Two Weeks Later

"S o, I haven't heard you talk about the woman you've been seeing in a couple of weeks," Violet pointed out as they sat down on her sofa.

Rachel placed her wineglass on the table, so Violet did the same while she waited eagerly for her response.

"Oh, I'm not seeing her anymore."

"No?" she asked, suddenly much more interested than she had been when she'd brought up the topic.

"No, it didn't work out."

"Sorry, Rach," she said and found that she meant it.

She was in love with Rachel Bailey, yes, but if Rachel was with someone else and happy, Violet wanted that for her. Somehow, Rachel's happiness had become even more important to her than her own. She knew that because she'd listened to Rachel talk about this woman and their dates for weeks and had been the one to bring up the topic a few times because she'd known Rachel wanted to talk about it, even though Violet would have preferred to never think of Rachel being with anyone else.

"I'm not," Rachel replied. "I liked her. I just don't think it's meant to be."

"Why not? Did something happen?"

"Not exactly." Rachel looked around the room.

"Okay… That's vague. You're not usually vague."

"I can be vague," she argued as she looked back at Violet.

"Last week, you were describing Gone with the Wind in so much detail that it felt like I rewatched the movie. And I haven't watched it since high school."

"It's a good movie."

Violet smiled softly at her and thought about how cute Rachel was sometimes. It hurt her that they weren't a couple, though, having a conversation about a movie and were, in fact, merely two friends who worked together talking about a woman Rachel had been seeing.

"Who ended it?"

"She did."

"Shit. Sorry. "

Violet had been hoping that Rachel had ended things either because she was in love with Violet or because she'd decided to stick with her plan of not dating seriously until she at least reached that SVP role she'd been hoping to get. The former would've been preferred, but Violet would have understood and accepted the latter, too.

"Um… Can I talk to you about something?" Rachel asked, seeming nervous now.

"You can talk to me about anything," Violet replied quickly before she actually thought about the fact that Rachel might want to talk to her about the sex that she'd had with this other woman.

"I know we're friends, and we talk about stuff most people who work together don't talk about, but this might be different."

"Even though you swim at my house at least two days a week because your most recent place doesn't have a pool, so I've seen you in a one-piece and a bikini, and you come over just to hang out and not do laps?"

Rachel had moved into a different apartment complex about six months prior, to be a little closer to the office, but it hadn't had a pool, so Violet had offered her own. Rachel had felt bad about using it daily, so she only came over a few times a week, even though Violet would've loved to have her there every day.

"I know. But this is… bigger."

"Well, now, you're scaring me." Violet leaned over a bit.

"I don't mean to," Rachel replied. "It's just that she said something to me, and it made me realize what I'd been doing."

"What did she say?"

"She said that… She said that I'm in love with you."

Violet froze because she hadn't expected that.

"Yeah, I know. I told you, it was big." Rachel chuckled that nervous chuckle that she had.

"Why did she think that?" Violet managed to ask after swallowing nothing at all because her throat was suddenly very, very dry.

"Probably because I never stopped talking about you. The night she wanted us to watch a movie at her place and asked me to maybe stay over, I just kept talking about you, your house, how I'm over here all the time, having breakfast with you after swimming, and how we talk while we watch movies. She needs total silence, but I like to talk through movies sometimes."

"I know," Violet said. "It's pretty cute."

Rachel tilted her head for a second but then continued, "She said that I spend more time talking about you than I do myself and that I don't really ask her a lot of questions about her, either. I guess I did the first few dates, but that was it. Then, she suggested that we stop doing what we were doing because she'd never been with a woman before, and she didn't want her first time to be with someone who was in love with someone else. So, I left, and I've been thinking a lot about what she said ever since."

"And?"

"And you're not running away right now, so does that mean you're not mad at me?"

"Rach, why would I be mad at you?"

"Because we work together and we're friends. You're really my best friend , and I think I maybe accidentally fell in love with you."

Violet smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're in love with me?"

"I think I might have been all along," Rachel confessed. "Maybe even since we met – not at the first interview, but the second one, where we talked, went to drinks, and then I came over to play with Apollo but we just kept talking – it's been there, yeah. I just didn't know it. I've never been in love before. You're technically not my boss, but you're above me in the hierarchy at work, and you never said anything about feeling anything for me, even though I thought you might. I thought in the beginning, when we first started spending time together, that you felt something, but you never said–"

"You told me you didn't want anything serious. Rachel, you said you wanted at least a few years to focus on work. I wanted to give that to you."

Rachel smiled a little and asked, "So, you did?"

"Yes, I did," Violet professed. "I still do . I've wanted to be with you this whole time, but you said you wanted work first and to settle down later. I didn't want to get in the way of you doing that by telling you that I liked you. Then, you met her, and I was trying to be supportive, but it's been killing me."

"Killing you?"

"Rachel, I love you," she said. "God, I've been in love with you since we met. I've been holding it in this whole time because I thought you wanted something else. It's been killing me, yes."

"You love me?"

"Yes," Violet said and laughed. "Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to hear that you were with someone else? I pictured you with her, and it made me throw up. I mean that literally: I threw up. I knew I had no right to ask you to not be with someone, but thinking that you were with her hurt."

"We didn't do that," Rachel shared. "She tried to kiss me once, but I pulled away and told her that I wasn't ready."

"I thought you said–"

"I lied," Rachel admitted.

"You lied about kissing someone?"

"I was talking to you about these dates I was going on, and I know it's pretty normal for people to kiss on dates, but I wasn't ready for that. She wasn't right away, either. Our first date was more about us seeing if there could be more; just a hug at the end of the night. Then, our second date, she was ready, but I wasn't. Our third, she actually tried, and I pulled back that time. She didn't try again, but that night, I could tell that she really wanted to, and she asked me to stay."

"Would you have, had she not ended things?"

Rachel shook her head no.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a twenty-eight-year-old virgin, and I wasn't in love with her. Even if I weren't in love with you, I still wouldn't have been with her that night. I want my first time to be with someone I love." Rachel looked down at her hands, which were resting in her lap. "Yes, I just admitted to being a virgin, by the way."

Violet hadn't known that, but she should have suspected it. The way Rachel had grown up, it wasn't as if there had been a lot of opportunities, and she'd also confessed to Violet before that she hadn't had any serious relationships with women. Dates here and there, yes, but nothing serious, and Rachel hadn't ever seemed like the kind of woman who would be interested in one-night stands or even casual sex with someone she wasn't exclusive with.

"Say something, please," Rachel spoke and finally met Violet's eyes.

"Do you want to watch a movie and talk through it with me?"

" That's what you have to say?"

"Well, I think we're doing things a little out of order here," Violet suggested. "I just told you that I loved you, and you told me that you're in love with me, too, but we haven't technically been on a date yet. So, I thought that maybe tonight could be our first."

Rachel smiled and said, "Yeah? "

"And we could keep it low-pressure and relaxed, but for our second date, I want to take you out someplace nice."

"Okay." Rachel laughed a little.

"And maybe then, we could talk about all those other steps couples take together."

"I think I could maybe take one right now, if you're ready for that."

"What step is that?"

"The one where we kiss," Rachel said.

" Before a first date?" she teased.

"You said we were doing things out of order. Why not that, too?" Rachel licked her lips. "I've been waiting a year, Violet."

" You've been waiting a year?" she joked and reached for Rachel's hair, which she pushed behind the woman's ear. "I feel like I've been waiting forever for you."

She moved in closer and rested her forehead against Rachel's.

"Does it bother you that I've never–"

"No," she interjected and then gently pressed her lips to Rachel's. "Not even a little bit."

"Oh," Rachel gasped out before she connected their lips together more fully.

Violet had wanted to kiss this woman since they met, but Rachel, it appeared, wanted it just as much, if not more, because her lips were eager, and they were moving against Violet's in a way that indicated that Rachel wanted more than just a quick first kiss. Violet let her deepen it and connected their tongues, letting them dance and earning a moan from the woman she loved so desperately already. When Rachel shifted into Violet's lap, Violet looked up at her in surprise.

"Told you; I've been waiting for this."

Rachel reconnected their lips, and they sat like that, with Violet holding on to her and kissing her slowly until Rachel sped them up once more. Violet tried to slow them down again by moving her lips to Rachel's throat, kissing, nipping, and licking a little, but that only seemed to spur them both on. Rachel's hips moved. Violet grunted and kissed her again.

"We should stop," she said when they pulled apart.

"I don't want to," Rachel replied.

"Rach, we don't have to–"

"I want to," Rachel said.

Then, before Violet knew it, Rachel's shirt was on the floor, and she was straddling Violet in her bra and a pair of comfortable jeans.

Violet swallowed hard and said, "Oh, I love you."

"I love you, too. Please take me to bed, Violet."

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking up into dark eyes.

"I've never been more certain of anything in my entire life."

Violet nodded at her and waited for Rachel to stand up before she stood up, too, leaving the wineglasses on the table to deal with later because she knew Apollo wouldn't bother them. He was outside in his doghouse and would probably sleep out there. She picked Rachel's shirt off the floor and took her hand. This was it. Violet knew it now that this was the night that would set them on the course to get to that moment in the future where Rachel was saying goodbye to her. They walked up the stairs, and Violet pushed open the bedroom door, letting Rachel go in first and turning on the light before she closed the door most of the way behind her. Rachel turned around to her, and when her eyes met Violet's, she smiled.

Violet's chest rose and fell rapidly. Her heartbeat was so fast; she worried she might need to calm it down somehow, but there would be no calming it down. Just minutes ago, she'd been preparing that heart to listen to Rachel tell her about the woman she was seeing and how they'd taken certain steps. She'd been preparing for her heart to break and to have to spend the rest of the night with Rachel with that new information rolling around in her overactive imagination. Violet had expected to find out that she'd lost her, the woman she'd fallen in love with, but also the woman who, a vision of the future had told her, was meant to be her wife and the mother of her children.

No, her heart wouldn't even remotely slow down now that she was in her bedroom, staring at Rachel, who hadn't bothered to put her shirt back on. Violet's eyes lowered, and she licked her lips. She'd seen Rachel in bathing suits of all varieties, but this was different. This was Rachel in a bra that Violet was able to slowly remove from her body to reveal what she'd been dying to see since they'd met.

"You're not saying anything. Should I be saying something?" Rachel asked.

"No," Violet said with a soft smile. "It turns out, I'm just more nervous than I expected I'd be."

"You're nervous?"

Violet nodded and walked toward her.

"A few minutes ago, I thought you were going to tell me that you had a girlfriend. "

"And now, that girlfriend is you," Rachel noted.

Violet lifted an eyebrow at that and said, "Yes, now that girlfriend is me." She pulled Rachel's hips to meet her own. "I love you, Rachel Bailey."

"I love you, too," Rachel replied.

Violet cupped the back of her neck and leaned in for a kiss. She'd wondered, on that sofa, if she'd ever get to kiss this woman who felt like her present and her future, and now, she was kissing her. She was finally kissing Rachel, and as she walked Rachel backward until the back of her legs hit the bed, Violet allowed herself to believe that the future vision was finally not only possible but probable. Now that she had Rachel, she was never going to let her go.

Rachel moved onto the bed herself, sliding up until her head hit the pillow beneath, and she looked up at Violet with what looked like a mixture of nerves and also maybe a little appreciation. Violet wanted to take her time, but she also wanted them both to be naked when she started her journey to kiss, lick, and touch every inch of Rachel's body, so she removed her shirt and checked with Rachel, who continued to stare, but a little lower this time.

"Please," Rachel said.

Violet smiled at her and moved her hands behind her back to unclasp her bra. She tried to push that part of her – the part that knew she was older than Rachel and that her body probably wasn't as perfect as Rachel's because Rachel swam all the time and Violet didn't – out of her mind, and she let the bra fall to the floor. Rachel's mouth opened, and her beautiful, now-darker eyes raked over Violet's flesh.

"I've dreamed of this," Violet confessed. "Being with you."

"You have?"

Violet nodded slowly and said, "Over and over again." She removed her pants, leaving herself in only her underwear.

"I don't know that I'll be any good at it. I've never–"

"You have nothing to worry about. I can prove that to you. Can I?"

Rachel nodded this time, and Violet, remaining only in her underwear, moved onto the bed. She straddled Rachel's jean-clad thighs and took her hand in her own. She kissed the inside of Rachel's palm before she pressed it to her own stomach, and with both of her hands, she pushed it slowly down until the tips of Rachel's fingers met the hem of her underwear. Violet stopped then, wanting to check, but Rachel's hand proceeded to move on its own, so Violet let go and let Rachel feel her.

"Oh, God," Rachel whispered when she encountered Violet's ample wetness.

"That's what you do to me," Violet told her. "Since the moment we met."

"Can you…" Rachel looked down at her jeans.

"Yeah," Violet said, guessing what she wanted.

She undid Rachel's button and zipper, shifting just a little because she wanted to keep Rachel's hand where it was but also wanted what she thought Rachel was about to ask her for.

"Can you do the same thing to me?"

Violet placed her palm on Rachel's stomach, keeping it there for a moment because she could do that now, touch Rachel's skin, and then she moved slowly until she flipped her hand around and pushed gently down into Rachel's underwear. Violet cupped her at first, giving them both a second to adjust, before she met Rachel's eyes, pushed her index finger down into her folds, and gasped. Violet actually gasped. Rachel was soaked.

"Me too," Rachel told her. "Can you please touch me now? I need you."

"Yes. But not like this," Violet replied. "Not for our first time. I need your clothes off."

When Rachel nodded again, Violet reluctantly pulled her hand out of Rachel's underwear. She wanted to lick her fingers, but she had something in mind that would allow her to taste Rachel soon enough, so she didn't and waited for Rachel to remove her hand, which seemed to have taken another minute. Violet didn't mind. She let Rachel cup her, explore, and even give a tentative stroke that already had Violet silently praying for an orgasm.

After Rachel removed her hand, Violet moved off of her and made quick work of Rachel's jeans while Rachel moved just as fast with her own bra. Then, Violet got her hands on Rachel's panties, but she had to pause because Rachel's breasts were exposed to her now, and she ached to touch them.

"Violet?"

"Yeah, sorry," she said and pulled down on the bikinis until they were off entirely.

"Yours too," Rachel requested immediately.

Violet didn't even get a second to stare at her fully naked, but she complied and moved on top of Rachel, pressing their bodies together like that for the first time.

"You're so beautiful," Violet told her. "I just…" She pressed her forehead to Rachel's. "I will give you anything, anything you want. And I don't just mean right now, but anything that I can give you in the world, I will."

Rachel smiled up at her and said, "Can you touch me? That's what I want now." Her hand moved to Violet's cheek.

"Yes, I can definitely do that."

Violet kissed her softly, and Rachel let out a little whimper when Violet shifted to put her thigh against Rachel's center, leaving her own over Rachel's. She rocked down into her, and they continued to kiss until Rachel pulled away, seemingly needing to catch her breath, so Violet moved her lips to Rachel's neck.

"I can feel you," Rachel noted.

"I can feel you, too," Violet whispered into her ear. "I love how wet you get. Is that all for me?"

Rachel nodded so fast; Violet thought her head might pop off, which had her biting her lip to keep from laughing. She couldn't believe that the woman she'd first officially met at the elevators that day, who had seemed so cold, confident, and not at all like the real Rachel she'd come to know and love, was shaking her head so fast because she wanted Violet that much, but here they were. And soon, Violet moved her mouth down to Rachel's breast. She licked around it before she moved to the nipple and swirled her tongue around it. When Rachel's hips lifted in time with her own that were continuing to press down into her, Violet moved her hand to Rachel's thigh.

"Are you ready?" she checked.

"Yes. Please."

Violet slid her hand over and lifted her own thigh in order to slip her fingers into Rachel's folds, where she slowly began stroking Rachel's clit.

"Oh, God. That feels so good."

"It gets better," Violet said against Rachel's breast.

"I'm… I'm already so…"

"Hold on, baby," she requested. "Please."

"I don't know that I can."

Violet looked up at her and noticed the flush creeping up Rachel's neck and moving to her cheeks. She was perfect, and Violet didn't want to make her wait anymore. She lowered her fingers to Rachel's entrance, waited a second, and pushed one finger inside when Rachel didn't protest. She watched Rachel's expression to make sure she wasn't hurting her, pulled out, and watched Rachel's face fall a bit before she pushed back in gently with two fingers, stretching Rachel just a bit. Rachel's mouth opened wider.

"Violet…" she let out. "Yes."

Violet moved up Rachel's body and kissed her while she slowly worked her up inside and pressed her thumb to Rachel's clit, flicking it, applying pressure, and waiting. When Rachel pulled out of their kiss, Violet moved her lips to Rachel's ear.

"Let go. Whenever you're ready, let go. I'm here. I'll catch you."

Rachel cried out not long after that, her hips rising and falling against the mattress, so Violet pushed in a little harder and worked her fingers a little faster, taking in every second of this moment.

"I love you. I love you," she whispered when Rachel began to come down. "I love you so much."

The tears welled in Violet's eyes, and she pressed her face into Rachel's neck, never wanting to move from this spot. She heard Rachel sniffle, though, and chanced a glance because she had to make sure that she was all right.

"Hey, did I–"

"I love you," Rachel said, interrupting her before she wrapped her arms around Violet's neck. "I just… I love you."

Violet could see the same well of tears in Rachel's eyes, but she smiled at her, kissed her, and moved right back to where she was, her face buried in Rachel's neck, breathing in the scent of her and taking in the moment. She still hadn't pulled out of Rachel, and she didn't intend to for a long time. Being with Rachel like this felt like coming home to her, and Violet never wanted to be away from her home again.