Phoenix
Savannah made sure to call Olivia after the client meeting like she’d promised. And every day since then. They exchanged cute, flirty texts bidding the other good morning and good night, or spoke briefly about work before asking how the other person’s day was going. It felt completely normal. Well, except for the part that they didn’t directly discuss that phone call. The one that took what had been happening between them to a different level. That call remained alluded to, but never openly discussed. And Savannah had mixed feelings about that.
All along, Olivia had been the one encouraging Savannah to put down her walls and let the chemistry they clearly shared ignite. And yet, something told Savannah to cool her heels. As much as she wanted to see where things went with Olivia, part of her was also hesitant. Even if she could put aside the complicated working relationship they shared, she could feel the ghosts of her past getting in the way.
Her last real relationship had nearly ruined her. After college, she’d been in a serious relationship with her college love, Gwen, and there was talk of marriage. They had plans for a family and a menagerie of pets. But things hadn’t worked out. Gwen had struggled with depression after the loss of her mother and started an affair with someone she’d met in a bereavement group. She’d pulled back from Savannah months before Savannah had caught her in the midst of her betrayal. Everything fell apart very quickly after that. The whole thing was so jarring to Savannah, that, for a few days, she just did nothing at all, ghosting past Gwen and letting the hurt settle in. Then one day, Savannah came home to an empty closet in their shared bedroom. Savannah was alone, without any real closure, and had a household full of painful memories and responsibilities to sort through.
She didn’t date seriously for a few years after that. Her work had become her life. She’d downsized her existence to a twelve hundred square foot loft and resisted anything serious in the relationship department. She had flings, or frequent bedmates, but nothing lasting. It was easier that way. None of it ever felt like a forever thing to Savannah. She had thought she had a forever thing with Gwen and she’d been wrong. That relationship had ended even with Savannah trying her best to make it work. So, she changed. She changed her job, changed her city, changed her sense of permanence. When things got rocky with a woman she was interested in, she didn’t even try to make it work. She just let it fall by the wayside.
But what was happening with Olivia was unlike anything she had experienced before. This wasn’t like one of the flings she’d had after her relationship with Gwen dissolved. But it wasn’t like the relationship she’d shared with Gwen either. This was something different.
She really liked Olivia.
She looked forward to hearing from her and seeing her. And that made her nervous for a few reasons. She didn’t want to get too attached—they lived in two different cities and their time together had an expiration date. Plus, she didn’t really know all that much about Olivia. Nor Olivia about her. They’d kept it light. Well, lightish. Physically they appeared to be a good match. But Savannah wasn’t sure if she was ready to broach the emotional stuff yet. If ever. Whatever they had was working the way it was, why change it?
She thought back to that night on the phone. She’d been amazed that she’d reached her destination safely and didn’t careen into a tree while Olivia’s breathy moans filled her ear. That phone call and the incredible sounds that came out of Olivia’s mouth were the only things she could think of lately. The Phoenix installation couldn’t come fast enough.
“I want to make sure this goes off without a hitch, Savannah.” Kenneth Dodd had a jolly, booming voice that matched his large, rotund frame. He looked like a younger version of Santa and his mannerisms echoed the comparison. Savannah had heard gossip that he had been quite a shark of a businessman when he was younger, but her only experience with him had been easy-breezy. If anything, she thought him a bit oafish and unhelpful. She’d not experienced any of the shrewdness of the legend. He was a middle-aged, balding white man with bright red cheeks and a deep laugh, who never seemed to be concerned with anything, ever. He was freakishly calm, at all times, which unnerved Savannah, who was used to a fast-paced, high-energy approach to management. Her whole life was deadlines, conference calls, emails, and meetings—all things that should consume Kenneth’s time as well, but he just never seemed bothered. He was odd. That was the only way she could describe him. Odd.
“Of course, Ken. That’s the plan. Did you receive my evaluation of the Denver site?”
“Right, yes. Looks like they’re doing great work. Go team.”
Savannah had been swamped with prep work since she’d arrived in Phoenix. In order for them to meet the accelerated deadline, everyone had to be working around the clock in preparation for Olivia and her team to arrive. She had back-to-back meetings on the day Olivia’s flight landed and would be unable to meet Olivia and her team at the airport as she had hoped to. She wanted a chance to get Olivia alone, talk about things in person, and try to get a feel for what she was thinking. But there was just too much to do in such a short time. And this phone call was one of them.
Kenneth rambled on and on about the excitement this project was generating and told her a seemingly endless story about nothing in particular until he finally ended the call. Savannah glanced at her watch. Dammit. She was going to be late. That man could talk and talk and talk. She seriously wondered if he just liked to hear his own voice. She grabbed her personal cell phone and dialed her brother.
“I thought you forgot about me.” The sound of a video game machine gun was in the background.
“Sorry, Coop. It’s been insane.” Savannah ran her hand through her hair and exhaled. “How’s Chi-town?”
“Meh. Busy. School is busy. Life is busy. The usual.” Cooper sounded distracted.
“Is this a bad time?” Savannah knew the answer.
“I’m sorry, Sav. I’m kinda in the middle of something. I just wanted to let you know that Dad called.” Cooper sounded shy.
Savannah and her father did not get along. They barely spoke and saw each other even less. But Cooper was still in school, so if she had a relationship with her half brother, she still sometimes overlapped with her deadbeat father. “Oh? What’d he say?”
The sound of gunfire paused. “He wanted to know about parents’ weekend and visiting. I didn’t tell him we had plans. I don’t want him to impinge on them. You know how he can be.”
She sighed. That she did. He was grandiose and obtuse. Entitled and narcissistic. Being around him was exhausting. She was grateful for his decision, but Cooper sounded anxious. “Okay. So is there a problem?”
“He wants to crash my dinner with Mom.”
“Yeah, so?” Two birds, one stone. Savannah thought this sounded like a better alternative to a meal with her father alone.
“He met someone. He wants to bring her along.” Ah. There it was.
Sure, he did. To rub it in Cooper’s mom’s face, no doubt. Savannah would bet her life savings that this woman was young and pretty. That’s how her father liked them. Her father had dumped Cooper’s mother a couple of years after Cooper had been born. Just like he did with all the women in his life—he left them. Cooper and his mother were close. No doubt this made him feel uncomfortable.
“Tell him no, Coop.” Savannah didn’t have many regrets in life, but she did feel badly about the way things had gone with all the women that followed Gwen. It wasn’t anyone’s fault really—she just wasn’t ready. She didn’t feel the connection and her heart was still reeling from the first time. But part of her was angry with herself, too. She had grown up with a father who thought people were expendable. She didn’t like the way she’d easily shrugged off the women in her recent past. It felt like something he would do. That was not a comparison she ever wanted. The only good thing that man had ever done in his whole life was have her brother, Cooper.
Her brother cracked his knuckles. He did that when he was nervous.
“Coop. You’re an adult. Tell him to fuck off with his Barbie doll rent-a-girlfriend. If he can’t sit through dinner with you and your mom and Amber without showboating this week’s arm candy, then he can’t go. Simple as that.”
“Yeah.” The sound of gunfire resumed. “You’re right.”
“I know I am. Just try. If you don’t want him there at all, that’s fine, too.” Savannah felt bad. She knew how things were with her father. She knew how Cooper must be feeling. But she’d grown out of that kind of guilt and shame. She wasn’t interested in her father’s negativity or need to impress people. Cooper was still learning, but Savannah had seen enough of that behavior for a lifetime. “Call me if you need anything, Coop. I’ll talk you through it.”
“Thanks, Savannah. When are you home again?”
“Couple of weeks.”
“Great. Okay. I gotta finish killing these zombies before Advanced Chem later. Love you. Thanks for the pep talk.”
“Love you, Coop.”
She glanced at the calendar in front of her. Was it really a few weeks until she was back home again? When did she get so accustomed to being someplace else all the time? She thought of Olivia and about the feelings Cooper stirred up when he brought up their father. She had failed at her past relationships by not even trying. Her thoughts circled back to Olivia. Olivia made her want to be in one place for a longer period of time. Olivia made her want a lot of things. She looked at the clock again—they would be landing any minute. Maybe she could wrap up here and meet up with her at the hotel. She wanted to get her alone, to talk to her. She nodded to herself and made the decision. She could work on the rest of this later. Tonight, she needed to see Olivia. Alone.
* * *
Olivia couldn’t help but frown when she saw the hotel transport van without Savannah in it. She had been secretly hoping Savannah would meet her and greet her with a tight embrace and some secretly whispered seduction. She wasn’t that surprised, though. The Denver installation was very close to the hotel they were staying at; this time around the project space was much farther away. It would have been ridiculous to expect Savannah to leave the design space and get back to the hotel just to take another vehicle to personally pick them up. But she still couldn’t shake the disappointment she felt.
The ride from the airport to the hotel was quick. Devon and Farrah were chatting about the flight with the driver and picking his brain for good haunts in the area. They’d be in Phoenix longer than they’d been in Denver, so there’d be more opportunities to explore and see some of Phoenix’s culture. The boys and Reagan had arrived a few days before, just like last time, to get things in order since.
Once Olivia and her team checked into their hotel rooms, a hotel driver shuttled them over to the design space. The room was in the far east corner of a nearly century-old building that overlooked a man-made pond with mountains in the distance. It was gorgeous in its bare-bones setup, so rich with history and architectural charm. The space would be unbelievable once Olivia and her team had a chance to work with it.
Daniel and the head contractor met them at the door, handing them each hard hats and giving Olivia the newest blueprint plans. Randal and Reagan were seated at one of the drafting tables going over numbers and drawings. Reagan was in her usual grunge-chic outfit, her hair brushed sloppily over her shoulder in that perfected just-out-of-bed look. Randal was his usual wrinkled self, looking worn-out already, and it was barely midday. Olivia shook her head. At least they were consistent.
She glanced around the space in search of Savannah. She was on the phone, standing by the far window reading her tablet and juggling some documents at the same time. She had on a hard hat and her forehead was creased in concentration as she shook her head in response to the person on the other end of the line. She was wearing a nicely tailored navy-blue power suit with a skirt that hugged her ass in a way that should be illegal. Olivia let herself appreciate the view until Savannah noticed she had an audience. A sly smile spread across Savannah’s face as she glanced over at Olivia. She winked before resuming her phone call and Olivia’s heartbeat increased. Savannah was all kinds of sexy, and even in a hard hat across a crowded room she made Olivia’s heart thump just a little more enthusiastically.
Try as she might to get Savannah alone, she was unsuccessful. The day was long and before she knew it the team was breaking up, and they were assigned different cars back to the hotel. Savannah had ducked out early to meet with some representatives from New Horizons in the hotel bar to go over the schedule again.
It was after seven that evening before Olivia finally settled into her hotel room. She fell back onto the queen bed and spread out like a starfish on the soft comforter. She closed her eyes and listened to the gentle hum of the air conditioner as she tried to unwind. It was very warm in Phoenix, a dry, arid heat, but her room was cooled to a comfortable seventy-four degrees. She contemplated her dinner options: room service, the hotel bar/restaurant, or off-site. She hadn’t even unpacked yet, but all she could think about was how soft this bed was and how tired her body felt from all the travel of the day.
She must have dozed off because when she blinked her eyes open again it was just after half past seven. She stretched on the bed and sat up slowly before she walked to the bathroom and grabbed one of the plastic-wrapped glasses on the sink to fill with water. She ran the cold tap for a few seconds, then filled the glass and took a sip. The water was warm and she gagged at the unexpected temperature. The ice bucket on the side of the sink caught her eye and she scooped it up. She grabbed her room key card and stepped out into the hall in search of the ice machine.
The machine was around the corner from her room, down the hall, past the elevators, tucked in an alcove at the corner of another long corridor of rooms. She leaned against the wall and pressed the button on the machine until her bucket was almost completely filled.
“Hot?” A familiar velvety voice pulled Olivia from her daze.
Olivia looked up and caught Savannah sending her a curious look. “What?”
“I asked if you were hot.” Savannah nodded toward the ice bucket, which was currently overflowing because Olivia was staring at Savannah’s lips and not paying attention to what she was doing. Savannah reached out and gently ushered Olivia’s hand away from the button to stop the ice chip mountain that was beginning to form.
Olivia flushed and looked down shyly at the mound of ice that was slowly littering its contents onto the floor.
Savannah still loosely held Olivia’s fingers in her hand as she stepped closer. She ducked her head to catch Olivia’s gaze. “I didn’t get a chance to say hello to you earlier. How are you?”
Olivia tilted her head to the side. “I’m good. Better now.” She licked her lips. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” Savannah replied as her gaze fell to Olivia’s lips. Olivia felt her body heat up as Savannah’s eyes lingered. Savannah reached forward and pushed a stray curl behind Olivia’s ear. Savannah’s fingers brushed lightly against her cheek and Olivia closed her eyes at the sensation.
When she blinked them open again she found Savannah watching her. Savannah’s hand dropped to her side and grabbed an ice chip from the overflowing bucket. She popped it into her mouth and she stepped forward a little more as she entwined her fingers with Olivia’s. She glanced up and down the hall before she leaned in and breathed icy cold air across Olivia’s ear.
“Before, when I asked if you were hot, I wasn’t asking about you specifically. I already know you are hot. I just meant, you know, temperature-wise.”
Olivia exhaled a shaky breath. The cool air on her skin made her break out in goose bumps, but Savannah’s lips in such proximity to her ear made her burn up.
She whimpered softly when Savannah’s free hand dropped to her hip and squeezed.
“Have dinner with me tonight.” Savannah brushed ice cold lips across the skin under Olivia’s ear before she pulled back, surveying her.
Olivia gulped. Savannah was still standing close. She was close enough for Olivia to smell her perfume—it was delicious. She took a minute to compose herself and squeezed Savannah’s fingers in hers as she replied, “I’d love to.”
Savannah stepped back a bit farther as she skated the ice chip along her bottom lip with her tongue. Olivia watched with rapt attention as she sucked it back into her mouth with a knowing smile.
“Hey!” Reagan popped around the corner with the phone cradled to her ear. “I was just calling you, Liv. Wanna grab a bite?”
Olivia felt her eyes bulge when she heard Reagan approach from behind her. She watched Savannah’s face for any glimmer of emotion as she withdrew her hand from Olivia’s. Savannah’s smile faded as she surveyed Reagan over Olivia’s shoulder. Olivia got the impression that she was less than thrilled at Reagan’s arrival. She felt that way, too.
“Oh, hey, Savannah.” Reagan stopped next to Olivia. “Got dinner plans?”
Olivia watched Savannah’s eyes narrow with what looked like irritation. Olivia couldn’t think of a worse time for Reagan to fly around the corner and invite her to dinner. She figured the irritation was mirrored in her own face when Savannah glanced back at her with a small apologetic smile before she answered.
“Hey, Reagan.”
“Whoa. Got ice, Liv?” Reagan poked Olivia in the side and spilled a few more ice chips onto the floor.
“Yeah, this machine spits them out faster than I was expecting.” She turned to face Reagan because she didn’t want to be rude. Even if she did want Reagan to disappear into thin air.
“So, ladies…dinner?” Reagan repeated as she glanced between them.
Savannah stepped back farther and leaned against the wall. Olivia watched as she swallowed the end of her ice chip and raised her eyebrow in apparent contemplation.
Olivia figured she had two options and one was decidedly more intimate than the other. They were dancing along that line again—what was appropriate, what was not. Reagan’s option was the much safer bet. It was friendly and harmless. It would look suspicious if they both declined her offer. Olivia had no problem with the direction her relationship with Savannah was going, whatever direction that might be. But she wasn’t about to make an announcement to her team and especially not to Reagan. She could feel the frown on her face, and a subtle nod from Savannah confirmed they were on the same page.
“Yeah, sounds good.” Savannah nodded encouragingly toward her. “Olivia, you in?”
“Sure, sounds great. Let me just drop off my, uh, ice.” Olivia felt flustered. And disappointed. And annoyed.
Savannah struck up a conversation with Reagan and Olivia slipped back to her room to figure out what had just transpired.
Olivia deposited the ice bucket on the bathroom sink and sank onto the edge of the tub with a heavy sigh. Fuck. As much as she loved Reagan, she really, really didn’t want to entertain Reagan or her ramblings over dinner. She really, really wanted to see what Savannah had in store for her instead. That ice thing was like the hottest thing anyone had done to her in the name of seduction. Well, minus the phone sex thing. She was so screwed.
She shook her head, letting her curls tumble around her face. Savannah made her all kinds of nervous. It was the kind of nervous that made you feel clumsy and inarticulate. Ever since that phone call, Olivia had struggled to keep her words and actions in check. It had taken all of her willpower not to jump Savannah in the design space when she was bent over the table looking at specs with Randal, or when she was laughing at some awful joke Reagan fed her, or when she was smiling down at her phone reading a text Olivia had sent her from across the room just to see how she would react. It was getting hard to behave. They both so obviously wanted the same thing, but they really needed to figure out what that meant and how that was going to happen.
Olivia stood with a frown as she surveyed herself in the mirror. She fixed her mascara, touched up her lip gloss, and resigned herself to a very different dinner than the one she would have preferred.
* * *
Savannah and Reagan were in the hotel bar waiting for a table when Olivia made her way to them. Savannah noticed that she’d changed into a dinner outfit. She looked great.
“So I just told her that I needed some space. You know?” Reagan shook her head and sipped her beer.
Savannah sipped her martini and she tried to be polite while she feigned interest. But she wasn’t really listening. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Olivia since they were interrupted earlier. The stray ice chip in her martini was not helping her focus in the least.
“Oh, please don’t tell me you’re boring Savannah with your dating woes, Reagan,” Olivia chimed in with an exaggerated eye roll. “I’ll get my order to go if that’s the case.”
Reagan scoffed and flashed a look of mock offense. “Whatever, Liv.” An evil smile crossed her face as she narrowed her eyes. “I was just going to tell her all about how you and I used to date.”
Savannah’s head whipped toward Reagan. She must have misheard her. “Did you say something about dating?”
“That was a million years ago, Reagan. No need to dig up ancient history.” Olivia looked nervous.
“Aw, c’mon, Liv.” Reagan slipped her arm around Olivia’s waist in a one-armed hug. “We had some good times. Remember that foam party in West Village A—”
“Enough,” Olivia bit back and shrugged off Reagan’s arm. Savannah watched as her eyes threw daggers in Reagan’s direction. This didn’t seem like a discussion Olivia wanted to have in her presence.
Reagan looked momentarily wounded until the hostess finally appeared and ushered them to their table. Savannah said nothing. She chose instead to sip her drink and watch the tension rise between Olivia and Reagan. That was an interesting disclosure. She wasn’t sure how she felt. Was she a little jealous? Maybe. No. She was more curious, she decided. Something she would inquire about later.
Farrah joined them shortly after they were seated and engrossed them in a story about her teenage daughters and the adventures of dating. Farrah seemed to notice the increased tension between her team members, and Savannah saw her nudge Reagan in the ribs while she continued to engage in a conversation with her.
Reagan apologized under her breath and Olivia dismissed the apology with a tight smile. She’d been making a lot of eye contact with the salmon in front of her.
Savannah excused herself from the table to use the restroom but waited nearby unobserved on the return trip when she overhead Farrah chastise her tablemates.
“What is wrong with you two?” Farrah looked between the two women. “Marital quarrel?”
Savannah could see Olivia shake her head and mutter something, but she couldn’t hear what.
“C’mon. Lighten up. It was a joke.” Reagan pouted and mirrored Olivia’s defensive posture.
Farrah looked between the two of them again and shook her head in frustration. “You two are worse than my teenage girls. Spit it out. What’s wrong?”
Olivia said nothing but Reagan said, “I might have made a joke to Savannah that Olivia and I used to date. And Liv got all uppity about it.” She settled back into her seat with a frown.
“Oh.” Farrah turned to Reagan. “Listen, you know we’re all family here, but maybe Olivia wanted to tell Savannah she was into women herself—”
“Can we not talk about me like I’m not sitting here?” Olivia’s voice rose and Savannah had no trouble hearing that.
Farrah pursed her lips. “I really doubt Savannah cares. She seems totally fine about those things—remember when Reagan hit on her?”
“It’s not that. I don’t actually care if she knows I’m gay or not,” Olivia growled.
Savannah nearly laughed. They’d passed that getting-to-know-you phase a while back when Olivia was masturbating on the phone with her.
Olivia continued, “God, Reagan, stop pouting. It’s fine.”
“Why are you making this into such a big deal? I know you have a crush on her and all, but it’s not like it’s going anywhere, right?” Reagan uncrossed her arms and started tearing at the napkin in front of her, her eyes on the table.
A crush? She hoped it was more than a crush. But what she really wanted to know was the answer to Reagan’s second question.
At first Olivia said nothing and Savannah swore Reagan looked hurt. Did Reagan have a thing for Olivia?
Olivia let out a sigh. She reached forward and stilled Reagan’s nervous picking. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day, I think I’m just tired…or maybe just premenstrual, I dunno.”
Savannah noted that she didn’t quite answer Reagan’s question.
“S’okay,” Reagan mumbled and sipped her beer.
Savannah took the pause in conversation as an opportunity to return to the table. She lowered herself into her seat and thought about all the questions she had for Olivia. “Dessert, ladies?”