Tasha

I hummed happily as I woke up cradled in Wanda’s arms, the little spoon to her big spoon. I felt both sated and energized. The threat against me was over, and while it still didn’t make a lot of sense that Monica and Mark had fixated on me like that, I didn’t have to worry about it anymore, and for that I was grateful.

“Hey, is anyone home?”

I jumped as I heard Chloe’s voice echo through my apartment. I’d texted her last night in the car to let her know that we’d figured out the stalker situation. She said she’d be over in the morning but with everything that had happened yesterday with Wanda, it had completely slipped my mind.

The instant we heard Chloe’s voice Wanda flew out of bed, assuming a fighting stance that should have been ridiculous given her naked state. Instead, it was hot as fuck, making me sad that we wouldn’t have time for an encore.

“It’s just Chloe,” I soothed, getting out of bed.

I stuck my head out of the bedroom door. “Hey Chloe, I’ll be there in a minute!”

When I turned back around Wanda was putting her clothes back on. I grabbed a clean pair of underwear and a pair of basketball shorts, then threw on a sweatshirt, not bothering with a bra. I was going to need to take a shower when Chloe left anyway.

“I can get rid of her if you want,” I said to Wanda.

She shook her head. “I need to go. I have to get to the office and do my report or Lois will have my head.”

Something about her tone was off. “Are you okay, Wanda?”

“Yeah.” Her expression looked carefully blank, the way it was before I got to know her.

“When will you be back?” I asked, suddenly feeling needy.

“Back?”

I frowned. “Back here. Home.”

“I don’t live here Tasha, remember? This is your home, not mine. Now that the case is over, I need to go back to my place.”

I felt a stab of pain in my chest at her cool tone.

“I thought maybe it would be both of ours,” I said, putting myself out there in a way I normally never did.

She grabbed my hand, her thumb stroking my wrist. Her eyes looked troubled.

“We need to take a few days apart.”

“What? Why? I thought everything went great last night.”

“It did, but you’ve been very clear since you found out about the mate thing that you were not a person who wanted a relationship. I’m a vampire, Tasha, when we find the right person, we mate for life. Until last night, you insisted you weren’t interested in that.”

Her other hand reached up to cup the side of my face and I fought the sudden urge to cry.

“I need to know that you want me, want us, when you’re not impacted by danger and adrenaline.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, my throat feeling tight with tears.

“I don’t want your judgement to be clouded, and I don’t want you to regret getting together with me,” she said. “Take a few days, figure out how you feel once things get back to normal, and if you still are interested in pursuing things with me – and to be clear I really hope you are – let me know.”

“But...”

Wanda leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I’ll talk to you soon, Princess. At least I hope so.”

When we walked out of the bedroom, Chloe was sitting at the dining room table. Her eyes widened as she saw us together.

“Well, this is an interesting development,” she teased.

“Hey Chloe,” Wanda greeted her, not stopping on her way to the elevator door. “Bye Tasha.”

She pressed the button and entered the elevator while I watched the woman I loved walk away from me. For some reason, it felt incredibly final. My eyes welled up with tears.

“What’s happening here?” Chloe asked, pushing me into a chair.

When I didn’t answer, she stepped away, returning a few seconds later with a cup of coffee in each hand. Chloe slid a cup towards me, then took a sip of her own brew, waiting patiently. She knew me well enough to know that I would talk when I was ready.

“I’m in love with Wanda,” I finally blurted out.

“Yeah, no kidding.” She studied me for a second before asking, “Wait. Is this a surprise to you?”

“Yeah, but when I woke up in a basement with my hands tied behind my back, I realized that I’d known it for a while. I just didn’t want to admit it.”

“Speaking of which, what the fuck happened with Monica and Mark?”

“Apparently, he thought I was flirting with him or something and he fell in love with me and convinced himself that I could fall in love with him too. He and Monica thought my being gay was a phase or something delusional. I just needed to see how depraved it was – their words not mine obviously – and I’d come to my senses.” I took a deep breath. “Monica even told me I must not be that into being a lesbian because all the years she and Mark worked for me, they never saw me having a woman stay overnight.”

“That’s still really weird.”

I shrugged. “I know. Their logic was so twisted, and the fact that they were both kind of fixated on me, it’s super weird. I still don’t quite understand it and I was there.”

“What happened when they took you?”

I told Chloe about overpowering Monica and leaving the basement only to run into Mark.

“You took that guy down yourself? That’s really impressive. He’s huge.”

“Thank God for those martial arts lessons,” I laughed. “Although Wanda and the guys were coming in just as it happened, so I would have been fine either way. At least until Mark woke up. I had the benefit of surprise the first time, I don’t know that I could have gotten the drop on him so easily the second.”

“I’m sure your girlfriend would have saved you,” she teased.

“She’s not my girlfriend. At least I don’t think she is.”

I sank my chin down onto my hand glumly.

“Tell me what happened with your...with Wanda so we can figure out how to fix it.”

I told Chloe about the conversations we’d had about fated mates and being single and what Wanda had said to me this morning.

“Well, this is super easy to fix,” Chloe said.

“It is?”

“Yeah, you just need a grand gesture.”