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She had to admit, she looked hot.

And she had to admit, she was tired of pretending this was no big deal.

Tonight was a big deal.

A really big deal.

She wanted to look hot and seductive for Ainsley and if by some miracle things progressed past the friend-date stage, Rachel knew she wanted to be ready for that. She wanted Ainsley to be able to unwrap her and go hungry with desire at what she was wearing underneath the new black dress she also bought for tonight. She wanted Ainsley to want to consume her. Most importantly, she wanted to know if what she was feeling towards Ainsley was real.

Was her desire for Ainsley real? And was she capable of acting on it? Kissing a woman? Fucking a woman?

Was her overall attraction to Ainsley real? Because at this point, Rachel knew, it wasn’t just about desire any longer. She was attracted to Ainsley because of Ainsley’s smarts and her wit and her athleticism and just because of the way she felt connected to the woman!

She needed to know all this…

A little over half an hour later, she was ready. The new short black dress fit like a glove and it’s cleavage-revealing neckline would certainly give Ainsley something nice to look at throughout the evening. Her red hair was curled but pulled back into a playful ponytail so her long neck was on show. For a pop of color, she chose a pair of red chunky earrings made from an exotic stone, the name of which she’d forgotten.

Since Ainsley was spending the night, Rachel padded on bare feet after getting dressed to the guest room down the hall from her own bedroom and, like the obsessive realtor she was, gave it another once over, making sure it was neat and presentable. Last night, she swept the hardwood floors, dusted all the surfaces and cleaned the attached bathroom. The sheets and blankets on the bed were clean, the pillows fluffed and the aroma diffuser which was usually kept in the living room was now working in here, making the air smell tropical with scents of coconut and pineapple. Again, thinking like a realtor, she unplugged the diffuser. It had been running long enough and had done its job. The tropical-scented air would last a good while and Rachel didn’t want it to become overpowering and so she brought it back to its normal place in the living room and then switched out its fragrance cartridge before plugging it in again. Now, instead of a tropical scent, in ten minutes the room would smell

like someone was baking cookies—a comforting and homey aroma meant to make people feel right at home.

She hurried into the dining room to make sure her chocolate display was still on point. She had spent a lot of time setting it up earlier and had even photographed it. She’d share the photos on Insta and Snap later but not now. She and Ainsley were already following each other on those two platforms, as well as on Facebook, and she didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Back to her bedroom and another obsessive check of her appearance, this time with the black stilettos. God, she hoped Ainsley also wore heels. Rachel knew that even if Ainsley showed up wearing Birkenstocks, she’d be the hottest woman in this time zone, but if Ainsley wore heels tonight…she’d be the hottest woman in this hemisphere.

And my date!

Speaking of which…

The doorbell rang.

***

Ainsley was wearing heels. Good god, was she wearing heels.

Rachel almost lost her grip on reality when she opened her front door and saw the lovely woman standing on her porch. She even staggered a bit.

Ainsley was dressed in a short and sleeveless black cocktail dress with an asymmetrical hemline which displayed those unbelievably long legs of hers that appeared even longer because of the open-toed high heeled sandals on her feet.

That gloriously golden blonde hair of hers was down, just like the day Rachel had first seen her, and through it shone the light of the streetlamp across the street from Rachel’s house, creating a yellow halo around Ainsley’s head.

The woman was stunning and Rachel’s body reacted. With a delicious ache, her nipples tightened which apparently opened up a circuit connected to her clit because that little nub started vibrating.

“God, you look fucking amazing!” Rachel said.

“So do you!” Ainsley said, and Rachel let the other woman practically feel her up with her eyes.

“I’d ask you to come in,” Rachel said, placing her hands on her hips and making a show of examining Ainsley again, “but for some reason, I don’t see any flowers. And I know you couldn’t possibly hide anything in that dress.”

“Oh, right! The flowers!” Ainsley said, snapping her fingers. “There was a problem with that.”

“And that problem was…” Rachel prodded, relishing the obvious anticipation Ainsley was creating within her.

“I couldn’t carry them all by myself,” Ainsley told her. “So I enlisted some help.” She turned her head slightly to the left. “Oh, boys!”

Rachel gasped as suddenly, from behind the side of her garage where they had been hidden, five men appeared and marched up towards the front door. Each guy was carrying an enormous arrangement of flowers. And these weren’t just run of the mill flowers. In fact, Rachel couldn’t identify most of the species in the bouquets the men were carrying. She did manage to spot a few birds of paradise and a couple of different types of lilies. She also thought one of the arrangements contained orchids, but the rest she had no idea about. The flowers might have come from another planet for all she knew.

But each arrangement was unique, colorful and gorgeous! And so large that each man had to hold his burden with two hands.