The one in which I apologize for a long hiatus
Héloïse wondered if it was stupid waiting around for last call. For one, bars at 2 am were not her thing (really anywhere at 2 am was not her thing) and for two, she wasn’t sure Marriane still wanted her there even if she had texted to ask her to come to karaoke night.
Marianne’s set finished hours ago and she had immediately gone to help behind the bar without so much as a word to Héloïse. It is insane how good she looked shaking Martinis- hello biceps- and she did this adorable little eyebrow raise when she was totally surprised what the person in front of her was ordering and really Héloïse shouldn’t be noticing any of this because they were barely friends.
The performance with Kat had been phenomenal, the way they had weaved the songs together, adding Dom to the narrative without speaking for her, how they’d brightened it all up at the end with the confident, playful “accidentally in love” it was perfect. The lovebirds had left shortly afterward, presumably to talk things out and Héloïse really, really hoped that they wound up finding their way together. She also couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. She had felt a real connection playing with Marianne on St. Patrick’s Day that she didn’t like to think the other woman could build with just anyone.
She picked absently at the label on her empty beer bottle, contemplating leaving for the umpteenth time that night. Then her phone buzzed in her pocket with a text from Marianne- turn around.
She swiveled in her chair and found, standing behind her, Marianne grinning from ear to ear with two beers and a massive basket of onion rings. “You stayed,” the other woman commented, looking a little shy, “I’m so glad.”
Héloïse smiled back breathing in the mouth-watering scent of the onion rings, “I’m glad you could finally get away, please sit.”
Marianne put the basket on the table between them then placed one beer in front of Heloise, it was the same as the one she had just finished and put the other in front of the empty seat next to her before dropping down heavily into the chair. Héloïse watched as she squeezed the lime wedge down the neck of her beer and took a long pull, the way Marianne's neck moved with each swallow was criminal.
“Corona?” She asked just to have something to say.
“Mmmm” Marianne hummed and finally set the beer back on the table half-finished. “Mexican beer and gold tequila, it’s the only way to survive here.”
Héloïse grinned and said, “I agree completely.”
Marianne gave her another appraising look as if she was trying to store every detail of Héloïse’s face away for future reference, “so were you impressed?”
Héloïse didn’t miss the allusion to their first meeting and her challenge to try again. “Yes,” she said with a smile. She looked down at her new beer and started picking at that label too as she continued, “the mash-up was perfect and the message was honest about how you can both be afraid of love, or at least afraid that it isn’t as real as you think, and accidentally find yourself in it anyway. It was perfect for them”
Marianne reached out and laid a soft hand on her wrist, “It wasn’t just for them.”
Héloïse looks at Marianne’s hand for a moment, then reaches out tracing each finger gently with her own. “Have you ever imagined something so much that you’re not sure if it’s a dream or a memory?” She asked wistfully.
“You dreamt about me?”
“No,” Héloïse clarified as she raised her hand to Marianne’s neck flowing the line of her muscles up to her jaw and stopping short of touching her lips by sheer force of will. She leaned forward, nuzzling Marianne’s temple with her nose as she whispered, “I thought of you.”
She felt Marianne shutter and swallow hard, which made her own blood sing. She pulled back again, looking into Marianne’s eyes. She felt like there was a veil between them, one she wished they could pull down and surge through. “I’d like you to kiss me.” She said tenderly.
Marianne half laughed half whined as she answered, “I’d like you to kiss me too.”
Héloïse curled her hand around the back of Marianne’s neck, pulling gently and bringing their lips together. It was soft at first, warm, and impossibly sweet. Héloïse sifted slightly deepening the kiss and moving her fingers into the hair at the nape of Marianne’s neck.
“Marianne!”
The other woman whips around so fast she leaves Héloïse looking like a cartoon character kissing her silhouette in the empty air. “Hein?” the strangled sound squeaks out of Marianne’s throat, but she reaches down below the table and squeezes Héloïse’s knee reassuringly.
“Put a pin in that and lock up your amps so we can all go home eh?” A large man in an apron hollers from behind the kitchen window.
“Heard!” Marianne shouted back and the women watched as he walked back into the depths of the kitchen shaking his head.
Marianne turned back to Héloïse with a sheepish smile, “enjoy the onion rings I won’t be long and then we can get out of here- I mean if you want- I mean you don’t have to wait I can call you- I-”
Héloïse leaned in again, silencing Marianne’s stuttering with another kiss, strong and quick, “I’ll wait.”