Good Girl, Bad Girl: A Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  “Look, about that Mari,” she said. “After everything that happened I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Y’know you and me…”

  My eyes narrowed. Great. We were back to doing this again. I could’ve launched myself across the table and throttled her for thinking like that, but I kept it under control.

  Instead I stood and moved around to the other side of the table. Sat in the spot Jenkins had so recently vacated. I put a hand on her bare leg and felt a rush. She was still in the same clothes she’d been in the night before and it was bringing back some fun memories.

  I guess they didn’t put people in the orange jump suit if they were keeping them short term. Probably saved the city money or something.

  “What did I tell you before?” I asked.

  Robin looked away. Like she was ashamed of what she was doing. And she should be ashamed. Trying to push me away after everything we’d been through. She should know by now that I wasn’t going to put up with that crap.

  “You don’t push people away like that,” I said. “Not when I’m sitting right here waiting for you.”

  She looked up at me and there was the barest hint of a smile there. Her eyes actually looked a little moist. Like she was trying very hard to keep it under control and not doing a very good job of it.

  “I’m sorry,” she said finally. “It’s just that I’ve never…”

  “Shh,” I said, putting a finger to her lips.

  That felt nice enough that I decided to put more than a finger to her lips. I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers. She was like sin made flesh and the fire that started from our lips leapt out into the rest of my body.

  I thought about what we’d done the night before in that factory. Thought about the table next to us. Then figured it was probably not a good idea to do what my mind was wandering towards.

  I pulled away and grinned. That hesitant smile turned to a grin of her own.

  “You’re sure about this?” she said. “We’re from two different words you know.”

  “I know,” I said. “And I don’t care. All I want is you, and that’s what matters.”

  Robin reached out and took my hand. Gave it a squeeze. That felt good. It also felt good to know that I’d been there for her. She seemed genuinely surprised that someone would come back for her. That someone would care enough to get her out of the trouble she was in.

  Well she was about to learn that was the world she was in now. I didn’t care if it took me months or years to convince her of that. I was with her, and I was going to let her know how much she was loved.

  Sure there were things like going off to college and all that coming up, but we’d figure it out. It would be worth figuring out for her.

  I smiled and stood.

  “Shall we?”

  “Yeah, sounds good,” she said, a smile of her own crossing her face.

  “Good,” I said. “Because meeting my dad is the easy part. Wait until you get to know my mom!”

  Epilogue

  I cursed and sucked on my thumb as some of the grease from the bacon leapt up and hit me. Then I shook my head, laughed, and went right back to cooking breakfast.

  “What’s the occasion honey?” Mari asked.

  I turned and hit her with a smile. She returned the smile and it hit me like it always did. Even all these years later she was just as beautiful as the day we met at the old filling station on the other side of the highway from her church.

  A church we hadn’t gone to in awhile. Sure they might be welcoming when we went there on holidays and stuff because Mari’s mom insisted, but there were still enough people there who gave us weird looks that I wasn’t entirely comfortable there.

  Of course I wasn’t sure if those weird looks were because of who I was or because of the relationship I was in with Mari. Either way the judgmental old blue hairs there could go fuck themselves.

  “Figured I’d make something special to celebrate the first day on the new job,” I said.

  Mari stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. Looked me up and down with an appraising look that I never got tired of no matter how many times she did it. I shivered, and that was saying something considering the heat rolling off the stove.

  That was nothing compared to the heat Mari gave off though.

  “You know I’m supposed to be the one giving you the special breakfast for your first day on the new job,” she said. “You’re not supposed to cook it yourself.”

  I looked out the window again and bit my lip. Debated whether or not I wanted to start the trouble I was about to start, then decided what the hell. Things were going so well that I could risk it.

  “You know I can’t stand the way you cook your bacon,” I finally said, the grin never leaving my face.

  “You’re impossible,” Mari said with a roll of her eyes to let me know exactly what she thought.

  Mari walked over to the small table in the middle of the kitchen and sat down. Started working on a cup of coffee I’d set out there when I heard her stirring in the bedroom.

  It still amazed me that we were able to afford a house all our own right out of school like that. I had other friends from school who were barely scraping by working whatever job they could to make ends meet, but then again none of them would be willing to come back to their home towns to try and make a difference like Mari and me.

  “So are you sure you’re ready for this?” Mari asked. “I grew up around this. You know it’s a lot different in practice than it is talking about it in school.”

  “How difficult could it be?” I asked.

  “Dad tells me he’s going to throw you at a case involving none other than Officer Alan,” she said, her voice suddenly dark.

  My eyes narrowed too. I’d wanted to keep that from her, but if her dad told her then there was no harm talking about it.

  “Yeah, he got caught on camera trying to solicit a girl to get out of a ticket,” I said.

  “Up to his old tricks?” Mari asked.

  “Yup. His dad might’ve hired him right out of college, but I’m gonna make sure he can’t get a job in law enforcement by the time I’m done with him.”

  “Just be careful,” Mari said.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said. “Besides, I have it a lot easier than most of my friends. I have an in with one of the locals, after all.”

  I’d had it a lot easier in a lot of ways because of Mari’s dad. The money from my lawsuit agains the local cops had been enough to pay for undergrad and law school with some left over to pay for my sister to go to college after she graduated later this year.

  I smiled thinking of her. She’d stayed with Mari’s parents for a few years and now she had a room at our place. Yet another way Mari had saved me. Yet another way her family had saved me.

  “You’ve got that right,” Mari said. “I still think it breaks dad’s heart just a little that I never went into the legal profession.”

  She paused for a moment as I got the last of the bacon off of the griddle and tossed it onto a paper plate with some paper towel to soak up the grease. The stuff smelled delicious and my stomach growled. One of the most difficult things about cooking a breakfast like this was resisting the urge to eat the goods as I finished.

  I moved over and sat next to Mari. Started scooping up eggs and some toast.

  “Healthy appetite?” she asked.

  “I want to make sure I’m ready for my first day on the job,” I said. “It’s a big day, you know. Not all of us get a nice and easy job like you.”

  “Yeah, well you know how it is,” she said, taking another sip of her coffee. “You know I really think that if I’m not going into the law profession he’s just as happy that you are. You’re like his second daughter.”

  I smiled at that and continued heaping eggs onto my plate. After a long moment Mari did the same.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked. “So one daughter wasn’t enough for him? He had to have two?”

  “Well unofficially at l
east,” she said, staring out the same window I’d been staring out of moments ago.

  I felt a tingle run through me at her words. Unofficially at least. I looked around me at everything. The house we bought and fixed up just down the street from Mari’s parents. The life we were starting to build together in the same small town neither one of us could wait to get out of all those years ago.

  And now I couldn’t imagine leaving the place. Sure we might run into the occasional judgmental asshole, but they were few and far between and it seemed like mostly people were cool with us.

  Not that I would’ve given a fuck if they weren’t cool with us, but it made what I was about to do a lot easier.

  “What if we made it official?” I asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Mari asked, looking at me with genuine confusion.

  I grinned and shook my head. There were times when she was still every bit the oblivious but beautiful girl I’d fallen in love with all those years ago. It was one of the things I loved about her.

  Like right now. That obliviousness worked out just fine for me, because she looked genuinely surprised when I whipped out a box and popped it open showing the ring inside.

  “It’s simple enough. I’m going into the family business and your parents already think of me as their daughter. Why not make it daughter-in-law?”

  Mari’s hands moved to her mouth in that move that girls always did in diamond commercials trying to convince people to spend a few months’ salary on a rock. I wondered if girls actually did that before the commercials told them that’s what they were supposed to do.

  “Are you serious?” she asked.

  “Completely,” I replied. “Mari, you and your family gave me a life when I didn’t think I had anything to look forward to, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  She didn’t answer in so many words, but the twinkle in her eye and the way she jumped on me wrapping her arms around me was all the answer I needed.

  It was all a little crazy. If someone told me eight years ago that I’d be getting engaged to the hottest girl in our school on the day I went out to my first day in a new law practice I was starting with her father I would’ve told them they were crazy.

  It wasn’t part of the plan. It wasn’t what was supposed to happen. It wasn’t the small town narrative of where my life was supposed to go. I know everyone thought I was supposed to be in jail by now, but Mari really and truly had saved me. She’d shown me a better life and helped me make a better life for my little sister in turn.

  It might not be the life I’d expected, but it was so right. And I owed it all to beautiful Mari.

  I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.

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  Just Friends

  1

  Kirsten

  “Excuse me ma’am, but could you show me where the books about the big red dog are?”

  I smiled as I got down on my knees in front of the little girl. Her mom stood back and to the side just a little. It was obvious this was mama bird pushing the baby out of the next, and it was equally obvious that the little girl in front of me was nervous about approaching a stranger.

  I winced inside at the “ma’am” bit, but I’d discovered nothing made you feel old faster than working with children and teenagers.

  “I’d be happy to,” I said. “We have a whole shelf full of his books right over here!”

  I didn’t condescend. I didn’t use a singsong voice that I’d seen some people using when they were working with children. I treated her like I would an adult. When we were at the shelf and she had her “big red dog” book all picked out she looked up at me and grinned showing off a missing tooth near the front.

  “Thanks lady!”

  “Addison!” the mom said, finally chiming in. “Be more polite to the nice librarian!”

  Addison blushed and looked down. I wanted to tell her that it was okay, but another lesson I’d learned early on in my time here was that it wasn’t a good idea to interrupt mama bird pushing the baby out of the next unless it was obvious mama bird was hurting the baby in the process. So I held my tongue.

  Besides, who was I to tell someone how to raise their kids? I was fresh out of grad school and would probably never have any kids of my own considering. I’d long ago reconciled myself to being childless when I decided I preferred the ladies to the gentlemen. Sure I knew a couple of girls who talked about adopting someday or finding a donor, but they were all in relationships that were way more serious than any of the flings I’d been involved in.

  No, I was probably stuck taking all of my motherly instincts and throwing them at the kids who came into the library. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing. I hadn’t gotten any complaints yet since I started the job.

  “Sorry ma’am. Thank you very much for the book!”

  That much politeness seemed to be the limit of what little Addison could handle. She scampered off towards the front of the library. Her mom stopped to favor me with a smile and then turned to follow her daughter.

  I didn’t mind watching the mother walk away. She added a nice bit of scenery to the children’s room. Our town was just far enough away from the city that it didn’t attract as many of the soccer mom yuppie types as some of the bigger suburbs closer in, but there were still a few who could rock the yoga pants with the best of them.

  I shook my head and looked at the cart of books ready to be shelved. It was a testament to how quickly I’d grown used to life outside of college and grad school that I was looking at a young mom in her yoga pants and thinking those sorts of thoughts. A definite change from the days when I’d been surrounded by pretty young things.

  “You’re dreaming if you think you’re going to find something like that out here in Hooterville, Kirsten,” I muttered
to myself as I got back to work. It was just me and Ethel running the place, after all, and these books weren’t going to shelve themselves.

  Twenty minutes later I went back to my office and flopped down in the chair. Shelving books could be surprisingly good cardio. Not to mention there were some stacks of books that rivaled anything I’d ever lifted. Especially since I hadn’t been as good about hitting the gym while I was in grad school as maybe I was when I was in undergrad.

  I paused and looked around at my domain. A small office with glass running floor to ceiling on one end. I had a small wooden desk that had a slightly musty smell to it that said it had probably been sitting in this office since well before I was born. Maybe even since before my parents were born. The library had been here for more than a century, after all. One of the original Carnegie libraries with all the elaborate stonework outside to go with it.

  The small office wasn’t much, but it was mine. Well, it was the library board’s and I got to run it. Still, I figured I wasn’t doing bad coming back to the library where I first fell in love with books, even if it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected when I went off to grad school.

  Hell, with the job market the way it was, even close to a decade after the financial crisis kicked anything that relied on public tax dollars right in the jewels, I was lucky that a combination of qualifications and good old fashioned small town nepotism were able to get me this job.

  That and I was the only person who was stupid enough to take the paycheck they were offering and a schedule that amounted to working full time hours on a part time job description. All in the name of building up my resume a bit.