Chapter 7.

So, Anna was bi.

Jess caught her own reflection in the bathroom mirror. She hadn’t seen that expression in a long time. Her large brown eyes were bright and her face eager with delight for all the implications. It wasn’t with the expectation that something would happen, simply that it was a possibility at all. She filled her lungs and breathed out with a great deal of satisfaction.

She felt free of people’s preconceptions of late and the pervading sense that she was being courted for favours more than her company.

She stared at her image, seeing it as her own for the first time in a while. Her warm brown skin and heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, slender neck which she was often ordered to display by tilting her chin. She didn’t have to today. Her generous lips curled in a smile and she blinked lazily. Her inky eyelashes were free of mascara this morning and she wore her small gold hoop earrings, more than enough decoration for the role of just Jess.

She was a woman, who’d met another queer woman, with a definite spark of attraction. To feel that again, without the dread of ulterior motive or betrayal, was elating.

She rubbed her fingers up the short hair at the back of her head then tousled the longer locks on top. They were starting to curl into their natural wave.

She checked around the small room, bright with sunlight beaming through a window in the sloping roof. A shower in the corner. Orange towel folded crisp and clean on a rail. A shelf with a bright green bottle of shampoo and coconut conditioner beside it, ideal for Anna’s strawberry blonde, not the usual treatment for Jess. She bet Anna didn’t have a pair of straighteners and there was no sign of a shower cap either.

No matter. Jess smiled once more at her natural reflection. She would leave her hair and her loose curls, which would spring back with a drop of water, would have their day instead. She wondered if Anna would like the look.

Wait. Did Anna have a partner? The flat was her own but that didn’t mean she was single. Jess hadn’t noticed any photos. There were no pictures of her arm draped around a handsome lover or cheek to cheek with anyone special. Anna hadn’t mentioned anyone either.

Still. Jess should be cautious and respectful. That didn’t quell her smile though. Her reflection grinned at her.

“Stop it,” she chastised herself.

It’s not like it could go anywhere with everything on Jess's plate, and although there was that palpable excitement when Anna said she was bi, it didn’t mean that Anna was interested. Jess's smile was still there though, the twinkle in her eye brighter than ever.

“Have a bloody shower, you maniac,” she said to her reflection.

She was enjoying that flirting though. That wasn’t out of bounds.

 

–

 

Anna was standing in the kitchen, board, knife and bananas laid out in front of her, when she heard the shower door thud shut from inside the bathroom. That was no surprise as she had suggested a shower to Jess. What did surprise, with the sound of water spraying on the glass surround, was the visual her brain concocted for her. A steamy image of a tall, nude woman popped into her head.

Anna cleared her throat, as if someone was present and could see her thoughts, and warm embarrassment bloomed on her cheeks. And it wasn’t only the embarrassment that was warming.

Anna wondered if, for anyone, it was possible to listen to Jess in the shower without picturing her naked. Apparently it wasn’t for her, and the steamy picture of a tall shapely woman in her bathroom intruded again. Anna didn’t let herself dwell on the detail, and decided that as she couldn’t accurately form Jess because she’d never seen her naked, that it didn’t count as indecent. And after one last mental peek, she reined in her imagination.

Not that the likeness of Jess's upturned face, with eyes closed and glistening water trailing down smooth dark skin, didn’t flash in her brain whenever the water broke for a second. Or Jess’s long fingers massaging her skin in a way so satisfying as to make the imagined Jess open her mouth in rapture.

“Oh.” Anna said it out loud. She dropped the knife with a clatter onto the worktop.

She covered her mouth and the smile that spread there. Excitement tingled inside. A slight flutter of interest thrilled her body. She had been closed off for so long, she’d forgotten those feelings were possible.

Was it because Jess had said she was gay? Or was it the fact, obvious now to Anna, that the younger woman flirted and her gaze always lingered more than it should?

“Stop it,” she muttered, and she picked up the knife from the surface.

Would it linger if she knew? Would Jess's expression, her whole body language and tone, change as soon as she realised how small Anna’s world was?

A heaviness threatened to descend and Anna shrugged it off. She could enjoy the flirtation this beautiful morning with the sun shining diffuse through the light blinds. It was not often she enjoyed the attention of someone she was partial to. Of someone who was just, well, nice. It was a treat.

The running water stopped and was followed by the creak of the shower door opening. Try as she might, there was no way Anna could stop herself from imagining Jess's long toned leg stepping onto a white towel. The image was indistinct, but went too high, way too high, round a curving buttock high.

“OK, that’s enough,” Anna said, and she chopped a banana, very slowly, very deliberately using every part of her conscious brain, hoping to keep those subconscious parts in check.

“Hey,” she heard over her shoulder a few minutes later, and she realised she’d cut enough banana for ten people.

Anna turned and blinked to behold Jess. The T-shirt she’d put out, loose on her, was snug around Jess's well-toned physique and now more obvious bosom as she stood in profile. Anna was glad her imagination hadn’t had that to play with earlier, and her cheeks felt the heat once more.

Jess's hair had sprung into a mass of waves, bouncing on her head. It accentuated her heart-shaped face. Attractive. To Anna, very much attractive. As if conscious of the change, Jess tugged a curl away from her face.

“Did you find everything you needed?” Anna asked, taking a deep breath as if that might cool her cheeks.

“Yes, thanks.” Jess beamed and she stepped closer.

She smelled of familiar and borrowed soaps, but of someone different too. It was odd having someone unexpected in her flat, someone not from before, but her presence was comforting and exciting all at once.

“Looks like a beautiful day,” Jess said. “What’s the view outside?”

“Sorry,” Anna said. “I keep the blinds down first thing in the morning.” She stepped forward and pressed a button and the thin white blinds whirred upwards. She blinked at the bright light.

“That’s posh,” Jess laughed, then, “Oh wow. What’s that over there?”

Beyond the tall terraces and streets, they could see the trees and grassy expanse of the park, the beech trees that Anna knew so well a blend of deep summer green to burned tips of yellow and the plane trees a blaze of rubies and gold.

“I don’t know why I ask,” Jess added. “It’s not going to mean much when you tell me.”

“It’s Regents’ Park,” Anna obliged. “Does that ring a bell?”

“Not really.” Jess peeped at her. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m a bit of country bumpkin. I know Oxford Street, Hyde Park, Piccadilly Circus and the train stations, but I have no idea where they are on a map.”

Without thinking, Anna wrapped her fingers around Jess's arm above the elbow and encouraged her to step closer to the window.

The sensation of Jess's naked skin gave Anna a jolt. She’d forgotten Jess wore her T shirt and a soft bicep was vividly tender within Anna’s palm and delicate on her fingertips. For a moment, all Anna was aware of was the intense point where they connected and the warmth of another human in her hand. Jess seemed more present, like she was more real – a sketch suddenly flushed with paint and colour. It was so powerful that Anna couldn’t speak for a moment. She wanted to apologise. “I’m used to being a physical person,” she would always say. It had been part of her easy character, but she rarely felt comfortable enough to be that person anymore.

She didn’t let go and Jess didn’t complain so Anna stayed her hand, letting herself become accustomed to the proximity.

“Over there,” she pointed across the rooftops. “Do you see a group of trees? That’s London Zoo.”

“Zoo?”

“As in the world-famous London Zoo?”

“Oh,” Jess replied, but stared ahead.

“And then beyond that, Primrose Hill.”

“Uhuh.”

“Don’t worry.” Anna laughed quietly. “I didn’t realise it was in Regent’s Park until I moved here from Edinburgh.”

“Good.”

“I know the whole park like the back of my hand now,” Anna said. “I take a stroll round most days.”

“Nice,” Jess replied and she nodded, still staring towards the group of trees in the distance.

“It is,” Anna said, relaxing and turning towards the view, a movement that only brought them closer and Anna’s breast pressed against Jess's arm.

“Very nice,” Jess murmured.

And if Anna could have spoken she would have agreed.