Greetings!
Wow. This ended up being way longer than I anticipated… hence the longer wait. It wasn't supposed to be this long :)
Because you guys are so incredibly awesome and encouraging, I'm gonna make sure to thank you guys individually, unless you're a guest. I should have been doing that all along. My bad, guys! So, if you see a PM from me, that is why.
Thank you to all the guests!
Nearly a week after the brunch at Spencer's, Emily packed both Alison and Spencer into her car without telling them where they were going. She'd only told them to bring bikinis, she told Alison to pick the most revealing one she owned, and that they were going to Philadelphia. Almost the entire trip, Emily's right hand rested contently between Alison's in the blonde's lap. It only emerged once when she flipped off a truck driver. After the "fucking douche bag", as Emily named the unknown driver, cut her off, she wagged her middle finger and yelled obscenities and insults like the driver could hear her. After about thirty seconds of Emily screaming at the driver and Spencer screaming at Emily to "shut up", Alison talked her girlfriend down and kept her from tailgating the truck.
After about ten minutes of driving in the city, Emily turned into an entrance of a high rise building of apartments. As she drove under a covered area, a young man leapt out from behind a small stand and sprinted to the passenger side door. He waved at Emily as he streaked past and yanked open Alison's door. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Alison to deduce that Emily had brought her and her friend to her apartment in Philadelphia.
As Alison stepped out of the car, the boy greeted Emily warmly as she emerged from the driver's side, "Hey there, Ms. Fi—"
"I swear, David," Emily shook her head as she nudged her sunglasses on top of her head. "It's Emily." The brunette pointed to the two passengers, "David, this is my girlfriend, Alison, and Ms. Hastings."
"Cute," Spencer threw back.
As Emily strolled around the front of the car, David asked, "Will you be staying overnight?"
"Nope," she smiled at her girlfriend before elaborating, "We'll only be here for a few hours." Alison sighed contently as Emily pressed her lips to her temple and intertwined their fingers.
"Ralph misses you," David said as he circled around the car. "You wanna drive him instead?"
"Who is Ralph?" Alison asked.
"My other car."
Alison chuckled, "You named your car Ralph?"
"You named your car?" Spencer's forehead wrinkled at the concept of naming the car in the first place.
"He's a beautiful Mercedes," the brunette shrugged, "He doesn't mind the stupid name." Alison's eyebrows flew upward—a Mercedes?
"So do you want him?" David asked again.
Emily tugged her wallet out of her bag, "Only if he's washed, smells nice and has gas." Alison tried not to look at how much money Emily passed across the top of the car, but she easily identified two fifty dollar bills. A week ago, Emily was just a sports therapist living in a small house with a decent car with the most expensive thing she owned being her comic book collection. Now she was passing a boy one hundred bucks to do something she could easily do herself.
"No problem," the boy nodded gratefully. "I'll get him ready."
"Thanks, David," Emily smiled grabbing her girlfriend's hand she had dropped to pay the boy. "There's no rush. Have Charlie let me know when he's ready."
Emily guided Alison and Spencer through a set of double doors and strolled forward while Spencer and Alison drank in their surroundings. With Emily pulling her along, Alison swept the room with high ceilings and streaks of glowing blue light tracing the edges of tall black, wooden beams protruding from the white textured walls. There were a few groups of modern style flat couches along one side of the large room. Their footfalls echoed as they rapped against the light grey tiles decorated with different sized long black lines.
"So. You're not poor are you?" Spencer commented to the oblivious brunette hanging over the edge of the front desk waiting for someone to appear. She thoughtlessly fiddled with Alison's fingers as her eyes darted around searching for a familiar face. The blonde smiled at their linked hands and Emily's newfound obsession with her fingers.
"It's just flashy," Emily threw over her shoulder. "It's not as expensive as you think."
Jokingly, Spencer asked wheeling around staring at the ceiling, "Did you sleep with the property manager?"
Alison cocked her eyebrow when Emily cleared her throat with guilt, "If I did, I didn't get any money knocked off of my rent." As Alison pursed her lips, Emily quickly kissed away the pout and whispered, "You're beautiful." When the blonde smirked, Emily pulled a key on a simple metal key chain out of her pocket and handed it to her girlfriend. "Here's my key. You two can go up and change. I'll be up in a few minutes after I sort out some shit down here."
After Emily gave her a quick kiss and pointed her toward the elevator, Alison chuckled, "Babe?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to tell me where your apartment is?"
"Oh yeah!" Emily snapped in recognition of her forgetfulness. "That's important for you to know." She bit her lip as she looked the blonde up and down and commented with an teasingly sultry tone, "I'm just distracted because in my head, you're already in a bikini."
Waiting patiently a few feet away from the couple, Spencer grumbled, "So this is what a third wheel feels like."
"26th floor," Emily clarified. "Go to the right when you get off the elevator and it's three doors down on the end—2606."
Sliding into her girlfriend's chest and wrapping the brunette's arms around her waist, Alison reminded, "Just fyi. You do know that I burn easily right?"
Spencer agreed, "Not all of us have sun deflecting skin."
Emily smiled gently before she spoke. Alison couldn't explain it, but Emily looked at her differently ever since their heated conversation at brunch several days ago. She was still as sarcastic and cocky as usual, but her eyes were softer and she caught glimpses of a vulnerability she'd only seen during her breakdown about Maya and her explosion of honesty at brunch. Strangely, the tenderness seemed to compliment her confident nature rather than clashing with it.
"Don't worry," Emily assured. "You won't be in the sun unless you're in the pool, but you'll need sunscreen."
"Because you want to put it on?" Alison suggested against her girlfriend's lips.
"Maybe…" the brunette whispered with a coy smile before she pinched her girlfriend on the ass and pushed her toward the elevator with a smirk.
Spencer walked into Emily's apartment ahead of Alison as the blonde struggled to wiggle the key out of the lock. As Alison grunted with frustration, her friend exclaimed, "What the actual fuck?"
Sighing as the key finally slid out of the lock, Alison replied, "I don't think I can handle you dipping into Hanna's vocab—holy shit." Her jaw dropped as the door slammed behind her sending an echo bouncing off the walls and fourteen foot ceiling. As she instinctively locked the door behind her, she gaped at the unnecessarily large room. The outside wall of the living room was made of floor to ceiling glass panels. An empty entertainment center, except for a television, covered the back wall of the living room. The dark hardwood floors were covered with a few large rugs. Everything was sleek and clean with no knick knacks, pictures or any signs of life aside from the furniture.
"Umm yeah," Spencer acknowledged her friend's shock as she marched into the kitchen. She pried offhandedly, "How much money did Maya leave Emily?"
The blonde momentarily regretted passing along parts of Emily's confession to her friends. "None of your business."
Spencer admired the wooden cabinets with glass panels and appliances covered with the same wooden grain which blended them into the rest of the cabinets as she dragged a finger across the grey marble countertops, Spencer said, "Look at this kitchen. Everything is gorgeous."
"Uh huh," Alison muttered as she flicked the leather of the long black sectional framing the living room. A multi-tiered coffee table stood on top of a white and light blue rug.
"This is immaculate," Spencer noted draping herself over the island. "She doesn't strike me as a tidy person." She stood on the tips of her toes and examined the dining room on the other side of the counter. It had a tall rectangular kitchen table and four barstool height chairs with four placemats and an empty decorative vase adorning the top of the table.
"Well, she's not living here," Alison commented peeking out the floor to ceiling window at the tops of buildings. "So she's not around to make a mess."
"Is she renting it out?" Spencer asked skeptically.
"Nope," Alison spun around and trudged to her curious friend. "She told me that it's been empty."
As she pointed through the glass of two cabinets next to the microwave, she said, "Then why are there dishes in here?"
"They're just dishes, Spence," Alison rolled her eyes at the question.
Not convinced, the brunette tugged open the refrigerator, "There's food in here."
"What?" the blonde wondered aloud as she weaved around the island and yanked on the handle of what she assumed to be the pantry. Instead of swinging open, it glided outward revealing several shelves stocked with food.
Spencer offered, "I know it's not a lot of food, but—"
"I know that look," Alison pointed at her friend as she closed the pantry and the refrigerator. "My girlfriend doesn't have a double life." Spencer stomped out of the kitchen and in the direction that could only lead to the master bedroom. "What are you doing, Nancy Drew?"
By the time Alison made it into the bedroom, two drawers of the dresser had been pulled open and Spencer was gesturing into the open closet. "There are clothes in the drawers and the closet." She nodded at a few shirts and pair of pants on the bed. "Is this your definition of empty?"
With a huff, the blonde nudged the drawers closed with her hip and turned toward the bathroom to change into her bikini. Spencer leapt in front of her, flipped on the light and said, "There's stuff in the bathroom too."
"Jesus, Spencer," Alison elbowed her way past her annoyingly insistent friend. "It's her apartment. She probably uses it when she's in town."
"Look, I'm—"
The blonde slammed the bathroom door in Spencer's face. Unlike the rest of the virtually untouched living room, kitchen and dining room, the bedroom and bathroom did look as if they'd been used somewhat recently. Multiple bottles of shaving gel, shampoo, conditioner and shower gel sat in a long shower stall lined with pale stone. There was even a towel, wash rag and body brush hanging from a bar on a side wall of the stall. Although not disgustingly cluttered, the bathroom counter was dotted with the typical hair and body products you'd expect to find in a woman's bathroom.
As she stripped out of her clothes and tied on her bright red stringed bikini, she shrugged off the ridiculous suspicions Spencer had tossed in her face. Although Emily had concealed her expensive lifestyle, that did not in any way equate to hiding an entirely separate life. While they didn't see each other every day, none of Emily's actions hinted at such a blatant deception as a double life. In their relationship, Emily tumbled trying to find her way and Alison struggled with doubt. Emily was fighting tooth and nail to shake off her bad habits and after the brunch, Alison didn't need anymore convincing. They were both scared, but both completely committed.
Then, she saw toothbrushes, two of them. Her frantic, emotional thoughts screamed: two toothbrushes, two people. Her logical side reasoned that plenty of single people owned more than one toothbrush, although Alison wasn't one of them. Two inanimate objects triggered an insecurity that Alison constantly kept buried—Emily's rather active sex life. Although Emily never hinted at a comparison between Alison and all the other women, the blonde's stomach sunk every time she wondered what number she was, or what number she was going to be. It unsettled her even more when she wondered if Emily had no clue what number she would be. Alison hated to dwell on the topic because she didn't think any less of Emily. Unfortunately, she thought less of herself and she couldn't dream up anything that Emily could do to make it better.
Groaning, she pulled on her open knit tunic and stuffed her dress, bra and panties into her bag. When she stepped out of the bathroom and turned off the light, a loud bang on the front door startled her. "Oh!" she quickly realized, "I have her key." She shuffled to the door, unlocked it and swung it open eagerly, "Em—oh hi. You're not Emily," she said to a college age boy standing on her girlfriend's doorstep.
"Hey," the boy pointed to himself, "Charlie. Emily sent me to get you. She's up at the pool."
"Why did she send you?" Alison asked still blocking the door.
He chuckled, "She was finishing up a 'discussion' about a cabana."
"An aggressive discussion?" Spencer queried from over Alison's shoulder.
"Very," he emphasized as he peeked behind the blonde and pointed, "Can I come in? She wanted me to grab a bunch of waters and towels for all of you."
As Alison stepped aside and Charlie walked into the kitchen, Spencer asked with crossed arms, "Has Emily been here recently?"
"Spencer!" Alison snipped.
Stacking bottles into one arm, he replied, "I saw her maybe two weeks ago. She could have come here since then." He closed the refrigerator and wandered to a hall closet. "She moved some of her stuff out several weeks ago."
"Was she alone? Two weeks ago?"
"Seriously?" the blonde groaned.
Yanking several towels off of a shelf in the closet, he said, "Yeah. She was. Wait—" he paused dangling towels in the air nodding at Spencer, "Are you…" he added in Alison's direction, "or both of you her umm…"
"No! No!" Spencer answered wagging her head.
"I'm her girlfriend," the blonde corrected. "Alison."
Charlie snorted tossing the towels on top of the water bottles. "Alison? Really?"
"Why is that funny?" Alison asked the amused boy shaking with muffled laughter.
"No reason," he lied and cleared his throat. "Are you two ready?"
Glaring at Spencer, the blonde asked, "Are you done playing detective?"
"For now," the brunette smirked.
Alison rolled her eyes and answered Charlie with a dramatic sweep of her arm, "Lead the way."
When the elevator opened onto the top floor, Charlie opened a glass door with his back and nodded the two women through the opening. The entire rooftop was lined with cabanas and chairs and the edge was lined with metal rails and glass panels. Two groups of couches sat on either side of the long saltwater pool in the center of the roof.
As Charlie walked them around the edge of the rectangular pool, he noted, "Looks like she successfully frightened off the couple." He piled the towels on the edge of one of three black chaise lounge chairs under a large white cabana.
"She scared someone off for a cabana?" Alison asked not at all surprised.
He carefully placed five bottles of water onto a small round glass between two of the chairs as he answered, "She usually gets what she wants."
"That's been made fairly clear," Spencer commented sinking down onto the edge of a lounge with her hands propped behind her.
"Where is she?" Alison asked with her eyes trailing around the outside searching the groups of chairs under umbrellas and a small bar under a wooden arbor at the other end of the pool.
"Umm," Spencer pointed to the pool, "I think that's her."
"Oh my god," the blonde chuckled. Emily was perched on a tall man's shoulders trying to push a skinny guy off of a girl's shoulders.
"Your girlfriend is playing chicken," Spencer laughed sliding her sunglasses onto her face.
As Emily was yanked off her partner's shoulders and slammed underwater, Charlie appropriately said, "She always loses."
"Really?" Alison chirped.
"Ch'yeah," Charlie answered as they watched Emily scurry back onto her partner's shoulders and clap her hands eager for another bout. "At least, she always loses when she's on top. She's better on the bottom."
"Keep that in mind, Ali," Spencer elbowed her friend, who was standing next to her, in the leg.
Ignoring the innuendo, Charlie asked politely, "Do you need anything else?"
After pulling her tunic over her head, Alison smiled, "We're good, thanks." She tossed her bag and cover-up by the small table and followed her friend's example and plopped down onto one of the cushioned lounge chairs to Spencer's right.
"Cool. I'll be back to check on you," Charlie nodded and walked to the bar on the opposite side of the pool.
"Does Emily have a personal servant?" Spencer snorted.
As Alison scooted further up into the slightly reclined chair away from the rays of sun sneaking under the cabana, she replied, "You can ask her when she's done doing.." she flicked a finger at the brunette who once again fell into the water, "that."
"What are you going to do about Duncan?"
The blonde's eyes bulged as she put on her sunglasses and snuggled into the back cushion of the chair, "That came out of nowhere."
"Ali."
"We're going to tell him," the blonde admitted evenly. She had told Aria and Spencer some of the delicate details of Emily's past but had skirted around the topic of her ex. It hadn't been brought up in depth since Alison had broken up with him after dragging her friends to an AA meeting to summon the courage to do something she thought might send her running to a liquor store.
"Are you going to be okay?" Spencer asked. "In the meeting, you mentioned that this would be a serious test of your sobriety."
"I think I'm fine," Alison answered with relief as she acknowledged the truth in her words. "Emily is—"
"An alcoholic."
The blonde glanced to her left at her friend who had also shed her tunic covering her bikini and said, "Yeah, Spence. I know."
After sliding up until her back hit the horizontal cushion, the brunette pointed out tipping her sunglasses on top of her head, "You're an alcoholic leaning on another alcoholic."
Alison ripped off her sunglasses and queried, "When did you become so anti-Emily?" Spencer's exploration of her girlfriend's apartment seemed out of place with her past enthusiasm for Emily.
"I'm not. Really. I'm not," the other woman calmly assured, "It's just." She leaned her head back and sighed, "She was small house, cheap-ish car and no furniture and now she's huge apartment, Mercedes, pool side service—"
"She's comfortable," the blonde gently interrupted her friend's concern. Glancing out into the pool, Alison explained, "She knows she doesn't have to hide anymore." As Emily popped out from under the water, she caught sight of Alison and waved happily sporting a huge smile Alison could see from twenty five yards away. "She let me in."
"You know I'm only saying this because I care."
The blonde nodded with understanding, "You were just as cynical about Cece and Duncan."
"I'm an equal opportunity scrutinizer," Spencer claimed as she pulled down her glasses and leaned back in the chair.
Alison settled her sunglasses back on her face and relaxed into her chair watching her girlfriend in the pool. "It makes sense that you're not wallowing in guilt about Duncan," Spencer randomly observed. "Since you've been sober, you tend not to dwell; you move forward."
Still studying her girlfriend's every move, Alison said, "Emily is the exact opposite."
"What do you think will happen with Duncan?" the brunette thought aloud concocting her own version of the impending confrontation.
With a sigh, Alison admitted, "I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into a pissing contest."
Laughing, Spencer recalled, "I've witnessed several memorable fights for your affection."
"It's obnoxious," the blonde groaned as she leaned over to grab a bottle of water. Although some people might find a heated tug of war over them appealing, she found it annoying and unnecessary. She knew what she wanted and people arguing never swayed her feelings. She screwed off the bottle cap and grumbled.
"Do you think Emily would actually participate in this hypothetical contest?"
Chuckling into her bottle, the blonde replied, "Definitely. If he pushes… she'll go there." No matter how noble Emily's intentions, she'd stoop to verbally kicking Duncan in the balls just to get her point across.
"I thought that you said she's really sensitive about hurting him."
"I don't think she's afraid to lash out rather immaturely at someone she cares about." She sighed sloshing the water around in the bottle. "I get the siblings vibe from them and I don't think they'd have a problem kicking each other in the teeth and laughing about it later."
"Except there isn't going to be a later this time," Spencer stressed.
Alison winced knowing how much that fact weighed into Emily's reluctance to tell him the truth.
"Does she realize that?" Spencer pried. "She has to know that."
"She's not an idiot," Alison plopped the water beside her chair.
With a long sigh of relief grateful she had nothing to do with the shitstorm, the brunette said, "Have fun with that."
"Spence…" the blonde glanced at her friend and asked, "Do you think I'm crazy? For going through with this?"
"I haven't decided yet," the woman replied noncommittally before elaborating, "I really like her. She suits you and she comes with a ball of crazy named Hanna…"
"But?" Alison prompted when her friend's voice trailed off.
"Just be careful."
The sound of an admiring whistle interrupted the conversation. Alison grinned at her girlfriend with her hands on her hips and water dripping from her elbows, "I'm pretty sure everyone is jealous of me right now."
As Emily grabbed a towel and roughly wiped her face, Alison asked, "Why is that?"
Emily answered brightly, "I have two beautiful girls in my cabana."
"You make three," Alison reached out motioning her girlfriend toward her.
"You're quite the flatterer, Em," Spencer noted while Emily sat down to her girlfriend's left.
As the blonde patted down her wet hair and back with the towel, Emily replied, "Flattery gets you everywhere."
Smirking at the comment, Alison corrected, "Not everywhere, apparently." Emily glanced over her shoulder and snickered at her girlfriend's reminder of their painful state of abstinence.
"Well, that clinches it," Spencer said with her friend's suggestive correction in mind, "I'm not only a third wheel, I'm a chaperone."
Alison answered, "No, you're—"
"Yup," Emily stood up, tapped her girlfriend on the shoulder and waved for her to move toward the front of the long chair. "That's exactly what you are." She slid behind her girlfriend and kissed her left shoulder.
"You two are incorrigible," the newly dubbed 'cock block' replied. When Emily rifled through Alison's bag and emerged with a bottle of sunscreen, Spencer asked, "Should I put on the sunscreen?"
"I can do that," Charlie chimed in.
"Nice try," Emily snorted at his well-timed appearance. "I'll give you points for effort."
"I do what I can," the boy smiled as he walked away.
"He puts on sunscreen?" Alison asked over her shoulder.
After pecking the back of Alison's head, Emily replied, "Just like flattery, money gets you everywhere—almost everywhere. Plus, he's nice."
With a raised eyebrow, Alison twisted around and realized pointing at Emily's bikini, "You weren't wearing that in the car."
Sliding off Alison's sunglasses and smirking, the brunette kissed Alison on the jaw and said, "Nope. I sure wasn't."
"Where did you change?" Alison tugged on the edge of the top of Emily's stringed bikini.
With a grin, Emily replied, "Charlie held up a towel."
"Wow," Spencer deadpanned with her usual reaction to Emily's antics.
Alison flicked at the brunette's jeweled barbell on her navel, "I'm just going to stop being shocked by everything that you say."
Emily turned her girlfriend back around with the blonde's back to her front, "That's probably a good idea." She flipped the bottle of sunscreen upside down and banged the top against her palm.
"Before you start," Spencer noted. "She won't burn under her bikini."
Emily swept Alison's hair over her right shoulder and chuckled, "You never know." She tickled the blonde's skin along the edge of her bikini top and smirked when Alison shuddered. "Oh this is going to be fun."
When she wrapped her arms around Alison's torso and kissed her neck, Alison requested, "Please be nice."
"That's not what you usually say," Emily snickered in her ear.
"This whole situation is unfair," the blonde complained knowing Emily was free to roam most of her body while she faced the crowd at the pool and with access to her girlfriend.
"I'll be good," Emily claimed. When she leaned back, Alison heard her knocking the bottle against her palm again."So," Emily asked as she rubbed the cream onto Alison's upper back and shoulders, "Did you like my apartment?"
The sudden introduction of the topic instantly surfaced a slew of questions, "Have you already moved out?"
"Yeah," the brunette glided her hands down Alison's sides. "Mostly."
While Emily returned to the bottle, the blonde continued, "Why are there still clothes and dishes?"
"I'm way too lazy to pack everything all at once." She slathered more of the cream onto Alison's lower back.
"And the furniture?"
"There's no way it could fit in my house. And," she added, "I like starting fresh."
"There are two toothbrushes." It wasn't phrased as a question.
Emily finished rubbing along the top on Alison's bikini bottoms and said, "Why would I commit to one?"
"Food in the fridge?" Alison pushed her arms back so Emily could rub down her arms to her wrists.
"Are you afraid I have a girl stashed away here?" the woman chuckled making sure to cover the top of Alison's hands.
"I'm just curious," Alison replied. "And no, I don't think that."
"You're a handful," Emily squeezed her girlfriend's hands. "I don't have enough energy for another girl."
"Hey," Alison playfully protested. Emily's lotion caked hands appeared just below her chin and dripped the liquid just below the hollow of her throat. The brunette's fingers quickly plunged down to the edge of Alison's bikini top and dipped beneath it. "Don't do that," the blonde lightly slapped the back of her hands.
While her fingers glided across Alison's chest, Emily continued with her explanation, "I crash here when I'm in town." Emily's hand skipped over her girlfriend's breasts and trailed down her stomach, "My lease doesn't run out for another few weeks."
When the brunette's fingers slid a little too far under the red material, Alison moaned and whimpered, "Why are you so mean?"
"Okay guys," Spencer interrupted. "Those kinds of sounds are never a part of the sunscreen application process."
"Then you've been doing it wrong," Emily replied as she squeezed Alison's hips.
Glancing out over the pool, Spencer spotted two boys and a girl frantically waving in their direction. "Em, I think you're being summoned."
Emily's head popped up and she smiled, "Fuck yeah!" She wriggled out from behind Alison and quickly hopped to her feet. "Time for a rematch." She tossed the bottle of sunscreen into her girlfriend's lap. "Don't forget your legs." She leaned over and planted her hands on either side of Alison's hips. "And your face." She pecked the woman on the lips.
Alison chuckled and rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's enthusiasm. Emily had the attention span of a twitchy squirrel.
"What?" Emily asked with her face still hovering in front of Alison's. She joked, "You can't do those yourself?"
The blonde shook her head and said with a laugh, "Em, I love you, but—"
"You what now?" Emily jerked upward with a flash of terror in her eyes. When Alison blinked, it disappeared and had been replaced by an innocent confusion.
She stammered, "Uh. I mean. You know." She had no idea why the words had slipped from her lips. "That's just something people say. It's a phrase: 'I love you, but'."
"Yeah," Emily managed a tiny smile. "Okay." She quickly bent over and pressed the wisp of a smile into Alison's forehead. Leaning back up, she pointed and said, "I'm gonna go over there." She scampered to the edge of the pool and threw herself headlong into the water.
"Well… that was painfully awkward," Spencer said eyeing her bewildered friend.
As she swung her legs off the side of the lounge chair, Alison asked, "Did she seem majorly freaked out?" A little jarred by the past few seconds, Alison snatched the lotion and squirted way too much into her hands.
"More like shocked," Spencer offered. "Not really in a bad way. You didn't really commit to it. Was that a Freudian slip or—"
"I could really use a drink right now," Alison groaned as she frantically rubbed the cream up and down her legs.
"Sometimes your urges are so random."
"I can literally taste a strawberry daiquiri right now." She threw her head back and whined, "Why can't I have alcohol?"
"God, those made you so sick."
Pouting, the blonde replied, "But they tasted so fucking good."
"Until it came back up."
Alison glared at her friend, "Thanks for ruining my delicious alcohol fantasy."
"Alison, listen," Spencer pulled off her sunglasses and sat up with concern. "Don't read into what happened. You say that to Aria and I all the time." As Alison relaxed, she continued, "It's just something that you say to people when you're comfortable with them."
After a long, loud sigh, the blonde prompted, "And Emily's reaction?"
As she reclined, Spencer slid her glasses back on her face, "I wouldn't have expected anything else."
Alison shoved her sunglasses back onto her face and groaned. As she swung her legs back onto the lounge, she swatted away visions of a cold daiquiri giving her a blissful escape from her confusing verbal slip. Spencer's logical explanation of her use of the phrase lulled her into a calm that was only periodically interrupted by the twinge of fear in Emily's eyes and her hasty retreat. Before she plunged into an abyss of worry, she buzzed her lips and closed her eyes letting the sounds of other conversations distract her from the dialogue in her head.
Spencer was right. What else would she have expected from Emily?
"Why can't I have boobs like that?" Alison heard Spencer complain.
With her eyes still closed, the blonde snorted, "Are you having your monthly moment of boob envy?"
"I'm triggered when I'm confronted with those."
When Spencer emphasized the word, Alison felt compelled to look, "Don't point!" she gasped when she opened her eyes and saw Spencer's arm outstretched. It only took a few seconds for Alison to spot the large chest Spencer referred to. "Her lipstick bugs me," the blonde commented on the bright red color coating the woman's lips.
"Look a little lower, Ali. I'm sure Emily wouldn't mind if you—"
"Why is she so tan?" Alison continued to criticize the woman. "And why the hell is she wearing heels?"
"You are such a straight girl sometimes."
"Fine," Alison proceeded to inspect the blonde woman from head to toe. "She has nice boobs and a nice ass." She whipped her gaze to her friend. "She's attractive. Is that bi-sexual enough for you?"
Although Alison couldn't see behind the sunglasses, Spencer's eyes widened and she tensed, "Boobs is coming."
Noting her friend's alarm, the blonde glanced back and saw the woman strutting toward her. "Boobs is coming." she reemphasized.
"You're right," Spencer commented as the woman approached, "That tan is a bit much, but her face is gorgeous and those boobs…"
Before Alison could shush her friend, the blonde in heels greeted her warmly with a thick Southern accent, "Hey there, beautiful."
Alison returned half-heartedly, "Hi… you."
Although not peeling her gaze from Alison, she nodded over her shoulder and greeted Spencer, "And hi to your friend."
"Ouch," Spencer muttered barely loud enough for Alison to hear.
Pulling off her bug-eyed sunglasses, the stranger said to Alison, "I haven't seen you here before. I thought I knew all the pretty girls."
While Alison rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses and swallowed a groan, her friend commented, "We've definitely been missing out by not knowing you."
Alison tipped her sunglasses up on top of her head and offered as she motioned to the pool, "We're actually here with—"
"My goodness, you have beautiful eyes," the woman interrupted. "They might be the most beautiful things about you."
Alison heard Spencer snicker as she reached for a sweating bottle of water. She replied flatly to the compliment, "Thanks."
Not deterred by Alison's lack of interest, the woman continued, "With those beautiful eyes, I'm shocked that you've been left all by your lonesome."
"Am I not here?" Spencer muttered.
The woman winked, "I wouldn't let a beautiful thing like you out of my sight."
"She really is beautiful isn't she?" Spencer emphasized the woman's repetitious use of the word.
Ignoring her friend, Alison replied, "I think I'll survive for a few minutes."
"I don't know," the woman shook her head playfully. "You might get snatched right up."
"I don't think there's a chance of that," Spencer assured sarcastically.
Chuckling, the intruder disagreed, "I can be quite persuasive."
"I have no doubt of that," Alison returned with a raised eyebrow. This woman could persuade anyone to excuse themselves with a pathetic claim of needing to do laundry.
"Emily Fields!"
Alison's eyebrows knit with confusion at her admirer's eager greeting of her girlfriend.
"Hey… friend," Emily replied with an awkward wave. Beads of water dripped down her face and over her lips, which she stretched into a forced, plastic looking smile.
As the brunette pawed the salted pool water from her eyes, the woman smirked and returned, "Hello to you too, 'friend'." From the annoyed look on Emily's face, Alison figured her girlfriend had previously fallen victim to the woman's obnoxious advances. The woman continued, "Where have you been hidin'? We've missed you around here. Most of the neighbors keep puttin' me off when I suggest a get together."
Without thinking, Emily said, "It's hard to imagine someone turning you down."
Alison and Spencer's eyes bulged and jaws dropped while the other woman smirked, "You always were a tease."
"No!" Emily jolted realizing what she implied, "That's not—"
"That's still there I see," the blonde pointed at the scar on Emily's torso. Still reeling from the woman's suggestive interpretation of her girlfriend's comment, Alison reluctantly debated how often and under what circumstances the woman had seen Emily's scar. Her conclusion made her gag.
"Scars don't typically disappear in a few weeks," Emily informed.
"Well," the woman replied, "It's the sexiest scar I have ever seen."
"Sexy?" Alison asked. While the mark in no way detracted from her girlfriend's beauty, she wouldn't refer to it as sexy. If it weren't for Emily's look of irritation, Alison might have stepped in and shut down the woman's flirtation.
Tossing a smile Alison's way, the woman nodded, "I guess it's more how she got it. That type of bravery is just irresistible." The woman's hungry gaze drifted back to Emily, who quickly snatched up a towel and wrapped it around her.
"I'm sorry. What?" Alison asked with confusion knowing Emily received the scar on one of the worst nights of her life.
Securing her towel, Emily shrugged, "It was nothing."
"Don't be so humble," the woman chided. "It was so brave." She glanced over at a clueless Alison and Spencer. "You don't know?"
"We really want to," Spencer encouraged.
With wide eyes, the woman said, "She saved a guy from gettin' stabbed."
"What?" Alison snorted glancing over at Emily who nodded with a blank expression except for a small curled corner of her mouth.
Excited to recount the tale, the woman spilled the details with conviction, "Emily jumped in front of a knife at the last minute. This gang was tryin' to kill this guy for a special ring he was carrying to be destroyed. The ring was really old and it was made in a volcano called Mt. Doom."
"Seriously?" Spencer tossed an amused glance at the other brunette who smiled deviously. Although Alison knew the story was completely fabricated, she didn't pick up on the reference that made it even more absurd.
"And then one of the guy's friends came in and scared off all the other guys."
Trying not to laugh, Spencer asked, "Did the friend have a torch and a sword?"
Emily laughed into her hand as the woman telling the story chuckled at Spencer's ridiculous suggestion, "No. He just scared them off. Who carries a sword?"
"It was just my natural reaction to jump in and save him," Emily puffed out her chest while Spencer heaved suppressing an outburst of giggles.
With an adoring look at her 'friend', the storyteller said, "Emily is the bravest woman I have ever met."
"That's quite the story," Spencer replied clearing her throat, "It almost sounds like it could be from a movie or a book."
"She really is just that brave."
"Wait. Is she brave?" Alison mocked the woman's lack of vocabulary and overuse of the word that had completely lost its impact at that point.
"Aww," the woman said as she focused her attention back to Alison, "don't get jealous. I came over here for you."
"Oh! That's what's happening here," Emily replied with irritation. "Alison can I talk to—" she waved off the advancing bleached blonde and corrected, "not you. That Alison." She pointed at her girlfriend.
"Your name is Alison?" Emily's dumfounded girlfriend blurted as Emily breathed out a sigh of defeat at her failure to avoid this situation. Alison groaned realizing that she was only feet away from one of the 'Alison's Hanna had rubbed in her face several days ago at brunch.
Wrapped up in the escalating drama, Spencer commented quietly, "Can this get anymore entertaining?"
With a pout, the standing blonde said, "Aww. Don't hog her Emily. I know you don't mind sharin'."
Spencer smiled at her good fortune in being brought along on this trip, "I love being a third wheel."
In that moment, Alison didn't know whether to feel sorry for herself wallowing in disgust or Emily drowning in discomfort.
The brunette replied, "I don't make a habit of sharing my girlfriend."
"Oh my," the woman commented, "This just got awkward."
"Especially now that you've said it," the other Alison clarified. As she spoke, she saw Emily glance over the standing blonde's shoulder at Charlie, who was approaching with a tray of three mixed drinks. Emily mouthed "please" to the boy and nodded in the blonde woman's direction.
As he smiled with understanding, the oblivious woman said, "I'm not sure which of you I'm more jealous of, I—" Charlie slammed into her back spilling two pink drinks and one blue down her back and into her long blonde hair. "What the hell?!" She spun around and screamed at the boy. "What is wrong with you?"
Emily, Alison and Spencer all choked on laughter at the sight of colored ice dripping down the woman's back and staining her white bikini top and bottoms as it dribbled down from her shoulders to her overly tanned legs and onto the concrete.
"I'm so, so sorry! I'm s—so so—sorry," Charlie stuttered with apologetic eyes as he retreated from the woman's wrath, guarding himself with a metal tray shaking in his hands.
"Do you know how much this costs?" the furious woman screeched as she snapped the strap of her bikini top.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Richardson. So sorry."
"You fuckin' clumsy idiot! I'll see to it that you don't have a job in the mornin'!" Without a word to the other women, she stomped off muttering curse words.
"Aww. We're sorry to see you go," Spencer called out. "Nice to meet you!"
"Wow," Alison deadpanned while her gaze flitted between her relieved girlfriend, the rapidly melting icy mess on the ground and the snickering boy.
"That's my line," Spencer corrected jokingly staking a claim on her unofficially patented response to Emily's plethora of shocking admissions.
Pulling off her towel, Emily sighed gratefully, "Jesus Christ. Thank you, Charlie." She patted the boy on the shoulder. "I seriously owe you."
"Oh please," Charlie chuckled, "I've wanted to do that ever since she made me move an umbrella fifty times to keep her out of the sun."
As Emily sank down on the end of Alison's lounge chair, the blonde said, "If she stays out of the sun, why—"
"There are a few tanning beds next to the gym," Charlie snorted.
"Sounds about right," Spencer said laying back into her chair now that Alison the Entertainer had left the building.
As Charlie walked off to get something to clean up the mess, Alison kicked her girlfriend playfully and said, "That girl is a train wreck of stupid." Emily snatched the woman's foot and poked at her toes as she continued, "Does she really believe that knifing story?"
"Does she know how to use a thesaurus?" Spencer quipped.
Answering her girlfriend, Emily replied, "Of course she does. Why would someone this hot lie about a scar—oww!" the brunette snagged the other foot Alison aimed at her ribcage.
Spencer clarified, "That doesn't even look like a knife wound and that story was a modified version of a scene from Lord of the Rings."
As she released Alison's squirming feet, Emily replied with a smile, "She doesn't know that. She also believes that my great uncle invented the internet and I'm one of a set of separated conjoined twins."
"You don't have a twin," Alison replied skeptically.
With a dramatic sigh, Emily replied, "My sister didn't make it." She wiped away a non-existent tear.
"Oh my god," Alison smacked her face into her palm, "It cannot be possible to be that gullible."
Taking a sip of water, Spencer commented to Emily, "I'm guessing that a reasonably high IQ, or even average IQ, is not a part of your criteria."
Alison looked up to see her girlfriend rolling her eyes, "She's not that dumb when she's not talking." Alison gaped at the blatant innuendo . "Oh fuck me. Kill me now." Emily whined as she tipped over and smashed her face between Alison's knees.
"Has anyone ever told you how not smooth you are?" Spencer chuckled as Alison patted her girlfriend on the head.
The blonde noted, "Her name is Alison…"
"Ugh," Emily mumbled into her legs.
"And she's blonde."
"Umph," the brunette grunted.
"And she is dumb as shit."
"Fuck me," the brunette groaned. After a few seconds of heavy breathing, she added a few muffled words, "I'd like to crawl into a hole now."
"You might need something deeper than a hole," Spencer suggested.
"Baaaaahhh," Emily whined loudly.
"You are fucking adorable when you're flustered," Alison smiled at the traumatized brunette hiding her shame in Alison's knees.
As Emily pushed herself upward and slid closer to Alison, Spencer said, "I didn't think you were capable of being embarrassed."
Gaze still fixed on the concrete, Emily grumbled, "I'm full of surprises."
Alison leaned into her girlfriend's ear and whispered with one finger trailing up Emily's spine, "Why am I so turned on right now?"
Smirking, Emily glanced up and replied, "Looks like someone else is full of surprises."
"Knowing that you slept with a moron with huge boobs probably shouldn't have this effect on me." She traced the scar on Emily's stomach, "It's probably your sexy battle wound." Emily just smiled watching Alison's fingers slide across her skin. "Do you always tell that Lord of the whatever story when people ask?"
"It's a different story every time," she sighed tugging at Alison's fingers until the blonde threaded them through hers. "You're one of the few people who know the real story. I mean, aside from the huge group of people at the AA meeting."
"You've never told another…" Alison paused unsure of how to word her question. As Emily tucked some of her long blonde hair behind an ear, she finished, "another girl the real story?"
The brunette swallowed and replied hesitantly, "Only one… and you." Her unoccupied fingers brushed against Alison's cheek. "Please don't ask who."
"I wasn't going to," the blonde assured quickly but gently. She knew exactly who Emily had told and she didn't want to hear her ex-girlfriend's name on Emily's lips.
Emily kissed her thoughtful girlfriend on the forehead and prompted, "You've looked like you wanted to say something since you came up to the pool."
Tapping a finger on Emily's lips, Alison whispered, "Not here."
The brunette's face dropped, "What did I do?"
"Em," the blonde squeezed Emily's hand. "It's nothing like that."
Still a bit wary, Emily rose to her feet and pulled her girlfriend up after her. "There's a crazy clean private pool bathroom over there."
Alison wrapped both of her hands around Emily's left arm as Spencer said, "I'll forgive you for leaving me because I'll be laughing about 'Alison' for weeks."
When Emily locked the door behind them, she offered, "I'm sorry for whatever it is."
With her ass propped on the counter, Alison shook her head and held out her hands, "Come here." When a somewhat dejected Emily folded her hands into Alison's, the blonde smirked, "You have a guilt complex, babe." She answered her girlfriend's confused look by nodding at her chest, "I want to see them."
"Ahhhh," the brunette chuckled. "You could have just said that." She pressed herself into Alison and pinned their hands onto the grey granite countertop.
With her hands glued beside her, the blonde couldn't grip Emily's face and instead jutted her head forward to capture her girlfriend's lips laced with salt from the pool between her own. Emily had offered a multitude of chaste kisses in the afternoon, but that wasn't nearly enough to satiate Alison's hunger. Without hands to steady their heads, they alternately teetered one other backward with the force of their heated kisses. Unless their mouths parted for breath, their lips were locked with tongues determined to coax out a whimper or a moan.
Each small sound spurred Alison forward as she nipped at Emily's lips and closed her own lips around Emily's tongue. Every tiny seed of doubt dotting her thoughts concerning Emily's somewhat grandiose display of her money slipped away as her girlfriend chased her lips for constant contact. Amid the chaos of their passionate kiss, there was no room for her unfounded insecurities.
"God," Alison turned her head away from Emily's greedy mouth to breathe. "This not having sex thing…" Her girlfriend's lips danced along her jaw, "isn't working for me."
Emily tipped her head upward as her hands clamped onto Alison's hips, "Just…" The blonde's tongue traced down her neck, "not much longer."
Alison warmed the wet trail left by her tongue with a long soft exhale before she said, "You're lucky that I think you're worth it."
Emily spun her girlfriend around and forced her front against the counter. As she grinned into the mirror, she joked, "Of course I am."
"You are so full of yourself," Alison chuckled as she flattened her palms on the granite and locked eyes on her girlfriend's face in the mirror.
With a look of admiration, the brunette whispered, "How are you so beautiful?" Alison couldn't help but blush seeing her own face react to Emily's words. "You were the mean girl in high school and now you're—" she stared with disbelief. "You care so much and so hard. Why else would you put up with me?"
"How do you go from teasing to this?" Alison asked too distracted by her face and Emily's to notice Emily untying the strings of her own bikini. "You're not so bad your—Em!" Her eyes widened when the brunette's top dropped onto the counter in front of her and Emily squeezed Alison into her breasts. "Oh my god," the blonde bit her lip as the tips of the metal barbells on Emily's nipples dug into her skin. "I can feel them."
With her mouth next to Alison's right ear, Emily moaned, "Your teeth are going to feel so good." She rubbed her chest into the writhing blonde.
"Em, please," Alison jerked to her left and right trying to turn around to finally see the jewelry that she'd been picturing in her mind for days.
"Nope," the brunette admonished as she nibbled on Alison's ear. "Don't even think about it."
Alison felt Emily rocking her hips while she dragged her breasts on her back. As the metal swirled against her skin, the blonde panted, "You are so—mmmm." She had to push against her palms to keep Emily from crushing her against the counter. "You're going to pay for this."
As Emily lowered her mouth to Alison's shoulder, she chuckled, "I hope so—fucking ewww," her head jerked up as she sputtered and buzzed her lips, "Sunscreen!"
"Ugh!" the blonde dropped her head forward and groaned, "Way to ruin it."
Swiping her left hand over her lips and tongue, Emily hacked, "Fuck this is nasty."
"Seriously, Em, I—holy shit!" Desire flared from her chest down to her center as two hands slid under her bikini and gripped her breasts. "What are you—fuck," she winced with pleasure as Emily massaged her breasts beneath the fabric.
"You owe me," the brunette muttered as she squeezed her girlfriend's nipples between her middle and index fingers.
With Emily's chest flattened against her and Emily's hands on her breasts, Alison unconsciously held her breath. After a few moments of savoring her girlfriend's hands rolling her breasts, she exhaled, "So not nice."
"Look at me," Emily instructed.
Alison felt the throbbing from between her legs pounding between her ears when she met Emily's eyes in the mirror. There wasn't a trace of brown left in her girlfriend's eyes. The color had been drowned by a flood of lust. Emily's clit swelled as she rubbed against Alison's ass while her nipples tingled feeling the metal sliding and shifting beneath her skin. "Shit," the blonde muttered overwhelmed by the desire swimming in her girlfriend's eyes. Her eyelids squeezed shut as Emily's thumbs scratched her nipples.
"Open them," the brunette commanded with a moan.
As her eyes fluttered open, Alison begged the face in the mirror, "Please take it off."
Emily shook her head at Alison's entreaty to remove her bikini top, "No. Just look at me."
Even with her eyes focused on her girlfriend's face which crinkled every time she rocked into her, Alison could see her own face with her mouth hanging open as she panted, "God, Emily. Take it off!"
Ignoring Alison's desperate request, Emily whimpered when her girlfriend began rolling her hips, "Christ, Ali."
Exasperated and trembling with need, the blonde yelped, "Emily Fucking Fields! Take off my top!"
Before Alison could reach behind her and unclasp the bikini, the brunette glued her hands to the counter, "I told you that's not my middle name."
"I want you to see me."
Brown streaks suddenly returned to Emily's eyes and she commented sweetly, almost sheepishly, "I do see you."
"You are so cheesy," the blonde chuckled at her girlfriend's admission.
"That was awkwardly timed…"
Alison shook her head and smiled, "No babe, it was—"
"Guys!" Alison heard Spencer's voice accompanied by a pound on the door. "I saw you go in there. No funny business ladies."
Emily chuckled in Alison's ear as the blonde complained, "Go away, Spence!"
"You guys made me your chaperone… so," Emily snatched her top off the counter and spun around to conceal her chest from Alison's view. As Alison grumbled, Spencer continued, "You two better be decent."
Tying her string bikini in record time, Emily jumped toward the door, unlocked it and sighed with relief, "Thanks to you, we are."
As Emily barreled out the door followed by a sulking Alison, Spencer laughed, "Em, you actually look happy to see me."
"She is," Alison complained, "I'm not."
Not even glancing over her shoulder, Emily said, "I'll be right back." She sprinted to the pool and dove into the water.
"Wow," Spencer chuckled. "She really wants to get in your pants."
"Spencer Hastings," Alison chided playfully as they walked back to the cabana.
The brunette shrugged, "There isn't a 'Hastings' way to say that."
When Emily surfaced shaking water from her face, Alison joked, "Babe, can you come out now?"
When her girlfriend reached the cabana, Emily hung her arms over the edge of the pool and answered, "If you put on a burka."
Alison rolled her eyes and yanked on her tunic. "How about this?"
"Yeah," the brunette pushed herself out of the pool. "That works."
When a dripping wet Emily emerged, Alison tossed a towel and demanded, "You cover up too."
Shaking her head, Emily admitted reluctantly, "A pool was a bad idea."
"Ya think?" Spencer observed from her chair.
"How much longer do I have to wait?" Alison purred in her girlfriend's arms.
"Hopefully not long," Emily picked at the threads on the back of Alison's cover-up.
"What if there's all this buildup and the sex is absolutely horrible?"
Both Alison and Emily turned to Spencer with blank looks. "Really, Spencer," Alison groaned.
"What?" the woman shrugged. "It happens."
"Oh ye of little faith," Emily smirked at the other brunette.
"Always so confident," the blonde chuckled turning back to her girlfriend.
Quietly, Emily said, "I know you'll barely have to touch me."
Alison replied, "Why's that?"
Leaning into Alison's ear, Emily brushed her lips against her girlfriend's ear with every word, "Because when I think of you, I don't have to work very hard."
"Shit," the blonde buried her face in Emily's shoulder. "Now I need to jump in the pool."
Emily nudged Alison's head upward, pressed her forehead against Alison's and whispered almost as a plea, "Don't go…"
For some reason, those two tiny words blanketed Alison with a sense of peace. Although Emily's past sexual encounters had been devoid of any type of romance, the brunette couldn't even tease or touch Alison without unconsciously exposing her quickly blossoming affection for Alison as well as her emotional needs. As Emily contently stood and breathed with Alison in her arms, the blonde's stomach flipped and her chest warmed knowing she was falling for this woman. There was no way in hell she would let her go.
Pools are awesome for Emison!
I re-read this and there is a lot of taking off and putting on sunglasses action. What's up with that? Haha.
So. Next chapter… good shit happens. Trust me :)
Oh. I definitely should be thanking MysticalGoddessOfWords every chapter. She keeps some of these scenes from going crazy even though I think she just likes getting sneak peeks. :) Thank you!