The more Kate looked at those three dots appearing and then disappearing, the more she began to worry. She had been woken by the text from William, and had then texted Caroline 3 simple words in sleepy response. Except they weren't simple. It was one thing Caroline stating that Kate loved her, but it was another thing entirely to text her the words out of the blue.
In the end, when the three dots never produced anything, not even panicked words, Kate pressed the call button. It went straight to voicemail. "Shit. Shit!"
She should go over there and explain. Or at least limit damages. Hopefully.
Kate clamoured out of bed, pulled a cardigan over her pyjamas and rushed down the stairs. She pulled open the front door and-
"Ow!"
Ran straight into Caroline. Who wore a coat over a pair of blue silk pyjamas. "Caroline! What are you doing here?"
"Where are you going?"
"I needed to see you." They both replied in unison.
Both women smiled nervously.
It was Caroline who spoke next. "I want..I can't..Kate. Can I please come in?"
Kate stepped aside and then shut out the night while her eyes never strayed from the blonde.
Caroline wrung her hands nervously as she placed her bum against the arm of the couch just to feel something solid. "This is..this is…"
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-" Kate began, but Caroline shook her head.
"Please let me say this now while I'm still feeling a little bit of courage. Because courage is not something I am good at. I am good at playing by the rules and doing things that are expected of me. But you make me feel like I can be courageous, Kate. You make me feel strong. So I want to tell you something, even if it sounds stupid and you run for the hills. I want to tell you that I need to take things slowly in this…relationship, because I think it will be forever. I think you and me are forever. And I don't want to go into anything with regrets or in half measure like I have done with other pe..things in my life." Carole stared at the floor. "..I'm seeing a psychologist. On Wednesday afternoons. Well, every second Wednesday afternoon. I want to be better. For myself. And for you. And for my boys."
Kate remained silent, studying Caroline's face.
"So I don't..I like when you say what you texted me. It makes me feel happy. And I feel the same. But I can't say it back. Not yet. Not until I've worked through whatever barrier is in my head or my heart that won't let me say it without feeling guilt. And I hope that's okay."
Sensing she had run out of both words and steam, Kate stepped forward and put a hand to Caroline's cheek. "…let me take you to bed. I want to hold you."
...
Ten minutes later Caroline found herself in the most ridiculous situation of her life. And one of the happiest. She was in Kate's bed for the second time that day, and this time she was under the covers and in Kate's arms.
She had thought admitting this to someone, anyone, would be difficult, but now she realised how silly that worry had been. "I started seeing her a couple of weeks after John left. She came to the school for one of the students and caught me crying over a rotten tomato." Caroline lifted her eyes briefly to look at Kate. " Now, when she comes to see the student every second Wednesday , she sees me afterwards. I've told Beverley it's to discuss ways to deal with student behaviour so she stops anyone interrupting. I suppose it's wrong of me to do it on school time…"
"Wow." Was Kate's response.
"Do you think it's-"
"I think it's great. And the school owes you that time. Caroline, I see a psychologist too, every so often. I have for years. Most people I know do, too, including most of the staff at school."
Caroline turned her head in surprise. "Really?!"
Kate nodded. "What I am more intrigued about is that she only comes every two weeks, and yet you have the same mood every single Wednesday. Quiet. Not wanting to talk."
"..it's you."
"Me?!"
"..you wear a blue shirt. Every Wednesday. It…certain movements make the buttons pull a little… and I always get caught up in a daydream of..things."
"..it's the first week back at school, Caroline. How long has this been going on?!"
"..about 5 months."
"Caroline! Do you think the kids have noticed? Oh god, I can never wear that again."
"No! That's my Wednesday treat!"
Kate and her mortification stilled briefly to smile at Caroline. "Caroline Elliot. I will wear it for you every Wednesday evening if you'll come to dinner. I don't care if you're quiet or thoughtful or grumpy. I feel like being any of those things is safer here than at your home with John."
Caroline smiled up at Kate, her eyes dropping briefly to her lips and then away. Instead, she focused on where her hand rested on Kate's arm; the contrast of skin colours, the warmth of Kate against the coldness of her hand.
Kate lay there in silence letting Caroline have her thoughts for almost 5 minutes, then ventured a soft "Caroline?"
The blonde didn't move.
Kate lifted her head as slowly and gently as possible, smiling when she saw the woman asleep in her arms.
Kate frowned at the bright sun hitting her face, pouting a little as she woke. When her eyes opened slowly, she was greeted with wide awake bright blue ones looking down at her.
"…you're very pretty."
Kate gave a slow smile. "Am I?"
"Mmhmm."
"..I think you're magnificent."
Caroline smiled, her eyes dropping to Kate's lips.
"I want to kiss you, Caroline." Kate whispered.
Caroline's eyes flickered briefly to Kate's eyes and then back to her lips. "Please."
So Kate kissed her.
Gently. Almost chastely.
It was Caroline who put a hand on her cheek and deepened the kiss by opening her mouth, a quiet moan escaping from her throat.
And it was a reluctant Kate who pulled away several minutes later, her fingers still stroking Caroline's cheek. "The-" was all she got out before the alarm blared.
"Kate! What is that?!" Caroline was both amused and horrified as she covered her ears.
Kate quickly turned it off, admitting "death metal."
"I don't even know what that is. Does it have lyrics or just..screaming. Or growling. Or whatever it's called."
"If I use any music I like as my alarm, I just dream that I'm playing it and I don't wake up. So, death metal-"
"Is definitely not being used as an alarm when I sleep here. It would give me nightmares."
"Oh, you'll be sleeping here will you?"
"Sometimes."
"I see. Have you asked the host whether she agrees to this?"
"I know she does."
"You're very confident for this time of the morning."
"Mm. I wonder why that is." Caroline smiled cockily as she climbed from the bed.
"Come back."
"We will be late. I've usually been up for half an hour already."
"Don't care."
"You're telling your boss you're happy to be late?"
"Yep."
"Detention." Caroline responded, melting back into Kate's embrace, their lips brushing.
"With you?"
"Uh-huh."
"I'm look forward to it." Kate smiled.
…
As it turned out, Caroline was ushered from the car as soon as they arrived by an eager Beverley, who looked curiously at Kate but had no time to ask a thing. Caroline could only glance apologetically over her shoulder as she was led away.
Kate was distracted all day. Now she actually knew what it felt like to kiss Caroline, have Caroline in her arms, she couldn't focus on anything else.
The way she tasted.
The way she smelled.
The feel of her lips.
The sound of her sigh.
The sound of her moan.
"Miss?"
Kate blinked, then stared blankly at the student in front of her for way too long to be acceptable before she managed to blink herself out of it. "Sorry. umm..Ella. Did you need some help?"
Ella nodded, placing her work down on the desk.
Kate shook her head to rid it of the images that lay within and focused instead on French verbs.
Caroline stared with a blank face at her desk, but her mind was anything but blank. It felt absolutely ridiculous that it had only been a week ago that she had traveled so suddenly to see Kate in the US when so much had happened in that time. Only it hadn't been just a week. There had been months of buildup, Caroline could see that now. There had been months even before Kate realised her feelings.
There had been holding hands for comfort.
There had been hugs that lasted hours.
There had been talking late into the night, wanting to know everything about one another.
There had been daydreams of building a life together, in a genuinely purely platonic way.
But there had also been daydreams of kisses, and flashes of more.
So, it didn't seem like just a week since realising Kate's feelings, and her own.
The kiss wasn't sudden.
She hadn't stepped out of place.
She hadn't made a mistake.
Caroline searched her head and her heart for panic or nervousness, but to her relief there was nothing there.
"Bloody. Bastard. Stapler!" Kate slammed it down on the desk. "I filled it yesterday. Completely filled it. I haven't done that much stapling, surely?"
"Well, I did see you staple that one assignment 3 times." The other languages teacher smiled.
"Did I? Oh! I did!" Kate studied it. Then she looked at her colleagues stapler.
"No! Go and get your own staples!"
"Mean. You know I have a fear of that stationary cupboard."
"You haven't explained why."
"And why would I, you're obviously just a colleague and not a friend if you won't let me borrow your stapler!" Kate shot back playfully as she walked from the room.
Thankfully when she entered the stationary cupboard it was empty. It was really a small room with shelves lining the walls. She never saw it being restocked and yet it was always full of everything used on a daily basis in a school.
Well. Almost everything.
Kate looked at the spot that was labelled staples. It was empty.
"Shit."
"Language."
"Sorry." Kate replied automatically, before she turned to find the door shutting with Caroline very much inside the cupboard with her.
...
"What took you so long?!" Kate's colleague looked up curiously five minutes later.
"Sorry?" Kate looked confused, her hand flattening her hair.
"Why did- where are the staples?"
"Staples?"
"…you left to get staples."
"Did I?"
"Kate!" Beverley rushed into the room with a box in her hand. "Caroline said you needed staples."
"Staples?"
"Are you okay?" Beverley frowned as she put the box on the desk.
"I don't..yes. Yes. I needed staples?" Kate ran her fingers lightly over her bottom lip. "Tell..tell Caroline I said..thank you."
"I will." Beverley looked more curious than she had that morning.
Kate's colleague looked even more curious.
Kate was saved from replying by the bell.
5 minutes earlier
"I thought Beverley usually gets your stationary." Kate offered, holding up her empty stapler uselessly.
"She does. It's you I needed." Caroline reached out and took hold of the stapler and put it on the shelf.
"Me? Why?"
"..I can't exactly remember." Caroline replied as she looked at Kate's lips.
Kate's lips quirked up at the sides. "Caroline, I-"
"Will you please kiss me again."
"..why don't you kiss me yourself."
So she did.
Soon Kate found herself pressed against the door by her boss thoroughly kissing her, her heart hammering in her chest.
"You wore it." Caroline suddenly whispered breathlessly. She had only seen Kate in her jacket that morning.
"I didn't want to take away your Wednesday treat."
Caroline's eyes moved downwards to the blue shirt, and her hands that had been resting on the door moved slowly until her fingers rested on the buttons.
"Caroline…" Kate warned softly, though any resolve she had ever had to resist Caroline had gone long before either of them even realised she might need it.
Caroline undid one button. Then two. Then gently seperated the fabric to give herself the view she had imagined so often.
"Caroline." Kate whispered.
When blue eyes lifted to hers, they were so full of arousal that Kate's mouth went dry and she let out an unintentional whimper.
"…I want to do this right because I want this to be forever. But I also want you so badly I can barely breathe."
"Caroline-" Kate managed again as the blonde purposefully reached for the door handle, opened it just enough to allow herself out.
Kate rested her back against the door, heart hammering, hair a mess and shirt partially unbuttoned. "..fuck."
When Kate passed her boss in the corridor later that afternoon, the blonde looked completely unaffected. There was not a hair out of place, and she looked as poised as usual, while Kate hadn't quite been able to fix her hair, and kept consciously pulling her shirt down so it wasn't gaping.
And yet despite feeling a mess, Kate still received a brilliant smile.
Kate smiled to herself and toyed with her necklace.
Caroline Elliot had said she wanted to be with her forever.
She so desperately needed to tell someone, her heart almost bursting with joy.
