Page 25 of January (New Orleans #1)
K yle sat up in bed, swinging her legs over the side of it before standing up. It took her a good minute to realize that she was completely naked and that the blinds in front of her weren’t all the way closed. She stretched anyway and then turned around to look at Melinda, who was still asleep, looking beautiful. Seeing the woman with a half-open mouth and hair that covered part of her face, though, Kyle couldn’t help but laugh silently. She’d woken before Melinda’s alarm and didn’t see the point in making Melinda get up any earlier than she had to, so she went in search of her clothes, which they’d left in the living room.
They’d remained on that sofa, holding each other for well over an hour before Melinda had finally donned clothes to open the door for the pizza they’d ordered. She’d quickly taken them off again, much to Kyle’s delight, and they’d eaten naked on the sofa, drinking the coffee Melinda had brewed for them earlier. After that, they’d talked for hours. Melinda had insisted they take a quick shower before bed, and while they hadn’t touched each other too intimately in there, it was still one of the most intimate moments of Kyle’s life. She’d never showered with a girlfriend before. She hadn’t seen the point. Shower sex never made sense to her. Showers were for cleaning. And she’d preferred short showers, anyway.
When Melinda pulled her into the bathroom, though, Kyle had joined her, and they’d held on to one another, kissing and lightly fondling, not trying for more. It was soft and sweet, and they’d been in there for at least twenty minutes before Melinda had turned off the water and wrapped her arms around Kyle’s neck while they continued to just kiss, long and slow, standing in a shower as they both grew cold.
It was then that Kyle had figured it out: she didn’t prefer short showers. She’d never had a choice. They’d had a trailer and one bathroom for three women, so there had been little hot water to go around. There had been no bathtub, either. Kyle had been lucky to get enough time to wash her hair and then shave her legs as a teenager. As she’d held on to Melinda, though, she thought about how she’d love to start taking long showers now or even baths with Melinda’s body pressed against her own.
Walking into the living room, Kyle found her clothes scattered on the floor and got dressed before she quietly proceeded to the bathroom to try to tame her hair and pee. Done in there, she came back to sit on the sofa, pulled out her phone because she didn’t have her laptop with her, and logged into her freelancer account to see if any new jobs had come in. She hated working on her phone, but she didn’t carry her laptop everywhere, so it would do for now. Kyle found she had two new requests, so she opened the first one, which was a short article in English that someone wanted translated into French. It wouldn’t take her long, so she settled more into the sofa and began reading through it.
“Morning,” Melinda said a few minutes later as she joined her in the living room.
“You’re naked,” Kyle replied.
Her eyes raked over Melinda’s nude body, stopping in a couple of spots to enjoy.
“You were, too. What happened?” Melinda asked, instantly climbing on top of Kyle on the sofa.
“Mel!” Kyle laughed as she dropped her phone onto the rug and pulled Melinda against her.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Melinda asked her, looking down at her.
“I woke early, and I didn’t want to wake you up, so I came out here to work,” Kyle answered.
She ran her hands up and down Melinda’s soft back, not wanting to let her go.
“I interrupted your work?”
“By flopping down on top of me, yes.” Kyle laughed again.
“I’m sorry. I’m only twenty-five. I don’t flop.” Melinda kissed Kyle’s forehead. “I won’t flop – I hope, at least – until I’m in my fifties.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I meant that you very gracefully climbed on top of me naked while I’m fully clothed.”
“Whose fault is that?” Melinda lifted an eyebrow. “I set my alarm to go off a full twenty minutes early so that we could have a quickie, and I find you out here with barriers to said quickie.”
“In that case, you should’ve let me in on your plans last night,” Kyle replied.
“I like spontaneity in the bedroom,” Melinda told her. “You should keep that in mind.”
“I plan to,” Kyle said, smiling up at her.
“Hey, are you okay?” Melinda asked. “Last night was…”
“I know. I’m sorry I brought the mood down.”
“No,” Melinda said, shaking her head. “Babe, you didn’t bring anything down. This is part of dating: we’re getting to know each other, and that means the bad with the immense multitude of good.”
“Immense multitude, huh?”
Melinda nodded seriously and said, “Yes, definitely. I had an amazing night last night, Kyle. I feel like just talking to you about all the stuff you’ve been through tells me about who you are, and who you are is a very good person, whom I happen to really, really like.”
“Thank you for taking care of me last night,” Kyle told her and cupped Melinda’s cheek to give her a quick kiss, their first of the morning.
“I assume you mean the talking and the holding and not the orgasms?”
Kyle laughed and replied, “All of the above.”
“Well, I’d love to deliver more of all of the above right now, but I have to get ready for work.”
“I was enjoying you lying here on top of me, though.”
“Trust me, me too. But I’m opening this morning, so I can’t be late. You can stay here for as long as you want, though. The beauty of me working right downstairs is that, if you want to hang out, you can do so, and when you leave through the office whenever, I get to kiss you goodbye.”
“Unless I leave when you’re walking people around the city, showing it off.”
“Well, don’t do that , obviously.” Melinda winked at her and kissed her again before she climbed off her.
Kyle stared at Melinda’s ass as the woman walked back into her bedroom. She’d had so many plans for that body until her mother had shown up and changed their night entirely. She still couldn’t believe how close she felt to Melinda already, though. She’d never shared the things she shared with her last night with another lover, date, or girlfriend in her life. Most of them, and there hadn’t been all that many, just thought she and her mother didn’t get along very well. None of them had known the extent of it until Melinda. Kyle wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly, but she liked the idea of having someone to talk to about all the stuff she’d been holding in.
Her sister was someone who understood the experience of growing up with their mother, but she was the baby in the family, so she oftentimes sided with Kyle in the moment but went crawling back to their mother when the woman told her she loved her and needed something like money or someone to pick her up from work because her car died again. Jolie wasn’t someone Kyle knew she could ever tell all her feelings to because of that, and she didn’t want to do that anyway. To Jolie, that was her mother, and she had her own experiences and feelings for the woman that weren’t all mixed up with the complicated ones Kyle had for her, so Kyle didn’t want to impose her own feelings and opinions onto her sibling. Melinda was a different story. Melinda was hers, or at least, that was how it felt to Kyle. She could tell her anything, and Melinda would still be there to listen. Kyle had never had that, and as she lay on Melinda’s sofa, thinking, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to be without it again.
“Lunch today?” Melinda asked, coming out of her bedroom, wearing her work uniform.
“You look cute,” Kyle noted .
“I look like I’m going to work.” Melinda looked down at her outfit.
“In your cute uniform.” Kyle wiggled her eyebrows at her. “And yes, to lunch.”
“Do you want to hang out in the office until I have to go, or go with me?” Melinda sat down on the sofa, lifting Kyle’s legs into her lap.
“No, I have my own work to do, unfortunately,” she replied before she rolled a little to pick up her phone and held it up.
“On your phone?”
“My laptop is at the house,” Kyle said. “I’ll leave with you and work from there.”
“What if your mom shows up?”
“I’m going to call Mr. Beaufort, my grandma’s attorney, and tell him that she’s here, asking for everything, to get his advice on what to do.”
“That’s probably smart,” Melinda said, rubbing Kyle’s leg over her jeans. “But lunch?”
“If you’re free,” Kyle replied.
“From noon to one. And you really can hang out here. Take a nap, Ky. We stayed up late, and you woke up early.”
“I’m okay. I promise,” she replied, sitting up and taking Melinda’s hand. “Are you busy tonight? I don’t know what’s going to happen with my mom, but I want to see you.”
“I’m supposed to go out with Bridgette tonight.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Come with us,” Melinda suggested. “I’ll invite Jill, too, if she’s free. The four of us can hang out.”
“Will Bridgette be okay with that? I’ve been taking up a lot of your time lately. I don’t want her to be upset with me about that.”
“I’ll text her to check, but I’m sure it’ll be okay,” Melinda said and kissed her. “Now, I’ve got to go to work.”
When she stood, Kyle did the same, and they walked down the steps together before Melinda unlocked the door to the office. Kyle then said goodbye to her, went out the back, and walked around the alley to the street. It was an odd quiet this early in the morning. Most businesses were still closed, save a few restaurants she saw on her walk that were open for breakfast. She stopped in one just for a cup of coffee and continued on her walk.
Kyle wasn’t ready to go back to either of the houses yet, even though she did have work to get to and needed to check in with Myra. Walking around this city was now becoming one of her favorite things, though, and she ended up on Canal Street, where she saw several businesses opening their gates and doors. She realized that, despite how long she’d been here already, she still hadn’t done any tourist gift-shopping. That was likely because Jolie had been here with her, and Kyle didn’t have anyone else to buy gifts for. Walking into one shop felt like walking into every shop – they all sold the same wares, for the most part – but Kyle walked into one and back out and then into another one all the same.
As she wandered through each, the only person she thought to buy anything for was Melinda, but Melinda lived here and would probably laugh at anything Kyle tried to give her from one of these places. Then, she remembered two things at the same time. One, she had money coming her way, so she could spend a little now, and Melinda had mentioned wanting to soak in a bathtub. Kyle left the shop she’d just walked into and looked up and down the street. Everything seemed to be open now, and she noticed what looked like a candle shop. That would be her best bet.
Inside, Kyle found what she’d been hoping for, so she bought several tea candles along with a few larger ones in relaxing scents and found complimentary scents of bubble bath, shower gel, and some facial scrub thing that was supposed to exfoliate. She’d give it all to Melinda, and maybe they’d use some of it together. With her bag in hand, Kyle walked on for a bit, passing the chain restaurant that now she’d only associate with her sister, and headed into the Garden District past Commander’s Palace, which reminded her of Melinda and always would .
Kyle smiled because she had memories here now. She had places she knew she liked. There was that restaurant she’d been to for breakfast a few times, the gallery she’d stopped by at least twice now, still trying to figure out what she wanted to buy, the French Quarter, which now felt so familiar to her, the NOLA Guides office, which she’d frequented thanks to Melinda, and even Jackson Square, where she’d walked and wandered and sat down on a bench by the water the other day.
She stopped in front of the house, which was locked up tight and currently empty. Kyle unlocked it and headed straight back toward the garden. She had memories of dancing with Melinda in the parlor and making love with her in this backyard that, even in the day, seemed magical to her. Kyle didn’t want to leave. She knew that for sure now. She also understood that it was more than just this new thing with Melinda that had her wanting to stick around. It was more than the work she still had to do on the houses. It was this place. She loved it here and didn’t want to go home because ‘home’ didn’t feel like home to her at all. New Orleans felt like home. Her mother might be here now, but she’d leave soon, and then she’d be waiting for Kyle to return, visit the trailer, and give her money because she’d wasted all of her own. Jolie would be there, yes, but Jolie had her own life. She liked her job and had turned it into a good career. She had friends and a decent apartment. Soon enough, she’d meet someone, settle down, and start having those kids she’d always wanted. It wouldn’t just be the two of them against the world anymore.
When her phone buzzed, Kyle pulled it out of her back pocket, setting her bag down on the patio to check the screen. Maybe it already wasn’t the two of them against the world. She replied to Melinda’s message and thought about how she had Melinda now. Hopefully, she’d have her for a long time.
Melinda Andrews : Sorry, I had to pick up a 12:30 tour for Lacey because she called in sick. I’ll only have time to grab something quick. Still on for tonight ?
Kyle had replied that they were definitely still on for tonight and sat down on the patio, staring out at the green and the other bright colors that still looked so vibrant despite it technically being winter. That, too, was different than back home. For six months of the year there, it was a cold, icy mess with sludge, scraping windshields, and warming up cars with freezing hands. Down here, it was as if winter couldn’t even touch it.
“Home,” she said to herself. “I think I might be home.”