They stayed silent for a moment when Cosima finished telling Delphine about the incident with Aldous Leekie, her former biology teacher.
Cosima had observed that the French girl's expression had become more serious while she talked and she looked rather sad now.
Secretly she wiped a tear from the eye and Cosima pretended she had not noticed it.
"He is such a fucking asshole," Cosima said with a mischievous grin. "He always was."
Delphine nodded. "Oui."
Cosima moved a bit closer to her. "Hey, we should not let him get away with this and punish him for it. I could burn down his house, fuck his wife and kick his ass badly."
She dared a careful giggle and Cosima was happy to see her smile again.
"Non," she answered. "If you really want to hurt him, just scratch the paint of his Ferrari."
Both women laughed heartily.
"We could do that later when everybody is asleep," Cosima whispered into Delphine's ear. She could smell her perfume and cold smoke.
"Bad idea," she shook her head. "There are cameras everywhere."
"Hmmm okay. Then we'd start with his house and his wife."
They talked a while and Cosima really enjoyed the conversation with the gorgeous French woman. Cosima shared some memories from school and Delphine listened with an interest that didn't appear fake. Then Delphine shared memories of her past life in France and how they had come to America to study and how much she missed her friends and family.
"Hey would you like to come with me to the roof," Delphine proposed after some time. "If we won't get to bed we could also hang around there for a bit."
"And I badly need to have a smoke," she added.
She waved to the Barkeeper. "Can we have two bottles of that Cabernet Sauvignon, s'il vous plait."
"Bien sur, Madame," he answered and brought the wine. "I'll add this on Professor Leekie's account too. Bon nuit, Madame Leekie."
"Merci beaucoup." Delphine took the bottles and both grinned and left.
"Holy watershed," Cosima exclaimed. "You made that old creep pay for our wine! Could have been my idea!"
They escaped to the rooftop through the staircase and an emergency exit. The night was still warm and they sat on a pile of bricks, taking turns to drink from the bottle.
"Cheers," Cosima said smiling. "To a night if surprises, old enemies and new friends."
"Santé," Delphine answered smiling back at her.
She retrieved a box of cigarettes and took one of them. "You smoke? Do you want one?"
"No, just pot for me," Cosima grinned.
"Ooh, really?"
"Yeah," Cosima confirmed. "You'd like to try?"
Delphine shrugged and lit her cigarette.
"I am going to get you so baked one day."
Both women giggled. "You are cheeky," Delphine observed and Cosima gave her another toothy grin.
For a while they just sat together in silence, smoking, drinking and feeling the warm air of the night. It is not the least bit feeling awkward, Cosima thought and a rush of happiness run through her body as she watched the blonde woman finish her smoke.
Finally Delphine continued to talk. "Is there a reason, Leekie was reacting so... harshly?" she asked. "It sounds there is a lot more than the usual annoyance to make him react like that. What did you do to make him hate you like this?"
"Oh well..." Cosima grinned. "I swear I only wanted to play a little prank on him ten years ago. I sneaked in his office at school with an eel to hide it somewhere. Then I could not resist checking his computer, found his password on a small note under his keyboard..."
"Oh no!"
"Oh yes!" Cosima grinned. "I ended checking his hard disk, changed Helena's biology grades, copied his private encryption key and uploaded a folder of documents to my web server, which were obviously 'hidden' on his drive which turned out to be some top secret research papers from DYAD about human cloning, which turned out to be quite a headline when I posted it on WikiLeaks..."
"The Leekie Leaks," Delphine confirmed. "That was a great story. DYAD performing illegal experiments on human cloning. I almost lost my job when the projects were shut down."
"Oops," Cosima smirked. "Nothing personal though."
"Leekie was totally mad," Delphine added. "And not only about that eel. Hey wait - so YOU are 'geekmonkey'?!"
"Yep"
"Cool," Delphine grinned. "I was impressed by your article about the ethical consequences of research in the cloning area."
"Thanks. So you're in microbiology, too, right?"
"Yes," Delphine answered. "Um, immunology. I studied host-parasite relationships. Now I am working for DYAD. Research on new healing strategies mainly."
"Oh, cool, cool! Yeah, I'm evo-devo."
"Evolutionary development."
"Yeah, yeah. That's... that's what we call it here. Tell me more about that project."
And quickly the both women were in the midst of a talk about science, their jobs, their projects, objectives, careers and dreams.
After an hour drinking, talking, smoking and more drinking both women were pretty drunk, but none of them would have considered separating and calling it a night.
"Come on, Cosima. Let us spend the night out here. We can get more wine, talk and drink together. I will not go home tonight. I will leave that asshole of husband. He will never hurt me again."
"So you are really leaving him?" Cosima asked.
"Oui." Delphine nodded. "You see, I don't even have a bed to go now."
Her voice sounded really sad now and Cosima moved closer and took her into a gentle hug.
Delphine wiped a tear from her eyes and held her closer.
"Don't be sad, Delphine," Cosima whispered inhaling her scent that almost drove her crazy.
"Thank you, Cosima," she said after a while. "I am feeling much better now."
The two women were silent now, holding each other, enchanted by the closeness and tenderness of the contact of their bodies.
"Don't you think it's time we admit what this is really about?" Cosima broke the silence, trying to look into Delphine's eye in the dim glow of the city lights.
Then their faces moved closer, their lips met and they started kissing. Softly first, gently and hesitant. Oh wow, that was feeling so good and so right, like the fulfillment of a lifetime's desire. Their tongues explored, danced...
Delphine abruptly broke the kiss. "I um..." she murmured.
"Oh. Oh, God, Delphine. Uh... did I make a huge mistake?"
Delphine shook her head. "Non. Je suis... totally drunk..."
"Yes you are probably right," Cosima nodded. "I mean we should not do something in this state of mind we'd regret later."
"Non" Delphine smiled. "Je ne regrette rien."
"Anyway," Cosima sighed. "Come on, Delphine. A bed would be nice. Let me offer you to share my room with you. I promise you're safe."
They smiled. "Where could I be more safe than with you, Cosima," Delphine answered and took her hand to join her for the night.
