Page 14 of Bliss

Callie

Before Callie met Alex, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken up smiling. But every morning since their first date, Alex was her first thought, and those thoughts haven’t failed yet to bring a smile to her face. Waking up smiling was starting to be as dependable as the sun rising every day.

While still lying in bed Sunday morning, Callie scrolled through the several dozen pictures she’d taken at The Birchwood Estate Museum, Bookstore, and Arboretum. Her favorite was a clandestine photo of Alex holding their canvas totes of books, her arm muscles deliciously straining the fabric of her sky-blue short-sleeve button-down. She was admiring a cluster of Prairie Smoke flowers, smiling to herself like she was silently laughing. After Callie secretly took the picture and put her phone away, she’d sidled up next to Alex, and Alex volunteered her thoughts, explaining the plant reminded her of the wispy tufts of hair on troll dolls.

Biting her bottom lip, she opened her text thread with Alex and attached the photo.

Callie: Good morning. What color would your troll hair be?

It was just after 8 a.m., and Callie knew Alex was normally out for a run, at the gym, or starting a hike at this hour on the weekends. She waited a couple of minutes for a response, before getting up to start her day. It wasn’t until she’d finished breakfast and showered that Alex called her.

Putting the phone on speaker so she could finish getting dressed, she answered, “Good morning.”

“Good morning, babe,” Alex answered, and laughed. “How many pictures did you take of me while I was unaware?”

Callie hummed, “Umm,” and Alex chuckled again.

“You have me wondering if I mindlessly did anything embarrassing, like pick my nose, that you could use for blackmail or revenge after our first fight.”

“Do you regularly go around picking your nose, Alex?”

Alex stated, “Only when I’m embracing my inner troll,” so matter-of-factly, it made Callie crack up. Chuckling, Alex answered her texted question. “I think I could totally rock some mint green or royal blue troll hair. Or maybe one of those multi-colored dye jobs. What do you think?”

Callie hummed, “Hmm,” trying to imagine Alex with a tall wispy puff of troll hair on her head, then started cracking up again.

“Ouch.” Alex dramatically grunted as if she’d been punched in the gut. “How about hot pink?”

“No!” Callie struggled to get the word out between her laughter. “Oh, God, I can’t stop.”

Alex joined her, laughing freely on the other end of the phone. “You’re adorable.”

“Oh, God. That was too funny. I don’t think troll hair would be a flattering look on anyone. But I think you could definitely pull off a mint chocolate chip ombre. Hair down, not teased up, reaching for the sky.”

“Hang on.” The sound of papers being shuffled fluttered through the speaker, then Alex said, “Yeah, that’s a no-go, babe. According to the butch cardholder’s agreement, a mint chocolate chip ombre for my hair length is too femme and cutesy and could revoke my membership. And I think we can both agree that I am not a mini-skirt and painted fingernails kind of gal.”

“I don’t know. You have incredibly sexy legs. I think you’d look pretty hot in a leather mini and fishnets.”

“Callie. No.” Callie tried to hold it in, but she burst with laughter, and Alex released a whistling breath. “Oh, thank God. You’re only messing with me. That was frightening.”

They shared a laugh for a few moments, then Callie assured her, “Yes, I was just joking about the mini and fishnets, but your legs are very sexy.”

“Thanks, babe. How’s your day going so far?”

By the time Callie had finished getting dressed, they’d shared the mundane details of their morning routines. And just as Callie was getting comfortable on the couch, and they started talking about plans or obligations they had for the week ahead, there was a knock on her front door.

Squinting in the direction of the door, Callie said, “Hang on, Alex. Someone is knocking on my door,” and she reluctantly stood up, still holding her cellphone in her hand.

She looked through the peephole and smiled. She opened her door for her friend, and while holding up a finger, she said into the phone, “Alex, it’s my friend, Hannah. Can I call you back later?”

“Sure, babe. Have a good day and stay safe.”

While walking inside, and closing the door behind herself, Hannah’s eyes shot wide open, and she mouthed, “Babe?”

Blushing, Callie waved her off as she took the call off speaker, and responded to Alex, “Thanks, you too.”

As soon as she disconnected the phone, Hannah burst, “Who the hell is Alex? And why haven’t you told me about her?” Callie opened her mouth to answer, but Hannah held up her hands. “Wait. Please tell me you have coffee? I’m all out and the line at Ricardo’s was ridiculously long, so I didn’t stop for any on the way here.”

Nodding, Callie led her into the kitchen, and while she started adding scoops of coffee grounds to the reusable filter basket in the coffee maker, Hannah prompted, “Alex?”

Despite feeling a little irritated with her best friend for showing up unannounced, and having to end her conversation with Alex so soon, she couldn’t suppress her smile.

“Wow, that’s some smile. How did you meet?”

“You remember Joselynn, my friend from work I’ve talked about?” Hannah nodded. “Alex is her best friend. She set us up on a blind date last weekend.”

Hannah scoffed and lightly slapped Callie’s shoulder. “Okay, first, a blind date? How many times have I tried to set you up with someone? Second, last week! You’ve been talking to Alex for a week and you haven’t told me that you…” Her eyes widened, then she gasped as she pointed at Callie’s face, nearly touching the tip of her nose. “You slept with her! Holy shit! This is huge.”

Hannah quickly turned and opened the cabinet she knew held Callie’s snacks and pulled out a bag of chocolate chip cookies. After hopping up onto the counter, sitting with her ankles crossed, and while digging her hand into the bag, she excitedly demanded, “Tell. Me. Everything.”

“I’m not telling you about the sex, but…”

“It was amazing, wasn’t it?” Hannah flashed a salacious smile while wiggling her perfectly arched eyebrows. She took a bite of a cookie, and with crumbs tumbling out of her mouth onto her vintage Vixen band tee shirt, she asked, “Was it better than it was with Britton?”

Callie rolled her eyes and tore a paper towel off a roll by the sink, thrusting it out to her friend. “I see those expensive etiquette classes your parents paid for have been forgotten, Miss Debutant.”

Hannah giggled as she wiped the crumbs from her mouth and chest and shrugged. “Yeah, I’m a savage. But you love me. So, better than Britton or too soon to know? First times aren’t always spectacular — all that learning what each other likes and don’t like takes time.”

“All I’m saying is that it was never like that with any of my exes.”

Hannah whistled. “Damn, girl. Good for you. Okay, great sex is nice and all, but what about her personality? Do you think there’s a future with her, or is she your bridge to get back into dating?”

“She’s not a bridge,” Callie answered, firmly and confidently, as she turned to grab two mugs. As she turned, resting her back against the counter, and folded her arms over her chest, the memories of the past week made her smile. She stared at the floor for a few moments, just enjoying the flashbacks of her and Alex getting to know each other and every tender and intimate moment, before looking up to meet the supportive smile of her best friend. “I’ve never felt like this about or with someone. I really, really like her. And I really, really like myself when I’m with her. I never knew I could feel like this.”

“Shit.” Hannah stared at her slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “You… You’re in love with her.”

It wasn’t a question, not from Hannah and not one Callie had to ask herself. She already knew. She knew on Friday night, maybe even before that. And everything society said about taking your time or that it’s impossible to fall in love so quickly didn’t matter. Maybe Callie fell into the absolute lowest percentile of the statistics, but that didn’t diminish how deeply she felt about Alex.

“Have you told her?”

A tinge of guilt bristled her skin, making her blush. She slowly shook her head and turned to fill their mugs with hot coffee. “I wanted to. And there were so many perfect moments this weekend to tell her. And I think she feels the same. But…” She exhaled hard as she walked to the fridge, and asked, “Do you want cream?”

“And honey.”

Hannah patiently waited for Callie to fix their coffees, then they took them and the bag of cookies out to the living room. After kicking off her white Converse sneakers, they sat on the couch facing each other with their legs crossed and the bag of cookies between them.

“If perfect moments kept presenting themselves, why didn’t you tell her?” Hannah gently probed, tossing her wavy dishwater blonde hair over one shoulder while resting her shoulder against the back of the couch.

Shrugging, Callie lifted her mug to take a sip, then sighed and shook her head. “I felt… Okay, this is going to sound stupid, but it almost felt like I would be stating the obvious. Like someone telling another seeing person that the sky is blue on a perfectly clear day. It’s unnecessary.” Hannah quirked her left brow and tilted her head incredulously. “I know. I told you it was going to sound stupid. But it was just something I felt. Like I felt that way about her and I felt it in return from her. Saying it and hearing it would have been nice, wonderful even, but in a way, it also felt like…” Callie groaned and rested her head against the back of the couch. “I don’t know how to explain it without it sounding crazy.”

“I think I get it. You wanted to remain submerged in the moment, not have to surface to verbalize what you knew or felt you both were experiencing.”

“Yes, exactly!”

Hannah nodded, then tilted her head side to side, extending a long, “But,” and argued, “you eventually had to come up for air, right? I mean, you could have told her when you gave her a goodbye kiss.”

Guilt pricked her nerves again. Hannah was right, and when Callie thought back to their very long goodbye, it had seemed as if Alex had been expecting it or wanted to say it but had held back.

Shit. What if she didn’t feel what I felt and thinks I still have doubts?

Callie quickly set her coffee mug down and pulled her cellphone out of her pocket.

“Whoa! No. Callie, you cannot tell her that through text. The first time you tell someone you love them definitely has to be face to face.”

“I know. I’m asking if she’s free tomorrow night.”

Alex: Yes, I’d love to come over for dinner, if you don’t mind waiting until after 8:00 p.m. Monday is my long day.

Callie: I remember. Okay, I guess I better get back to my interrogation, “babe.” I had you on speaker earlier and Hannah is like a K-9 that’s caught her target’s scent. Do you still want me to call back later? I don’t want to keep you from anything you need to do.

Alex: You won’t be keeping me from anything. I love talking to you, Callie. Whether you want to tell me about your childhood, or what projects you’re working on, or even if you want to read the back of a cereal box to me.

Callie: Unless there’s a funny joke on the box, or a crazy ingredient I want to ask or tell you about, I promise to never torture you with reading the back of a cereal box to you.

Callie: Is that something you’d be into? Reading together, I mean.

Alex: Absolutely.

Callie: I’ve always wanted to do that with a partner. Okay, I have to go. Apparently, my smile is “so gushy” and Hannah is bugging me for details about us. Have a good day.

Alex: You too, babe. Have a fun interrogation.

Callie laughed as she shook her head at Alex’s last comment. After locking her phone, she set it on the coffee table and picked up her mug.

“You are glowing. Like, literally glowing. I’m going to need to put on sunglasses to preserve my retinas. What were you talking about?”

“Reading,” Callie answered, and took a smiling sip of her now lukewarm coffee. When Hannah quirked an eyebrow, she chuckled and gave her a quick rundown of the conversation. “Oh! Let me show you where she took me yesterday!”

Callie excitedly scooped up her cellphone and turned forward facing to lean in towards Hannah so they could look at the pictures together.

“Wow. It’s like those libraries and bookstores in Europe that you’re always drooling over. It must have taken her hours of scouring the internet to find this place for you. Where is it?”

“It’s about an hour away, but she didn’t find it for me. She shared it with me.” When Hannah quirked a brow, she explained, “She stumbled upon it a couple of years ago when she was looking for a bike trail.”

Hannah extended a long, “So,” and asked, “Your new girlfriend is a bookworm and outdoorsy? Sounds like the dream girl for you.”

“Book dragon,” Callie corrected, with a grin. “We decided we’re both book dragons because we read a lot, but we also like to hoard books like treasure, even if we haven’t read them all yet.”

Hannah’s head fell back with a loud laugh. “Yeah, that perfectly describes you. I’ll never forget that time you dragged me on that four-hour road trip to that book warehouse for their ninety-percent-off overstock sale. You brought a wagon! And you filled it. Twice!” They laughed at the memory, and Hannah asked, “Did you tell her about that?”

Nodding, Callie took a sip of her coffee. “Yeah, last Friday, when we went back to her place after dinner for coffee. She was a little jealous that she hadn’t known about the sale.”

Hannah’s jaw dropped, and she stuttered, “Back … to her… Callie, did you sleep with her on the first date? Oh. My. God! That is so not like you! I can’t believe you haven’t told me…”

“No! I didn’t sleep with her on the first date.” Her cheeks crimsoned, and Hannah’s jaw dropped again. “I swear! I didn’t. But…”

“You wanted to,” Hannah finished, when Callie couldn’t. “Wow. Okay, I need to know more about this chick. Tell me everything. Start from the beginning.”

Everything? Callie blushed again, this time from shame, and she quickly drank a gulp of her coffee to push down a sudden rush of bile.

“Why do you look like you’re sixteen again and were just caught stealing money out of your mom’s purse?”

“Hey, that was you, not me.” Hannah just smiled and waited. Callie sighed, and pleaded, “Okay, just … let me fully explain before you crucify me.”

Hannah nodded, so Callie took a deep breath of courage and started replaying her first date with Alex, including how Callie had insulted her. Hannah’s brow betrayed her judgmental thoughts, but she honored Callie’s request and held her tongue. She told her about finding and talking to her in the bar, which earned her a few more judgmental eye movements. But when she told her about Alex forgiving her and ushering them from the bar to the restaurant, and how they relaxed and flirted, Hannah’s brow smoothed out and she smiled. After she gave Hannah the same explanation for her initial behavior that she’d given to Alex, Hannah was smiling and nodding.

“Damn, girl. It sucks you had that trauma response, but I’m proud of you for going back and giving yourself another chance. And it sounds like Alex has her shit together, like she’s uncommonly emotionally mature. How old is she?”

“Thirty-five.”

“Seven years older. That’s nothing. Okay, keep going.”

They’d already been talking for an hour, and Callie hadn’t finished telling her about the rest of their first date. If Hannah was going to insist on her telling her everything from this week, they were going to be here for a while.

“I’m going to want lunch soon, so let’s order something first.”

“Sure.” Hannah pulled out her cellphone and opened a food delivery app. “What are you in the mood for? I had Thai yesterday, so no Thai.” While scrolling through tiles for local restaurants, she asked, “Oh, how about Giovani’s? I could totally murder an entire chafing dish of vodka penne right now.”

“Sure. But I’m not on my period, so I only need one serving.”

“Shut up.” Hannah laughed and smacked Callie’s thigh. “Ugh, fine, I’ll eat like a normal human and not like the hormonal beast I am right now. What do you want?”

“I’ll have the same. And the house salad.”

While Hannah tapped away on her phone, placing their order, she asked, “When do I get to meet Alex?”

“Well, before you showed up unannounced today, I was planning on calling you to tell you about her and ask if you wanted to go with us to the Craft Beer Festival two weekends from now in Newton. A client gave me four tickets. I gave one to Joselynn, and I want you to take the last ticket so you can meet both of them.”

Hannah nodded, and asked, “How long have they been friends?”

“Fifteen years.”

Hannah looked up with a smile. “So, Joselynn is Alex’s Hannah. That’s about how long we’ve been best friends. This should be fun. Yeah, I’m in.” She dramatically pouted and batted her eyelashes. “But must I wait two weeks? Can’t I meet her sooner?”

Callie nodded, then swished back the last gulp of her coffee and stood up. “I’ll talk to her about it later and see when she’s free. I’m going to get a glass of water. Do you want something else to drink?”

“Water’s good. Any last requests before I finalize the order? Do you want dessert?”

“Tiramisu.”

“Oh, hell yeah.”

Callie chuckled as Hannah bent over her phone to add two slices of the dessert to their order. While walking to the kitchen, she called over her shoulder, “Let me know how much I owe you.”

“One-million dollars,” Hannah crooned, in a terrible impersonation of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers , the raunchy International Man of Mystery . “Hey,” she called out in her normal voice, “what’s her taste in movies?”

“Compatible,” she called back, and when she returned to the living room with two glasses of ice water, she explained, “I’ve never had a partner that I’m so compatible with. It’s very … freeing, is the best word I can come up with.”

Hannah accepted her glass as she set her phone down on the couch cushion next to her thigh, and thoughtfully stared across the room for a moment. “I can see that — compatibility being freeing, I mean. Differences are good, and sometimes they’re what make you compatible because they complement each other. Like one person being the big spoon and one being the little spoon. Having two big spoons or two little spoons leads to arguments or disappointment when it’s cuddle time.” Callie laughed but nodded at the logic. “But some differences are like having thorny branches protruding from your body, and trimming them or hiding them away is the only way to make being together bearable. But those branches are a vital part of you and need air and sunlight and keeping them hidden or discarding them completely slowly drains the life out of you.”

“That’s how it was with Britton. I always felt like I was stumbling through a dense, thorny forest, always searching but never finding a clear path to the beautiful garden she promised. I had subconsciously shrunk myself, trimmed or hid my branches, thinking doing so would make it easier and more comfortable to traverse the forest, traverse life.” Hannah’s eyes shown with sadness and anger, but she waited for Callie to conclude her thought. “With Alex, it’s all smooth edges that seem to fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces. Both of us have accidentally triggered at least one trauma response in each other, mine much worse than hers, but we were able to talk about what caused those moments and it was comforting and validating. I haven’t discovered any thorny branches yet. I like everything she’s revealed about herself so far. And she makes me feel like all parts of myself and my interests are important and respected.”

“She offered the garden and safely delivered you to the heart of it,” Hannah summarized with a smile, and Callie’s chest warmed and lifted with a slightly euphoric breath, the memory of strolling through the dreamlike bookstore and arboretums yesterday mirroring what she felt inside because of their connection.

“Yeah, she has.”