Audie do that?” Izzy asked. Wait. Audie had suggested Jane was jealous. Izzy had to concentrate to keep up their pace.

  “Both she and Hector have known I find you attractive.” Jane pushed her hair behind her ear and looked at her feet as she walked.

  “They did?” And they never said anything! They were her friends. It would have been nice to know this. She had no idea what she would have done with the information, but still!