Page 19 of Hot Tea & Bird Calls (Kissing At Work #2)

“You tell bosses what to do. That sounds about right.” Skye appreciated Celene grinning with her. “I studied data analytics in college, worked in two cities. Granddad needed me, right when I’d been getting homesick. Corporate life took a toll on me.”

“It’s tiresome to me sometimes, too.”

Skye took in how Celene emanated corporate even in her everyday clothes. “Really?”

Celene leaned on her forearms like she’d done at Pokeno, upon the round faux-marble table. “About twenty percent of my clientele are loathsome, but if I can outfit them with tools to be marginally less despicable, I’ve done the world a favor.”

“Thank you for your service.” Skye found herself drawn into Celene’s eyes, so dark with a curious amount of mischief. Yet, she could only enjoy it for a second with Mrs. Locke openly glowering. At a hush, Skye muttered, “An old teacher of mine is trying to mentally damn us to hell.”

Shamelessly, Celene brushed her hair aside to peek at the permed brunette woman in a solid-colored t-shirt and gray sneakers. Choosing to be a hater in comfortable clothes. Celene faced Skye, and the mischief intensified. “What’s her story? Religious zealot or an overall nasty person?”

“I recall Mrs. Locke being an ordinary, harmless lover of the Oxford comma. Then, when she saw me holding hands with a girlfriend at a game, that changed.”

“She’s staring hard,” Celene hissed through lips that certainly told off a thousand jerks in her line of work. Skye hadn’t ever seen such a wily smile. “I bet she touches herself to tattered old Sarah Waters novels after her husband falls asleep.”

Skye almost shot berry out of her nose. “Well, damn. I did not expect you to say that.”

“Imagine. Why else would she be so angry? You’re on a hot date and she’s eating her vanilla bean, fuming because Mr. Locke would rather watch TV at home in his jammies.

” Somehow, Celene’s assessment tracked the Lockes’ dynamic spot-on.

And her already hushed voice went schemey. “Want to have some fun with her?”

“What sort of fun?” Skye asked, growing warm as Celene dipped her spoon into Skye’s cup for a casual sample.

“Oh, that’s good. Try mine.” She nodded down to her attractive cup topped with almond.

Satisfied by Skye returning the gesture, approving so much to take a larger bite, Celene let her in on her idea.

“Flirt with me. Either it’ll piss off a bigot or give her the angriest fantasies until she cheats on Mr. Locke with a woman from—who knows—her monthly punctuation club. ”

Skye covered her giggle. In fact, Yielding’s rec center advertised a Grammar Goldies Club, and Mrs. Locke was its coordinator. Two for two. “I suck at flirting.”

Celene pulled off her cardigan, revealing lean, fit arms. “Then, I’ll get you warmed up. Permission to touch you?”

How hadn’t they melted everyone’s ice cream by now? Skye pushed curls from her fevered cheek for anything to do with her hands. “Mhm. Go ahead.”

She’d been admiring Celene’s fingers. Celene had lost a bit of polish on her pinky, and somehow, that enhanced her beauty. It made her real. Skye could stomach a little handholding without throwing up her ice cream.

That hand departed from the table in a slow crawl.

In time to catch Celene’s wink, every pore on Skye’s body raised as a single fingertip skimmed from the tip of her bare knee to the hem of her shorts. Skye’s breath hitched, and she couldn’t even fake that it didn’t.

“Is this okay?” Celene asked.

“Yeah. Um, the most okay.” Skye brought a spoonful to her mouth and tasted not a damn thing. The light touch traveled back down to her knee, swirling slowly, like they always did this.

All the while, Celene didn’t take her eyes off Skye. She grinned like someone who knew her way around women. “Is she looking?”

Shit, Skye had forgotten about Mrs. Locke already. She blinked over and sure enough, their spectator’s glare deepened and as her name implied, locked on the under-table petting. “Big time.”

“Your skin’s so silky,” Celene said. Matter-of-factly. Her voice elevated, she posed a convincing, “Are you taking me home after this?”

Acting. Not acting . Skye stammered out, “If-uh, if you. Want. If you want.”

“I’ll show you what I want if you take me home.”

Performance or not, did whoever Celene dated realize how lucky they were? And who had she been engaged to? On a tangent she didn’t realize she’d fallen into, Skye just had to know. “Do you date women, for real?”

The way Celene’s gaze sharpened, Skye would need resuscitation. “Exclusively. Why?”

“Same. No reason.”

“So no girlfriend?” She’d upgraded to two fingers trailing the other thigh. “Not even June?”

Skye saved herself a groan. Despite June’s fiancée status, people occasionally mistook them for an item. “I mean, Luce was trying her hardest to hook you and me up. I’m free as a bird, as you said.”

Celene’s smile eased. Expression less playful, more pensive. “Is she still watching?”

Almost stumbling to ask ‘who?’, Skye brought herself back into her plastic Nell’s chair and not the fog of this moment.

She had no choice but to check in on Mrs. Locke, who’d gotten up, all but breaking her neck to keep an eye on them.

“You might not be wrong about her hidden sexuality. Kind of sad.”

“Are you into older women? Testing her marriage may be fun.”

Skye could gag. “No, I’d rather not sleep with my mean high school teacher, thanks.”

Breaking into a small laugh, Celene took another bite of her ice cream. Her tongue swept over the round of her spoon and—Skye could’ve blacked out—Celene performed that for Mrs. Locke, who’d turned into a visibly sweaty, offended statue over the trash can.

Celene’s hand settled fully on Skye’s leg, burning a hole there. “Do something she won’t forget.”

A request to improvise again. And now that she’d swum in eyes that weren’t as cold and unnerving, Skye reminded herself not to overthink.

Taking advantage of Mrs. Locke’s slow gait to exit, Skye slinked her fingers into Celene’s, ridding it of the spoon.

She pulled Celene’s hand close to nuzzle at the skin of her wrist, above where her silver watch slipped.

And to their victim, purred, “You were always my favorite teacher, Mrs. Locke.”

Mrs. Locke let out a sound that fell short of ridicule. It came out weakly as she retreated from the shoppe. The second the door swung shut, Skye and Celene nearly fell out laughing.

And the laughter continued in little spurts until they left, reaching the rec center parking lot. Until then, Skye hadn’t noticed they’d parked side by side. They stood between their cars, drunk on glee.

“We made Mrs. Locke’s life.” Celene jingled car keys by the loop, her grin smug. The nightfall couldn’t even mask it.

It startled Skye to witness Celene like this. Forced her to grapple with her concept of ‘types.’ The rude, condescending person she met before had drawn her attention with outward beauty. What happened when the inside began to match? “She’s definitely in love with you.”

“Me? Not with you and those bedroom eyes keeping her up all night.” Celene’s smile settled with a heavy sigh. She drifted her head upward, to the twilight. To the stars dispersed behind lazy clouds, the heavens above Yielding.

Skye stared, wishing to see the constellations in her eyes.

“We used to laugh like that when we were little girls,” Celene said.

Chills wracked Skye, under her long sleeves. “We did.”

“You always had a skinned knee and the biggest, sweetest smile.” Celene linked their stares. Quiet intensity. “I never felt wrong around you. Everyone else could be themselves on vacation, and…I couldn’t until I met you.”

Determined not to get weepy, Skye nodded. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

“Will I see you again?”

Celene’s phone lit up, a bright fracture, reminding them their fake date had come to an end. Tapping her thumb here and there, she said, “In about two weeks, I’ll be back. On Sunday.”

Absently, Skye took out her phone, too. Waiting were two text notifications. One from Thalia, the other from Luce, which she frowned at. Her grandmother had the ability, yet she rarely sent messages. The text revealed something astonishing.

A photo of the priority shipment she’d harped about was packed and sealed. She’d even printed out the proper scanning sheet. Instead of having to wake up extra early to arrange everything before work, Skye had one fewer worry. Under that photo, it read:

Luce – 8:19 pm

Took care of it

Have fun on your date

Skye swore Luce’s packaging days were over, now that she had her granddaughter around. If Skye had an actual girlfriend...

“Luce prepared the package herself,” Skye intoned, and even then, her soft voice rang so loud. “I’ll get time tonight to start on your commission. I’m energized.”

Celene granted her a half smile, more normal. “That’s what I like to hear.”

“You should...” Gracelessly, she reached to pat Celene’s car a bit too hard. “Get on the road. Drive safely.”

“Night driving’s the best. I brought a cooler for my friend’s pie and threw in some coffees, just in case.” She eyed her thin wristwatch, then held an arm out. “I can’t tell you the last time I laughed like that. Thank you.”

Celene seemed untouchable. Designed to be viewed and nothing more. Skye still tingled at the ghosts of those hands all over her thighs and knees. It gave her the confidence to step into a hug of soft cotton, curves, and a heartbeat. This woman wasn’t cold. At all.

After Celene waved goodbye and drove off, Skye dwelt behind her steering wheel. Reflecting on the night so long that it didn’t shock her to see that an hour had passed.

She needed to finish the Forever Fuchsia before Celene got her house in order.

That required time she didn’t have. Unless Luce thought she was busy. With a girlfriend.

Skin still buzzing from their hug, Skye let her thumbs do the talking, sending something more daring than she’d send on any given day. Being daring revived her, in several senses of the word. Hopefully, Celene could use a revival, too.

Skye – 9:33 pm

You can tell me if this isn’t okay, but...

Next time you’re in Yielding, let’s continue going on our so-called “dates.” I could use more of those laughs.