Page 42

Megan pouted.

“I will have you know that I do not drink Sanka at home! I buy very expensive Ethiopian beans from Whole Foods which I then grind in the store using that grindy thingy that they have.”

“You’re too cute,” Vanessa said, resisting the urge to kiss Megan again. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help reaching out and running her thumb along Megan’s lower lip. Megan’s tongue flicked out once and poked at it.

“Do you want to come back over tonight?” Megan asked.

Vanessa sighed.

“Yes and no,” she said, and before Megan could ask for an explanation, she went on. “I want to, but I don’t close until seven. By the time I’ve cleaned the shop, counted the receipts and locked up, it’s eight o’clock. By the time I get home, shower, change, have something to eat and get to your place, it’s nine or nine-thirty.”

“That’s still early,” Megan said petulantly.

“No, it’s not,” Vanessa said. “You know that we’re going to keep each other up past midnight having sex, but I have to wake up super early tomorrow to come here and do all this again.” She spread her arms, indicating the whole of La Vida Mocha.

Now Megan sighed.

“Ugh!” she groaned.

“I know,” Vanessa said. She was frustrated too. It was tempting to say fuck it and spend all night tonight doing all the pornographic things running through her mind that she wanted to do to Megan, but she also knew what a slippery slope that was. One night of unbelievable pleasure would turn into two nights of unbelievable pleasure which would turn into three nights…Before long, Vanessa would find herself never getting enough rest and struggling each day to function here at La Vida Mocha. But La Vida Mocha was too important for Vanessa to let that happen.

But then again…

Eventually, Megan would be gone. Gone from Carlsbad, gone from California, gone from Vanessa’s life. Vanessa wondered: Did she really want to be on her death bed decades from now remembering that she passed up even one night of amazing sex with this woman?

Fuck it.

“I’ll text you when I’m on my way,” she told Megan.

Chapter 16

Megan watched as Vanessa pulled on her black yoga shorts, remembering the thrill she had had peeling those off Vanessa only an hour and a half ago.

Megan was still laying in her bed, naked and content, while Vanessa prepared herself to leave. If their situation had been different, Megan realized, she would probably be a little offended at Vanessa leaving so soon after they’d had sex, but this was their reality.

Alarmingly, though, Megan had been on the verge of suggesting that Vanessa stay the night. She had even typed the words “Why don’t you plan on spending the night?” into a text message earlier, before Vanessa arrived, but had simply hovered her thumb over the Send button for a few moments before finally deleting the message.

It had been a long time since Megan had slept—actually slept—with another woman beside her, and she could easily imagine how nice it would be to fall asleep spooning Vanessa and then waking up in the morning to find Vanessa curled up next to her. But such scenarios could not possibly lead to good things, not when this thing with Vanessa had a shelf life.

“Okay, I’m off,” Vanessa said, fully dressed now, coming to the bed to lean down and give Megan a kiss.

Once again, the urge to say Stay the night came over Megan but she maintained control. Other urges came over her as well as she kissed Vanessa. In fact, she was pretty sure she could make Vanessa stay the night by default if she just reached up now and began stroking Vanes

sa’s center through those tight yoga pants. But, again, she maintained control. She needed to be respectful of Vanessa’s priorities, of which she was not one.

“Try not to have lunch with relatives who upset you tomorrow,” Vanessa said jokingly. She started to leave the bedroom. “And be sure to get out of bed and lock the front door behind me, please.”

Megan felt a surge of warmth come over her at Vanessa’s concern.

And she said “please.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Megan said, settling deeper under her comforter.

Vanessa looked at her.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise; I promise.”