Emily gets home, considers changing out of the dress, decides against it and throws herself onto the sofa. She picks up her phone and finds JJ's number, smiling before she even presses call.
"Hey," JJ answers, her voice already playful. "That good, huh?"
"He said I was so beautiful he wanted to paint my portrait," Emily replies drily. "So I asked him if he paints. He doesn't. And that was the most interesting thing I learned about him."
JJ snorts. "You want company?"
"If you're not busy…" Emily says, chewing her lip to bite back her smile.
"I'll be right over."
They do this pretty often now – a couple of times a month, one of them will have a terrible date and call to confirm that it was terrible, then they find themselves together with a movie and chocolate and wine. Honestly, Emily has started wondering whether she's going out with boring guys on purpose – this time she spends with JJ is pretty much her favourite thing.
About half way through the movie, JJ lies down on her side, sleepily stretching her legs into Emily's lap. "This okay?"
Emily chews her lip, settles her hand on the soft, tanned skin, firm muscles relaxing at her touch. "Yeah," she says quietly, trying to keep her eyes on the screen. "Of course."
"Em."
She turns, lets her eyes follow the line of JJ's body stretched out in front of her and finds her eyes.
"I like this," JJ says softly, her eyes wide and searching.
God. Emily smiles, tongue tied, because they've been playing around this edge but it's getting harder and harder to step back from it… Because it feels so good to have her hands on JJ but she has no idea whether she feels the same way, whether she ever could… JJ sits up – it brings their faces so close Emily's heart starts pounding instantly. "You okay?" JJ whispers, her breath soft and warm on Emily's lips, and she nods, feels her eyes slide shut, and then there are feather light fingertips on her cheek.
"Emily?"
"Yeah?" she says, opening her eyes.
"I was thinking," JJ begins, a nervous smile playing around the corners of her mouth, "that next time… We could skip the guy and maybe… We could go out?"
A slow smile spreads over Emily's face, her heart fluttering with relief and anticipation and fear and all kinds of things she doesn't want to think about. She nods. "I'd… Yeah. Let's do that."