Arizona was happy about the fact that she was the first to wake up the next morning. She felt she needed to show Callie that what happened between them, or rather what almost happened, was not a big deal, and she figured if she made breakfast, that would be a sign that everything was fine.
She dug around in the cupboards and drawers until she had collected everything needed to make pancakes.
Callie woke up to the smell of something cooking. At first she didn't wonder why, but when her mind was clear from the fogginess of sleep, she connected the dots and knew that Arizona must be up. She groaned when she remembered last night. Why?! She decided the best thing this time was not to bring it up; just act like everything was fine.
Callie entered the kitchen where she saw Arizona standing by the stove making: pancakes!
"Good morning!" She greeted Arizona.
Arizona turned to Callie "Hi. I thought it only fair that I cook you breakfast since you've cooked for me these last couple of days. Have a seat."
Callie forgot about the awkwardness of yesterday, and looked forward to being served breakfast. "I could get used to this you know." She teased Arizona. "I might keep you here as my personal chef."
Arizona gave Callie a smile and served her a plate with three pancakes on it. She put a bottle of syrup on the table. "Breakfast is served madame." She made a gesture suggesting she was Callie's servant.
Callie ate with gusto and was happy to have another serving of pancakes. Arizona made a remark about there not being any left for her. Arizona did, however get to taste her own cooking, and was pleased with the result.
"Thank you so much for making breakfast. It's one of my favorite things; being served breakfast." Callie declared.
"I'll keep that in mind for future references." Arizona replied. Wishful thinking maybe.
They had both eaten, and Callie had just finished her cup of morning coffee (so much for cutting down) when the phone rang. It was her mother calling to ask her to buy some tomatoes for the salad on her way over there. Callie remembered that today was indeed Sunday, which meant dinner at her mother's house. The recent events had made her a bit inattentive when it came to time. She promised her mother to buy tomatoes. As Callie was about to hang up, her mother added one last thing:
"Oh, and Callie, make sure you bring that woman you were seen with yesterday." Click.
Callie slowly put down the phone. Arizona frowned when she saw the expression on Callie's face. "Everything alright?"
"My mother just told me to make sure to bring you along when I go to her house later." Callie replied with a look of shock still on her face.
Arizona looked equally surprised. "How did she know I was here?"
Callie sighed "Small town. I guess our walk yesterday didn't go unnoticed."
Arizona wasn't too worried about people seeing them yesterday, it wasn't as if they would recognize her anyway. "What shall I wear?!" She joked to Callie.
Callie raised her eyebrows. "Actually that is a good question."
Callie dragged Arizona with her to her bedroom to search the closet for something Arizona could wear. Arizona sat down on Callie's bed while she rummaged for clothes. "Pants or skirt?" Callie asked with her back to Arizona.
"You pick!" Arizona answered.
Callie managed to find something similar to what Arizona had been wearing the night they first met, but a bit nicer looking. Callie handed Arizona her outfit. Arizona also saw that the coloring was very similar to her only set of clothes in this house, that by the way still had blood on them. "Perfect."
Callie handed Arizona a scarf to go with the outfit since there was still some bruising that would probably elicit unwanted questions.
Callie and Arizona were finally ready to go over to Callie's mother's house, but Callie was a bit nervous about what would happen when they got there. Arizona noticed how Callie acted all nervous and tried to assure her that it would be fine. Callie suggested they at least stick to the old-friend-from-college story. Arizona agreed.
Arizona stayed in the car while Callie ran in to buy tomatoes. "We're a bit late." Callie said as she handed the bag of tomatoes to Arizona. Callie clinched her teeth and uttered a noise in frustration when the car wouldn't start. Arizona couldn't help but laugh at her anger. Callie shot her a stern look, and Arizona stopped laughing , and pursed her lips together. The car started on the third try, and they were on their way.
When they were walking up to the front door, Callie was two steps ahead of Arizona. Arizona couldn't help feeling sorry for Callie, she didn't want to be the cause of her worrying and not being able to relax. She took Callie's hand, and stopped her before they reached the porch. Callie looked at Arizona with a surprised expression.
"Callie, this is going to be great, alright?! Don't worry about it, you will do fine, and so will I. I promise." Arizona smiled.
Callie felt the same calming sensation she had had the first time she had looked into those beautiful blue eyes. She dropped her shoulders, and sighed. Callie gave Arizona's hand a light squeeze, nodded her head, and gave Arizona a smile. They proceeded towards the door.
Her mother called an answer from the kitchen when Callie greeted the house with a hello. Arizona followed Callie to the kitchen. Her mother was stirring around the contents of a pot on the stove. "Did you bring the tomatoes?" She asked.
"Yes. Do you want me to make a salad?" Callie offered.
"Please." Her mother turned around to face the two women.
Callie's mother looked at Arizona, and then at Callie. "Oh! Mom this is Arizona. Arizona this is my mother Lucía, or Mrs. Torres."
"Lucy is fine; Lucía sounds like a saint, and I assure you I am not." Her mother said as she walked up to greet Arizona.
"Nice to meet you Lucy." Arizona said as she offered her hand for Callie's mother to shake.
Lucy looked at Arizona's hand, and wasn't sure if she should give her a welcoming hug, but then decided to shake hands with Arizona since the woman seemed more comfortable with that.
"So, how come I've never met you before. Callie's never mentioned you."
"Well, we only recently rekindled our friendship. We used to be friends in college, but only for a short period of time; I moved after only half a semester you see."
Callie was impressed by Arizona's ability to lie so effortlessly. On the other hand, that relieved her of coming up with a credible backstory.
Arizona offered to help with the salad, so Callie helped her find all the things she needed for that. Then her mother asked her to come help her set the table.
"How come you never told me about this woman?!" Her mother demanded.
"Well, like she said, we didn't really know each other that long." Callie explained.
"You must have had a good but short friendship then since she's here now visiting." Her mother remarked.
Callie didn't answer. She didn't want to lie more to her mother than she had to.
"She seems nice." Her mother continued.
Callie knew what her mother was trying to insinuate, but Callie didn't want to humor her. "Yes, she is nice."
Her mother wasn't the sort of person who avoided difficult subjects, and she really only wanted her daughter to be happy. "You know it would only make me happy to know you had found someone to share your life with?!"
Callie knew her mother meant well, but she couldn't let herself think about the possibility of sharing anything like that with Arizona, even though she would definitely like to try. She just told her mother it wasn't like that, and then went back to the kitchen.
Arizona was finished with the salad, and was rinsing the cutting board when Callie entered. She went over to the sink to have a glass of water. Arizona could see that she was upset about something; she hoped that it wasn't her presence that had caused tension between Callie and her mother. Arizona dried her hands on a towel and then put a hand on Callie's shoulder, and asked her if there was a problem, if she needed to leave. Callie assured her that there was no need for that, and that they hadn't even talked about Arizona, so she didn't have to worry.
Lucy came into the kitchen and saw Arizona's hand on Callie's shoulder before Arizona had time to take her hand off of Callie. Nothing like that huh.
All three of them sat down to enjoy the stew that Callie's mother had made. Arizona complimented Lucy on her cooking. Lucy asked Arizona about her family. She told her about where she was from, and her parents, and how they both had new partners now. Callie didn't pick up any new information about Arizona during the meal, which was slightly disappointing to her.
It all went smoothly, and all three women felt very comfortable in each other's presence. It wasn't until they were enjoying spongecake and coffee that Callie's mother started asking questions that were a bit more tricky to answer.
"So, Arizona, how long are you staying." She asked.
Arizona and Callie looked at each other; something that did not pass unnoticed by Callie's mother.
"I'm not sure yet, but Callie has been kind enough to let me stay for another couple of days at least." Arizona smiled.
Lucy wasn't willing to drop the subject so easily though. "And where are you headed next, Arizona?"
Arizona felt slightly uneasy, but then she settled for a plausible explanation to all of this. "I'm actually on my way to a job interview, but since they postponed it, I had some extra time, and I thought why not spend it with and old friend." Arizona looked at Callie and grinned; satisfied with her answer, and happy about the fact that Callie was 'the old friend'.
Callie had reacted to Arizona's explanation at first, but then she looked at her and didn't really care about it anymore, she was just happy that Arizona was staying with her.
Again, Lucy couldn't help but notice the silent rapport between her daughter and Arizona. With that, Lucy decided this dinner was over, and it was time to let the two of them go home and do some more 'rapport-ing'.
Arizona and Callie helped clear the table, and Arizona offered to do the dishes, but Lucy refused. "You're the guest."
"Where have I heard that before." Arizona glanced at Callie. "The apple and the tree..." Arizona smiled.
"I'm proud of you Calliope." Her mother said.
"Calliope?" Arizona looked surprised at Callie. "And you thought I had a cool name?!"
Callie sighed. "Only my mother calls me that."
On the ride home Arizona told Callie that she liked her mother. Callie agreed, and said that her grumpy-ness usually shows when you get to know her better, and snorted. Arizona retorted that maybe it showed more when you were her daughter. Callie agreed that that might be the case.
When they came home, Callie asked if Arizona would like a glass of wine. She accepted, and then excused herself to go to the bathroom. Callie opened a bottle of wine and put two glasses on the kitchen island. Arizona came back and had removed her scarf, and unbuttoned the top buttons on her shirt. Callie lingered a bit longer than usual with her eyes on Arizona, and concluded she had never looked better. She gave Arizona one of the glasses.
Arizona had a sip of the wine. It was nice and cool. It didn't take more than a few sips to make her notice the alcohol in her system; the consequence of almost never going out the past few years. Arizona looked at Callie in her tight black skirt and her off-white blouse; she looked nice. Hot even, Arizona conceded.
"So, now I have met your mother, and your best friend. Does he live close by as well?" Arizona asked as she put her glass down.
"He lives a bit further from my house than my mother, but it's still close, yeah."
"The two of you have any history." Arizona tried.
"Me and Mark?! No!" Callie laughed. "He's a great guy, but no we have never been romantically involved so to speak. We sort of play for the same team so it wouldn't work." She wasn't sure why she revealed that last bit to Arizona, but alcohol did have a slight effect on her ability to control what came out of her mouth.
Arizona wasn't completely sure what Callie was suggesting. "Mark is gay?"
Callie knew it had been mistake to say anything, but there was no way of getting out of this without being honest about it. "Eh, no Mark isn't gay." She paused before she added "But I am."
Arizona started coughing at those last words; the wine in her mouth had almost gone down her wind pipes.
"Sorry, it was about to go down the wrong way" Arizona apologized.
Callie wondered if her confession had caused that, or if it was merely a coincidence.
Arizona couldn't believe it. And here she had thought Callie was straight as a line. "Since I can stay here, I take it you don't have a girlfriend then?!" Arizona tried to be casual about the whole thing.
Callie confirmed that, and told Arizona that she had broken up with her last girlfriend right before her father had passed away. She didn't want to go into details, she just said it was complicated. Arizona assured her that she knew all about complicated. Callie thought she was referring to her last boyfriend, and felt like she shouldn't have said that. "Of course, I'm sorry." She offered Arizona.
Arizona didn't understand why she apologized at first, but then understood that she was probably thinking about the imaginary abusive boyfriend. She felt a sting of guilt about lying.
Callie emptied her glass, and asked Arizona if she wanted to watch another movie. Arizona thought that was a good idea, but this time it was Callie's turn to pick a movie.
Callie excused herself to change into more comfortable clothes. Arizona thought that was a good idea, and decided to follow suit.
When Arizona came into the living room Callie had already prepared a movie, so she sat down beside her in the couch.
Like with the last movie, Callie didn't really pay attention to what was going on; she was more occupied with thinking about what Arizona thought about her now that she knew.
Arizona didn't really watch the movie intently either. She was more focused on how close she was to Callie, and how she wouldn't mind getting even closer; especially now that she knew Callie might not mind.
Callie felt a bit tired and started drifting off. She didn't notice how she rested her head on Arizona's shoulder, as she drifted off.
Arizona didn't want to wake her, and also, she liked the feeling of Callie resting against her shoulder. She put an arm around Callie to support her further. As Arizona did that, Callie pushed her body closer to Arizona's, and repositioned her head even closer to Arizona.
Arizona could smell the scent of Callie's shampoo; the one she had used herself. She was careful not to wake Callie, but by the time the credits were rolling on the screen, Arizona had to move. When she did, Callie stirred. Arizona froze in an attempt to make Callie go back to sleep, but Callie was waking up.
Callie turned her head slightly and opened her eyes, and saw Arizona looking at her. She smiled first, but then it hit her: she had fallen asleep and used Arizona as her pillow. She pulled back, embarrassed, and apologized.
Arizona assured her it was her pleasure. Callie wasn't sure if Arizona was joking, but she didn't show it on her face if she was.
Arizona looked at Callie and felt her emotions taking over, and her brain was not in charge anymore. Her left arm was still stretched out along the backrest; she lifted her left hand up to Callie's face and stroked her gently on her cheek. "You are very cute when you sleep" Arizona whispered.
Callie was caught off guard, and wasn't sure what was happening. She still felt the alcohol in her body, and she had just woken up, which meant her thoughts weren't working at their best at the moment.
Arizona directed her eyes at Callie's lips, and started leaning in. Callie was so confused that she blurted out "But I thought you had a boyfriend?!"
Arizona paused inches from Callie's face. "It's complicated." Then she kissed Callie.
Whatever Callie had been thinking disappeared with Arizona's kiss. The only thing she could focus on were the places on her body where Arizona was touching her. On her face, her neck, then her breasts. Callie deepened the kiss.
Arizona felt Callie taking charge of the kissing, and Callie changed position so she was straddling Arizona's leg. Arizona broke away from the kiss and looked up at Callie. "You want to move this to somewhere more comfortable?!" Arizona suggested.
Callie nodded in agreement.
They slowly made their way to Callie's bedroom; still kissing. Callie removed Arizona's shirt, and kissed her once before she pushed her down on the bed. She pulled her own shirt off, and kissed her way from Arizona's breasts up to her lips.
Arizona got even more exited with Callie being in charge, but wanted to change it up a bit, so she turned herself and Callie around so she was now on top. She pinned down Callie's arms to the bed, and then paused to look into her eyes.
Callie looked into Arizona's eyes, she couldn't believe this was happening, but there was time to face that later, for now, all she knew was that this was exactly where she wanted to be.