CHAPTER 10
"Uhm...your brother asked me out"
Callie stopped what she was doing and looked at the blonde. They had started going over the plans for an open house at the center.
"Yeah...uh...he mentioned that" Callie looked like she was trying to figure out what to say "Well, he's a nice guy. And I'm not just saying that because he's my brother"
"Yeah, he seems nice" Arizona said and nodded slowly.
"So, are you gonna go out with him?" the latina asked.
"Uhm...yeah"
"Great" the latina simply said and looked back down at the paper work "I never had the pleasure of a having a full date with you myself, but I told him that you're a nice person" And then she returned to what they had been talking about before as if nothing had happened "Do you think we'll be able to fit 70 chairs in here?"
Arizona clenched her jaw.
"Yeah, there's plenty of space"
And that was it. Arizona was going to go out for dinner with Callie's brother.
He picked her up the following Friday, and they went to a nice French restaurant.
He was charming. And funny. And handsome. And at the end of the night he kissed her.
As he pulled out of the kiss he looked at her with inquisitive eyes.
"Listen," he said "let me make this easy on you"
Arizona didn't know what he meant.
"I love my sister. And I find her miraculously wonderful. But you've talked about her all night. And I kind of felt like you weren't too much into me kissing you just now, so I think that maybe you went out with the wrong Torres?"
"Wha…no, no no, I…I just…"
"Just…think about it, okay? She really is magnificent"
And with those words he smiled at her, turned around, and left Arizona at the doorstep of her apartment building.
What had just happened? And why did everything feel so weird?
The questions raced through her head, and they continued to do so for days.
Arizona was hoping that Callie's brother hadn't gone home and told Callie about their date. She was hoping that he hadn't dispensed his analysis of their evening to the brunette. And she was hoping that people would just stop talking about how wonderful Callie would be for her.
Arizona. Was. Straight.
And right now she was standing by the bar of a very gay night club.
It had been two weeks since she'd last been at the community center. She hadn't seen Callie after the date she'd had with the brunette's brother. She needed a break without knowing exactly what she needed a break from. And when Teddy had suggested a night of dancing with a few friends, Arizona had seen it as a welcomed opportunity to drink. And to not think about Callie.
She was three drinks into the evening and alone at the bar because Teddy was dancing with her friends. Arizona enjoyed to just stand there and watch people. She was starting to feel the warmth of the alcohol spread into her limbs and she relaxed.
As she got started on her fourth drink, her eyes locked onto someone familiar standing at the other end of the club.
It was Callie. Callie in a short black dress and heels. Callie with tanned legs that looked so smooth and silk like.
Arizona stared at her. And because of the alcohol, she didn't have the self-restraint to immediately look away when the latina turned around and met her eyes. It took the blonde a few seconds before she finally turned back towards the bar and closed her eyes. Shit!
She stood still for a while, concentrating on not turning back around to look at Callie again. She didn't have to, because the brunette had crossed the floor and was now standing behind her.
"For a straight woman this sure is a very gay place to visit"
Arizona took a deep breath, turned around, and found herself face to face with Callie.
The latina had a very low cleavage, and her dark hair was pulled up on one side and hung lose on the other. She looked gorgeous, and it stirred something in Arizona. Something that made the blonde lose her cool and babble away.
"Oh, hi…uh…yeah…well…Teddy… Two of her gay friends…they invited me…and…uh…I just sorta showed up…uh…and…well now I'm here…and…"
Callie laughed.
"You babble, Doctor Robbins"
"Yeah, sorry" Arizona breathed out. Why was she babbling?
"No, it's really cute" Callie said.
Arizona let go of the breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. She simply stared at the latina. And the latina did nothing to start a conversation. She simply stared back.
"Do you…do you come here often?" Arizona finally stuttered.
"Often enough" Callie said and asked the bartender for drinks and shots for the two of them.
When the shots arrived, Callie downed two of them without breaking eye contact with the blonde.
Thoughts of the scar that was zigzagging it's way between the beauty marks on the latina's belly raced through Arizona's mind. She swallowed as she thought about how sensitive the nerve endings at the edges of the scar would be to any touch.
Arizona also did a shot. And she blurted out a question that had been on her mind for a while.
"Do you think you'll want to tell me about it one day?" she said and motioned towards Callie's abdominal area "I mean, since I'm your friend now and all" The question was challenging. Like she wanted to push Callie – in a sort of self defence. She was squirming under the intensity of Callie's eyes.
"You know already"
"No. I know the medical details. But I don't know exactly what happened"
"Maybe" Callie then said and did another shot.
"You didn't sleep with her?"
"With whom?"
"Doctor Christensen. Maya"
"You ask the weirdest questions, doctor Robbins" Callie said "Why don't we talk about you and me instead?"
"Just answer my question, please" the blonde insisted. Arizona hadn't registered Callie's last sentence yet.
"No, I didn't sleep with her. Because I would have spent the whole time thinking about you"
Callie challengingly raised her eyebrows.
Arizona opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.
The look in Callie's eyes. The smell of Callie's perfume. The alcohol that was rushing through Arizona's veins. It all became too much for the blonde. She clenched her jaw and rushed past the latina, pushed through the crowd on the dance floor and exited the club.
The cool night air felt raw when she pulled it into her lungs and started walking down the street.
She didn't get far before someone grabbed her.
It was Callie. And the latina's hand felt strong and warm on her shoulder.
"Why are you running, Arizona?"
"I'm not running…I just…you…"
"Do I make you nervous?" Callie said and took a step closer to the blonde.
"You said…you said you wouldn't flirt" Arizona whispered.
"I said that because I thought you really minded it" Callie whispered back "You very well know that your date with my brother didn't end in ecstasy because your mind was elsewhere. And what you don't know is that you have already shown enough interest for me to know that I will end up getting my way with you"
"Wha…"
Arizona leaned back against the wall of the building in surprise.
Callie simply smiled at the blonde, turned around, and started walking away.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Callie turned back around, closed the distance between them, and placed a hand on the wall on either side of Arizona's head, standing so close to the blonde that Arizona could feel Callie's breath on her face and the heat radiating between them. Callie's eyes were impossibly dark.
Arizona swallowed.
"In the beginning I thought you were just awkward around new people. Or that maybe you despised me for being Mark's friend. I didn't know. But now I know. And if you don't want me to flirt, if you don't want me to chase you, you have to tell me right now. I'll stop. But you have to tell me to" Callie husked.
Arizona was dumbstruck. And lost in Callie's eyes, her own eyes darting back and forth between the dark brown windows of the latina's soul and Callie's luscious lips.
"I didn't think so" Callie then said and placed her right hand on Arizona's cheek for a brief moment. Then she pulled back, looked the blonde into the eyes for an intense second, turned around and left.
It took Arizona a few minutes to regain her bearings. She surfaced, breathing out a loud "Shit!" and bending over, resting her hands on her thighs.
Never, ever, had she experienced something as sexy as what had just happened.
The lingering smell of Callie's perfume is what made it very clear to her exactly why her date with Callie's brother hadn't sparked anything in her.
He had eyes like Callie. But he wasn't Callie.
She swallowed, and with shaky hands she got her phone out of her bag and sent Teddy a message. She was going to go home. And in the morning she would need to talk to Teddy. About all of this.
8 hours later a very hung over Teddy was sitting at the breakfast bar in Arizona's apartment.
She stared at the blonde who had just told her everything that had happened the night before. All in a complete disarray of a ramble. Arizona's unwillingness to realize what the next logic step in all this would be, made Teddy's head hurt even more than it already did. She had known for quite a while that Arizona's infatuation with Callie was more than just friendly.
"So let me see… She is nice, sweet, considerate, kind of badass, looks incredible, has a killer body, is a goddamn pilot, does charity work, helps her family out, and SHE WANTS YOU?
"But, I'm not gay, Teddy!"
"You keep using that as an excuse. It doesn't matter if you're gay or not. Do you like her?"
"Yes"
"Then fucking go on a date with her!"