Chapter Fifty-Five

The smell of coffee persuaded Darcy to open her eyes. Her reward was Natalie sitting in her robe at the tiny table in her room, clutching a mug between her hands.

“Good morning,” she whispered over the lip of the cup.

Darcy sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest and swiping her hair out of her face. “How long have you been awake?” She squinted into the sunlight streaming in the window behind Natalie. It lit her hair like a halo and cast a shadow across her face.

“A little while. Are you hungry? I ordered breakfast.” Natalie grinned. “I figured I was safe charging it to your room, superstar.” She gestured to the spread of coffee, fruit, and pancakes.

Darcy grabbed an extra pillow and propped herself against the headboard. “I’d kill for some coffee.”

Natalie poured a cup, added half a spoon of sugar and half-and-half until it turned the perfect shade of light brown.

“How do you know how I like my coffee?” Darcy asked, leaning forward to take it in both hands.

“I told you. When it comes to you, I notice everything.” Natalie smiled, soft and shy. She joined Darcy in the bed when Darcy patted the space next to her.

Darcy kissed her on the cheek. “All this time you’ve been trying to get everyone to think you’re this swaggering, mouthy, pain in the ass when really you’re a complete marshmallow.”

“Lies,” Natalie said, dipping her head. “Lies and I will deny it if you ever tell anyone.” She reached for a plate of pancakes and held them in front of Darcy. “I got you chocolate chip.”

“Oh my god, I lo—” She stopped talking. Her eyes widened in surprise. She gulped coffee and then coughed when it burned her mouth. Oh god, she was making a complete mess of this.

Natalie handed her a napkin. “It’s just breakfast, Darce.” Her tone was teasing but her face was kind, her eyes searching Darcy’s.

Darcy leaned forward and pressed a kiss at the corner of Natalie’s mouth. “It’s not just pancakes and you know it.” She picked up a pancake, folded it in half, and took a giant bite.

Natalie shrugged. “How do you know I don’t do this for everyone?”

Darcy laughed. “Because you hate everyone.”

Natalie settled her back against the headboard and sipped her coffee. “Maybe if you tell your sister I don’t suck she’ll stop warning you about me.”

“She’s protective, that’s all. Same as Grace.”

Natalie sighed. “It’s so nice of them both to think we’re incapable of having a love life without their help.”

“We did royally fuck it up last time,” Darcy said. “But I told my sister we are older and smarter now.”

Natalie let her head rest on Darcy’s shoulder. “I’d like to think we’ve matured in a decade and a half. At least in some ways.”

Darcy kissed the top of Natalie’s head, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. The weight of Natalie resting against her made this feel solid, like together they had heft, weight. She liked it. She imagined more mornings like this, more nights together and easy mornings drinking coffee in bed together.

“I had an idea,” Natalie said, her voice vibrating against Darcy’s collarbone. “There’s this place I think we should go. Together.” She added the last word like maybe Darcy wouldn’t understand that Natalie was making a plan for the two of them.

It was adorable. “Where do you want to take me?”

Natalie shifted so she could look at Darcy. “There’s this restaurant on the top of a mountain and the restaurant spins while you eat.”

“That sounds like a recipe for motion sickness,” Darcy said.

Natalie shook her head. “No, it goes so slowly that you don’t even feel it but over the course of your meal it rotates three hundred sixty degrees so you get to see the entire view from the top of the mountain.” Natalie’s cheeks pinked under Darcy’s gaze. “I would like to take you to the rotating restaurant on top of the mountain.”

Darcy kissed Natalie gently on her smiling lips. “I’d love that.”

A serious expression passed over Natalie’s face. “To get to the top you take a series of gondolas. I know you don’t like heights but do you think you can handle it? If not, I can plan something else...”

Darcy took her hand. “I can handle your high-flying adventure date. I’d love to eat delicious food with you at the top of a mountain and watch the view change. Though, it might not be worth it because I might not be able to take my eyes off you.”

Natalie smiled. “Your charm is appreciated but if it’s halfway as impressive as the pictures you’ll have no trouble tearing your eyes off my boring old face. This place looks incredible.”

Natalie pulled up the photos on her phone and handed it to Darcy. “We’re done with all our segments soon, and I thought we could go away afterward. Just the two of us having an adventure before we have to fly back to the real world.” Natalie’s tone was light, but Darcy heard the hint of trepidation.

“This looks amazing. And you know, flying home doesn’t make this any less real.”

Natalie kissed her slowly, her mouth still warm from her coffee. “I’ve been trying not to think about what comes next. It hasn’t been too hard with Raquel running us all over the place. But I...” She paused, licked her lips nervously, and looked up at Darcy. “This isn’t some fling to me.”

Darcy wrapped her arms around Natalie and pulled her into a tight hug, placing another kiss on the top of Natalie’s head. “It isn’t for me, either,” Darcy said softly. Natalie relaxed against her side, their bodies tangled together. This was nice. Darcy would be happy to stay here all day if they could.

After another week of segments where they had a great time making fools out of themselves, laughing over the hysterical fan tweets, nights spent falling asleep in each other’s arms, and the two of them planning their trip to the mountaintop restaurant, they woke to Darcy’s phone buzzing aggressively on the nightstand.

Darcy reached for it. “Raquel,” she said to Natalie.

“Good morning, Raquel.”

“I need you to come in right away.”

Natalie got up from the bed and poured herself another cup of coffee.

“Is everything all right?” Darcy looked over at Natalie, unsure of whether she should turn up the volume so she could listen in.

Raquel sighed. “Nothing’s on fire, but I need you to come in.”

Darcy’s stomach dropped. “Did I do something wrong? I thought our last segment went well.” Darcy caught Natalie’s eye. She had no idea what was going on but if they did something wrong, she wanted Natalie to be prepared.

“No, nothing like that. You two have been great. I have an opportunity I want to talk to you about.”

“Oh, okay.” Natalie raised her eyebrows and Darcy shrugged. “I’ll get Natalie and we’ll hop in a car right away.”

Natalie set her coffee down and gathered her clothes.

Darcy caught her eye. “Give us an hour and we’ll see you in the office.” She hung up and flipped her phone onto the bed.

As Darcy ended the call, she missed Raquel saying, “Natalie doesn’t need to come.”

“What’s going on?”

Darcy climbed out of the bed, realized she was completely naked, and reached for a robe. “I don’t know. Raquel says it’s nothing to worry about but since when does she call us to come in on short notice?”

“You’ve worked with her for a while. What do you think she wants?”

Darcy shook her head. “No idea. But I told her we could be there in an hour so we better get showered and out the door.”

Natalie stepped closer. “Are you implying I smell bad?”

Darcy laughed. “I’m implying that we both smell like sex. Really good sex, but I don’t want to show up to work smelling like we spent the night fucking. Do you?”

Natalie’s tongue slowly slid along her bottom lip. “You have a point.” Her hand snaked around Darcy’s back. “It would confirm what half the internet is already saying.”

Darcy smacked her on the ass. “The internet does not need to know what I smell like, thank you very much.”

Natalie kissed her, her tongue doing the same lazy slide across Darcy’s lip it had just done on her own.

“We don’t have time for this,” Darcy sighed, regretting telling Raquel how quickly they’d arrive.

Natalie let her head fall back in disappointment. “Fine, but I’m going to spend the whole day thinking about how you looked when—”

“Oh my god, Carpenter. We cannot do this right now.” She stepped back and smacked Natalie on the ass again. “Go. Get cleaned up before we’re late.”

Natalie pouted as she backed toward the door. “Fine. But let the record show I wanted a morning skate and you declined.”

Darcy laughed and reached for the handle. Before she opened the door, she kissed Natalie again. “One of us has to be the grown-up.”

Darcy closed the door and rushed around grabbing clothes and getting the shower warming up. By the time she hopped in, the water was hot, and she’d had time for curiosity to set in.

What on earth did Raquel want with them that she couldn’t tell her over the phone or wait until later? Things had been going well with the segments, the audience—or a subset of it at least—was invested in the two of them together, and the ratings had been good. So, what on earth did Raquel want to say?

By the time Darcy was dressed and walking out the door she was convinced that they were either about to get fired because they were actually dating and it was against some obscure policy or they were getting hired full-time to be a team on camera. The first option seemed unlikely considering Raquel asked them to pretend to date and it would be distinct asshole behavior to then fire them for doing what she asked. The second option seemed both more likely and like a complete dream.

Would she want to work with Natalie full-time? Part of the beauty of this job was that it was limited. That had seemed especially important at the start when they were fighting constantly. But now, she worried that the relationship brewing between them—had she really almost told Natalie she loved her over pancakes this morning?—might be too fragile for them to work together full-time. Not to mention the fact that Natalie wanted to coach, not be on Wake Up, USA .

Darcy snatched her bag, credentials, and phone before walking out the door. Whatever it was, they’d find out soon enough. Well, not soon enough for Darcy’s anxiety.