Page 38 of Semantics

“I don’t remember you bringing them in last night.”

Violet slipped into her heels.

“Jesus! I left it in the car?” She hurried to the open bedroom door. “What if it got stolen?”

“I’m sure it’s fine, but I’ll put on some clothes, and we’ll go out there in just a–”

“It’s fine. I’ll come back in if I need to.” Violet turned back to Stella, realizing that she was about to run out on her again. “I… I’m not–”

“It’s fine, Vi. Go check on your stuff. If someone broke into your car, come back in.”

Violet nodded at her and hurried out, closing the front door behind her. Then, she jogged to her car, and when she got there, she spotted her purse on the floor of the passenger seat. She’d at least brought her keys inside last night, having them stored in her jacket pocket, thankfully, so she unlocked the car and was glad to find her phone and everything else still in her purse, where it should be. Relieved, she looked up at the house and spotted a very naked Stella Ross standing right there in a window for all to see. Violet’s eyes went wide, and she waved at her to get away from the window, which only made Stella laugh.

CHAPTER 12

She stood in her window and watched Violet freak out at the fact that she was still naked, standing at that window, which faced the street. It was pretty adorable. Stella then took a step back and thought about how she’d never thought of Violet Russell as adorable back in school. The words she’d most commonly associated with the woman had been annoying, frustrating, hot but unaware of it, pompous, rich bitch, and more along those lines. Hot but unaware of it didn’t make Violet adorable, but her standing in Stella’s bedroom, half-naked, with a ruined shirt in her hand, and then tossing one of Stella’s on instead, did. Violet running out of the house to get to her car because she’d been so turned on last night that she’d left her whole damn purse and phone in her car, when she had probably never forgotten anything in her life before, also made her adorable.

Stella headed into her bathroom to start the water for her shower to warm up before she went around the bedroom, finding her clothes from the previous night strewn about the floor. She also found something else. Handprints. There were two handprints, spaced just wide enough for Stella’s head to fit between them. She pictured Violet riding her face, falling forward, and making those prints, and that had her wishing that Violet would’ve stuck around for round number eight, or maybe it was nine after their morning quickie. She saw a couple of other spots that looked like they could’ve been knee prints, maybe, made with sweat, but Stella wasn’t sure about those. She did know that she’d have to clean the floor because it was likely that if she flipped the light on, she’d also find ass prints down there somewhere.

That would have to wait until later because she needed to get ready for work. While she could work from home today, and maybe she should because she was very sore in all sorts of places, Stella found that she actually wanted to go to the office, and that absolutely had everything to do with the fact that she wanted to tell Jen all about last night. Would she be bragging? Yes. Was it a little about fucking the woman who annoyed the crap out of her in Amsterdam? Definitely. Did she think that Violet would probably want to keep this a secret? Possibly. Did Stella care? Not really. Jen was her best friend, and they told each other pretty much everything. Jen could also keep a secret, so Violet never even had to know that she’d told Jen about the best sex of her life and how it had been with the woman she’d least expected.

◆◆◆

“I’m still mad at you,” Jen told her instead of greeting.

“What? Why?” she asked, leaning over Jen’s desk.

“You invited me to drinks knowing she’d be there and then ditched me. With the check, Stella.”

“I didn’t know that she’d be there. And I’ll get it next time and buy you two drinks. How about that?”

“You’re getting me two drinks and food. Plus, you’re driving or paying for my Uber home.”

“No problem.” Stella chuckled. “Got a minute?”

“Oh, you want to give me details, don’t you?” Jen asked, leaning back in her chair.

“Not the specific details, no. Just a general play-by-play.”

“A play-by-play is detailed. That’s the whole point, Stella. You’re a sports gay. You should know this. It’s literally one thing after the other.”

“Anyway…”

“Fine, but you’re buying lunch, too.”

“I can do that,” she agreed with another laugh.

They left the office because conversations like the one they were about to have were friend conversations and not co-worker conversations. Since Jen joined the company, they’d done their best to keep the two separate as much as possible. Just a little chit-chat about a date wasn’t a big deal, but anything that involved more than that, like mentioning Stella’s sex life in this case, was something they both wanted to avoid talking about between those four walls. Jen wasn’t on Stella’s team, which also made a difference. Had Jen been in sales, Stella wasn’t sure any conversation about their personal lives would’ve been appropriate at that point because, despite tech start-ups having a pretty laid-back approach to work relationships, she would’ve been Jen’s boss in that situation, and she was pretty sure HR would’ve frowned on her telling Jen that she’d slept with Violet Russell last night.

When they arrived at their usual restaurant down the street from the office, Jen held her hands in front of her and moved them downward. Her expression went from serious to more relaxed, and Stella laughed and shook her head.

“Friend Jen is now present.”

“Friend Jen wasn’t present on the walk over?” Stella joked. “When she told me about the very attractive woman she saw at Buddy’s last night and thought about flirting with her?”

“That attractive woman was there with a not very attractive man, so I thought about it but didn’t for that reason. And I suspect that you’re about to talk to me about sex, so I wanted to make it clear that friend Jen was here now. So, did you?”

“Yes,” she replied.