"We've been dancing around it." Jane says to her brother on the phone.
"Then do something about it."
"Like what?"
"Well, do you like her?"
"Yes. Of course, she's my best friend."
"Oh, for crying out loud, you know what I mean, do you like her as more than your best friend? Could she be everything for you?"
"She could." Jane says quietly.
Do you think she likes you? Is attracted to you?"
"I think so. I mean sometimes I feel like she is holding back, trying to be the responsible one, not give in, honor our friendship."
"So, do something about it."
"Like what?" Jane says exasperated.
Jane could picture Frankie waving his hands impatiently in the air. "I don't know. Cook for her, serve her wine and talk and be charming and beautiful – make a move. I can't believe I am the one you are coming to for advice."
"You think I am charming and beautiful?" She asks tentatively, holding her breath.
"I do." Frankie says quietly. "Look, you and Maura would make a great couple, really great, actually you already do."
"Aaahhh, I don't know."
"You trust her, right?"
"With my life."
"Then take a chance, even if she doesn't feel the same way, she'll talk it out with you, not leave you high and dry, right?"
"Yeah, she will. I may not understand her, but she will talk it out with me." Jane sighs.
"Stop being such a sissy and just do it, I don't have time for this. I'll talk to you later." With that, Frankie hangs up the phone, leaving Jane alone with her turbulent thoughts.
Jane couldn't believe how well dinner had gone. She'd made her chicken parmesan and Maura had oohed and aahed and then told her the origin of chicken parmesan. They had drank wine and talked and laughed and Jane felt relaxed, confident even. Being with Maura was so easy, warm in her chest. Maura had brought a delicious blueberry pie she'd bought from their favorite bakery and they had devoured that.
Now Jane was putting the dishes up, cleaning up a bit while Maura lounged on the couch with her wine glass twirling.
"Dinner was amazing, Jane," reaches her ears in the kitchen.
"Thanks. I loved cooking for you." Jane answered making her way into the living room, topping off Maura's glass before sitting down next to her on the couch.
"Hey, no really, thanks." Maura wraps her arm affectionately around her friend's neck, pulls her in for a quick kiss on the cheek.
Jane puts her glass down and turns to face Maura. She hears Maura take a big breath in at their closeness. Jane whispers, "Well, thanks for having dinner with me, too."
Their lips are now impossibly close.
"Jane? You're really close." Maura says haltingly.
"Hmm?" Jane says distractedly as she takes Maura's wine glass from her, sets it on the table. She pulls Maura's hand forward and places it on her own leg, runs her hand up Maura's arm gently, softly until she is cupping Maura's neck, her cheek.
Maura's eyes are fluttering. She is biting her lower lip. "You are really close. I can't…" Maura trails off helplessly.
"You can't what?" Jane asks helpfully, bringing her arm up on the edge of the couch, curling it around Maura's back.
"I can't," she licks her lips, Jane's breath hitches, "not kiss you."
Jane leans closer, lays her lips softly on Maura's, leans back, looks into Maura's eyes questioningly.
"Again," she says.
Jane frames her face with her warm fingers and their lips meet again. They sink into each other, arms move, hands touch. Maura wraps her arms firmly around Jane's neck tentatively tracing her tongue along her lower lip. Jane sighs, sinks further, opens her mouth, tongues dueling softly.
They finally pull apart from each other breathing heavily. Jane lays her forehead on Maura's.
"Maura?" Jane whispers.
"Hmm?" on a deep breath in.
"Is this OK?"
Maura pulls back, cocks her head to the side. Jane can't help smiling at Maura's rumpled hair and swollen lips, rosy cheeks. She tucks a piece of Maura's soft blonde hair gently behind her ear. Maura grabs her wrist and brings her fingers to her mouth, brushing her knuckles with her lips, once, twice.
"This is very OK," answers Maura, smiling.
"Good, because I need more."
With that Jane crushes their lips together and pushes Maura back on the couch until she is stretched out along Maura, Maura's legs wrapped around her waist, both struggling to be closer together. Jane's fingers creep up under Maura's shirt along her ribs. Both women are breathless at the contact. Maura's hands already all along the bare skin of Jane's warm back, kissing, kissing necks, mouths, collarbones.
Jane and Maura sit up, Jane in Maura's lap, her lanky legs now wrapped around her. She reaches for the hem of Maura's shirt even as her mouth lays fluttery kisses all over her face, neck. Maura's hands hold Jane's hips firmly as her breath quickens, her heart pounds.
As Jane goes to lift Maura's shirt over her head, Maura frames Jane's face, stills her hands.
"Jane?" she whispers.
Jane opens her eyes hazily to gaze at Maura. "Hmm?"
"I want this, I do, but not as a fling, an experiment. As the beginning of something. I want this to be a beginning." Maura says quietly looking into Jane's eyes, then pressing her lips against her neck, her mouth.
Jane pauses, thinks, nods once, "Yes, a beginning," as she abandons the hem of Maura's shirt and just wraps her arms tightly around Maura's whole body. "A beginning," she murmurs into her neck, smiling.
Maura's eyes flutter open as the sun's rays fall across the rumpled bed. She stretches fully, yawning herself awake feeling to her right for the delicious warm skin of her brown-eyed friend. Disappointed and a little nervous to find cool sheets, she rolls over. She grins when she sees a neat stack of clothes and a note with her name scrawled in a heart on top. Her smile widens as she reaches and opens the note propping herself up on the pillows. Maura closes her eyes as the heady scent of bacon and coffee reach her nose.
I couldn't bear to wake you even with little kisses. Put these clothes on (I know they aren't your usual high fashion) and come down and have breakfast with me. J
She sighs as she looks out the window, smiling at the wildly colored leaves. 'I wish she'd have woken me up…' Maura mutters to herself remembering warm lips on her shoulders, her breasts, her belly as she climbs out of bed sighing contentedly and heads to the bathroom, the air cool to her naked skin.
Moments later, clad in Jane's ancient Boston Police Department sweatshirt and softly worn fleece pants she pads down the hall and into the kitchen. She pauses in the doorway and watches Jane's back as she stands at the sink. Her face splitting into a slow smile she quietly walks up behind her and works her arms around her waist, puts her nose into her neck where skin meets her lovely brown hair, the smell there uniquely Jane.
Inhaling, "Morning, Jane."
Jane quietly lays her hands on tops of Maura's, "Good morning," she says on a deep breath out.
Maura squeezes more firmly, "Where is this coffee I smell?" She says grinning into Jane's neck.
Jane laughs and turns around in Maura's arms.
"Hey," and lays a kiss on her cheek and brings her hands up to frame Maura's face gently.
"Hey," Maura leans in for a kiss hoping its OK, hoping last night was real, hoping the kissing, the touching, their bare skin touching, sliding was real.
Jane meets her kiss and winds her arms around Maura's neck, deepening the kiss delightfully. Maura sighs with relief into it, opens her mouth to Jane's warm tongue.
They continue to kiss wetly, softly until oxygen becomes their top priority, forcing them to pull apart they hold each other close, foreheads touching.
Jane tucks a wayward curl behind Maura's ear, "So, we're good? We're OK?" She asks breathlessly.
Maura can't help the grin splitting her face and Jane falls a little bit more at the sparkle in her blue eyes. "Hmm, yes," Maura pauses, "but next time don't leave the naked girl alone in your bed. You wake her up with kisses." She crashes her lips into Jane's as she chuckles, tightening her grip.
"Noted." Jane edges out between kisses, glad, relieved there will be a next time. "Now about that coffee…"