?Lindsey?: Just got off work

?Lindsey?: I’m really in the mood for a milkshake… you want one?

Zoe: OMFG please! Chocolate. Will venmo

?Lindsey?: Don’t you dare!

?Lindsey?: Aaaaand, ya blocked.

Zoe: Bitch

?Lindsey?: Bitch with a milkshake

Zoe: You’re not wrong

?Lindsey?: Hardly ever am ?

 

About 15 minutes later I got a knock on my door. Lindsey was standing there, still in her work clothes, with two small milkshakes.

 

“Ugh! You look so professional. I wish I could rock a blazer like that,” I said to her, using it as an excuse to check her out.

 

“Zo. You look great in anything.”

 

“Not as good as you. Tall, skinny, but still with boobs and a butt. Pretty as shit. You’re the whole package!”

 

“Either you’ve got some deep-set insecurities or you’re trying to flatter me,” she said, getting the milkshakes out of the bag and ready to drink.

 

“Mm… Why can’t it be both?”

 

Lindsey whirled around to face me. “Because I don’t want my close friend to have any deep-set insecurities around me.”

 

“Well… I have less around you.” She wrinkled her nose, knowing she’d won.

 

“Okay… now I know you’re trying to flatter me.”

 

“Is it working?” At this point she was leaning in so close that our faces were only inches apart.

 

“Maybe a little.”

 

We were sooooo close. But we hadn’t kissed since our sort-of-date date.

 

“Milkshake?” she offered, putting one right in between our two faces. I accepted it but would have been happier with the alternative. Not that I had the willpower to act on my feelings.

 

“You’ve been coming around for a lot of milkshakes lately,” I said as a compromise.

 

“Well… the creamery is a block away from here. And I thought you liked the milkshakes.”

 

“Oh, I certainly do. And you best watch your back missy. At some point I’m going to sneak payback money into your account somehow.”

 

“Hush you.”

 

Lindsey plopped down next to me on my bed. We both sat and drank our shakes.

 

“So… how’s your day?”

 

“Oh… ya know… A day. You?”

 

“Lots of case research. Mostly sifting through boring old paperwork. I mean… I’m glad I get paid as an intern, but still.”

 

“You better be getting paid. It’s 11 at night and you only just got off work. Plus, your class load is also heavy as shit. Actually… how are you awake right now?”

 

Lindsey smiled that kind of embarrassed smile that comes when you feel like you’ve said too much and compromised yourself.

 

“I mean… I suppose you’re not wrong,” she said in tired agreement.

 

“Here. You’ve been at a desk or carrying a heavy ass bag all day. You’ve got to be tense. I’ll just massage your back while you drink your shake.”

 

“You don’t have to do th—”

 

“—Ah! I do this and I won’t try and pay you back.”

 

She clearly thought it over before coming around to my side. “Fine…”

 

“Okay. Flip around.”

 

She did as she was instructed and loudly sipped her shake. I slowly started pressing onto her shoulders, neck, and upper back. I wanted to warm up the area before I dug in. Eventually I did start to dig deeper, moving my thumbs in a zipper formation along the muscles on either side of her spine. This elicited some lovely little breaths of mixed pleasure and pain.

 

“Am I hurting you?”

 

“A little… but the good hurt. The productive hur—Ah! —hurt.”

 

“Sorry. I went a bit heavy there.”

 

“It’s okay. Can you… yeah… lower… lowe—Mm…”

 

I felt happy that I could help her out like this. Even over text I could tell her internship at this local law office was stressing her out. And with those kinds of hours, how could they not?

 

A few minutes went by before my hands started to cramp up a bit. I eased off and she practically fell over.

 

“Mm… what time is it?”

 

“Uh…” I checked my phone. “11:48.”

 

“Shit. I guess I should… mhff…” She fell over totally, laying on her side.

 

“When’s your first class tomorrow?”

 

“Mm… 11:30…”

 

“Okay. I’ll get you up in time to go home first. You can chill here.”

 

“You sure?” she asked, coming slightly back to her senses and sitting up. “I don’t want to—”

 

“Shh…” I responded, putting a finger to her lips. It didn’t take much. I mean… part of me assumed this had been her plan all along.

 

I helped her slip off her shoes and tossed her a comfy shirt to change into. She was so sleep deprived and I was in such a mom mode that privacy didn’t seem to cross either of our minds.

 

We both laid down and the smell of her hair filled my always slightly clogged up nose. It was light and clean, but also feminine and comforting. Her hair had splayed out. Even though I’d tried to give her a bit of space, but she scooted herself closer to me. I was the big spoon, regardless of the fact that she had several inches on me in height. I took the moment to drape my arm around her and she welcomed it readily. Within minutes if not seconds she was out cold.

 

I, however, was so struck and fixated on this amazing girl sharing the bed with me and how incredibly lucky I was that she had entered my life.

 

~~~ The Next Morning ~~~

 

My 10:00am alarm was blaring. Normally I could reach over and shut it off, but in moving I remembered that there was a cute girl between me and my alarm. She fumbled with it a bit, still half asleep, but eventually silenced it. She let out a cute exhale and she snuggled her back up closer to me.

 

“Hey,” I said ever so gently. “We gotta get up.”

 

“Nope. I petition the bench to overrule that motion.”

 

“Petition denied you doofus.” My words seemed to take no effect, as she had only snuggled into me more and tightened her grip on my arm. If I wasn’t trying to carpool with Abby then I would have stayed. Stupid eco-friendly obligations.

 

Lindsey rolled over to face me for the first time since we got in bed. I could see her long lashes dance around as she opened and closed her eyes, finally focusing on the scene before her.

 

“Hi,” I said with what I was sure was a goofy smile.

 

“Hi.” She smiled back.

 

We stared at each other for probably another minute. “Come on. I’ll make coffee.”

 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

 

I walked out into the kitchen to start a pot. I always had coffee ingredients on hand, even if I wasn’t the kind of person who fixed it daily. Pretty soon we had a bubbling pot.

 

“What do you like in it?” I asked Lindsey as she stumbled out of my room still in the oversized shirt I’d lent her.

 

“Just as much milk as you have,” she said harshly. I didn’t read much into it. Some people are grumpy when they wake up. “Please,” she added on the end. She must have realized her tone.

 

I poured us out two cups and we moved over to the couch to sip at them for a moment. I sat my usual crisscross-applesauce. Lindsey scooted up close and then shoved her exposed feet under my legs to keep them warm. I hadn’t realized how cold they’d be, so I jumped when they first touched my skin, almost spilling a bit of my coffee.

 

“Sorry,” she said with her smile returning.

 

“It’s okay,” I said as I leaned my head onto her knees.

 

We sat there drinking for some time. Eventually we got up and went back to my room to change. Last night we’d both been in a non-caring-about-privacy state and hadn’t paid a lick of attention to the other as they changed. Now that we were both solidly paying attention, I felt a bit of reticence at changing in front of her.

 

I was nowhere near as hot as she was. And she had to have seen girls changing all the time during her week in quarantine. There was no way I would measure up. So, I took my clothes into the bathroom and changed there, out of sight.

 

I could have sworn I saw a minor look of disappointment on her face though.

 

We finished getting dressed and started out the door.

 

“I… uh… I’m glad you stayed the night. You know, instead of like driving home drowsy or something.”

 

“Oh my gosh! Yeah! Thank you so much for letting me crash. That massage felt so good and I was just on another plane of existence afterward,” she replied.

 

Then we turned the corner to see Abby. Of course! She always waited there for us to walk to my car when we carpooled. She wasn’t saying anything but had a big smug smile on her face.

 

“Hi Lindsey!”

 

Fuck fuck fuck.

 

“Oh–! Hi… Abby…”

 

How did I not see this coming?

 

“You two have a… good night last night?”

 

Lindsey and I just looked at each other and blushed profusely.

 

“No. Well, not that we didn’t have a good night. It was… whatever. I mean fine! Well… not like bad fine. But not like fiiiiiiine good fine kind of fine.”

“I just was dropping off something at Zoe’s I didn’t think it would take that long and then it was sooo late. I uhhh… I was on the couch. No! She was on the couch cause she’s a good hostess and gave me the bed. Her bed. But not her in the bed. Cause that would be… pshaw…”

 

We both talked over each other and failed miserably at covering anything up. Not that we had done anything. But what we hadn’t done sure seemed like it had happened, and our excuses only hurt our case.

 

“Well… Bye Lindsey,” I said fumbling around awkwardly for either a hug or something and settling on a weird handshake.

 

“Goodbye Zoe. Pleasure doing uh… business with you?” she asked, not sure sure how to dig us out of the hole. Then, she leaned in to my ear so that Abby couldn’t hear and whispered.

 

“Let me know if you ever want another milkshake.” Then she winked and walked off towards her car.

 

Abby kindly waited until we got in the car before berating me with questions. Well… some statements too.

 

“I knew you were dating!”

 

“We’re not dating. We seriously didn’t do anything last night.”

 

“I heard there was a massage involved. Have you kissed yet? Did you have sex? I hope you kissed if you had sex. But like… no shame if you didn’t I guess. Was the sex good? Is she a good kisser? Is it emotional or just physical?”

 

“Wow! Okay, slow down buckaroo.”

 

She took a deep breath but stared at me with such intensity that I knew the energy hadn’t dissipated.

 

“We definitely didn’t have sex. She just… slept over. And I might have seen her change. And for the umpteenth time, we’re not dating.”

 

“But you waaaaant to. I can tell.”

 

“Just—” Yes. I was excited about what last night meant. And yes… Abby’s interest was kind of heightening that excitement. But it was all so much. I hadn’t had time to process, much less formulate answers to Abby’s complex questions.

 

“Also… you didn’t say no to kissing her.”

 

“I—Oh! Well… that sorta happened a while ago.” I flashed her an apologetic embarrassed smile.

 

“WHAT!? Does best friend status mean nothing Zo?”

 

“It was an impulse decision. She asked. I said yes.”

“Well when exactly was it?”

 

“On our sort of date.”

 

“YOU WENT ON A DATE!?”

 

“A sort of date. But… Yeah. I guess you could call it a… date.”

 

Abby was just a mix of excited shrills.

 

“Don’t let this go to your head missy. Just because you happened to throw the two gay people you knew into the same room and something may or may not be happening does not mean you have the license to do this again.”

 

“Zoe and Lindsey sittin’ in a tree…”

 

“Are you kidding me?”

 

“K. I. S. S.”

 

“Are we in first grade?”

 

“I. N. G.”

 

“Okay. We’re officially in first grade.”

 

“First comes love.”

 

“Wow. The whole thing. You’re going to sing the whole thing.”

 

“Then comes marriage.”

 

“I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

 

“Then comes… do you want kids? Never mind. Zoe and Lindsey with the possible baby carriage or adoption papers or multitude of dogs and cats or all or none of them.”

 

“Kinda ruined the tune at the end there.”

 

“Yeah well…”

 

“You done?”

 

Abby just giggled like a woman mad with power. “Yes.”

 

“Good. Any more singing and we’ll be late.”