ELEVEN

The afternoon sun glowed into the café as Maura and Nina sipped on their lattes. Maura had ordered a muffin too, as she forgot to bring some fruit for a mid-class snack, and her tummy was rumbling non-stop for the last twenty minutes of the lecture. They had been discussing their assignment that was handed out that day. It was their final assessment and although they had known what it was and what they should do, Maura hadn't even prepared any ideas. Nina pulled out their assessment task sheet and snapped it as she began to read the task in the most professional voice that she could, attempting to imitate their stuffy professor. It did make Maura miss The Professor, but that was a bad thing, so she shook her head and listened to Nina.

"You task, if you're willing to accept it-"

"It doesn't say that!" Maura butted in.

"Good, you're listening."

"I was listening," Maura whispered, to which Nina gave her a look of 'no you were not' and continued.

"Your task is to draw a series in your preferred art style over the next four months to show change. You will then need to prepare a final addition of this task for the end of semester to show the result of this change." Maura slouched back in her chair as her hand reached and rested on the edge of the table, her fingers picking at the muffin. "So what are you going to draw?" Nina asked.

"I have no clue."

"Well, you have ideas," she said as she pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. On it was scribbled words and basic pictures in a comic strip, presumably so she could visualise what her series would look like when placed next to each other.

"Nope," Maura said with a smile, although this was a pretty bad thing.

"Oh, Maura; what are we going to do with you?"

"I guess I've been spending so much time with Jane, that I-"

"You could draw Jane."

"No! She doesn't want me to draw her."

"You've asked?"

"Yeah, when we first met, but..."

"Well, it's been a couple of weeks, so maybe she'd be more up to it since you're not just strangers anymore."

"Maybe."

"Well, she's shared her body with you in some way, so-"

"What!?" Maura spat, sitting forward and slamming her hands down on the table in disbelief.

"Aren't you two a couple."

"Hell, no; Jane's straight. Doesn't the fact that she's pregnant give that away?"

"I'm not saying she's gay, but she's definitely into you, so I just assumed."

"You've only met her once!"

"Yeah, and there was some serious eye-sex going on there, and when you were telling me that she stayed over when you got drunk... It sure as hell sounded like something was up."

"In what way?"

"You said, I believe, "I have to ask Jane what we got up to last night"."

"I didn't mean that we'd... you know."

"Well, it sounded like that. I'm sorry that I got it wrong, but c'mon... you like her, don't you?"

"Yeah, she's a great friend, but-"

"But one person can't have eye-sex alone; there has to be two people there and it sure as hell wasn't me."

"Well, I do kinda like her..."

"Mmhm..."

"Stop! I can't do this again," Maura said sternly. Nina sat up straight and looked confused wondering as to what she meant by 'again'. "I've been fucked over by this before, and I can't do that again."

"What? Love?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's what love does; it fucks you up and pushes you aside, but you can't let that define you. What if Jane was the goddamn love of your life and you passed her by because you were afraid."

"I just moved here, and Jane's pregnant! It's wrong."

"Who says it's wrong?" Nina waited for Maura to try to come up with an answer, then continued on. "I'm sure she's happy to have found a friend as nice and beautiful as you and I'm pretty sure the sex between-"

"Oh my god, stop!" Nina chuckled to herself, although Maura would probably steer clear of her for a while, or at least this topic, or anything remotely related to it. "And it's not just me. The father of Jane's baby just up and left her, so I'm pretty sure she'd prefer to just be friends. Not that she's even attracted to me, although..." Maura regretted it the second that one word passed her lips.

"Although...?" She took a deep breath before talking again, trying to somewhat calm her nerves back down.

"She kissed my cheek the other night."

"And..."

"That was it. We finished watching a movie, I went to bed and she slept on the couch."

"Oh, but have you seen each other since then?"

"Yeah, we're neighbours," Maur said sarcastically. "But she had a doctor's appointment yesterday after work so I haven't seen her since Sunday. She still has to work a full day to get by, so she's totally whacked by the time she gets home anyway." Nina nodded as she looked at her watch, noting that she wasn't going to win this battle of sorts today. She needed to keep tabs on it though, so...

"Lunch on Friday?"

"Sure." They had an early morning lecture so a good full lunch afterwards would be sweet. Maura placed her money down on the table as she shoved the last of her muffin in her mouth. Be lady-like, Maura, her mother's voice rang in her ears. She shrugged and smiled a big toothy, muffin covered smile at Nina as she watched her fill her mouth, making the other woman laugh. They walked outside and to the bus stop for Nina to catch and said their goodbyes. Maura was sure that Nina would bring up the whole 'Jane' thing again, but until then she had to get up the guts to ask Jane if she could draw her throughout her pregnancy. She knew the likelihood of Jane saying yes was infinitely small, but she prepared herself anyway.

She thought about how she'd like Jane to pose and if she'd wear clothes or just have sheets draped strategically and if she'd use natural lighting or not. It dawned on her that she hadn't drawn from a live model since she was back at NYU. She and The Professor had just had some of the hottest, spiciest, most delicious pizza either of them had ever had as they lay in bed. The pizza was a post-sex snack, of which was also very hot and delicious. When The Professor had answered the door in not a stitch of clothing to grab the pizza from the delivery boy, Maura realised just how much of a boundary pusher she was having an affair with.

They had eaten the pizza, alternating between feeding each other and eating off each other, not even caring about the once clean sheets, and then Maura pulled out her scrap book to sketch. The Professor had given her a lingering kiss, teasingly running her tongue across the blonde's bottom lip as she nibbled it, then rolled over so that Maura couldn't draw her face. She always did that, and that suited Maura just fine. Occasionally she lay on her back with a sheet or her arm over her face so that Maura could enjoy the way her pencil graced around the swell of The Professor's breast, or the shadows cast on the bed as she bent her knees and crossed her legs. Even in after sex romantic sketching sessions, she wanted her student to be able to explore their artistic talents in every way.

That was just the kind of considerate person she was. She was considerate in other ways too, Maura remembered, but again, she pushed it out of her mind and kept walking towards her apartment building and up to her place. Jane would still be at work, so Maura decided to open up her notepad and write down any other ideas she could conjure up in case Jane did say no. Once she'd started thinking, she found that she couldn't stop, and soon enough it was growing dark outside and the cool air was coming in through the open window. She closed her notepad and prepared for her shower, all the while thinking of the ideas she'd come up with. She liked some, thinking that they would be interesting to do, and that they would probably get her a very good mark, but it was no use, because she really just wanted to do Jane. "Draw Jane! I want to draw Jane!"

An hour later, Maura had showered and was dressed in her baggy sweats; the ones that she'd bought without her mother knowing, because they weren't just sweats, they were two sizes too big, so they pooled at her feet and when she pulled the hoodie on, it covered her eyes. They were a "dream buy", as Maura had called them. She'd always seen characters on television shows wearing sweats in their downtime, and even other people at NYU who were too tired to get into a pair of jeans, and so Maura always dreamt of owning a pair. Now she did and she loved shuffling around her apartment in them. If she shuffled too fast her pants began to fall down, but she liked it when they sat at the very top of her bottom threatening to slip right over. It made her feel so rebellious.

She'd put an asterisk next to the ideas for her assessment that she liked, but she was still going to ask Jane. She'd heard the brunette arrive home about ten minutes ago, and she decided to let her relax a bit after work, maybe have a shower, before she went over in her adorable sweats carrying a pizza that she'd had delivered, hoping that she could maybe persuade Jane with food. She wanted to begin a preliminary sketch of how she'd draw Jane to show change, but she didn't want to get ahead of herself. She looked at her wall clock and gave up. She wanted to see Jane.

She grabbed the pizza from where it sat on the kitchen counter and skipped over to her door and opened it at the same time Jane opened hers. "Hi," she squeaked as she jumped back, surprised that Jane was right there.

"Hey, I was just coming around to see if you wanted to grab some dinner..." Jane looked down at the pizza box that balanced on Maura's hand. "But you've already got some, so never mind."

"It's for you!" Maura exclaimed as Jane closed her door and turned to go down the stairs.

"Aw, thanks." She turned back to her door and unlocked it. "You've already had some?" She opened the door and walked in with Maura following her.

"Um..." Jane opened the box and saw the pizza still whole and looked up at Maura with a confused yet amused look on her face. "It's kind of a bribe."

"What for?" Jane asked as she placed down the box and re-picked up a piece of cheesy pizza.

"I got my final art assessment today-"

"Oh, that's great. What are you going to do?"

"You." Jane's face went blank of emotions as she stared back at Maura. The blonde really did have to be careful of how she phrased things. "I mean, I'd like to draw you."

"Oh... oh.."

"I know you said that you didn't want me to draw you," Maura started as she stepped closer to Jane who was backed up against the kitchen counter. "But the topic is 'change' and what's a more beautiful and natural change in a person's body than pregnancy." Jane stood silent for a few moments as Maura ran her eyes over her face trying to read a response. It was almost a minute and Maura was pretty sure the brunette hadn't even blinked. "Jane?"

Jane would've responded with a yes instantly but her mind was cloudy and she knew exactly why. If Maura drew her; she'd seen Maura's drawings; she'd most likely be wearing no clothes or very minimal clothes. That wasn't that big of a deal as she liked her body, but one; she was going to be in that state of undress around someone she thought was intensely attractive and beyond alluring, and two; she was pregnant. She would be naked and pregnant, which wasn't a big deal at the moment as it barely showed that she had a tummy on her, but months from now she was going to like the shape of her body less and less, and that worried her.

"Jane?"

"Uh... Maura, I..."

"It's okay, I have other ideas; I don't have to draw you, I just... well, I thought it would be nice." Jane smiled softly as Maura dipped her head in defeat. "Besides I'd probably get a really good grade." Jane laughed and reached her hand out to graze the soft, slightly freckled skin of Maura's forearm.

"Maura, I'd really like to; like, I know you now and I'd be totally happy for you to draw me, but my body's gonna change and I'm probably not gonna like it, and I'd just feel a little self-conscious of you drawing me like that. Besides, you'd probably want me naked, right?"

"Yeah," Maura had to get her mind out of the gutter. "Yes, um, but I'd drape a sheet strategically across you," she motioned dramatically, before grabbing Jane and turning her side on and standing behind her so that they could see each other in the tall mirror Jane had across the room. "And I could place your arm in a way that would cover your br..." She cleared her throat as she slowly held Jane's bent arm out so that it covered Jane's bust in the image of them in the mirror. "Your breasts." Maura looked at the two of them in the mirror, her body practically pressed up against Jane's. At her height, she could nuzzle her nose into Jane's hair and smell her; press a kiss to her neck as she snaked her arms around the taller woman's waist; dip her hands into Jane's front pockets.

She stepped back and moved back around to face Jane before continuing, feeling that having the other woman that close to her own body was a recipe for disaster. "And shadows can be sketched in so you don't appear so 'on display'." Jane nodded at her so gently that it could put her to sleep. How, she had no clue, but it could happen. "And I will do everything humanly possible for you to feel comfortable with your body as it changes." Jane smiled softly at her as she nodded again.

"Yes."

"Yes? Like, I can draw you?"

"Yes. I would like you to draw me so that you get an awesome grade for your final art assessment." Maura sighed in relief as she smiled the toothiest smile she had in a very long time. She had been smiling like that a lot lately since she moved to Chicago, and she knew it was because of Jane, but it was just a friendly happiness. Friendly... Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, she thought to herself as she accepted a slice of pizza from Jane and sat down on the couch to watch some television.