The credits of You've Got Mail had just begun to roll when Natalia let out a contented sigh. "I always wanted a man like Tom Hanks," she said, reaching for a handful of popcorn.
"Who didn't?" Calleigh agreed with an understanding nod.
"I was always more of a Billy Crystal man myself," Valera admitted thoughtfully. "Which reminds me—is it time for Harry to meet Sally?"
Calleigh refilled their wine glasses with a grin. "Like you even have to ask."
All in all, this girls' night had been an immense success. There had been pizza and boneless wings, popcorn and a seemingly endless supply of chocolate snacks, and some of the best sangria she'd had in awhile.
Calleigh had nearly forgotten her immensely creepy morning and David Oxley all together.
"So I was thinking we should probably start using the Buddy System when we go out at night," Valera said, clumsily fiddling with the DVD case.
"The Buddy System?" Calleigh raised an eyebrow and her glass to her lips.
"Y'know, to avoid a carving by this Angel of Death guy."
Well. There went that.
"Don't you think that's a little extreme?"
"Well you don't have anything to worry about," Natalia pointed out, brandishing a chunk of her dark brown hair. "You're not his type—Maxine and I are officially targets."
"Wouldn't it be smarter to pair up with a blonde or a redhead then? Eliminate half the temptation?"
"Well," Valera shrugged, "Natalia's got a gun and she's totally trigger happy."
"I am not!" she exclaimed indignantly.
"Are too," Maxine rolled her eyes. "You shot a guy after having your gun for like, three hours."
Natalia looked to Calleigh for help, but she was met with a shrug. "She's got a little bit of a point."
"Oh c'mon! He was reaching into his pocket!"
"All right, all right," Calleigh conceded with a laugh. She pointed to the television. "Harry and Sally—let's do it."
"I'm...having difficulties," Valera frowned, offering the plastic case to her friends.
"You're drunk," Calleigh fought the urge to tsk as she popped open the case and offered the shining silver to Valera to play.
"Yep," she agreed with a nod as she collapsed on the couch next to Natalia. "I miss having someone to drunk-text."
Natalia turned to her with surprise. "What about...John? Josh? Josiah?"
Valera's dark eyes rolled again. "Joel."
"I was close."
"He's done...has to 'focus on his career'," she scoffed, making air quotes with her fingers.
"Well that doesn't sound like too bad of a brush off," Calleigh put in optimistically from the her end of the futon.
"Oh please!" Valera exclaimed. "It's code for 'I found someone better to fuck.'"
"Is it?" Calleigh's face contorted in confusion. "I thought 'we're moving too fast' was code for that."
"It's a complex language," Natalia put in dryly. "Kind of like how the Eskimos have four hundred words for snow?"
"Where the hell have you been?" Valera asked while on the screen, the opening couple began talking about how they met.
"Sorry," the blonde shrugged. "The last line I got was, 'I have to go be a secret agent now...mind hanging out in case I don't die?'"
"Jake was a tool."
Natalia laughed and patted Valera's knee. "You're so poetic when you're drunk."
"Well, its true," she muttered, downing another swallow of her sangria. "Now drink up; I can't be the only drunkard in the room tonight."
Calleigh found herself laughing along with them as Natalia dutifully gulped down a few more swallows. She sipped her own sangria slowly, grateful that the conversation had spun away from Azrael and David Oxley and the spiders-under-her-skin feeling that his touch had aroused that afternoon. Just thinking about it raised the hair on her arms and sent a shiver down her spine. She took another drink to settle herself and focused her attention on the movie.
By the time Meg Ryan was faking the big O, Calleigh was pouring another round as Natalia sighed unfortunately, "Ah, the big fake. Who hasn't been there?"
"I haven't," Valera announced, fumbling her glass slightly before settling it on the coffee table with a snicker. She'd moved to the floor after her last bathroom trip – apparently the futon had just been a few steps further than she could manage. Well, that or she wanted to be closer to the bowl of Hershey kisses, Calleigh wasn't really sure.
"You've never faked an orgasm?" Natalia questioned incredulously, and Calleigh noticed through the light swirl of alcohol in her brain that the brunette's cheeks were flushed, her eyes blinking slowly, a giddy smirk underscoring her look of doubt. Apparently she was catching up to Valera in the inebriation department.
"Hell, no," Valera declared emphatically. "You should never have to fake it. If your lover can't get their shit together, you just tell them where to go and what to do until they get it right."
"Well, sometimes its not worth all the effort," Calleigh confessed, earning a grateful raise of the glass form Natalia. "I mean, if it's just not gonna happen… Sometimes its easier to fake it than tell a guy he's not getting the job done, and have to deal with the sulking and the weeks of bruised ego, and…" She trailed off, shaking her head and sipping again.
"Exactly," Natalia agreed, nabbing the bowl of popcorn and tucking it between her leg and the arm of her chair. "And when you know he's gonna get there before you, no matter what you ask him to do to you…"
Calleigh nodded sympathetically, stretching to reach the chocolate and very nearly sloshing her sangria. Maybe she'd had a little more than she realized…
"Eric Delko a bit of a minute-man?" Valera teased, and Calleigh nearly choked on her chocolate for reasons unknown. Or at least, reasons she had no desire to admit to.
"Oh, no," Natalia assured, smirking and sipping her drink again. "Not Eric. Eric is… a giver."
Valera cackled with delight as Calleigh felt her cheeks flush with a heat that had nothing to do with wine. "Do tell," Max insisted, reclining against Natalia's leg.
"Or don't!" Cal cut in, having finally managed to swallow her chocolate. The girls turned to look at her, and she'd have laughed at the way their eyebrows quirked into almost identical arches if she hadn't been so suddenly embarrassed. "He's a coworker, and a friend, and its inappropriate to talk about his sexual prowess over wine and snacks."
"Appropriate schmappropriate," Valera dismissed with a wave of her hand, stumbling a little over the words. "I think you just don't want to talk about it because you have a big ol' crush on him."
"What? I do not." The denial sounded weak even to her ears, but it was true. She didn't have a "crush" on Eric Delko. She was… attracted to him, certainly. Always had been, and maybe – maybe – there had been something deeper over the past few months, but it certainly wasn't a crush. Women in their 30s didn't get crushes. No, sir. Nope.
"Well, that was convincing," Valera teased dryly, letting he head drop back onto Natalia's knee.
"You know he's into you, right?" Natalia questioned, and Calleigh wished desperately for a phone to ring, or the doorbell, or…
"Y'know, can we just watch the movie? We're missing crucial… something. Scenes. I don't – let's just –" Knowing she was caught, and too tipsy to find her way out of this logically, she caved. "He is a very sweet man, and… nicely formed, and yes, maybe there's some tension, but there has always been some tension, and it doesn't mean anything, and nothing is going to happen between me and Eric Delko. So. Can we please just watch the movie?"
Valera opened her mouth as if to needle a bit more out of her, but Natalia took pity on Calleigh and cut her off. "Okay. We'll watch the movie."
"Thank you." Calleigh wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear, but the best she could manage right now was to sink down until she was stretched along the length of the futon, burying her face against one of the throw pillows and training her gaze on the TV. She'd had enough sangria that she had to squint a little to keep it in perfect focus, and after a while she let her eyes drop shut. Just for a minute. Just to rest them. She was fast asleep within moments.
---------
"Calleigh," Natalia urged quietly, nudging the blonde's shoulder. "Calleigh, wake up."
"Maybe she's dead," Valera suggested from her spot on the floor, peering up in concern.
Natalia laughed and shook her head. "She's breathing, Maxine. She's fine. I think she's just… out. She had a lot to drink; I don't think she's going to wake up for another couple hours."
One hand flailing in what Natalia took to be a dismissive gesture, Valera half-slurred, "Forget it, then. Let her have the whole futon to herself. I have a bed. It's big. We can share."
"Share your bed?" Natalia asked, turning a little too fast and pressing a hand to her temple as the world spun out-of-sync with her vision for a moment, then settled again. She'd had a lot of sangria.
"Yeah. It'll be like college." She planted one palm on the coffee table, the other on the chair Natalia had been sitting in all night, and pushed herself up onto wobbly legs. "Without the lesbian sex."
"I… never had the lesbian sex in college," Natalia informed, making her way around the coffee table and reaching for Valera's hand when the other woman stumbled a little.
"Really?" Valera's grip was tight and a little sweaty, but Natalia was still aware enough to know she wasn't faring much better, so she used the connection as an anchor as they made their way toward the bedroom.
"Really."
"That's a shame. I have to pee," Valera announced, and Natalia snorted a laugh before releasing her hand and heading into the bedroom. She slapped the light on for Maxine and collapsed onto the bed, wriggling out of her jeans and then rolling onto her back and watching the textured ceiling spin hypnotically. She'd had a lot of sangria.
A few minutes later, the lights went out and she felt the bed dip next to her as Valera crawled in and sprawled with a sigh. "See? Big bed."
"Uh huh."
They were silent for a moment, and Natalia was half-dozing before Valera piped up again. "We need to get them together."
"What?" She turned onto her side and felt the shift of the bed as Valera did the same.
"Calleigh and Eric. They're perfect for each other. They should be doing it."
She snorted another laugh and pressed her eyes shut. "Yeah. I suppose you're right."
"Plus, I think they're both lonely. And nobody should be lonely."
Isn't that the truth? Natalia thought, thinking of her own barren love life of late. "Yeah."
"Mmhmm."
"Yep." Suddenly Valera's lips were on hers, sloppy but soft, and Natalia's eyes popped open wide. Whoa. Whoa. What was – hey now. She turned her head out of the kiss and squinted to make out Valera's face in the dark. "Maxine – I don't – what happened to no lesbian sex?"
"That wasn't sex. That was a kiss."
"Yeah. I…. Why?"
"Because nobody should be lonely. And you've never kissed a girl."
"So you kissed me?"
"Yes. Also, I'm drunk and you smell nice." Natalia couldn't help but laugh at that despite the anxious doubt wiggling through her gut. Then she felt a hand on her hip before Valera's mouth brushed hers again, and she was surprised to find herself leaning into the kiss instead of pulling away from it. Maybe it was the sangria talking, but suddenly this didn't seem like an awful idea. Except, well, there was one problem.
"Valera," she interrupted, pulling away again. "I'm not gay."
"Neither am I." She could almost see the shrug, the flippant expression. "This isn't about that."
"What is this about?"
"I don't know yet. Let me keep kissing you, and maybe we'll find out."
It was drunk logic, but, well, she was drunk, so Natalia found herself nodding, murmuring a quiet, "okay," and then Valera's mouth was on hers again. They started out tentative, hesitant, and it was… surprisingly nice. She couldn't have said who ratcheted up the intensity, but somewhere along the way hands began to wander, legs tangled, hips pressed together. Natalia's head was spinning from alcohol and giddy nerves when a hand found its way between her thighs, and she gasped and clutched Maxine closer, kissing her harder and this was probably a huge, huge mistake but it felt so good and… and she'd had a lot of sangria. So she lost herself in a haze of gasping breaths and warm kisses and seeking fingers, and when it was over and she was left trembling in afterglow with Valera's arm sprawled across her belly, she ordered herself not to think and shut her eyes against the tilt-a-whirl her world had become. She was pretty sure, though, that what had just happened would lead to more questions than answers.
Author's Note: Chances are, right now you're probably thinking "WHAT THE FRILLY HECK WAS THAT?!?" And we admit that surprise lesbian sex is, well, surprising. But go with us on this one. Trust us. We won't let ya down! (And to ease the minds of those who aren't into the lesbian sex and are afeared that SomewhereApart will be pickin' up her porn pen and throwing in some graphic girl-on-girl action later on, rest assured that its not going to get any more graphic than this for those two. But we have plans for them, and they're fun plans, so stick around!)
Peace out,
SomewhereApart and Bella7