Chapter 5

Her eyes fluttered open, those deep browns looking bright and glassy as she stared back at me and shook her head. Her hand went to her throat, indicating her thirst.

“Okay, good. Now, drink up.” I said, handing her the pill.

I watched as she took it cooperatively, handing the glass back to me once she was done. And then Thea laid herself back down, giving a tiny sob as she did so. She turned to her side, her back towards me, but I was still able to catch the soft little word that escaped her lips as she drifted off.

“Mommy,” she mumbled pitifully, and I grinned in spite of myself. I couldn’t help but be a little amused by the childish plea, and I kept smiling right up until my eyes travelled over the length of Thea’s body.

Her shirt had ridden up a bit, and there was no mistaking the array of bruises that littered her lower back.

“Oh, no.” My hand went to my mouth, and I could only imagine just how worse it must be underneath her boxers. I couldn’t stave off the guilt that washed over me, knowing that I was somehow at least partly responsible for the beating she had taken on the ice tonight.

Thea shivered, bringing my attention to the fact that I had been staring at her ass for a bit longer than what would be considered appropriate. I leaned over and fixed her shirt, pulling the blanket around her as I prepared to leave.

Thea’s hand caught my arm as I started to turn, and I tried to keep myself from falling over as she hugged it close. I tried to pull away, but quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to do so, at least not without waking Thea up—and a part of me really wanted her to get some rest and feel better.

Silently, I sat on the bed again, figuring I had little choice else but to wait for Thea to loosen her grip.

I woke up some time later, hearing a door somewhere in the loft shutting close. I stirred, a bit disoriented as I slowly realized that I had been half sleeping on Thea. She had loosened her hold on my arm and her torso was now slightly facing up, which meant that I had been practically using her stomach as a pillow for the past half-hour or so.

Again, I heard some movement outside Thea’s door and figured Rachel must be home.

Rachel! I sat up straighter, remembering my plan.

I didn’t know how I did it, but I somehow managed to both very carefully and very quickly stand up and tiptoe across the room. I was hoping to catch Rachel before she turned in for the night, but I was too late and I only heard the soft click of Rachel’s lock by the time I finally opened Thea’s door.

I sighed. I couldn’t very well knock on Rachel’s door now just to ask her to watch a movie with me. That wouldn’t be casual and unplanned at all. Besides, the moment had passed and, truth be told, I wasn’t really feeling up for it anymore.

Softly, I closed Thea’s door and turned back towards her bed, getting halfway through before I caught myself.

What was I thinking?

Thea seemed a bit better now and sleeping peacefully—she didn’t need a 25-year-old trying to play nurse by her bedside through the night.

She’s a grown woman, a voice inside my head reminded me, sounding a lot like Thea’s.

“Don’t I know it,” I mumbled in response, unable to ignore the way her thin, cotton shirt highlighted every womanly outline of Thea’s torso.

I shook my head at the thought, and hurried out of the room before the empty space beside Thea could tempt me further.

I stood in the toys section of the department store on Wednesday night, feeling incredibly overwhelmed.

I had planned on getting Rachel one of those Barbie corvettes she had talked about for Christmas, thinking it would be the perfect gift. It was light, it was cute, and she might find it a little bit funny—but it also showed that I was someone who listens to her stories, which was the important part.

I thought it would be easy. I mean, how hard was it to find a single, specific toy? Except now, looking at the rows and rows of shelves around me, I had no idea where to even start looking.

My eyes scanned the place from left to right, and I couldn’t help but grin in surprise when I saw Thea’s familiar face through the crowd. Again.

The girl was all over the place.

Things had been a bit awkward with Thea immediately following Saturday night. She obviously felt a little embarrassed around me, but I tried my best to show her it was no big deal, and she had been easing back into her old self these past couple of days.

Meanwhile, I had been silently curbing my attraction towards her, convinced that it must be some sort of fluke. I mean, it had to be because I liked Rachel… right?

And if my attraction to Thea was just a fluke, then there was no reason for me not to stride over towards her and say hi now, was there?

So I did, and smiled all the more as I neared and finally noticed the ensemble Thea was wearing. She had a coat over it, but that was definitely an elf costume peeking through. My eyes drifted towards the paper bags she was carrying on her arm, and saw an elf hat—with matching elf ears attached to it—sitting on top of one.

“Oh, this is too good to pass up!” I commented as soon as I reached her, and Thea whirled around.

“Liv!” She said, clearly surprised. I let my eyes go over her clothes before meeting her gaze, and I watched Thea’s cheeks redden when she saw my amusement.

“Let me guess,” I told her. “You could use the extra?”

Thea laughed, and I tried to ignore how cute that smile looked in her little elf costume.

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Someone I knew from work needed someone to fill in for her here tonight, and I figured, why not?”

“Taking a break?” I asked her, falling into step as she continued to walk through the aisle.

“Actually, I’m done—it was only a one-hour gig,” She said. “But I thought I could get some Christmas shopping out of the way.”

“In the toys section?” I asked, frowning a bit.

“My youngest brother is eight,” Thea explained. “I know someone who’s going home for Christmas, and he’s agreed to get some of this stuff to my family since we lived in the same city. What are you doing here?”

Thea glanced curiously sideways at me, and I shrugged. “Just trying to get some Christmas shopping done like you.” I told her.

“In the toys section?” Thea echoed wryly.

I should’ve seen that question backfiring on me but I didn’t, and I began to sputter, unable to come up with a quick reply. Thea stopped, grinning over my reaction before she decided to take pity on me and changed the subject.

“Are you heading back to the loft after?” She asked.

“Not yet.” I told her, our eyes meeting as we turned our gazes toward each other at the same time. There was something dangerous about the way Thea’s deep brown eyes mesmerized, and I looked away quickly, feeling something that I could only call as panic. “Actually, I have to go. I promised to meet some friends for dinner.”

“Don’t you guys ever just have dinner at home?” Thea said, sounding a bit disappointed as I began to step away. I glanced up quickly to see the slight frown on her face.

“Oh, well, I have a life,” I responded without thinking, eager to get away from Thea’s pull. I had already walked a few steps before my mind finally registered the slightly stricken look that had crossed Thea’s expression and I realized how my words might have come across.

I turned back, hoping to clarify that I hadn’t meant to imply that she didn’t have a life, but I was too late and Thea was already gone.

“Well, she’s new,” My bisexual friend, Kirsten, observed, smiling appreciatively at something she was seeing over my shoulders.

It was Friday night and the two of us, along with our other friend Alex (also gay), had decided to check out the new lesbian bar that had opened up in the city last week.

It showed promise, as most new places tended to, but it didn’t take the three of us more than thirty minutes to notice that the place was crowded with pretty much the same crowd as the older clubs we frequented. And that was what we had been discussing as the three of us sat in a booth with our first round of shots.

I wasn’t really there to look for people I wanted to date—I already had Rachel for that. But when Alex nodded her enthusiastic agreement after following Kirsten gaze, my curiosity got the better of me. I turned in my seat to casually gauge this ‘new’ person for myself, and frowned.

What was Thea doing there?

She was positively smoking in the thin-strapped, light-colored dress that she was wearing. It was too short in my opinion, although it still left some room for the imagination, coming up just a little below her mid-thigh. It certainly showed a good enough deal of her long, tanned legs to make anyone actually want to start imagining.

It was also too tight—again, my opinion—and although the bodice was modest enough, there was no mistaking the round swells of her breasts behind the fabric. Anyone’s eyes would be drawn towards the curves so starkly outlined by her outfit unless they were blind or cold-blooded—and I was neither.

Thea wore her hair up and some make up, but no jewelry, leaving nothing to take anyone’s eyes away from the smooth skin on her neck. She looked nervous as she stood there in her high heels, scanning the place, and I turned back towards my friends, my scowl growing darker at the way they were eyeing Thea.

I knew Kirsten and Alex well enough to know exactly what they were thinking, and I found myself getting out of my seat despite my better judgment.

“Are you lost or something?” I said as I fell into step with Thea on her way to the bar.

She gave a little start, saw it was just me, and relaxed. There was a confused look on her face before she eased into a smile, having reached some sort of understanding over what it was she had been wondering about.

“No,” she replied flippantly as she continued to walk. “Just getting this thing called ‘a life’ that I’ve heard so much about.”

She was joking, but the reminder made me feel both guilty and inexplicably annoyed that this whole Thea-in-a-lesbian-bar-wearing-a-sexy-dress thing turned out to be my fault. I placed a hand on her arm, letting go as soon as she stopped and gave me her full attention.

“Do you know that this is a lesbian bar?” I asked, and one side of Thea’s lips turned up in amusement before she pretended to look around in shock for a moment.

“Yes, I’m aware.” She finally said, in effect telling me that she was also gay. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at me, one finely arched eyebrow rising. “Do you?”

I didn’t know what to say after that, and could only stare after Thea while she proceeded to take a seat at the bar. I returned to my friends, who were both grinning at me as I sat down.

“Struck out?” Alex guessed teasingly.

“I better bring my A game then,” Kirsten mused, leaning back as she lazily studied Thea.

“No, she’s my roommate, okay?” I grumbled. I wanted to make my friends understand that it wasn’t what they were thinking, but I guess I came off sounding overly protective instead.

“What, is there a rule now somewhere that says we can’t hit on each other’s roommates?” Kirsten grinned, but I could tell that she was seriously thinking of going for Thea and the thought wasn’t sitting too well with me.

“Okay, okay! I was only kidding!” Kirsten laughed when I scowled darkly.

“Looks like Dani’s already beaten you to it, anyway,” Alex quipped, and we all glanced to where Thea was sitting.

True enough, Dani Morrison was already standing by the bar and talking to Thea.

Tall, lithe, and with strikingly androgynous European features, Dani was the type who could get any woman that she wanted. She knew it too—always flitting from girl to girl and never dating anyone more than twice.

I didn’t know what came over then, but the next thing I knew, I was striding over there and giving Thea a light kiss on the cheek as I placed myself between her and Dani.

“Hey, sweetie,” I smiled at Thea. “Sorry, I’m late. Been waiting long?”

I had no idea why I was pretending to be Thea’s date when there were probably a few other ways to drive Dani away, but it worked. I flicked a glance over my shoulder to make sure that Dani had already walked away before turning back to Thea.

“You’re welcome,” I smiled. Thea had a stunned look on her face, and I thought I should explain. “You do not want to be Dani’s flavor of the week. Trust me.”

I walked away then, feeling pretty accomplished as I returned to our now-empty booth. I could see Kirsten going off on the dance floor and I figured Alex was around somewhere as I took a sip of my beer. I drummed my fingers on the table as I glanced around, wondering what I should do next, only to see Thea talking to a redhead named Suzy this time.

I didn’t even think twice before doing the same thing that I had done with Dani, and Suzy backed off easily enough.

“Too clingy,” I explained to Thea—who now looked a little annoyed—before I casually walked off.

It happened a few more times over the course of the next hour. Some random woman would hit on Thea, and I would step in to drive the girl away, finding one fault or another on whoever it was. By the fifth time though, Thea was no longer having it.

She stood up as I neared, excusing herself from the brunette that she had been talking to, and headed towards my direction. She held my wrist as she passed and, for a moment, I thought she was leading me onto the dance floor, but she had walked towards a relatively quiet corner instead, away from the crowd.

“Okay, Liv. What is your problem?” Thea asked as she whirled around and faced me, clearly frustrated by my antics.