The Meeting
Erica had finished up her planned activities for the day between her work meeting and her usual daily office duties earlier than expected. For some reason which she couldn’t even come close to pinpointing, her encounter with Franky Doyle from much earlier in the day was still at the forefront of her mind. Erica had no plans for the evening and she had decided to just try her luck, the first attempt being useless as Franky’s phone had just rang on and on for a few moments. Erica had hung up and decided one more further attempt before it would be made painfully obvious that Franky was either just quite busy or that she had absolutely no intentions of actually meeting up with the blonde again.
‘Hey, Franky. I’ve just gotten off of work a bit early and I was wondering if you would like to give me that chance to explain myself. Coffee house in about an hour?’ Without giving the text another solitary thought she had pressed send. For yet another reason that the blonde woman couldn’t quite pinpoint her heart was racing wildly as she waited for a reply from Franky. Erica was now silently cursing the affect that Franky Doyle held over her. Even after so much time had passed, and so, so many things had now changed, Franky Doyle was still the one person who could make her heart beat out of control by doing virtually nothing other than existing within her world once again.
About ten minutes had passed since Erica had sent the text message to Franky and she was just about to start her car and head home when she felt the familiar vibration of her phone in her jacket pocket. A shaky breath had escaped Erica’s body as she slid her hand inside of the pocket; just as she had suspected, the text was from Franky. She was hoping she had made the right choice in inviting the brunette out, taking a second to stop her heart from racing so wildly before opening the message.
‘Sure. I’ll meet you there.’
Franky’s reply had certainly been short and not quite so sweet, but it was a start. And on that note Erica had fired up the engine of her car and began her commute toward the small coffee shop, desperately hoping that Franky would be arriving in a good mood, or at least arrive willing to listen to Erica’s side of the story, but however she knew that those odds were rather slim. Franky Doyle had her own agenda and Erica knew that better than anybody else.
Franky had stumbled her way out of the door to Bridget’s home, making a bee line for the coffee house she had visited earlier in the same day. This time however she was drunk enough to be thinking about ten percent clearly. Franky Doyle was going to give Erica Davidson a piece of her mind, whether the blonde wanted to hear it or not.
It had taken Franky a handful of seconds to properly get her bearings after making her way down the street that Bridget’s house was located on. Eventually she had figured out that she was only a couple of roads away from the coffee shop and she had actually arrived at her destination in what had to have been record time. Once Franky was within a few feet away from the door of the coffee shop she had turned to gaze at the small parking area next to the building, silently searching for any car that would look as if it had belonged to the blonde haired beauty know as Erica Davidson. Franky had noticed zero cars that looked fancy enough to be driven by Erica, her mind setting on the fact that she must have raced Erica to the coffee shop.
Despite feeling like she had arrived first Franky still had taken a few moments in an attempt to completely compose herself before entering the small shop. Franky had a very long time to let her feelings toward how Erica had left Wentworth without so much as even the smallest of a goodbye simmer, yet it didn’t take away any of the pain that Franky had felt just even recalling the memories. Franky was sure she was absolutely prepared to give Erica the tongue lashing of a lifetime.
After taking the few moments to compose herself Franky had moved up the small three steps to enter the coffee shop, taking one last deep breath before finally entering the building, the nice warm air had suddenly made Franky realize that it was actually pretty damn cold outside. Franky had made her way over to stand in the short queue of two other people waiting to place their orders when she caught a glimpse of that particular head of blonde hair that she would never be able to forget; Erica was already seated in one of the rather spacious corner booths and Franky was caught completely off guard.
Erica had arrived at the coffee house a bit earlier than expected as the traffic had been surprisingly light throughout most of the drive. She hadn’t expected Franky to be there just yet so she had taken the opportunity to head inside and order herself a coffee. She had purposely taken one of the corner booths as it was one of the few places inside of the coffee shop that would afford them a small bit of privacy, and knowing how hot headed Franky could be.. Erica was worried that this wouldn’t be private enough.
Erica had been seated for around twenty minutes before she noticed the familiar cocky walk of the person heading toward the counter. The twenty minutes prior that she had spent trying to get her heart to stop racing and her nerves to settle down even the slightly bit had all gone out the window. The second Erica’s gaze had caught Franky’s eyes, she knew she was fighting a battle she simply would never be able to win.
Erica’s heart was already pounding out of control from one simple gaze, she waited anxiously for Franky to collect her beverage and make her way over toward the table. In order to curb the anxious sort of energy Erica had raised her hand to push a few blonde strands behind her ear, effectively tucking them away from her face and out of her line of vision, she was completely helpless when it came to Franky Doyle and it had to be easy to notice as a wide grin had spread across her face as the brunette moved over and had taken her seat.. Though the grin was nowhere to be found after Erica had noticed the scent of alcohol practically radiating from Franky’s body.
Franky was rather angry with herself as she had taken her seat across from Erica in the small, somewhat gloomy corner booth. Franky had so many things she planned to say to the blonde, wanting to make Erica feel just as badly as she had felt the day that Erica had so suddenly removed herself from Franky’s life. But it had appeared that the second Franky had laid eyes on Erica once more, the anger had vanished into thin air.. Along with the buzzed feeling that had been following her around since she had consumed a ton of beer within only a few hours.
For once in her life Franky really didn’t know exactly what to say. Eventually just deciding to go with a simple “Hey.” Followed by a small grin that she was so desperately trying to fight off of her features, but there was no chance she was winning.
Erica had quickly forgotten about the heavy scent of alcohol lingering around Franky’s body as the brunette had spoken, the words having such a soft and innocent sort of tone to them that it had caused Erica’s grin to expand across her features, a soft chuckle following before responding with a “Hey..” of her own.
Franky was unable to stop herself from being completely captivated by Erica’s eyes, knowing that it was now completely fair game to be looking at her as if she were a piece of meat.. An insanely attractive piece of meat. Franky had just opened her mouth to begin to say something when she was cut off by the sound of Erica’s voice.
“So, Franky..” Erica had began, her gaze dropping toward the table, picking a spot in the middle to find particularly interesting. Erica had wanted to get this out in the air as soon as possible so she could figure out exactly where she stood with the brunette, wanting Franky Doyle to find out just exactly how much of an impact she had on the former governors life.
“I know this isn’t exactly what you want to hear.. but I just need the chance to tell you my side of the story.” Erica had eventually allowed her gaze to drift back upward from the table, setting her sights upon Franky’s face as she wanted the brunette to know that the words were sincere. Erica had only continued on after Franky had given her an approving nod as a sign for her to continue, Franky’s face showing virtually no expression from first glance, but the shimmers within her eyes had told Erica that the former prisoner was at least the slightest bit curious to find out what the blonde had wanted to say so immediately.
“I feel horrible for the way that I had left things between us Franky, honestly.” The blonde had a slight frown upon her features as she spoke, continuing on with the story as Franky didn’t appear too keen to interrupt just yet. “Channing had absolutely forced my hand and made me resign. I had wanted to see you before I left, to fill you in so that you wouldn’t have had to find out from one of the women, or one of the officers.. But of course, Mr. Channing wouldn’t allow that. He and Vera had both verbally displayed their disapproval of how I had been ‘treating you differently’ and that I ‘couldn’t handle you’.
Franky had been listening intently to Erica’s words, and just as she had found an opportunity to speak up, she found herself quite unable to do so. All of the words that she earlier thought of with so much anger loaded behind them had all vanished from her mind. The only thing on her mind at the present time was how soft Erica’s voice was, how sincere the words were sounding, and how interested she was to see if that fucking ring was still on her finger.
Having not had any sort of any interruption just yet Erica had decided that it was her cue to continue on. “Franky, it bothered me every single day how things had just went like that between us.. not that there was really anything ever uh..” Erica had trailed off as she had completely lost her train of thought, not sure if it was exactly a good idea to let Franky know just how much she had affected Erica’s day to day life when she was supposed to be in a position of power over the woman; eventually deciding it was of no use to try and keep it a secret any longer, the brunette had her suspicions confirmed once Erica had returned that kiss in her office.
Before Erica had the chance to continue on however, Franky had chimed in.
“So you’re finally admitting that you felt something?” Franky questioned, casually leaning closer across the table, unable to stop that signature smirk of hers from flashing across her features.
Erica had her gaze quickly fall back down to the table, feeling her cheeks heat up at Franky’s question, knowing full well her entire bluff that lasted over two years had just been called.
“You have no idea, Franky” Erica’s response eventually came in barely more than a whispered fashion.
Franky had been slightly taken back by Erica’s response, not wanting to interrupt however as it had seemed that the blonde was ready to actually tell the full side of her story. Although Franky did make a mental note to comment on how the blonde had blushed following her words.
After the blush had finally vanished from Erica’s cheeks she had allowed her gaze to return to Franky’s features, her voice picking back up to a soft tone. She had decided to skip over the part where she had previously had sexual fantasies and dreams of the brunette. Figuring that would only make that smirk on Franky’s face ten times wider and it would cause her blush to hit the point where it would look like she was about to die from embarrassment.. Which may not have been all that inaccurate.
“Franky, you made me realize just how boring and painfully plain my life with Mark was and would have continued to be.” Erica allowed a soft grin to creep onto her features as she gazed into Franky’s eyes, wondering exactly what the brunette had to be thinking at this point in time.
‘Was?’ Franky thought, her eyes practically begging Erica to proceed, feeling like the suspense just may kill her otherwise.
“I broke up with Mark.” There it was. The words Franky was dying to hear back at Wentworth.. but why exactly was she still dying to hear them now? As if on cue Franky’s phone had begun to vibrate in her pocket. She had momentarily broken eye contact to check her phone, a text from Bridget catching her eye muttering a soft ‘”fuck” beneath her breath. She had apologized to Erica as she took her phone out wanting to see the context of the message.
‘On my way home, I’ll stop for liquor so we can make a proper night of it xx’ Another soft “fuck” escaped Franky’s lips, discovering she would have about thirty minutes to make a break from the coffee house and get back to Bridget’s before she would be facing quite a few questions about exactly where she had gone.
Franky had shoved her phone back into her pocket, turning her attentions back toward Erica, wanting to hear her suspicions be fully confirmed by the blonde before she would have to politely excuse herself.
“And you needed to tell me this?” Franky raised a brow in question, trying to keep her obvious excitement for the admission at bay.
“I only figured all of this out because of you, Franky.. And I thought that you should know.” Erica continued to speak softly, swallowing thickly before she added a slight bit onto the words. “I had been lying to not only myself but to you when I said that your words had done nothing for me.. It was quite the opposite actually. I’ve had a long time to think things over and I still have no conclusive answers to whatever it was that I had felt for you.. But I wouldn’t mind finding that out.” There it was. The words were out and there was no taking them back. She had just silently hoped that Franky would take them well. ‘Christ what am I thinking.. She’s obviously already seeing somebody, just look at her.’ Being Erica’s only thoughts, staring blankly down at the table as she had awaited Franky’s response.