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S ophie wasn’t sure how she’d rank their kisses now that there had been three of them. The first one, over a year ago, had been amazing enough, but the second one, in the bar, had been amazing, too. She wasn’t counting the peck at the restaurant while they waited. That one, while very sweet, was definitely not enough. This one, though, as Bryce pressed her against the wall and slowly took her higher and higher just from a kiss, was damn near miraculous. Sophie was certain that if they stood here long enough, with Bryce kissing her just like this, she’d eventually come without ever being touched.

“I know we’re going somewhere to be alone…” Sophie managed to breathe out when Bryce’s lips moved to her neck. “And you have to know how much I want…”

“I know,” Bryce said. “It’s okay.”

“I want to.”

“I know. Me too,” Bryce replied. “But it would be too easy.”

“Hey!” Sophie laughed.

Looking worried that she’d just said the wrong thing, Bryce pulled back and added, “No, not like that. I meant that we could do that – we could fall into bed, and given how it feels when we kiss, I’m sure it would be world-changing.”

“No pressure,” Sophie teased.

Bryce pressed her forehead to Sophie’s, something she seemingly enjoyed doing a lot, and Sophie was finding that she really liked it when they were like that, connected in a way that made her feel like this was more than just a physical connection. It was Bryce connecting them emotionally, too.

“It will be when it happens. But it’s more than that with us, Soph. I could tell it that night and in every message we’ve exchanged.”

“I know.”

“So, it doesn’t have to be tonight, but I would love it if you stayed over. I’ve dreamed of us waking up next to each other, and we’re only naked sometimes in those dreams. Usually, we’re in our comfortable clothes, and I just pull you back against me and hold you to wake you up slowly.”

“What time do you wake up in the morning? Because my guess is I’m up before you.”

“Then, you can lay your head on my chest and rub my stomach until I wake up.”

“Oh, I can, huh?” Sophie laughed a little.

Bryce pulled back, took her hand without a response, and they started walking again.

“You can, yes,” she said then. “Tomorrow morning, if you want. You don’t have to go to work now, right?”

“God, I’d forgotten all about that.” Sophie’s free hand went to her own forehead. “I don’t have a job anymore.”

“You have interviews lined up, though, right?”

“Two of them. One is in Atlanta. The other one is with Arnette Assets, and it’s tomorrow afternoon.”

“You’d move to Atlanta?”

“I don’t want to. I’ve never even been there.”

“I have. It’s nice.”

“Would you move to Atlanta?”

Sophie didn’t mean to make that sound like a loaded question. It wasn’t meant to be one. It was casual and not at all because if she ended up there, she’d want to know if Bryce would consider it, too. They’d spent mere hours together, so this wasn’t the time, but since she had asked it, she might as well find out.

“I don’t think so,” Bryce replied.

“You love where you are?”

“I love my friends,” Bryce said. “They’re the main reason I love it where I am. But I’ve kind of hit all the restaurants in the tri-county area, so I’ll need to broaden my horizons. I’ve been renting my aunt’s house for a while now, helping her fix it up for when she sells it, and I think that will be in the next year or two, probably, so I’ll need to figure out if I’m staying or going eventually.” She looked over at Sophie as they walked. “Atlanta is nice, but I don’t know that I’d want to live there.” She looked in front of her again. “New Orleans is crowded, but the food is on point, and there are so many options, I think I’d have enough to blog about for years.”

Sophie smiled and said, “You know I wasn’t suggesting you–”

“I know,” Bryce finished for her. “But it’s important to talk about that stuff, right? If this becomes more than just this visit, we’d need to know.”

“Yeah, but not right now, okay? I just want to enjoy the fact that you’re here.”

“When is the Atlanta interview?”

“Not for another week. The hiring manager was on vacation until then.”

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

“I wasn’t until I quit my job. God, I quit my job!”

“Still can’t believe it?” Bryce asked.

“No. I’ve never done anything like that before. I even told the president that he would have to direct-deposit my check, and when he said that he wouldn’t, I told him I knew things he wouldn’t want people to know.”

“Damn. What do you know?”

“Nothing. I know nothing. I just made it up. He went for it, though.”

“Which tells you he has things to hide, so you made a good decision.”

“Except, I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck. I’ve got maybe enough for next month’s rent and bills, but beyond that, I’m screwed. I might have to move back in with my parents or see if Monica and Bridgette will let me crash at their place.”

“Hey, it’s going to be fine,” Bryce told her, squeezing her hand. “You said you worked at Arnette before and in the same job. I’m sure you’ll get it. And if not, there’s Atlanta.”

“But I’ll be reeking of desperation now, when before, I had a job, and it would’ve been okay if I didn’t get it.”

“You won’t reek of desperation.” Bryce chuckled at her. “You’ll smell like grapefruit, or whatever the shampoo smells like in my hotel, I guess. It’s kind of like a cucumber-mint combo. I bet that’s going to smell great on you. Will you take a shower tonight, just so I can test that theory?”

Sophie leaned more into Bryce, feeling instantly better. How this woman had the ability to do that to her, she had no idea. The logical part of Sophie’s brain usually ruled her decisions and even her feelings. It had always been that way for her. But for the past year, even though everything with Bryce had seemed completely illogical and impossible, her heart had ruled, and it was unfamiliar territory for her, but she discovered that it was welcome territory, too.

“Oh, I need to tell you something,” Bryce said.

“O-k-a-y.”

“I got asked to do an interview for this lesbian online magazine thing.”

“An interview?”

“Yeah, it’s a video interview. I scheduled it for tomorrow, but I told them that I wanted to talk to you about it in person, and if you said no, I’d cancel.”

“Interview? Why would you need to talk to me about–” Sophie stopped. “Wait. It’s not about your food blog, is it?”

“No, they don’t really care about the food part. I guess they got ahold of my blogs about you, and they think it makes a cute story.”

“I can’t disagree with them there. You are very cute.”

Bryce smiled and shook her head.

“They liked the part about me trying to find you and actually doing it. The editor wanted to talk to both of us, but I told her I had to check with you first.”

“They want to interview us ? As in, you and me?”

“Yeah.”

“And you want to do it?”

“Selfishly, it’s good for my business, but even without that, I also kind of like the idea of people reading our story in their magazine. It would maybe give them hope.”

“Hope?”

“Yeah, that they might have a Sophie out there.”

“Bryce, this is going really well, and don’t get me wrong, I am so glad that we were right about how we felt when we met, but tomorrow is the day after today. That’s, like, really soon, and we’re still on our first date.”

“I know. She suggested we update people on where we are now, and if things keep going with us, she would do a follow-up interview and story.”

“Oh, wow. I don’t know,” Sophie said.

“If you say no, it’s a no, Soph. I don’t care about the business if you’re against it.”

“It’s not that. It’s just that I’ve never been interviewed for a story before. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”

“Well, I think she asks questions, and we answer them.”

“But I’m boring. The most exciting thing I have done since I made out with you last year was quit my job today.” She laughed.

“This is me,” Bryce said.

Sophie stopped walking with her and looked up at the red awning that indicated the name of Bryce’s hotel. She’d walked past this place hundreds of times. Now, it would always remind her of the woman standing in front of her.

“Did you stay here–”

“Last time?” Bryce interrupted as she cupped Sophie’s cheek. “Yeah. I figured, why not? We were going back to the bar for our first meeting, and I even wore–”

“What you wore last time,” Sophie finished. “I noticed. You’re still just as sexy in it, too.” She reached for Bryce’s shirt and held on to it. “Are we still going up?”

“If you still want to,” Bryce said.

“I do,” Sophie replied. “And I think I’d like to do the interview with you.”

“You do?” Bryce looked hopeful.

“As long as you can carry the conversation because I might be bad at it.”

“I can,” Bryce said and took back Sophie’s hand before she opened the glass door to the hotel. “What has you wanting to do it?”

“What you said before, about giving people hope,” she replied. “I know this is new between us, but this whole year, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I was crazy thinking that you and I could’ve had such an immediate connection. I gave up hope a few times, honestly. If us telling our story, as new as it is, could give someone else hope, I think that could be kind of cool.”

“I agree,” Bryce said as they made their way through the lobby.

Having arrived at the elevators, Sophie’s nerves kicked in. Bryce pressed the button with her free hand, still holding on to hers tightly with the other as if she was afraid Sophie might float away. When they got inside, Bryce pressed the button to her floor while Sophie leaned against the back wall. As Bryce turned around and smiled at her, Sophie wondered how she’d be able to control herself tonight after all. Bryce was sexy as hell, beautiful and adorable, all rolled into one. When Bryce ran a hand through her hair then, Sophie followed that movement with her eyes, wanting to do it for her next time because Bryce’s hair was so soft.

“You did that on purpose.” She laughed nervously.

“Tonight is just us holding each other,” Bryce said.

“I know,” she replied as she looked away from Bryce’s intense gaze.

“The look you just gave me told me otherwise,” Bryce teased as she placed her hands on the wall on either side of Sophie’s head. “And I want that, Sophie. You have no idea how much. I just want us to keep talking first.”

“Get to know each other more.” Sophie nodded.

“Yes,” Bryce said. “Maybe tomorrow, though…” She winked.

“So, we’ll know enough by tomorrow?”

The elevator dinged.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever know enough about you,” Bryce replied, stepping back and pulling on Sophie’s hands.

“God, you’re good at this. Seriously, how are you still single?” she asked, allowing herself to be pulled down the hallway.

“How are you still single?” Bryce asked back.

“I already told you – I’m boring. Nights I’m not fifth-wheeling it with my coupled-off friends, I’m just at home reading or watching TV.”

“What are you watching?”

“Shows where they find or build houses for people that I can never afford and that I’m not even interested in. They have a one-hundred-thousand-dollar budget, but they’re looking for six-bedroom, four-bathroom houses, with pools and ten acres of property. It’s ridiculous.”

“And you can’t look away, can you?”

“No,” she said, laughing a little.

“Wait. You said fifth wheel. Jill has someone now?”

“No, she’s usually the sixth wheel,” Sophie explained.

“Here we go,” Bryce said at one of the doors as she took out the key and swiped it.

The door beeped, and Bryce pushed it open, allowing Sophie to go in first. As soon as she was inside, her phone rang. Sophie reached for it and checked the readout, expecting it to be one of her friends checking on her or asking for an ill-timed update.

“It’s my former boss,” she said.

“It’s late,” Bryce noted as the door closed behind her. Also, you quit. What could he possibly want right now?”

“I don’t know, but he can go to voicemail,” she said as she hit ignore. “Oh, and Jill texted another three times. So did Monica and Melinda, though.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

Sophie then felt her jacket being pulled away from her shoulders, and she let Bryce take it off for her.

“What happened; that I almost lost you again because of that micro-managing asshole, but I quit my job.”

Bryce’s lips were on her neck, and her arms wrapped around Sophie’s waist.

“You didn’t almost lose me. I was just worried.”

Bryce placed another kiss on Sophie’s neck.

“Worried that I’d just left you there. I would never do that, Bryce.”

“You can call me Bry. Everyone does.”

“Because your one-syllable name is so hard to say?” she teased.

Bryce moved Sophie’s hair away from her neck and said softly, “You can message them back and tell them that you’re safe with me and that we’re in for the night. I need to tell my friends the same. They said they’d send New Orleans PD out looking for me if I didn’t tell them when I was in for the night and safe.”

“Did they think I was going to murder you or something?”

“This city is crowded, so they worry about safety. They love me.” Bryce then sucked on Sophie’s earlobe and added, “You are so soft.”

“You’re not going to make this whole not-having-sex-tonight thing easy, are you?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, no,” Bryce told her.

Sophie opened her messages app and tried her best to focus while Bryce continued to apply soft kisses along the top of her shoulder and neck.

Sophie Santiago : Everything’s fine. I’m with Bryce. I’m safe. Go to sleep.

Three dots appeared.

Bridgette Musgrave : We’re in relationships. We’re not eighty. It’s not even midnight yet.

Melinda Andrews : Bridge meant to say she’s glad that you’re okay. You’re really okay, right?

Sophie felt Bryce’s hands tighten around her middle.

Sophie Santiago : I am very okay.

Jill Solomon : Are you having sex? Did you already have sex? I hope you’re not messaging us during, because that would mean it’s probably bad.

“She’s asking you if we’re having sex right now?” Bryce asked with a laugh.

“She’s intrusive, but she means well,” Sophie said, turning around in Bryce’s arms. “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”

“Yes, but I’ll still be kissing you during, so make it one you’ve seen before.”

Sophie silenced her phone for the night before putting it on the desk and said, “I was thinking I could maybe take that shower now since I probably need it.”

“Yes.” Bryce nodded rapidly. “Do that. I–” She cleared her throat. “I can find a movie for us to watch.”

“I don’t have any clothes to change into.”

“I don’t see a problem there.” Bryce shrugged.

Sophie laughed and asked, “Bry, can I borrow something to sleep in?”

Bryce smiled at her and said, “Start the water. I’ll find you something and message my friends that I’m good, too, and safe with you.”

Sophie leaned in and pressed her lips to Bryce’s.

“If you tell them that we had sex, tell them I was good.” Sophie winked at her.

Bryce laughed and reached for her phone.