Chapter 5

“Thank you for today,” she said instead. She was about to turn away when the woman leaned forward and pressed her lips to hers. Caught off-guard, she reached for Mika to steady herself, and suddenly their kiss was intense, the shorter woman’s arms wrapping around her back as she gripped her waist tightly. Mika’s tongue met hers, and it took all of Lauren’s will not to moan at the sudden heat.

When they separated, she was pleased to see that Mika looked as shaken as she felt. Her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing heavy. Her expression seemed slightly shocked. Lauren leaned in again, touching her lips chastely to the other woman’s, defusing the unexpected burst of passion. “I’ll see you this weekend,” she said, then turned to leave as Mika just nodded, mutely.

As a bank officer, Lauren was familiar with networking events and social obligations. She had a good range of cocktail wear to choose from for her symphony date. She selected a floor-length bottle green off the shoulder dress, with a neckline low enough not to be considered conservative, but not low enough to be risqué. She found the lowest heels she had that would work with the dress, and wore a heavy coat against the cold evening.

She had offered to drive, so she picked Mika up at her house. She changed into her heels while waiting in line for valet parking, then moved around to the passenger side to meet Mika as she stepped out of the car and took her arm.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you turn into without your coat,” Lauren whispered.

“Turn into?” Mika asked, with a chuckle. “Do you think I will be a frog?”

“You can’t be a frog,” Lauren said, “because then if I kiss you you’ll turn into a prince. I wouldn’t want you to be a prince.”

Mika’s eyes widened at the mention of kissing. Lauren hadn’t been sure if she should make the comment, but she didn’t seem to react negatively to it.

At the coat check, Lauren saw Mika’s dress for the first time. She wore a deep blue one-shoulder sheath dress, with hose and medium heels. She was gorgeous.

“Definitely a princess,” said Lauren. “Not a frog.”

Mika’s eyes seemed shy as they met hers.

“How did you develop an interest in classical music?” Mika asked, as they waited for the concert to start. “It seems unusual here.”

“Same as you, I think,” Lauren said. “I learned to play the flute in high school. We only had band and a chamber orchestra, which was mostly strings, but they often called on band members when the selection called for a wind section. I always wished I could play in a real orchestra, so I listened to classical music and imagined it.”

“That’s both sad and inspiring,” Mika said. “There was nothing you could join outside school?”

“Not with having to find transport twenty miles each way a couple of times a month,” Lauren said, “and it would have conflicted with band. I wouldn’t have had the perseverance to continue into college, anyway.”

“Yes, I gave up the cello when I went to university,” Mika said. “I was doing too much even without it.”

The orchestra program was all American composers. Nothing that was new to Lauren. She surreptitiously observed Mika, who was clearly enjoying the music. If at times she wore the distant expression of memory, the memories were clearly ones she did not regret. She seemed particularly rapt listening to Gershwin. After the applause for that piece ended, she felt Mika’s hand steal into hers. She looked up to meet Mika’s eyes. She was smiling, her cheeks glowing.

When she’d driven Mika home, Lauren hurried around to the passenger door to help the other woman out. Mika seemed very much the princess that she’d named her as she walked her to the door.

Their goodnight kiss was affectionate but chaste, Lauren was about to step back, when Mika spoke.

“You said I could take you to Natsu,” she said. “Could I reserve a table for Friday?”

“I’d like that,” Lauren replied. “Thank you for today.”

“Thank you for coming with me,” Mika said. “I’ll see you on Friday.”

Natsu was a moderately-sized restaurant downtown. They arrived in a taxi, Lauren having left her car at Mika’s house. After consulting with Mika, she’d dressed in a light green satin blouse, buttoned to just below her collar bones, and a black knee-length skirt. Mika wore a sky blue silk high-necked sleeveless top, patterned with pink roses, and a dark blue open jacket. She also wore a black skirt, though hers was mid-thigh.

The hostess, a girl a little younger than Lauren, gave Mika a warm welcome. She clearly knew her, and greeted her in soft Japanese, Mika replying in kind, before adding, in English, “And this is my friend Lauren.” At that, the girl gave her a small bow and welcomed her.

She seated them at a table for two, picking up a “Reserved” card and leaving a pair of menus.

A waitress appeared almost immediately. She also spoke to Mika for a moment, then left.

“Everyone knows you here, I guess?” said Lauren.

Mika nodded. “Will you allow me to order for you? I can ask what they recommend. Is there anything you like or don’t like?”

Lauren folded her menu closed. “No. You choose. I’d like that.”

Lauren found the meal, sushi, sashimi, and pork ramen, excellent. Mika explained that this has been a favorite restaurant of hers since her first arrival. She didn’t visit for a couple of years after Nicole’s passing, but when she returned everyone remembered her, though they were dismayed on her behalf at her loss.

When they’d both finished eating, Mika asked if Lauren wanted dessert. She was about to decline when an older man in heavy glasses approached the table. He wore an off-white uniform with a high, round collar of dark green, and a breast pocket of the same shade.

Seeing him, Mika scrambled to her feet. Lauren stood more slowly, as Mika and the newcomer bowed to each other. They exchanged what sounded like a polite greeting, Mika adding something else before turning to introduce Lauren, in English this time, as a friend.

“Mr. Yoshida owns the restaurant,” she said.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mr. Yoshida,” she said.

He smiled at her, then asked what they would both like for dessert, “As a gift from our family.”

Lauren didn’t feel able to refuse so she asked for whatever he would recommend. Mika followed suit.

A moment later, a waitress brought a confection consisting of a tempura fried banana with caramel and ice cream. Mr. Yoshida returned with a different carafe of sake and two more cups. Mika raised her cup, holding it delicately in two hands as he poured for her. Lauren attempted to imitate her, sipping the sake two-handed before setting the cup down.

“When we get to your place, I think I will need coffee and a few minutes rest before I can drive home,” she whispered. “I’m feeling a little buzzed. Tea, I mean.”

“You don’t need to hurry to leave,” Mika said. “We can listen to a CD or watch TV.”

Fortunately, the desserts were not the bloated creations that many restaurants served, and were easy to finish. Or would have been, if Lauren hadn’t let the final bite slip from her fork. Ice cream landed on her blouse, and a string of caramel trailed down behind it, landing lower on the fabric before she managed to contain the accident by setting the fork down.

Embarrassed, she scrubbed at the satin, removing all of the ice cream and most of the caramel, but leaving darker green marks and an ugly brown streak where it had been.

“Goddammit,” she whispered, “I survived the ramen noodles and eating with chopsticks, to do this with regular silverware.”

“That’s it, I’m cutting you off,” said Mika, sliding the now-empty sake cup away from her, a grin on her face. “I can’t take you anywhere.”

“At least it’s washable,” Lauren said. “But I should put my coat on before your friend Mr. Yoshida returns and sees me like this.”

Mika nodded agreement, settled the bill, and arranged for the taxi home.

Lauren was fairly sure that her sake consumption hadn’t caused the dessert mishap, but she was definitely too tipsy to drive. She was going to need to stay with Mika for an hour or two. She smiled. How unfortunate.

Her friend seemed even more delighted with the prospect of Lauren being stranded. She didn’t seem any more tipsy than Lauren, but she was behaving oddly. Exuberantly. She changed into slippers at the door, of course, then tossed her jacket with accuracy onto a hook several feet away, and her purse onto a stand, then danced lightly into the kitchen, singing. She had a good voice.

After hanging up her own coat, Lauren followed her into the kitchen, where she’d started the electric kettle and was spooning tea into a clear glass pot, still singing. “Oh, I am what I am…”

“You fraud!” Lauren cried, grinning at Mika as she spun around, her jacket hanging from a finger until she dropped it over the back of a kitchen chair. “You claim to be indifferent to contemporary music, and you’re dancing around singing Dido!” Mika’s eyes shone as Lauren stepped close, into her personal space, but not close enough to feel like she might be making her uncomfortable as Mika leaned against the kitchen counter.

“It’s a good song!” Mika countered. Her eyes held Lauren’s for a moment, her cheeks seeming to gain a little color. She glanced down to Lauren’s top. “We should wash that before the stain becomes worse.” Then she slipped to the side, bypassing Lauren to head to the living room. “Come through.”

Bemused, Lauren wandered into the living room, where Mika was replacing the CD in the player. A moment later, Dido’s voice filled the room. Janeway, who was curled up on the couch, twitched her ear but ignored the music.

Mika pirouetted back around – no mean feet in slippers – stopping even closer to Lauren than they’d been in the kitchen. She traced the stain on Lauren’s blouse, around her navel. “Take this off,” she said. “Let me see the care labels.” She began to unbutton the blouse.

She looked up again, one eyebrow raised.

“You’re going to take my shirt off?” asked Lauren. “Right here?”

“I’ll find you something to wear,” Mika said, sounding aggrieved. A moment later, she returned with a dark red cami. Handing it to Lauren, she resumed unbuttoning the blouse.

When the final button was unfastened, she let the blouse hang loose, but didn’t make any attempt to part it. Lauren turned away to shuck it off, passing it behind her to Mika, then shrugging into the cami. It was too tight in the chest, though it hung loosely over her stomach. The neckline wasn’t much higher than the top of her demi-cup bra.

When she turned back around, Mika’s eyebrows twitched. She’d clearly not expected it to fit quite so snugly. She took Lauren’s hand and led her to the utility room.

Releasing Lauren, Mika studied the labels on the blouse. She reached for a spray to pretreat the stain, looking to Lauren for approval, using it at Lauren’s nod. Swaying again to the sounds from the living room, she prepared the washer, dialing in a delay to allow the pretreatment to work before pressing the start button with a flourish.

When she turned back to face Lauren she glanced down at the cami. Her fingers came forward to brush the front of the fabric above her waist, observing the way it swayed. Then her gaze slowly lifted, taking in the cleavage that the cami revealed, until her eyes had travelled to Lauren’s mouth.

Lauren knew what that meant, but she wasn’t going to initiate. She didn’t need to wait long. A moment later, the woman took the hem of the cami and tugged, drawing her closer, until she could raise her lips to Lauren’s.

Mika’s tongue immediately demanded admission. Lauren let it roam deep before meeting it with her own. She moved closer, pressing her face into the other woman’s, holding her warm, bare shoulders to keep her in place as she closed her teeth on Mika’s tongue and suckled, drawing a deep moan from Mika’s chest.

Heart racing, Lauren drew her head back, letting her teeth slide along Mika’s extended tongue before licking the tip, bringing another sound of passion from the woman. Then she took the initiative, fastening her mouth to Mika’s, ramping up the intensity of the kiss.

Fingers caressing her sides felt like an electric charge, and her throat seemed to constrict with arousal. She moved her mouth to Mika’s neck, drawing her teeth down the side, feeling the pulse point hammering against her lip. She kissed it, her friend’s heartbeat rapid against her mouth.

When she pushed Mika back a few inches, the woman gave her a mischievous smile, but her eyes seemed feverish. Lauren pulled her out of the utility room and pressed her against the wall beside it before closing the gap between their bodies. Those electric fingers slid down, then back up inside the borrowed cami and around her back, the skin to skin contact inflaming her arousal.

The fingers met for a moment, then fumbled together. Lauren felt her bra straps drift down her back. Mika’s hunger for her was building her own desire for the slender, captivating woman. She ran her own hands down to her skirt, bunching it and drawing it up until she could reach under the hem to Mika’s ass. Mika moaned into the kiss as she kneaded the tight muscles.

Lifting Lauren’s loosened bra, Mika cupped the breasts within, pinching her hardening nipples as she pressed herself forward into Lauren. Her hips began to rock, her breathing into the kiss heavier by the moment.

Lauren moved far enough to press her hip into the apex of Mika’s thighs. Her hands continued to squeeze her ass, as Mika’s hips rolled, dragging her pussy against Lauren. The loud moan she made drove Lauren’s libido yet higher, but a whisper of rationality broke through Lauren’s need. She drew her face back from her companion’s.

“Mika,” she groaned, “we need to stop. You don’t want this.”

The woman’s eyes were on fire as they turned to Lauren’s. “I do want this,” she growled. “I do. I’ve wanted this since the day you came to me.”

“Are you sure?” Lauren asked, not quite ready to yield to her own desire. There was something she wanted more than taking her immediately, and that was to be able to take her again, and again… and she didn’t want to destroy their relationship when it had barely started.

Releasing her breasts, Mika drew her hands out of the borrowed cami, then wrapped them around Lauren’s head. Holding her face so that their eyes were bare inches apart, she said, “I am sure, Lauren.” She drew her face in, widely parted lips meeting Lauren’s. Her whole body shuddered as they kissed, then she pushed Lauren’s face back far enough to speak again. “I am… fucking sure.”