January
Ch. 1: January
Sloane leaned her head back on the pillow as she tried to catch her breath, the sheets wrapped around her. To her left Riley was lying on her side watching her.
“Wow,” Sloane said. “That was…”
“Epic?” Riley asked, “Amazing?”
Sloane turned over and looked at Riley, “That was a one-time thing. Things got out of hand, we got drunk. End of story.”
Sloane wasn’t entirely wrong. Riley had been in town and she and Sloane ran into each other. Eric had the twins for the weekend. It was awkward between Sloane and Riley at first since they hadn’t seen each other since the night of the Christmas party a month before, but after a couple of things were said, they agreed to have drinks to work on mending things. One drink led to another, and that led to Riley and Sloane ending up in Sloane’s bed at the house she had recently purchased.
“Whatever you say, Sloane,” said Riley, not entirely believing her.
“I’m serious.”
“Are you sure, because last night you were having more than a good time.”
“I’m not gay,” said Sloane. “Harper, Harper is gay.”
“Gay, straight, bi, what does it even matter? You had fun, I would know.”
Sloane leaned back and placed her hands to cover her face. “God, Harper. Harper’s gonna kill me.” She then removed her hands. “You’re her ex. I’m not even supposed to like you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“And I totally did it with my sister’s ex-girlfriend…and…”
“Well after all the crap Harper put me through, she kind of owes me. She owes me for a lifetime.”
“That doesn’t help. We should have boundaries. I should not be interested in my sister’s ex-girlfriend.”
Riley’s eyes widened a bit, “Oh, so you’re interested in me now?”
Sloane looked at Riley and realized her slip. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. It wasn’t right to be interested in her sister’s high school ex-girlfriend. It broke every sisterly rule. Not to mention it broke just about every rule she had set for herself, the first being getting drunk and having a one-night stand which she hadn’t done since her early college days before she finally met Eric.
Looking at Riley now though she couldn’t help it. She had butterflies in her stomach, she hadn’t had butterflies in a long time. She was straight, at least she thought she was, but after last night, after how good it was, how right it felt, she wasn’t sure. She felt alive and happy in a way she hadn’t in a long while. Sure she had her kids and she was happy in that sense, but Riley made her feel things that were completely new that even Eric hadn’t made her feel this way, but that probably had to do with the whole gender thing. Sure, she’d experimented in college, what girl didn’t? But that never really meant anything. Being with Riley felt right, it meant something, and Sloane criticized herself. It shouldn’t mean anything and that was the problem.
Sloane sighed, “I wish you would stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“You know what look. It’s driving me crazy.”
Riley just smiled. Sloane couldn’t contain herself any longer. She leaned over and kissed Riley. Even though it was early morning, she didn’t care. She needed Riley now, all time be damned.