Popcorn Love (17 page)

“Elena, I’m fine. And you’re
going
. End of
discussion. Besides, the post-date ranting is my favorite
part.”

In truth, Allison was a little conflicted. She wanted
Elena to go on the date, but she also wanted her to cancel. Elena
really deserved to find happiness and love and all of that mess,
even though it wasn’t something Allison had ever imagined for
herself. But for some reason, the thought of Elena out on dates
didn’t always sit right with her.

However, she was also a little worried that if Elena
canceled the date, she would end up going home a lot earlier than
usual. She really missed Lucas, even though it had only been a few
days. She wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, even
if she
did
have a raging headache.

“Go on,” she said. “Go get fancy.”

Elena rolled her eyes and disappeared into her
closet.

Elena slipped on her heels and took one last glance
in the large full-length mirror that hung in her closet. She wore a
light gray dress with a circle neck and a thick black belt around
the waist. Her dark locks were perfectly coiffed and settled gently
around her face, and the black pumps she wore accentuated her toned
calves.

“How’s this?” she asked as she stepped through the
open archway of her massive walk-in closet and out into the main
portion of her bedroom. “Allison?”

She stepped closer to the bed where the blonde lay
with Lucas still atop her chest. Allison was sound asleep, as was
the small boy lying on top of her. Her chin rested atop Lucas’s
head and one of her arms was hooked tightly over Lucas’s back.

Elena couldn’t bring herself to move. She stood
beside her bed and stared down at the two sleeping people settled
against her sheets. Something inside her warmed at the sight,
little flames igniting in her stomach and chest.

Her gaze roamed over Allison, whose lips slightly
parted and moved with each deep breath. She chuckled as Allison’s
nose twitched and wriggled, tickled by the flyaway hairs on her
son’s head. But then she focused on the darkening bruise now nearly
covering Allison’s entire forehead.

Guilt gnawed at her insides, causing her stomach to
lurch. She could hardly fault herself for her actions, but it
certainly did little to make her feel better about the outcome. She
reached forward before she could stop herself and grazed her
fingertips gently over the puffy, purpled flesh.

Elena could feel the fluid beneath the bruising as it
squished beneath her fingertips, the skin swollen and pliant, and
it only made that uncomfortable feeling in her gut grow. She pulled
her hand away, suddenly conscious of causing the younger woman
pain.

When she did, she was greeted by two, heavy-lidded
but assuredly open eyes.

“Oh.” The word was hardly more than a whisper between
her teeth. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

Allison shook her head, her chin rubbing through
Lucas’s messy hair.

“Would you like an ice pack?”

Allison’s forehead creased and she hissed in pain.
“Right,” she croaked, “for my head.” She laughed at herself. “Sure,
thanks.”

“Okay.” Elena turned to leave the room, but Allison’s
groggy voice called out to her again.

“Did we, me and the little man…” She frowned. “Have
we been asleep this whole time? I mean, are you already back from
your date?”

Elena patted her arm. “No, Allison. I haven’t left
yet.”

“Wow. I guess that blow to the head really took it
out of me.”

Elena’s expression crumpled, and Allison quickly
shifted under Lucas’s body to grab Elena’s hand and lace their
fingers together. “Hey, hey, I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Nodding, Elena squeezed Allison’s fingers then pulled
her hand free and turned toward the door again. “I will grab that
ice pack for you.”

She had barely taken a step, though, when the chime
of the doorbell rang through the enormous house, catching both
women off guard.

“I suppose my date is here.”

“Yup.” Allison smacked her lips and slowly pushed
herself up. She carefully shifted Lucas off of her chest and
settled him gently back against the sheets before rising from the
bed. “I’ll grab the ice pack myself.”

They walked down the hallway together, their
shoulders occasionally brushing. Before they made it to the end of
the hall, where the path split to lead further into the house in
one direction and toward the foyer in the other, Allison nudged
Elena’s arm with her elbow. “So, what do you think you’ll get this
time?”

Elena arched one perfectly sculpted brow. “What do
you mean?”

“Oh, you know,” Allison said, her smile only growing.
“Could be another dude with bowel issues.”

“Very funny.” Elena bumped Allison’s elbow with her
own.

“Could be a big hairy Sasquatch. Or like, a guy with
a lisp so bad that you can’t even understand what he’s saying, and,
every time he asks you a question, he accidentally spits on you.
Oh, or he could be totally sexist or something. That would be a
quick way to piss you off. Oh, what if it’s like one of those
middle-aged men that still lives with his mother and talks about
her all through dinner? Do you take issue with severe Momma’s boys?
What if Lucas turns out to be one? What if the guy is like a major
horndog and just makes lewd comments the entire time or stares at
other women the whole date? Would you b—”

Elena threw out a hand and cupped it over Allison’s
mouth. “That’s quite enough, dear. I will never make it out the
door if you continue to plant such horrid scenarios in my
mind.”

Allison laughed into Elena’s smooth palm.

“What if it’s not even a person?” she said when Elena
moved her hand. “What if it’s like an alien in a man suit and it
tries to abduct you and take you back to its mothership to probe
you and implant microchips in your brain and alien baby eggs in
your ut—”

Elena’s palm was back over Allison’s mouth again.
Elena turned full-bodied toward her as she tackled Allison, both of
them wrapped up in their shared laughter—Elena’s melodic and
floating through the air and Allison’s muffled against the heat of
Elena’s palm.

“Hush,” Elena said. Allison’s back was pressed
against the wall of the hallway, with one of her hands gripping
Elena’s wrist and the other splayed across her waist. Their eyes
locked.

“Are you going to stop now?” Elena asked.

Allison’s shoulders shook with her muted laughter,
but she nodded to show her surrender. When Elena’s palm dropped
from her mouth, it slipped down to rest on her shoulder. They
continued to stare at each other, their laughter slowly fading,
when the doorbell chimed again, and both women practically jumped
out of their skins. They shot apart like their flesh was electric
and they had just zapped the hell out of one another.

They smiled awkwardly at each other as Elena pointed
toward the foyer. “I should get the door.”

“Yeah.” Allison nodded. “And I should get that ice
pack.”

“Indeed.”

They lingered another moment before both women
wordlessly sprang into action. Elena headed into the foyer and
Allison moved into the kitchen, speeding like lightning to the
freezer, and yanking a small ice pack from the back. It was shaped
like a dinosaur. A little embarrassing, but it would get the job
done.

Allison hummed in delight as she pressed the cold
plastic to her forehead. “
Yes
.” For a moment, she forgot
everything beyond the cool relief this frozen dinosaur offered her,
but then she heard Elena’s laughter spill in from the foyer.

She moved from the kitchen to get a better view,
stopping at the opening of the hallway and bracing herself on the
wall as she leaned back to see. She could see Elena standing in the
open doorway, her hand moving as if in time to something she was
saying, but Allison couldn’t see the person on the other side.
Since she couldn’t even see the man’s head poking up above Elena’s,
she assumed that the woman had gotten strapped with another shorty,
but then Elena shifted: she turned to grab her clutch from the
foyer table, and the person finally came into view.

Allison’s jaw practically smacked into her chest. It
wasn’t a short man at all. It was a
woman.

“What the—Shit!” Allison hissed, caught off guard by
the presence of a hot lady on Elena Vega’s doorstep. She
momentarily let go of the wall and tried to catch herself, but
there was nothing for her to grasp. She fell flat on her back in
the mouth of the hallway with a loud grunt.

She soon heard the sound of heels clicking speedily
toward her, and then Elena’s hands were sliding under her arms to
help her up.

“Allison? What happened? Are you all right? Is it
your head? Are you dizzy?”

“Whoa, twenty questions.” Allison’s gaze shot right
by Elena and back to the woman still standing in the open doorway
and now staring back at her with a curious expression.

Pulling Allison to her feet, Elena whispered, “Are
you all right?”

Bright green eyes jumped quickly back and forth
between Elena and the woman in the doorway, and before she could
stop herself, she blurted, “What is
that
?”

“I’m sorry?” Elena asked.

“I mean, who, I mean what…what is—” The words tangled
as Allison was unable to keep up with her own rapid-fire thoughts.
“That’s a
woman
,” she finally managed to spit out.

Elena glanced over her shoulder and offered her date
a smile while holding up her index finger to indicate she only
needed another minute. She turned back to Allison, her eyes locking
hard onto her. She shuffled a bit under Allison’s questioning gaze,
but her voice was clear and confident. “Yes. Rather observant of
you, dear.”

“You’re going out with a
woman
?” Allison
stressed the word again as if she simply could not digest the
shocking arrival of her own gender upon the doorstep. “Like on a
date
? A
date
date?”

“Yes, Allison. Why else would a woman be dressed like
that and standing in my doorway?” Her gaze then grew conflicted.
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Is that…do you take issue with
this?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“With my dating a woman. Do you take issue with my
sexuality?”

“What?” Allison sputtered, choking on her own saliva.
“Elena!
No
!”

Elena let out a sigh of obvious relief. “Oh,” she
whispered. “Okay then. Wonderful.”

“I’m a little shocked,” Allison admitted. “But no, of
course I don’t have a problem with it. I just didn’t know you were
into women.”

I’m into women,
Allison wanted to say. Wanted
to shout it, even.
Exclusively into women!
The words were on
the tip of her tongue, but Elena spoke before she could put them to
voice.

“Neither did
I
for many years.” She patted
Allison’s arm. “Now, are you sure I shouldn’t stay?”

“No, no,” Allison said. “Go. You should definitely
go.”

Elena narrowed her eyes for a moment before nodding.
“Very well. Then you should probably wake Lucas to feed him. But if
he wants to go back to bed afterward, that is fine.”

“Oh right, yeah,” Allison said. “Got it.”

“Okay.” Elena smiled and nodded. “I won’t be home too
late.” She headed for the door, leaving an utterly astounded
Allison in her wake.

* * *

Alexis was a gorgeous woman. Her dark braids fell
over her exposed shoulders in a gorgeous wave, and her light brown
skin was flawless, from what Elena could see. She had brown eyes so
light that they were almost amber and positively mesmerizing. She
was simply stunning.

The woman also practically oozed money, from her
Jimmy Choos to her Cartier diamond earrings. She drove Elena in her
new Ferrari to one of the most expensive restaurants in
Manhattan.

“I hope you like sushi,” Alexis said as she opened
the door for Elena and let her step inside first.

“I do,” Elena said, gaze roaming over the interior
design of the restaurant.

Once they were seated, Alexis asked about her day and
about her son, and Elena returned in kind with a few questions of
her own. As the woman answered, Elena couldn’t help but to check
her phone under the table. She had kept it clutched tightly in her
hand the entire drive to the restaurant in case it vibrated.
Despite Allison’s reassurances, Elena was concerned she could have
a concussion. She could be in pain. She could pass out again, and
no one would be there to help her, and there would be no way for
Elena to know. Such possibilities were driving her mad.

Alexis cleared her throat pointedly and Elena’s head
shot up. “My apologies,” Elena said, dropping her phone into her
lap and forcing her hands away from the device. Alexis seemed
somewhat perturbed, her lips pursing for a moment, but she then put
on a smile and nodded. They placed their orders, and Elena did her
best not to let her mind wander back to the babysitter.

When their sushi arrived, Alexis smiled at Elena.
“So, how am I doing so far?”

Elena reached for her chopsticks. “Quite well.”

“Fantastic. Because I am
quite
interested. I
simply wanted to make sure that you were enjoying yourself.”

“I am, thank you.”

“So,” Alexis said, taking a sip of her wine. “What is
your type? Or, I suppose a better question would be to ask what you
are looking for in a relationship.
Are
you even looking for
a relationship?”

Elena took a sip of her wine and sighed. “Let’s
see.”

* * *

“I mean, I just assumed that a person like Elena Vega
would never be into women, you know?” Allison rambled as she tapped
her fingers against the kitchen countertop. “She just seems so, I
don’t know, traditional? Conservative?”