Maria sighed shaking off her feet as she stepped into the door of presidential sciences. ‘Today has not been my day and it's only 9 am.’
“Quite the random downpour today huh Ms. Lewis?”she turned, irritated, finding the culprit to be a smirking Thomas Jefferson lounging against the elevator.
She rolled her eyes “Jefferson, seriously, what do you do?”
“Please,” he said with a scoff. She pressed the button to the elevator, hearing the faint tune of the sleeping beauty waltz. She smiled at the memory it brought back;
Maria nervously stepped through the doors of the Schuyler residence, only to be greeted by the smiling face of a beautiful woman. “Hi, my name is Elizabeth Schuyler, you can call me Eliza. I'm sorry to hear about what that bastard James did to you, I always thought he was an ass, you deserve much better.” She smiled and took a breath, “sorry, I guess I'm kinda rambling on, anyways it's wonderful that you've agreed to stay here, oh this way,” she said leading a confused and slightly flustered Maria down the hallway, “here, come in, this room is mine, and here's where you'll be staying, it's supposed to be an office for my room but we turned it into a guest space,” Eliza stopped, “you don't mind if I play music do you?” Maria smiled and shook her head lightly. “Alright well I'll leave you to get settled in.” and with a warm smile she closed the door, Maria could hear the quiet music in the background, she unpacked and arranged her things, which only took about an hour, all she had left after walking out on James was one suitcase. She slowly opened the door and stepped out to find Eliza twirling around the room and softly humming. Maria watched for a moment but lightly cleared her throat just as the song was ending.
Eliza giggled, “I didn't see you there.” A new song began “oh the sleeping beauty waltz,” she turned towards Maria with a raised eyebrow and held out her hand, “care to dance?” The newcomer timidly took her offer and Eliza spun her around, they twirled and tried to waltz, resulting in the two tripping over their own feet. By the time the song was over, they had collapsed onto the bed, out of breath and in a fit of giggles.
The ding of the elevator shook Maria out of the trance she had been in, she stepped in and pressed the button for level 3. She was so lost in her own world she almost didn't notice the small lily in the corner of the elevator, she bent down and picked it up smiling as yet another memory flooded in;
“Lilies, my favorite,” Maria smiled turning to Eliza. “What are we doing here again?”
“Well I wanted you to meet some of our friends,” she smiled admiring the beautiful girl standing among all the flowers, “this is Hercules and Lafayette’s flower shop, I'm not sure where they are right now though” just as she said that, the back door burst open to reveal Hercules with Laf, whose arms were piled so high with flowers that he couldn't see the two women standing there. Herc grinned
“Oh, hey Eliza! Is this the girl you've been going on and on and on and-”
“Yes, we get it,” Eliza said quickly, “Maria this is Hercules Mulligan, we call him Herc.” Maria smiled, intrigued at the prospect of Eliza talking about her. “And the one who can't see us right now is, well, he has a really long name but It's basically just Lafayette, we call him Laf”
The Frenchman set down the flowers he was holding and smiled at the young girl, “Eliza you were right,” he winked, “she is quite beautiful.” A blush tinted both the girls’ cheeks at this.
Hercules turned and pulled a somewhat shocked Maria into a bone-crushing hug “welcome to our little family Maria, you'll fit right in.”
The elevator doors opened and Maria stepped out. The room was unusually empty, save for one plate of chocolate chip cookies on the receptionist’s desk. Maria walked over and noticed a note, written in lovely calligraphy, one of Eliza’s many talents:
So by now, Maria, I'm sure you've noticed something is up. I can't tell you what it is just yet but, trust me you'll love it. Remember the first time I baked you chocolate chip cookies?
Another memory flooded through Maria, filling her with warmth;
She could feel the sobs racking her entire body, shaking her to the core, the only reason she wasn't screaming was the lack of air in her lungs. She felt like there was an elephant, maybe a whole herd, sitting on her chest. She awoke from her nightmare, just as she had every night since she escaped James’s abuse. Normally she was able to fall back asleep and be alright but tonight she felt she couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, her entire body, all of her senses flooded with every unpleasant emotion she was humanly capable of feeling. She had to focus on something, anything other than the fear, the panic inside of her. She looked at the blurred numbers on the clock, ‘2am, great’ she could barely hear the door open over the screams in her mind. She glanced up to see that Eliza had entered the room, carrying a plate of something. She set it down and sunk down to the floor, placing a comforting hand on top of Maria’s. Maria gripped onto Eliza's hand, her only thread, pulling her back down to earth. Slowly, her breaths became more even as she focused on Eliza's hand in hers. Her thoughts slowed down to a bearable pace and the panic began to subside.
Eliza sensed this and reached for the plate, handing it to Maria, “I could hear you sobbing,” she smiled softly at Maria, “ I made you chocolate chip cookies, that always made me feel better when I was younger.”
Maria felt a wave of emotions come over her, the most prominent one being love. A few tears slipped out, this time grateful, as she engulfed the slightly taller woman in a hug, “thank you, Eliza.” The both smiled after pulling away. Maria took a cookie, and at 2 am, they sat, talking, eating chocolate chip cookies, and watching the sun rise up out of the night.
She smiled taking a bite out of one of the cookies and continuing to read the note Eliza had left her:
I found a diary entry that I had written from a few weeks ago, I'm sorry it's a bit cheesy but...I was feeling inspired.
We were on our lunch break eating with the others:She makes me so happy. Just happy. I love any moment I get to spend with her, to be near her, to listen to her, to see her, to talk to her, to touch her. My hand rests lightly on her knee, in a way that to the unknowing eye, could seem accidental. But it's not. She is eating, talking, laughing, acting completely normal, but I can tell she feels the presence of my hand on her knee, it's innocent, but I can see that it's a persistent thought in the back of her mind, as it is in mine. I go on, talking to my friends, laughing, almost, but not fully forgetting the subtle touch. I glance up from my conversation to see she is finished with her food, our eyes meet and she smiles at me ‘god that's the most beautiful thing’ my heart beats fast in my chest for a moment before I return to my conversation after that split second occurrence. In a second, she hastily reaches and grabs my hand, simultaneously grabbing hold of my heart and stealing my breath from my lungs. The gravity of my world changes in that instant. My heart is beating so loud and I am silently hoping that I am not flushing as red as I feel that I am. I look around and wonder how everyone goes on as if nothing had happened, they continue as if this doesn't shift the entire universe. And I realize that it is only shifting me, it's just a small moment in the scheme of life, but it is these moments that we hold on to.
Maria giggled at the memory. ‘That was the moment I admitted to myself that I was in love with her,’ she smiled solemnly at the thought. ‘She’d never feel the same.’
“You know,” Maria turned to find a smiling, if not slightly nervous, Eliza, “that night, when I made you cookies and we watched the sunrise, that was the moment I realized I'm in love with you. I mean sunrises, they're this marvelous work of beauty in nature, and I couldn't take my eyes off of you for a second. You outshined that sunset. And honestly I realized you outshine everything in my life.” She met Maria’s gaze slowly stepping towards her. “Maria, I love you, I know that you probably don't feel the same but, I love you, I love you, I love you,” she took a shaky breath and another step towards Maria, there was only a foot of space between them now. “You are the most important thing in my life, you're this light. You're my best friend but I love you and I don't think I could stop loving you because I love yo-” she was cut off from her rant by Maria's soft lips on hers, the kiss contained all of the pent up emotions they had both been feeling for so long. It was slow and tender, full of love. Eliza pulled away, stuttering, at a loss for words, “um-uh so, huh, I wasn't expecting that, I uh I had this whole speech planned out. Um so, I guess I'll just-” she took a deep breath, “Maria, will you be my girlfriend?” She shied away, sure Maria would turn her down.
The latter grinned even wider, if that was possible, and practically tackled her into a hug “Yes! Yes! A million times yes! I love you so much, Eliza, it almost hurts.” Both women were crying, in pure bliss.
Eliza reached out, taking hold of Maria's face, half laughing, half crying “I love you,” she pulled her into another kiss, tasting salt, having to pull away, the smiles being too uncontrollably wide.
Hands still on Maria's cheeks Eliza laughed “I love you.”