Chapter 4
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This is the first time Gina has ever wished for a shift at Empire Records to be longer. Time is ticking down dangerously fast, even faster now that Deb has conspicuously decided to be good at the customer service portion of her job and provide too much help to the few people who do come in, and that means Gina’s running out of time to get to the bottom of why she’s suddenly finding Deb’s awkward behavior to actually be kind of… Cute. And why she’s wishing that one customer hadn’t interrupted the moment they’d been sharing, when Gina had seen Deb grin like that and then had the very concerning thought, ‘she’s so, so pretty,’ and had wondered what exactly the blue-to-green ratio was in her eyes, wondered how many freckles she has. Wondered why making Deb smile suddenly felt so important to her. She almost wishes she’d never asked Corey about all this, but she knows she doesn’t actually wish that- she wishes she wished that. Sort of. Maybe.
“Thanks, come again,” Deb says to the woman she’s just rung up, and Gina watches from the balcony as Deb watches the woman leave. Gina watches as Deb immediately starts pointlessly re-counting the cash in the register.
“Who are you and what have you done with Deb, you workaholic?” She calls down, leaning against the railing.
Deb doesn’t look up but Gina can still see that she is indeed smiling, and she gets that weird warm feeling inside.
“Did you like the old Deb better?” Deb calls back.
Gina thinks for a moment, and says, “I liked the in-between Deb.”
Deb does look up now, “in-between Deb?”
“Y’know, the Deb that was here after the Damn the Man show, but before this insane work ethic.”
Gina’s not positive but she thinks Deb is actually blushing a little bit and it feels like an even bigger victory than making her smile. Okay, yeah, this is addictive.
“Close that register and lock the doors for a bit, will you?”
Deb watches in confusion as Gina starts descending the stairs. “Lock them?”
Gina heads for the S section of the CDs, “yes, lock them. We’re taking a little break- you obviously need one.”
Deb might still be confused, but Gina’s heart pounds as she complies, finding the keys and making her way to go lock up the store. Gina finds the album she wanted. “Flip the sign, too!”
“It scares me when you get like this, Gina.”
“Don’t worry, darling, you won’t be scared for long.” She goes to the stereo, inserts her CD, and skips to the second song. “If you’re as much of a fan as you made it sound like.”
She turns to face Deb, who’s got her back against the front doors; the moment the song starts and Gina starts dancing along to it, Deb starts grinning ear to ear.
“No, way,” she laughs, and Gina tries to stay focused. She moves in time with the beat, and she sings along, “I’m dancin’ the seven veils…”
Deb crosses her arms, actively suppressing her stubborn smile, “this is an ambitious one…”
“Want you to pick up my sca-arf,” Gina continues, swaying her hips, “see how the black moon fades?”
Deb laughs when Gina points outside, but watches with wonderfully visible wonder as Gina goes on, “soon I can give you my heart!”
Anticipating what comes next, Deb covers her mouth; Gina tries her hardest to hit those wild Sinead notes, and she can’t keep her own grin off her face when Deb dissolves into laughter at her earnest but very much failed attempt. With a rush of fevered adrenaline, she dances over and takes Deb’s hands, and she pulls her in close, very close, much closer than she dances with people who are just her friends, and she starts dancing with her, “I don’t know, no, shame, I feel no pain, I can’t…”
And the second Deb follows her lead and really starts dancing, Gina forgets that she’d ever intended on singing the rest of the song.
The way they’re dancing together right now is definitely not the way they had danced together on the roof that night after the party. Deb’s body is pressing against hers, moving against hers, and they’re face to face. Gina once again has full reign to really stare, and she does; she stares so intently at each separate feature of Deb’s strikingly beautiful face, that she’s caught off guard when Deb places Gina’s hands on her waist and leaves them there.
“I thought you were gonna sing,” Deb whispers, her breath warm and sweet, and Gina realizes that although they’re still dancing, she’d actually forgotten there’s even any music playing. She's been keeping rhythm with Deb, not with fucking Sinead O'Connor. With her hands on Deb's waist and the way Deb's shirt is riding up, she can feel how warm her skin is, and the sensation of her chest pressed against Gina's own is also occupying a lot of space in her mind. Deb’s hands come up to rest at the base of Gina’s neck, one of them moves even further and Gina feels Deb’s fingers sliding into her hair, scratching at the back of her scalp as she dances up against her, rests her forehead against Gina's- Gina swallows. She now realizes she's discovered the answers to several of the questions she's had swirling in her head for the past few days, the past few weeks if she's completely honest with herself. She's gotten answers to several questions, but not all of them, not yet.
“Yeah, I was going to…” She trails off.
Deb laughs breathily, “well don’t let me stop you, I was enjoying-“
Gina kisses her before she can finish her sentence.
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