He went on about something he was reading in the paper so Cassie couldn’t even escape to a bathroom and get rid of the coffee where he wouldn’t see. Instead she was stuck talking to him until Haylee came upstairs. Cassie took the first opportunity she got to book it back to the basement, leaving her mug on the kitchen counter.
Everyone else was at least partially awake by then. Caleb and Madison trash-talked each other as they raced in Mario Kart, Parker a yawning spectator. Cassie threw herself beside Parker on the couch.
“Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?” Parker asked.
“We slept on couches,” Cassie snapped, basically proving Parker’s point.
“You hungover, honey?” Parker asked. She was faux sweet and it was all Cassie could do not to take a swipe at her.
She wasn’t really hungover, just grouchy. Haylee’s house was nice, but Cassie wanted to go back to Parker’s, where there was good coffee and better company—Erin would never try to talk to her about Social goddamn Security before 10 A.M.
When they made it back to Parker’s—not until past noon—the house was quiet; Erin was on shift at the hospital. Cassie tumbled onto the couch in the living room, leaving the love seat for Parker.
“There’s probably an NCIS marathon on or something,” Parker said.
Cassie shrugged more violently than the situation warranted, and Parker sighed at her. She turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. Cassie fell asleep before Parker settled on a station to watch.
* * *
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”
Cassie vaguely knew that voice was for her, but she didn’t want to wake up. She burrowed deeper into the couch cushions.
There was laughter, then, and though she was mostly asleep, Cassie knew it was Erin’s. She cracked an eye open. Erin stood over her in blue scrubs.
“I brought lunch home. Get up before it gets cold.”
She brushed Cassie’s hair off her forehead, and Cassie looked to the other couch. It had a mess of a blanket on it, but no Parker.
“She was easier to rouse than you,” Erin said.
Cassie stretched. “First time for everything, I guess.”
As she followed Erin to the kitchen, she was much happier than she had been pre-nap.
Parker was already eating her burger, two grease-stained bags still full on the counter in front of her.
“I got you a plain burger, so you could dress it however you like,” Erin said, pushing one of the bags toward Cassie. “And I hope a chocolate milkshake sounds okay.”
“Sounds great.” Cassie’s mouth watered at the smell of the burgers and fries.
“Oh, did the nap fix you?” Parker asked. She told Erin, “She was pissy all morning.”
“Maybe I’m just bored of you, princess,” Cassie said, squeezing too much ketchup onto her burger. “Two weeks is a long time.”
“Ha,” Parker said around a bite of burger. “Impossible. I’m too charming.”
Cassie rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. She cleaned up the extra ketchup with a fry and mmmed at how delicious it was.
“Fuck, that’s good,” she said, before remembering she wasn’t just with crass college students. “I mean—sorry.”
She hadn’t meant to swear, but the fry was really good. Erin was studiously not looking at her.
“Ray’s is the best,” Parker said.
When Cassie took her first bite of the burger, she outright moaned, and it was then that she noticed the blush on Erin’s cheeks.
That evening after they’d said their good nights and headed to bed, Cassie did her best attempt at tiptoeing down the hallway. Light shone from beneath the door to Erin’s room. Cassie didn’t knock, too worried about Parker waking up. She opened the door slowly. Erin was sitting up, lamp on the bedside table on, book in her hand.
“What are you doing?” Erin whispered, but she was smiling.
“I haven’t gotten to touch you all day,” Cassie whined. She slipped into the room and closed the door gently behind her.
Erin chuckled and set aside her book. “Well, now’s your chance.”
Cassie beamed. Erin shifted over in the bed to make room, and Cassie immediately climbed in. She tried to kiss her before she was fully settled on the bed. It was worth it, the softness of Erin’s lips and the way her mouth opened immediately, like she’d missed this, too. Then Cassie’s knee slipped off the mattress, and her upper body slammed into Erin.
“Shit,” Cassie said, scrambling to get off.
But Erin just laughed and held her there.
I missed you. Cassie didn’t say it. It hadn’t even been thirty-six hours since they last kissed. But she did miss it, the way Erin kissed and laughed and held on like Cassie was strong, but she was going to be gentle anyway. She got her hands on Cassie’s face and pulled a little with her fingertips. She sighed into the kiss, and Cassie smiled and bit down on her bottom lip.
Erin slid one hand into Cassie’s hair. She brushed her other thumb back and forth against Cassie’s cheek. Cassie let Erin control the kiss, was content with lying atop her and following her lead. Erin was slow, methodical. Like they’d never been. It’d always been quick kisses snuck while Parker was out of the room. They’d never gotten to take their time before now. Erin didn’t make a move to go further than these steady, deliberate kisses, fingernails scratching at Cassie’s scalp.
But Cassie could take only so much. It wasn’t that she didn’t like kissing Erin; it was that she did, too much. Erin was good at it. Good at it in a way that had Cassie squirming, a way that she could feel in her bones, a way that made her tingle and shift and push her hips down for more.
Finally, Erin stopped holding Cassie on top of her and let her get both legs back on the bed. Cassie settled in, holding herself half up on one side, more on top of Erin than not.
“I’ll go back to my room in a minute, I swear,” she said.
“And why exactly would you do that?”
“Um.” Erin bit where her neck met her shoulder, and it took Cassie a second to fully respond. “You’re the one who said we can’t have sex with Parker in the house.”
“Does oral sex really count as sex anyway?”
Erin tried to kiss her on the mouth again, but Cassie was laughing at her. Quietly, mindful of Parker, but Cassie couldn’t not laugh at her.
“Uh, yeah,” Cassie said. “It definitely still counts as sex.”
Erin shrugged. “Guess I won’t sit on your face then.”
Cassie stopped laughing.
“What?”
Erin arched one of her perfect eyebrows. “I was going to, but if you say we can’t, I guess I won’t.”
She was playing her. She was being fake nonchalant about it in a way designed to get Cassie to rush to change her mind. Cassie rushed to change her mind anyway.
“No, it’s okay,” she said. She kissed Erin, slowly. “I don’t think oral sex counts. It’s probably fine.”
“Yeah?” Erin said with a grin.
Cassie nodded. “Absolutely.”
“Then lie down.”
Cassie did as she was told.