Heeding her mother's advice, Jane searched her drawers for a pair of jeans that didn't have holes. The first pair she pulled out had holes in the knees, the second pair was too baggy, but the third pair-with no holes and a slim fit-was just right. It's like Janielocks and the Three Jeans.
Her perfectly-ironed white oxford shirt was laid out on her bed and, although Jane considered an oxford shirt too formal for a date at the river, her mother insisted she should make a good impression. If she only knew what Maura and I have done.
The walk to Maura's dorm room was long enough for Jane to feel nervousness creep up on her. It was by no means her first date with a girl, but it was the first in which she felt like so much was on the line. With Jocelyn, it was easy-as was expected from high school dating. She may have wanted a long-term relationship with her, but deep down Jane knew she shouldn't expect high school love to last forever. She was just a few days into her BCU experience and already Jane felt as if dating in college was different. Hooking up was the norm, which meant an actual relationship had the potential to last forever.
While walking through the quad, she noticed Coral with a teammate and she debated whether or not to keep walking as if she hadn't seen her. Under normal circumstances, she would have ran up to Coral and tackled her from behind, but being pressed for time, Jane just wanted to continue to Maura's dorm unnoticed.
"Jane! Yo, Jane!" she heard Coral call out to her. So much for that.
"Hey," Jane said as she quickly walked over to them.
"This is Bree," Coral said once Jane approached them. "She's on my team."
"How was practice?" Jane asked after noticing the look of exhaustion on their faces.
"Hell. It's not like high school," Coral reassured Jane. "You'll find that out soon enough." She turned to Bree. "Jane's on the softball team."
"Oh, so you're the girl I saw on ESPNU," Bree teased. "I didn't know I was in the presence of a celebrity."
"Not even," Jane insisted.
"Bree's boyfriend is on the football team," Coral pointed out. "They're having a party tonight. Wanna come? You can bring Maura."
"Thanks, but I plan on keeping her to myself all night," Jane winked.
Coral smacked her on the arm. "Slip her the hot Jane injection."
"Yeah, you know," Jane said nonchalantly.
It was all a front. Jane had no intention of doing anything sexual with Maura, but she wasn't about to let Coral and her new friend know that she would rather be home alone after their date watching Netflix than go to a party hosted by football players. She had no idea what one of their parties would be like, but she imagined it would be full of obnoxious jocks doing keg stands, beer pong, and scantily clad girls grinding on guys. It's probably just a smaller version of Black Sunday.
"Maybe next time," Bree said, bringing Jane out of her train of thought.
"Definitely," Jane nodded, although she had no intention of ever going to one of those parties.
She began to take notice of how happy Coral looked with Bree and, although she hid it well, Jane felt a hint of jealousy. She imagined the two of them drifting apart throughout their college years and she began to wonder if their friendship was merely because they had lived in the same neighborhood, not because of a true connection. Nah, Jane tried to squash that theory. Coral can make new friends without replacing me as her best friend. Besides, I'm going to be dating Maura. We can all form a weird, little herd.
Maura! Jane checked her watch and noticed she had only five minutes left until she was supposed to be at Maura's dorm. "Guys, I gotta go."
"Have fun," Bree told her.
"And if you strike out with Maura, you can always come to the party," Coral insisted.
Jane arrived at Maura's dorm one minute past their agreed upon time. Her mother had lectured her on the importance of punctuality and she hoped Maura wasn't the same way. Jane prepared to tell her about running into Coral and being introduced to her new teammate, but she wasn't given an opportunity to get a word in once Maura opened the door.
Maura hooked her fingers around the belt loops of Jane's jeans and pulled her in so there wasn't an inch of space between them. "I've been wanting you," Maura whispered in her ear.
Jane felt her body start to tingle when Maura kissed her neck. "I think we should stop." She noticed the hurt expression on Maura's face. "I want you, too, but if you continue, we'll never leave this room."
"We can go after. In my text message, I said I couldn't wait to kiss you."
Jane remembered how Maura looked in bed the morning after their first time, with nothing but a sheet covering her. "You really think I could have a quickie with you? You deserve the whole night."
"Stop," Maura blushed.
"Oh, now you wanna stop?" Jane teased. "We have our date planned for tonight, but I'm free tomorrow night if you're still interested."
"Jane!" Maura laughed.
"You're even more beautiful when you're laughing-almost as beautiful as when you're naked. You're the one who started this, Maura. Now I can't be stopped. You have only yourself to blame."
Jane knew parking was scarce near the river, so she had suggested taking the subway. The T would have dropped them off right at their destination, but Maura had a different suggestion. "I live within walking distance of the Charles River," she reminded her. "We can park your car at my house and walk from there."
"Is this your not-so-subtle way of introducing me to your parents so I could gain their approval before we date?" Jane asked nervously.
"My parents aren't going to be home until Saturday. They're still in Boston, but they won't be at our house," Maura reassured her. "My mom helped me get ready for Rush this afternoon, but afterward she left to pick Cailin up from preschool so she could drop her off at my grandparents' house and then pack for her 'Friendiversary.'"
"Friendiversary?" Jane asked. "Like anniversary?"
"A friendship anniversary," Maura clarified. "My mom, my mother, and their group of girl friends get together every year to celebrate the anniversary of when they first met each other. They all met during move-in week at BCU. Their friends have flown in from different countries and different states for this. My mom is probably on her second glass of Prosecco right now."
"So, there's no Everclear?"
"I imagine there might have been in the '90s," Maura quipped. "Now they're all Wine Moms."
While on the way to the river, Jane was grateful that she had washed her car a few days prior. Her car might have been almost as old as her, but she knew that was no reason to let trash pile up in the backseat.
"What do you drive?" Jane asked for the sake of making conversation.
"A Range Rover," Maura said nonchalantly.
"A Range Rover to hold your Louis Vuitton luggage. Really, Maura? My parents gave me a car that's almost as old as I am."
"It's not from my parents," Maura defended herself. "Grandma Isles is a bit...out of touch. She doesn't know how to nurture children and teenagers, so she gives gifts instead and lets us do whatever we want. When my mom was pregnant with my sister Cailin, my grandmothers hosted a baby shower for her. Grandma Martin did everything she could to make sure I felt included as Cailin's older sister. Grandma Isles, on the other hand, gave me a Burberry bag with a key inside. When my mother asked my grandmother why she had given a fourteen-year-old a car, she said it was because she didn't want me to feel bad that all the presents were for my mom and Cailin and nothing was for me. They weren't going to let me use the car until I turned eighteen, but Grandma Isles lectured them about how I needed my license and a car at sixteen because I was in boarding school and far from home. Nobody ever goes against my grandmother and wins."
"So you were given a car just like that when you were fourteen even though you couldn't drive it until two years later?" Jane asked in disbelief. "Is Grandma Isles looking for another grandkid? I could pretend to be British."
"How did you know I have family in England?"
"Promise not to be creeped out?"
Maura gave her a suspicious look. "No."
"You can learn everything from social media, Maura. I stalked your Instagram and saw pictures of you in London. I also saw pictures of you and your family and pictures of you in a bikini. I might have screenshotted a picture of you in a bikini."
"Jane!"
"I'm sorry," Jane laughed. "I'll delete it."
"Don't be sorry. I stalked your Instagram, too. Although, yours didn't have any pictures of you in a bikini."
"You don't need pictures. You can have the real thing," Jane insisted. "Right now in the flesh."
"I tried to," Maura reminded her. "We can always save the river for another night."
"Maura," Jane pretended to be shocked. "I am a woman of virtue."
"I want more than sex from you, Jane."
"But it's still an option, right?"
Maura glared at her. "I can always take an uber home."
"Fine, I'll be serious."
"Take a left here," Maura instructed. "My house is on this street."
It wasn't the first time Jane had been in that neighborhood and she was embarrassed to admit to Maura that she knew exactly what house she was talking about although she had never seen Maura there . Beacon Hill was the most photographed neighborhood in Boston and, although she and Coral weren't tourists, they'd occasionally walk around Maura's neighborhood. It was worlds away from their working-class area of Revere and, even in their wildest dreams they knew they'd never be able to afford a house there, so all they could do was walk around in the winter with their hot chocolate and wonder what it was like inside of those homes. "But they're probably all snobs anyway," Coral would say to make themselves feel better. "Yeah, who wants to be one of these preppies?" Jane would respond. But there she was with one of the girls she swore would have been a snob.
"Jane?" Maura asked, bringing her out of the trance she had been in since they had parked. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You've been staring at my house for the past two minutes."
Jane failed to hide her embarrassment. "Coral and I used to walk around this neighborhood and imagine what it was like to live here. We'd say that you guys were snobs to make us feel better about where we came from."
Maura reached over to grab Jane's hand. "You shouldn't be ashamed of where you come from. My mom had a blue-collar upbringing in Charlestown. My grandparents still live there. There's so much warmth and love in their house and I'm proud that I lived there for the first four years of my life. You stereotype us, Jane. You don't only stereotype me, you stereotype everyone at our school. Just because I live in this neighborhood, does not mean my family is any different from yours. My mom makes salads in mason jars after one too many hours on Pinterest and my mother pretends to like them. Cailin's toys are scattered all over the living room and not a week goes by that one of us doesn't step on a LEGO-" Maura noticed Jane had started laughing. "What's so funny?"
"My dad hates those mason jar salads, too," Jane pointed out. "Every time my mom makes them or some other new off-the-wall thing, all I can hear him say is 'Damn Pinterest!'"
"I told you we're not that different. My mother kept uninstalling the Pinterest app from my mom's phone and blaming it on a glitch. When my mom caught on, she started locking her phone. My mother confronted her and my mom said she was locking it because she was having an affair. She'd rather lie about an affair than admit to her Pinterest addiction."
"Our families really are similar," Jane smirked. "But yours actually makes mine look normal. Well, except for my brothers. I'll trade you my annoying little brother Tommy for your little sister."
"Cailin gets into my makeup and subjects us all to the Frozen soundtrack. I'll gladly trade her for Tommy. Would you like to come in?" Maura asked. "Then you can stop stereotyping everyone at BCU when you see art supplies all over the house. They're not even Cailin's. They're my mother's."
"If it means that much to you that I stop stereotyping everyone, then it's a deal. You can even come to the Rizzoli house someday and see mine and Frankie's sports equipment everywhere and a rusty old car in the front yard that Tommy swears he'll have fixed by the time he gets his license in two years."
"Why don't we have our date here? We have the house all to ourselves," Maura reminded her. "We'll order takeout and have a stay-at-home candlelit dinner. And Jane?"
"Yeah?"
"We have a hot tub on the deck and you don't have a bathing suit."
"What's that supposed to-" Jane stopped once she caught on. "Maura! I'm not going skinny dipping where some pervy neighbor boy can see."
"How about in the shower? I had the best possible Rush event earlier and I want to do something memorable to celebrate."
"Okay, but If you expect me to put out, you should at least buy me dinner first."
Less than an hour ago, Jane had insisted that nothing physical was going to happen, but the thought of showering with the beautiful girl next to her was just too much to resist. Like we said at the coffee shop, we'll just go with the flow of this Friendlationship.
