She could feel Stacie’s pulse bounding in time with her desire. It sped up when she said yes, and Maria realized that the frantic beat was now fueled by fear of rejection. She rushed to reassure her before she spoke and ruined it all. She wanted those fires banked, not doused. “Yes, I’m sure, but not because I don’t want to. I just think it would be better if we wait.”
Stacie nodded and scooted back, pulling Maria up next to her. Much like Stacie had done earlier, she reached up and traced Stacie’s jawline with her fingertips, then marched on, mapping out the laugh lines at the corner of her mouth, the bow shaped line along the edge of each lip. She delighted in discovering the slightest indentation that dimpled when Stacie smiled, the tiny lines at the corner of her eyes from squinting against the sunlight. Those lines would deepen as she got older, but not change how beautiful she was. Not once did Stacie fidget while she did this, not even when her thumb grazed along the pulse line along her collarbone. “So soft, and so very real,” she whispered, then leaned in and kissed the silent woman. A mere brushing of lips, nothing more. It wasn’t necessary.
“I will tell you a secret about me. I believe that true intimacy is so much more than just sex. Any animal can couple in the dark, but there is something more to be had when you find the right person. It isn’t just physical gratification. There is something deeper that happens here…and here.” Maria placed Stacie’s hand over her heart, covering it with her own, then tapped her temple with the other.
“Like soul mates?”
Maria ignored the cynical tone. It was a big stretch for someone like Stacie to accept what she was saying, let alone believe in it. She sat up straight and crossed her legs to give them both some much needed space. “Let’s just say I am looking at the potentialities between us. We obviously feel something, regardless of um, outside influences.” She coughed purposefully, covering a barely suppressed laugh.
Stacie did laugh. The tension between them melted away, leaving a comfortable familiarity that Maria had felt since the day they first met. “Potentialities, huh? You have a strange way of thinking, you know that?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I do. We two, we are like polar opposites,” Maria said, thinking about all of their differences. “That could be either the most incredible combination in the world, or a complete disaster.”
“Tie dye and flannel,” Stacie said with a grin. “That’s one hell of a combination.”
“It is.” Maria had to agree. She cocked her head, listening to the sounds around her, then started counting.
“So, what do you propose we do?”
“Well, first I’m going to suggest that we forget going swimming today and start heading back. Then I think you should show me your place so we can dry off and enjoy the lovely desserts Josie prepared for us,” Maria said, finishing the count off in her head.
“Why? I mean, not that I don’t like the idea, but?” Stacie’s question was cut off by the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. She squinted up at the sky, only then noticing the clouds rolling in above them. A flash of light cracked across the sky, tinting the rapidly graying sky a bright fuchsia. “Um. That was a little close.”
She scrambled to her feet and stuffed everything back into the backpack, then helped Maria up. She stopped just long enough to pull Maria in close to her and ask her one question. “How long have you been counting the storm?
“A little while.” Maria admitted. “How did you know?”
“We all have our secrets. I’ll keep that one to myself for a while,” Stacie said, eyeing the sky above them worriedly. “We need to hurry before the creek starts to swell up from the rain. That storm is upstream from us.”
They were halfway up the step shaped stones when Stacie stopped. “Keep going, I forgot something,” she said, then disappeared back down the path. Maria hesitated, unsure of whether she should do what Stacie said or wait where she was. The first few drops of rain fell around her, leaving dark gray spots on the ground around her in rapidly evaporating patterns.
*
The way back was a lot less pleasant than the way out. Flash storms like the one booming overhead were rare but could be violent and dump enough water in a short time to flood a creek past its boundaries and push a lazy current into running rapids. Stacie had returned from her mysterious errand without a single word of explanation. With single minded determinedness she got them back to the jeep, soaked to the bone and shivering from the cold rain, then back to her house in a soul-jarring, semi-terrifying, yet exhilarating slip and slide ride through the countryside. The Jeep collected so much mud from the dirt road you could barely tell the poor thing had been bright red this morning, and they didn’t look much better. That didn’t stop them from laughing and stomping through the puddles like children on their way to the front door.
They both giggled and stamped and shook themselves like dogs to get rid of the chunkier bits of their adventure and failed miserably doing it.
“That was glorious,” Maria giggled. She
