Chapter 15: Lunchtime
The warm, damp cloth moved over Clara’s stomach with a gentle, practiced sweep. Jade’s touch was tender, cleaning the evidence of their passion from her skin with a reverence that made Clara’s throat feel tight. She watched the concentration on Jade’s face, the way her dark hair curtained around her cheeks, and felt a surge of something so profound it was almost frightening.
The silence between them was soft, filled only with the rustle of the cloth and their slow, synced breathing. It was a silence Clara never wanted to break.
Then her phone buzzed on the floor, skittering across the concrete with a violent, jarring rattle.
Jade’s hand stilled. Clara let out a frustrated groan, the spell broken. “Ignore it,” she murmured, reaching for Jade’s wrist.
It buzzed again, insistent.
“Someone’s eager,” Jade said, a small, knowing smile playing on her lips. She resumed her cleaning, but the moment’s pristine intimacy had been fractured.
With a sigh, Clara leaned over the edge of the divan, her muscles protesting with a delicious ache, and fumbled for the device. The screen glowed with Crystal’s name and a text message: ‘Hey! You alive? Haven't heard from you in a while. Lunch?’
Clara typed a quick reply with her thumbs. ‘Yeah, sorry! Been… distracted. Lunch sounds good.’
She dropped the phone back onto the floor, but it immediately buzzed again. ‘The usual place? Now?’
Clara looked at Jade, who was now wringing out the cloth in a small bowl of water, her back turned. The elegant line of her spine, the shift of muscle under skin, made Clara’s heart clench. She didn’t want to leave this studio, this bubble. But the real world was knocking.
“That was Crystal,” Clara said, her voice cutting through the quiet. “She wants to meet for lunch.”
Jade turned, her expression unreadable for a moment. “You should go I guess. Make sure she knows you haven't been hiding from her.”
“I haven’t been hiding,” Clara said, a little too quickly. “I’ve been… researching.”
Jade’s laugh was a rich, warm sound that filled the room. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Thorough field research,” Clara insisted, a grin spreading across her face. She pushed herself up, feeling the deep, satisfying throb between her legs, a constant reminder of Jade’s presence. “Come with me.”
Jade’s eyebrows lifted. “To lunch with your friend?”
“Yeah, why not? I want you to meet her. She’s… a lot, but she means well. And I don’t want to stop hanging out with you just because we’re done…” Clara gestured vaguely at the divan, “...with the research portion of the day.”
Jade leaned against her worktable, crossing her arms. A tube of cadmium red rolled and nearly fell off the edge before she caught it. “I don’t know, Clara. I’m not really a ‘meet the friends’ kind of person.”
“That’s exactly why you should come,” Clara said, stepping closer. She took Jade’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “This isn’t just a one-time research project for me. Is it for you?”
Jade’s dark eyes searched hers, the confidence she’d worn so easily during their lovemaking now tempered with a vulnerability that made Clara want to hold her forever. “No,” Jade said, her voice soft but firm. “It’s not.”
“So come to lunch.” Clara squeezed her hand. “It’ll be fun. And I promise, Crystal’s worldview is so… expansive… she probably won’t even blink.”
A slow smile finally broke through Jade’s apprehension. “Okay. But I’m not changing. I smell like turpentine and sex.”
“Good,” Clara said, leaning in to kiss her, a quick, firm press of lips. “So do I. It’s our perfume.” She pulled back, her grin turning wicked. “Now come on. I’m starving. You worked up an appetite.”
Jade shook her head, a genuine laugh escaping her. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You love it,” Clara shot back, the words slipping out before she could stop them. They hung in the air, bold and true. Neither of them acknowledged it, but the truth of it settled around them, as tangible as the dust motes dancing in the afternoon light.
Jade just shook her head again, her smile not fading. She grabbed her leather jacket from a stool. “Alright. Let’s go face the world then.”
As they stepped out of the studio and into the bright, noisy street, Clara felt a familiar flutter of anxiety. But this time, it was different. It wasn’t the old dread of being found lacking, of a body that didn’t fit the mold. It was the thrilling, terrifying anticipation of walking into her old life with a new, fundamental piece of herself finally clicked into place, her hand firmly holding Jade’s. The ache inside her was no longer a hollow space, but a map of where she’d been, and a compass pointing toward where she was going.