Page 34 of September (New Orleans #9)

J uliet was on one side of the sofa, her legs in Gwen’s lap, and Gwen was sitting on the other, watching a meerkat YouTube video. Carly was lying on Gwen’s other side. Juliet looked up from her laptop and smiled at how perfect this all was.

“What?” Gwen asked.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You’re staring at me.”

“How do you know I’m not staring at the dog?”

“ Are you?” Gwen asked.

“No, I’m staring at you, and I shouldn’t be because I’m supposed to be prepping this class.”

“Do you want me to go? You invited me over tonight.”

“No, I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay. I just also have to work, and you’re distracting.”

“How am I distracting? I’m just watching some meerkats run around and minding my own business.”

“You’re cute, and I just want to look at you the whole time,” Juliet replied.

“Oh, so you’re blaming me for my inherent cuteness? I see,” Gwen replied and rubbed her hand over Juliet’s legs. “Prepping for a class?”

“Yes. It’s a manager class I’ve never delivered before,” she said. “So, I need to prepare for it, which isn’t something I’ve had to do in a while.”

“Can I help?”

“Yes. Can you cover your head in a paper bag and put on a parka or something?”

Gwen laughed, and that seemed to wake Carly up.

The dog jumped off the sofa, so Juliet worried she’d want to go out again, despite just having gone out an hour ago, but she didn’t.

She just moved over to her bed and flopped down as if she had run a marathon and needed to sleep.

Juliet smiled and shook her head. When she looked back at Gwen, she was shifting Juliet’s legs out of her lap to sit on the sofa facing her.

“Okay. Can I actually help you for real? I’m not going to find a paper bag.”

“What would you do?” Juliet asked.

“I don’t know, Jules. I’m asking you here,” Gwen said. “I’d like to make myself useful.”

“You’re very useful,” Juliet said and smiled.

“Not with cuteness.” Gwen laughed and rubbed Juliet’s legs again. “Come on. How can I help?”

“You can pretend to be my audience, I guess, but that’s weird. I don’t know if I can pretend to teach you.”

“Why not? I’ll take it seriously. I won’t heckle. Do they heckle you? Should I heckle so that it’s realistic? Wait… If they heckle you, I’ll kill them.”

Juliet laughed and sat up so that she could lean over and kiss Gwen quickly.

“They don’t heckle me. Sometimes, they ask annoying questions and keep going on and on with them because they don’t respect me as their trainer, but it’s mostly the old guys.”

“How many old guys are there?”

“Depends, but usually at least one in each class.”

“Can I join one of these classes?”

“You can’t beat up the old guys.”

“No, I meant to maybe watch you in action or something,” Gwen replied.

“You want to watch me teach people how to manage a coffee shop?”

“I’d like to just watch you.” Gwen shrugged. “It’s cool, what you do.”

“It’s cool?” she asked.

“You teach people things. That’s cool. And you know how to roast coffee. I mean, how many people know how to do that properly? I’m still waiting for my espresso to be ready to drink, by the way.”

Juliet laughed and said, “Only a few more days, and I’ll pick it up for you. We can try it together.”

“Will you make it for me?”

“Yes.”

“Will you add salt?”

Juliet laughed again and said, “Only if you want me to after you taste it.”

“If you do, don’t tell me. It’s weird,” Gwen replied. “I can’t really watch you, can I? Company secrets and all that.”

“Yeah… But if you want to get a second job, just work at one of the stores, and then you’d sit through my new-hire training.”

“Oh, that’s tempting. In the new-hire one, do you wear the polo?”

“Yes,” Juliet said with a smile. “Not for the whole time. Sometimes, we’re in a classroom.”

Gwen’s eyes went wide.

“Where did your mind just go?” Juliet asked.

“You. Classroom. Pencil skirt. Button-down shirt tucked in and unbuttoned a little at the top,” Gwen stated. “Maybe some black-rimmed glasses and your hair back.”

“That’s sexy librarian, not teacher.” Juliet laughed.

“It can be both. In my mind, it’s both.” Gwen seemed to be far away in her mind, picturing Juliet in that little ensemble.

Juliet shook her head at her a little and asked, “Will you take Carly out again for me? Do you mind? I need to finish this real quick, but she might need to go again.”

“No problem,” Gwen replied. “But when I come back, do you want to order food?”

“Sure.” She nodded. “Whatever you want.”

Gwen leaned over and kissed her before getting up, and Carly followed her out the door within a minute.

With them gone, Juliet quickly closed her laptop and jumped up, forgetting entirely about the work that she needed to do.

The class would be fine. And even if it wasn’t the first day, she would improve it on day two.

She knew Carly didn’t need to go out again just yet.

The terrier would enjoy the walk and the time with Gwen all the same, though, as she always did, and Juliet would get what she needed: Gwen out of the apartment for a few minutes.

Knowing she didn’t have much time, she rushed to her bedroom and rummaged through her closet.

She had a pencil skirt that she wore to the office sometimes.

She had a ton of button-down shirts. She didn’t have black-rimmed glasses, but she did have an old pair of fake reading glasses that she’d bought for a Halloween costume one year.

Not wasting any time, she changed out of her sweats and into the ensemble, slipped into a pair of black heels, and then pulled her hair up into a clip to complete the look.

It was ridiculous; she knew that. But this was what Gwen had been picturing earlier, and she’d been able to make it happen.

As she stared at herself in the mirror, Juliet realized it, though.

She swallowed hard, knowing what this would mean.

Putting on the clothes Gwen had clearly been fantasizing about would lead to them having sex.

She had told Gwen last night that she didn’t want to rush anything just because she would be leaving on one of her trips, but they’d had amazing dates so far, and when she asked Gwen to come over just to hang out while she worked, Gwen had jumped at the chance, and they’d sat there together, just existing in the silence that hadn’t been awkward at all.

Gwen was beautiful. She was smart and kind, and she made Juliet laugh.

She was also sexy, and Juliet wanted her.

When she heard the door to the apartment open and Carly’s collar tags doing the jingle jangle thing they did when she ran around, Juliet knew she was ready.

“Okay. Calm down now,” Gwen said to the dog. “We’re home.” She laughed. “Where are you?” she asked Juliet.

“Hi, babe,” she said from her position in the open door of her bedroom.

Gwen turned, and her face showed a few things at once. Confusion was the primary one, at first, but that was slowly replaced by a headshake and then a lifted eyebrow, followed by intrigue, and lastly, there was heat in those brown eyes.

“What did you do?” Gwen asked.

“This was what you meant, right?”

Juliet unbuttoned the top two buttons.

“Holy fuck, Jules. You’re so hot.” Gwen moved to her as she continued to look up and down her body. “But you’re hot all the time. You don’t have to dress up for me.”

“I wanted to,” she said and wrapped her arms around Gwen’s neck. “I want to.”

Gwen swallowed and replied, “You said you wanted to wait.”

“I also said it could be today, tomorrow, or…”

“You sure? Just because I made some comment, doesn’t mean we–”

“Gwen, I just dressed up for you. And, at first, I thought it would be something silly for us to laugh at.”

“How could I laugh at this?” Gwen looked her up and down again. “You’re so beautiful.”

Juliet tilted her head and added, “But then, I stared at myself in the mirror and thought about how this wasn’t something silly at all. It was serious; very serious.”

Gwen nodded and looked down at the noticeable cleavage Juliet was now revealing. Juliet smirked at that and rolled her eyes.

“Very serious,” Gwen said softly.

“Are you ready?”

“Since I first laid eyes on you,” Gwen replied, looking up to meet Juliet’s eyes. “But I also meant what I said, Jules: I’ll wait. I’m not looking for–”

“I know,” Juliet interrupted. “I got all dressed up for you, though.”

“You had me take Carly outside just so you could do this, didn’t you?”

Juliet smiled and asked, “Do you really mind that much?”

Gwen shook her head and said, “Not even a little bit.”

She ran her hand over Juliet’s cheek, down over her neck, between her breasts, and found a button that she undid.

“Was this a fantasy of yours?” Juliet asked.

“The clothes?”

“Yeah,” she said as Gwen undid another button.

“No,” Gwen replied. “But you are.”

It was Juliet’s turn to swallow before Gwen leaned in and kissed her.

“And I get to see them without the clothes now,” Gwen added.

“Huh?” she asked, her mind a little in a daze already.

“Your nipples,” Gwen clarified with a smirk.

Juliet pulled her back in for another kiss and reached for the button on Gwen’s jeans.

Gwen walked Juliet backward into the bedroom while she undid the rest of the buttons on her shirt.

Her tongue moved into Juliet’s mouth, and Juliet moaned while Gwen pulled the shirt out of the skirt and off of Juliet’s shoulders, letting it drop to the floor.

“You’re so…” Gwen faded out as she looked down at Juliet’s bra-clad breasts.

“What?” Juliet asked, needing to hear it.

“Beautiful,” Gwen let out softly.