Tainted Heart

Hope woke up to a noise of drawers being opened and closed. Even though she hadn't drank that much the night before, she could feel her head pounding a little.

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you up, I was just looking for a shirt and some shorts to take a quick shower. How are you feeling?" Carli looked at her with a lazy smile.

"I'm ok, what time is it?" Hope asked Carli. She looked at the watch she was still wearing.

"It's eleven o'clock." Carli was half way to the door when she heard a loud noise behind her. She turned around to see Hope getting up from the floor.

"Oh my god! I'm so screwed, where's my phone?" She was panicking, looking for her phone everywhere, and Carli was a little worried.

"It's in your bed. Hope whats..." She was cut off by Hope.

"Fuck....fuck it's out of charge. Fuck, I got to go!" She threw her phone on the bed and started to put on some shoes. She didn't even look Carli's way to see the amused and worried face Carli was throwing her way. Hope didn't even bother to change, she needed to get to Kelley as fast as she could. She would worry about how she left the house after she got to Kelley.

Hope flew down the stairs, grabbed her keys, and was out the door. She would have a lot of explaining to do to Carli later, but right now she was more worried about what was going through Kelley's head.

She was two blocks from the cafe where she was supposed to meet Kelley twenty five minutes ago and it was just her damn luck that traffic was not moving fast enough.

"God damn it!" She growled, looking over to where there was a parking spot by the side walk. She quickly parked and got out her car, not even stopping to pay for the spot. She ran as fast as she could, as if her life depended on it. People were probably thinking she was some crazy woman but Hope could care less about them, she needed to get to Kelley and fast. When she was close to the café, she caught a glimpse of Kelley walking away. She yelled as loud as she could.

"Kelley wait!" She wasn't sure if Kelley heard her because she didn't turn around. She was closer to her now so she tried again.

"Kelley wait... Kelley!" The brunette turned around and they made eye contact. Hope stopped right in front of her.

"Please...let me explain...I...I'm so so...sooo sorry!" She was trying to control her breathing but the look Kelley was giving her had her heart beating so fast she was sure it was about to burst out of her chest.

"You've got 10 minutes explain," was all Kelley said.

"Fuck." Hope said under her breath looking down, resting her hands on her knees while trying to control her breathing and thoughts. "Kell I'm really really sorry."

"You said that already." Kelley looked at Hope from head to her toe. She noticed she was wearing shorts and a jacket over a tank top. She also noticed Hope was only wearing one sock. She looked at Hope in the eyes again waiting for the tall woman to speak.

"I....I forgot to put my alarm last night. My phone was off this morning, that's why I didn't call, when I saw I was already late I just...I just came here as fast as I could. I realized I was late and I didn't want you to think I stood you up. I would never do that to you, please I'm sorry."

Kelley had already forgiven Hope in a way. When she took a look at her, noticing what she was wearing, she had pretty much figured out it was something around what Hope had just said to her. Before Kelley could answer though, Hope spoke again.

"Look, I understand if you don't want to still go out with me on this date. I get it. I'm sorry I'm an asshole. I fucked up, I know. But please let me make it up to you." Kelley was looking down now, barely hiding her smile from Hope. Then she looked up with that smile on her face that Hope was sure was only reserved for her.

"OK Solo, I'll give you another shot, you better make it count." She said looking at Hope again from head to toe. Hope was starting to smile when she felt Kelley's eyes looking her over.

"I feel a little overdressed though, you should have specified about what I needed to wear for this date." She teased her and Hope was now blushing. Kelley thought it was because of her comment about what Hope was wearing. Really she was blushing because Kelley was checking her out, at least she hoped she was.

"Yeah like I said, didn't even have time to do anything. I just wanted to catch you and apologize before you thought I was the biggest asshole alive for not showing up." Hope said feeling a little embarrassed about what she was wearing, and about not being on time for the date with Kelley.

"Umm...I would love to get out of these clothes into something more date worthy. Do you mind coming with me to my house so I could get cleaned up and all?" She asked her and Kelley nodded.

"Yeah lead the way." Kelley stopped in her tracks and grabbed Hope's arm. "Don't tell me you ran all the way here?" She raised an eyebrow at Hope, who giggled a bit at the way Kelley asked. She shook her head and looked over where she had parked her car.

"Oh shit..." She knew she had gotten a ticket before she even saw the white slip of paper stuck on her windshield.

"Quite the vocabulary you have there today." Kelley teased.

"I'm sorry," Hope looked at Kelley with a sad look on her face. Kelley felt guilty. She was just trying to tease the older woman, but Hope was really kicking herself about all of this.

"Enough with the apologies today. Let's just start over."

They had just reached Hope's car, and with out thinking, Hope walked over to the passenger side with Kelley and opened the door for her. Kelley was surprised at Hope's actions. She wasn't used to people opening doors for her, she was sure Hope was the only person who had ever done it. She smiled Hope's way and reached to put her had in Hope's arm, giving her a light squeeze.

"Thank you. I guess chivalry isn't dead after all." She teased her again, and Hope felt a bush coming to her face. She didn't realize what she was doing until she heard Kelley speak. She closed Kelley's door and walked around to the driver's side.

Hope was blushing a lot around Kelley, and usually she was more in control of herself, but with Kelley it was different. She was a wreck when it came to Kelley and not in any bad way. She kind of hated it, but she was intrigued by the emotions that Kelley had her feeling. This girl that she barley knew for only a few days, not even a week, was making her feel much more than what Adrian had ever made her feel in the time she was with him. As much as it scared her, at the same time Hope wanted to explore those emotions.

"You know, we haven't even been on this date yet and you're already taking me home," Kelley laughed, "I feel like we're doing this whole thing backwards." Hope laughed from the drivers seat.

"Well if I would of known you'd be this easy, I would have invited you over to my home from the beginning." Hope teased sending a wink her way. Kelley brought her hands to her, chest faking hurt.

"I am noooot!" Kelley said and Hope couldn't help but look her way again because of how childish that had come out. She was amused by the easy flow of banter they had started between each other.

"What are you, five?" Hope teased.

"If that were the case, what would you be?" She chuckled at her stupid comeback.

"Oh my god you're unbelievable, this conversation is over." she said turning on the radio. They drove to Hope's house in a comfortable silence, stealing glances at one another every now and then.

When they arrived at Hope's home, she suddenly remembered that she had left Carli inside without an explanation about storming out of the house freaking out. And now she was back, and Kelley was with her. 'Oh dear god' she thought, Carli was going to have a field day with this.

"Before we go in, I want to say sorry for whatever happens in there." Kelley gave her a confused look. "My friend Carli is in there and well, I kinda stormed out of the house without an explanation so yeah and she's very...mmm let's go with annoying." She said and looked at Kelley waiting for a response.

"Don't worry, I think I can handle myself." She smiled at Hope. In an attempt to settle her nerves, she reached over and touched Hope's arm. Hope smiled back and started to get out of her car. When Kelley didn't make a move to get out, Hope looked her way and was met with the biggest smile yet.

"You're kidding, really?" She laughed loudly at how cute Kelley looked, smirking and making eyes at her from the passenger seat.

"I mean, you gotta treat a girl right. After all, you're a gentleman aren't you?" She said. "Or was that just a one time thing?" Hope rolled her eyes but the smile never left her lips. She walked over to the passenger door and opened the door for Kelley.

"You're lucky your cute," she said before she could stop herself. She froze for a second or two.

"Oh you think I'm cute huh?" Kelley was full on smirking by now. "Well lucky for you, I think you're pretty cute too." She winked and Hope rolled her eyes for the third time,or god knows how many times, that day. They were half way to the front door when it opened and Carli walked out. She looked between Hope and Kelley, confused more than anything, but surprised that Hope had brought someone home after her freak out earlier this morning.

"Oh you're leaving." She said to Carli, who kept staring back and forth at Hope and Kelley.

"Yeah, I have some stuff I need to take care of today." She gave Hope a questioning look, waiting for her friend to introduce her to her new friend.

"Oh ummm... this is my dear friend Carli," she looked at Kelley, and then looked back at Carli, "This is Kelley." She decided to just leave it at that. Something in Carli's brain clicked when she heard the name, and she smiled at Hope. Carli stuck her hand out to Kelley.

"Nice to meet you Kelley," she said looking back at Hope, enjoying how uncomfortable Hope looked at having to introduce Kelley to her. "I've heard so much about you." Hope was blushing sending glares at her friend for being such an ass.

"Oh really!? All good things I hope," Kelley looked at Hope with a smile, and then at Carli.

"Oh yeah, very goo-" She was cut off by Hope dragging her away from Kelley. Hope needed to get her friend out of there before she said anything else.

"Rude! I want details. I want to know what the hell all that was about," she laughed and kept walking to her car.

"Goodbye Carli." Hope wasn't too happy about having to tell Carli about this morning but she had better things to do today than to put up with her friend.

She walked back to where Kelley was waiting for her and led her in to house. She showed Kelley to the living room and gave her the remote to the TV in case she wanted to watch something while she waited. She told her to help herself to anything in the kitchen if she wanted something to drink.

"OK I won't be long, I promise." Kelley smiled and then turned on the TV. Hope was walking to the stairs when she looked back to where Kelley was staring back at her. She saw the young woman quickly look away with a light blush creeping up on her checks. Hope smiled at the sight, happy to know she had the same effect on Kelley that Kelley had on her.

Once she was done getting ready, she walked back down the stairs to find Kelley watching a cartoon show on her tv. She was mesmerized by the sight in front of her. Kelley was laughing loudly and wholeheartedly. Hope was so struck by the amazing sound coming out of her, she wanted to hear it again and again. She was all of the sudden pulled out of her head when Kelley cleared her throat.

"You clean up nice," she smiled at Hope and Hope blushed.

"Well I promise I can do better, I was kinda in a rush you know," she said smiling, then added, "but thank you for the compliment."

"Alright so what are we doing?" She asked walking to the door with Hope leading the way.

"Well I thought we could have lunch, and since the space needle is a must, I made reservations for us so that's were we're going." They were walking close together to Hope's car. Their hands kept brushing and with every brush Kelley felt a spark between and was sure that Hope was feeling it too. She mindlessly walked around the car, not expecting Hope to open the door for her again. Then she felt her reach around her and open the door.

"I um...T-Thanks" Kelley was surprised. She thought the first time it had been an in the moment kind of thing, and the second was because Kelley had pretty much force her to. Hope chuckled at the girl's nervousness.

"You're cute when you stutter," she teased.

"Am I now?" Kelley was now smiling, this was the second time Hope had called her cute today.

"Oh yeah I think your cute, but like a five year old kind of cute," was all Hope said before shutting the door and walked around to the driver's side. They drove in silence almost the whole way there, with only the radio making any sound.

"So you've talked about me? To your friend I mean," Kelley broke the comfortable silence. Glancing over at Hope who just sighed and waited until they were parked and turned around to meet Kelleys smile and beautiful stare.

"Yeah, kinda, I mean...yes I did." Hope was just gonna have to put it all out there. If Kelley was gonna ask, then Hope was gonna be honest. 'Fuck it,' she said to herself. "I told her I met a beautiful girl at the bean. And how ever since I met you I couldn't get you out of my mind. I know umm...I know we've only known each other for a good seventy two hours or so, but I would very much like to keep exploring what this is..." she trailed off, pointing between herself and Kelley, whose smile had never left her face. "I like you Kell." She finished, glancing down slightly worried for Kelley's response. Kelley put her hand on top of Hope's hand in an effort to get her to look up.

"I'd like to keep exploring whatever this might be too," she said, "I kinda like you too." Hope looked up, now smiling, and Kelley was happy to be the cause of that smile. They got out of the car, this time Kelley opened her own door, not letting Hope do it for her. Arguing about how, although it was cute when she did it, she was more than capable to open it herself. They walked together, side by side, in silence. While they waited to get in Kelley broke the silence again.

"So you think I'm beautiful?" She teased, wiggling her eyebrows at Hope. Hope couldn't help herself, she was full on laughing at how ridiculously cute Kelley looked doing that.

"Did I say beautiful? I meant ridiculous." Kelley was now looking at her in the eyes and pouting, and all Hope wanted to do was close the gap between them and kiss her stupid cute pout away.