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Emily opened her eyes and then immediately shut them as the light pouring through the curtains hit her face. Her head was pounding and her throat felt dry which told her that she was on her way to being violently hungover, and that made sense because she barely had any recollection of the night before.
A bottle of wine had been opened and finished, and then a taxi had been called.
Everything got hazy after that.
There were, of course, a few memories that came back in flashes, like being on the dance floor of the club they went to, making out with someone in the backseat of their second taxi of the night, and putting on a t-shirt that was definitely not hers to sleep in.
Wait. Making out in the backseat of a taxi?
It wasn’t the first time a girls night with her teammates had ended with her going home with someone that she met at the bar or the club they went to, but it was definitely the first time she had drank so much that she didn’t remember who it was or where they ended up.
The names of the women usually came back to her before she even opened her eyes so that she could say good morning before grabbing her discarded clothing and politely excusing herself to head into work.
Emily racked her brain, but the name of the woman who was causing a slight dip in the bed next to her was not coming to the surface of her memory. It didn’t help that she was actively fighting against the bile that threatened to rise up her throat.
Closing her eyes and hoping for sleep to take her was the only remedy that she knew for keeping herself from throwing up after a night out. It seemed to work, because when she woke up again the nausea had dulled to a slight stomach ache that could easily be fixed with a buttered piece of toast and a glass of water.
That was when she realized that she was the only one still in the bed.
Emily sat up and looked around the room for any context clues that would tell her who she had slept with and whether or not she was the type of woman to have breakfast together the morning after a hookup. Profiling outside of work was a bad habit, but she was desperate.
The bedside table was empty other than an alarm clock, there were no photos hung on the walls, and the small bookshelf in the corner of the room was home to just a few classics that everyone had in their homes. There was not a single personal touch in the woman’s bedroom.
Maybe she had just moved in or was in the process of moving out? Maybe she traveled for work?
Oh.
Every single second from the night before came crashing back to her.
JJ, her teammate, was the one who had bought her a few drinks, dragged her onto the dance floor, and then grinded against her until the room was spinning. JJ was the one who had called the cab, pressed her against the wall while they waited outside for it, and then kissed her the entire way back to her apartment.
Her memory got a little fuzzy after that, but it was pretty hard to forget how she came, twice, for the younger woman. Once in the living room and then again in her bedroom.
And it was good.
Probably the best sex she had ever had.
Emily quietly made her way into the en-suite bathroom to splash some cold water onto her face. She had no idea how she struggled to remember the night before at first because now the only thing that she could think about was how her teammate’s tongue–
Nope.
Making it out of the bathroom without freaking out or making things awkward was her goal, and trying to forget the feeling of their bare chests pressed together was probably a good place to start.
The royal blue t-shirt that she had slipped on the night before seemed to be from when the blonde had played soccer in college. Emily smiled at herself in the mirror, but then quickly wiped it from her face as the smell of fresh coffee infiltrated the bathroom and she was reminded of the absolute dread in the pit of her stomach.
Hooking up with a coworker was one thing, but what they had was much deeper than two people who simply had cubicles next to each other in the same office. It had only been a few months of longing stares and gentle touches, but sleeping together felt big.
It felt real.
Emily made her way down the familiar hallway. She recognized it from that one wine night they had at the apartment a few weeks ago, but memories from running her fingers along JJ’s bare abdomen while she held her firm against the wall was the memory that was clearest in her mind.
“Good morning,” JJ smiled.
She was sitting at the kitchen table with her feet tucked under her. Emily’s striped button-up from the night before was all she had on and her hair was tousled like she had, well, just had sex.
Emily felt her knees go weak at the sight and decided to distract herself with a cup of coffee. She knew where the mugs were and what creamers the other woman had in her refrigerator, and that was enough to make her want to run out of the front door, quit her job, and never look back.
“Morning,” she responded after a beat too long.
More silence fell over them as the brunette found a spoon to stir the creamer into her cup. Her mind was racing, to say the least. The morning after a hookup was usually pretty awkward, but she thought of herself as an expert at navigating them by now.
This, however, was completely foreign to her.
“You feeling okay?”
JJ had a look on her face that was completely void of worry or regret. She seemed content, like the situation that they were in was normal and any hesitation that the older woman had was sort of amusing to her.
“A little hungover, but otherwise I’m… fine?”
The two women smiled at how horrible of a liar she was. It was already an inside joke between them and the rest of their teammates, but the fact that they were standing there in each other's clothes after sleeping together, literally and figuratively, made it even funnier somehow.
“Toast?”
It was like she could read her mind.
“Yes, please.”
Emily took a seat at the table and watched as the younger woman picked a piece of bread from the center of the loaf and popped it into the toaster. She grabbed the butter from the fridge, and then pressed her back against the counter so that she was facing the brunette.
“So…” JJ started.
Curious blue eyes found her fleeting brown ones.
The last thing she wanted to do was make her teammate feel uncomfortable. Emily had felt like maybe there was something between them, but she never got too ahead of herself in fear of their ideas of what could be not aligning. She needed to make sure that they were on the same page in case JJ wanted a way out.
“Did I…?”
“Finish?”
Emily almost choked on her coffee. That was the complete opposite of where she wanted their conversation to go, but she had a feeling that the liaison knew exactly what she was doing.
“I meant–”
“Twice,” JJ smirked. “If I remember correctly.”
“And you?”
She knew the answer, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Also twice.”
The toaster dinged and Emily used it as an opportunity to regain her composure. JJ turned around to butter the piece of bread, so she had about five seconds to shake that memory from her mind.
“You don’t remember?”
“Only bits and pieces.”
It wasn’t technically a lie. Most of the night came back to her as soon as she realized where she was, but if the blonde could tease her then it was only right that she returned the favor.
“I could show you,” JJ moved her chair so that she was inches away from Emily. “If you want.”
A chill went down her spine as the younger woman leaned in. She nodded, not really sure what she was getting herself into.
“First,” she started. “I put my hand here.”
JJ placed an open palm on her bare thigh and inched it higher, higher. She had been wearing jeans the night before, so the skin-on-skin contact was making her feel lightheaded.
“We were in the taxi?” Emily asked, barely able to get the words out of her mouth.
“Mhm.”
Emily just about passed out when the blonde rose from her chair, slowly, and climbed into her lap. It was happening just like it had the night before, but it felt completely different now that she was sober and had a pretty good idea of what was coming next.
“Then I kissed you here,” JJ continued.
She placed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her jawline and let her lips linger for an extra second.
“Then here.”
The corner of her mouth. Emily realized that they were at the point of no return when soft, strong hands tugged at her hair, pulling her head back slightly so that she was looking directly into the dark blue eyes in front of her.
“And finally…”
JJ’s lips were on hers before she could even process what was happening. The kiss was heated, but how could it not be after months of buildup and everything that had happened just a few short hours ago. Still, there was a voice in the back of her mind desperate for some clarity.
“Wait, I um,” Emily stumbled over her words as her teammate’s mouth found her pulse point. “What are we do–”
The rest of the sentence was completely forgotten as kiss-swollen lips reconnected with hers. Emily had wanted to know what the other woman tasted like pretty much since her eyes first landed on her. Now that she knew, though, she was scared about what all of it meant.
Attachment? No attachment?
“There’s gonna be paperwork–”
JJ cut her off again, but this time by tracing her tongue along her bottom lip. Emily opened her mouth ever so slightly and allowed herself to get lost in the kiss again.
Her head was spinning. With questions, with memories from the night before, with desire for the woman who was pressed against her. The devil on her shoulder told her to carry her teammate to the couch, or the bed, or whatever the nearest flat surface was and reenact what she remembered about their hookup, but she also needed to know what they were doing.
“Maybe we should–”
JJ pulled away just enough for them to look into each other’s dilated eyes. She had a look on her face that somehow silenced every rampant thought going through Emily’s mind, and suddenly she had no problem throwing the entire conversation out of the window. For now.
“You talk too much.”
It was true, but the brunette felt like it was justified in their current situation.
“Well–”
“Prentiss,” JJ interrupted with a smirk on her face. “Just kiss me.”