"Andrea the dress was fine," Sharon said from her reclined position on the bed. "The colour looked lovely on you," she said encouragingly.
"No," Andrea snapped from inside her walk-in closet. "It looked stupid. I looked stupid," she said, her voice indicated that she was very much on edge. She sounded like she was ready to burst into tears.
Sharon sighed and pushed herself up and off the comfortable mattress so that she could join Andrea in the walk-in. She leaned against the doorframe and looked at her partner amusedly as Andrea hastily shuffled through the skirts and blouses on the hangers.
"You could just wear that," Sharon purred as she looked Andrea up and down, taking in her partner's very bare legs, stomach, arms, and the fine black lace that covered the rest of Andrea.
Andrea ceased her hasty shuffling to shoot a glare at Sharon. "Sharon Raydor, I am not meeting your children for the first time wearing lingerie that you, their mother, bought me. And the fact that you would even joke about that is just-"
"Okay, alright." Sharon held her hands up defensively. "I was merely implying that if you're worried about what I may think about what you wear, that your worry was unwarranted."
Andrea mumbled something unintelligible and then blushed.
"Didn't catch that," Sharon said.
Andrea crossed her arms over her chest defensively and exhaled. "It's not your opinion of me that I am worried about," she repeated quietly. She didn't look Sharon directly in the eye; instead, she focused her gaze on the dark pink nail polish on her own toes.
Sharon closed the distance between them by wrapping her arms around Andrea, hugging the blonde tightly and kissing the top of her head. "You're very cute when you're nervous," Sharon muttered against Andrea's hair. She felt the younger woman relax in her arms; Andrea uncrossed her arms and returned Sharon's embrace.
"What if they hate me?" she asked miserably. She nuzzled the skin of Sharon's neck and sighed.
"They are not going to hate you. They're actually very excited to meet you," Sharon said as she rubbed Andrea's back soothingly. "Rusty has no doubt told them all about you too; I know that the three of them keep in contact on Facebook."
Andrea pulled back slightly from Sharon. "But what if you misread their excitement?" she insisted stubbornly. "What if they actually want nothing to do with me and they resent that we're together?"
Sharon smiled adoringly at her nervous lover. "Andrea," she said patiently, "do you really think I couldn't see through a lie like that? And anyway, we don't ever lie to one another. It's a promise that the three of us made a long, long time ago, and it's the one thing that's always kept us close," she said softly.
"I've never done this before. I've never been with anyone who had grown children," Andrea admitted. "I just…I don't know what to do. I really want them to like me. I want to have a relationship with them," she said.
Sharon's heart swelled with pride, and if possible, even more love for the woman in her arms. "I love that you want to impress them so badly, and it means the world to me that you care about their opinion, and that you want to have a relationship with them. But there is no need to worry. They really are excited to meet you, and I bet they're probably a bit nervous too. It's…been a while since I had anyone special enough in my life to introduce to them," she said softly.
"Okay," Andrea said slowly, "Okay," with a little more confidence. "So, the dress then?" she asked as she grabbed the now crinkled navy dress from the pile of hastily discarded clothing on the floor.
Sharon chuckled as she took the dress from Andrea's hands and hung it on a nearby hanger. "Yes, do I get to pick out the rest of your wardrobe too?" she asked as she swept over Andrea's curves in the tantalizing lingerie.
Andrea rolled her eyes affectionately and kissed the grin off of Sharon's lips. "Mmm, you're sure you'd rather not be surprised?" she whispered silkily. "I actually have a surprise for you tonight…"
Sharon growled, "Why the hell are we still talking about dresses then?" she asked in mock irritability.
Andrea giggled as Sharon led her back to the bed. Once under on the decadent mattress, they wasted no time in divesting one another of their clothing and crawling beneath the sheets to tangle their limbs together.
Sharon hovered over Andrea and trailed her fingers across the blonde's neck and across Andrea's collarbone. "You know, I have another reason to believe why my kids are going to love you," she said as her lips began to retrace the path her fingers had taken.
Andrea squirmed delightfully under Sharon's ministrations. "Oh?" she asked as she arched into the kiss Sharon placed against her breast, right above her heart. "And what would that be?"
"They're going to love you because I love you."