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She’d lost it.
She’d lost her freaking water bottle.
Left it, rather. At the park. During a very crowded concert. With no real hope of ever finding it again.
Maybe she was being a little dramatic, in a typical Laura Hollis fashion. It really was just a water bottle. A water bottle that had traveled with her everywhere since high school. Had a million stickers on it that cataloged all the adventures she’d gone on. It was her friend, in a way. It certainly had had personality.
She’d even put labels on it. Big black letters that read, “I BELONG TO LAURA. IF I’M LOST CALL” and then her phone number. But it’d been days, and there wasn’t anything where she’d left it when she went back the next day to check.
Laura let her head drop to her desk unceremoniously, tired and frustrated. And thirsty.
Then her phone rang.
*Incoming call from Unknown Number*
“Uh, hello?” She answered.
“Laura.” A woman said. Her voice was level, deep and smooth.
“That’s me! Who are you, why are you calling me and how do you have my phone number?”
“That’s a lot of questions, cutie.” The woman chuckled over the phone, and Laura was beginning to get frustrated by this unknown caller. “I believe I have something of yours.”
“Did you kidnap my water bottle?!” This mysterious stranger was not only calling her nicknames, but had apparently stolen her water bottle.
“If it’s a kidnapping, then this is the part where I’m supposed to ask for a ransom, right?”
“What are you talking about? If you don’t want to give it back to me, then why did you call?”
“Why does anybody do anything? Saturday night, 8 PM, the square downtown. Meet me by that big oak tree with the bench.”
The line went dead.
*****
It was Saturday night. Laura was sitting on the bench by the big oak tree, her leg bouncing up and down furiously. It was a quarter past eight, the mysterious stranger who had called her a few days earlier had yet to show her face. Just when she had about given up hope, she saw a woman with dark hair sauntering up towards her, the familiar outline of a water bottle dangling from her fingers.
She quickly stood up and marched toward the woman, who at least had the courtesy of stopping and raising her eyebrows.
“YOU!” Laura reached for the water bottle and the woman jerked it out of her reach. “Give me that!”
“That’s not very polite, cupcake.” She tilted her head and smirked. “Though that little bunched up face you make when you’re angry is hilarious.”
Laura felt her face scrunch up more in frustration but then tried to school her expressions. She would not give a thief the benefit of seeing her react. This loathsome woman had not only kidnapped her water bottle, had called her annoying nicknames even though she clearly knew her name, but was also refusing to give it back now!
“What do you want for it?” Laura huffed, her arms crossed across her chest.
“Go out with me tonight.” The woman raised her chin, her smirk traded in for a smug grin.
Laura recoiled a bit in confusion. Did she mean like, go out go out? She took another look at the woman standing in front of her. Her dark hair was framing her face in soft waves, her jawline was sharp and her nose elegant and pointed. She had one gorgeously shaped eyebrow cocked and her eyes were dark and warm, if not a bit mischevious.
She felt the words die in her throat.
How had her water bottle ended up in the hands of the world’s hottest, yet rudest , woman?
“What do you say? A date for your precious water bottle?”
Laura sighed. What the hell.
“Where are we going?”
The woman smiled. She raised her arms and gestured to the square around them. On one side, there was a small gathering of people at a restaurant for a concert, on another, there were small shops that were filled with warm light and people laughing, enjoying an ice cream or browsing through the vinyl filled shelves
“There are tons of things to do here. I’ll pick first.”
She turned and walked away. Laura stood still.
“You coming?” The woman called over her shoulder, holding up Laura’s water bottle as a reminder. She laughed audibly at the sound of Laura’s hurried footsteps behind her.
*****
Carmilla had bought her dinner. That was her name, Carmilla. They had sat down at some small sandwich shop and Carmilla paid after they both ordered.
Before Laura could even protest, the dark-haired woman had smirked and said, “Girls don’t pay when they go on dates with me, sweetheart.”
Laura tried to hide the blush that covered her cheeks after that. And tried to ignore how her wrist still tingled from where Carmilla had pulled her into a booth. The nicknames hadn’t stopped, but Laura decided to let that particular frustration go with the knowledge that Carmilla was flirting with her.
That was another thing that confused her about the whole situation. That Carmilla was so clearly flirting with her. Carmilla asked Laura questions about her major and stared intently while she answered. In turn, Laura learned that Carmilla also went to Silas. She found out that Carmilla had picked up the water bottle because she’d been volunteering at the concert.
“Do you volunteer at a lot of concerts?” Laura asked while picking over the last of her potato chips.
“Only the ones I kind of want to see. It’s a good way to hear the music for free.”
They fell into a comfortable silence after that. Laura caught herself staring at a smear of mustard on Carmilla’s face, small enough that she herself hadn’t noticed. She grabbed a napkin and leaned over the table, wiping Carmilla’s cheek before she could stop what she was doing.
It was when she realized how close their faces were that she finally paused.
Carmilla’s eyes flitted down to her mouth and Laura swallowed hard before returning to her seat.
“Sorry, you had something on your face,” Laura said nervously.
“Is that why you keep staring?” That smirk was back on her face.
That was one thing that frustrated Laura less now. Carmilla was smug and sarcastic, but it was charming. In a surprising way, because Laura usually never found cockiness attractive, but it suited Carmilla well. Somehow. Just like her jeans that looked painted on, which wow.
“You’re so full of yourself, y’know.” Laura threw a chip crumb across the table at Carmilla, who looked mildly offended.
Carmilla grabbed a chip and set it up on its side, holding it with one finger. She flicked it like a paper football across the table and it hit Laura square in the forehead.
“I’ve been told.” She stifled a giggle at Laura’s scrunched up nose.
“Is your normal date fare to flick food at girls?”
“Does anything else about tonight strike you as conventional, cutie?”
She had a point. Laura shrugged her loss.
“What are we doing next?” Laura asked, gathering her trash into her basket on the table.
“It’s your turn to pick.”
“How about that record store? Looked like there’d be some cool things there.” Carmilla nodded in agreement, and so they made their way out of the restaurant, Carmilla still carrying her water bottle.
*****
They’d started on different ends of the table, flicking through the clearance section.
“Clearance always has the best oddball stuff, give it a chance.” Laura urged.
“What if I was looking for something in particular?” Carmilla said slowly, in the tone Laura had learned was her “teasing” voice.
“Are you?” Laura responded pointedly.
Carmilla turned towards the clearance table silently and a triumphant grin spread across Laura’s face. Their banter was another thing Laura had found to be quite enjoyable. For all of Carmilla’s rough edges and snarky comments, she never meant any actual harm, and whenever Laura quipped something back to her, it just seemed to spur on their good-natured back and forth.
Laura began to drift towards the middle of the table, finding a section of movie soundtracks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carmilla getting closer and closer to her until their arms were nearly touching. Laura reached forward again, trying to pull out a dust-covered copy of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack when Carmilla’s fingers brushed hers over the same record.
“Sorry.” Laura jerked her hand away like she’d been burned. Carmilla let out a small chuckle and Laura tried not to feel embarrassed.
“Do you want to test this one out? It seems to have piqued your interest.”
“Uh, sure. Why not.”
They made their way over to an outdated Crossley that was sitting on an end table. Carmilla stood behind Laura as she pulled the vinyl from the open end and set it gently on top of the turntable. She stared for a moment longer, trying to decipher how to turn on the machine when Carmilla reached around her and flicked the on switch and smoothly put the arm in place.
The familiar tune of “The Time of My Life” starts playing, a bit crackly at the beginning.
Laura began to hum along and Carmilla reached her arm up, resting her hand on Laura’s shoulder. Laura tensed up and turned to face her, her expression surprised.
“Is this okay?”
Laura nodded, for some reason not trusting her voice at the moment.
Carmilla relaxed her arm, letting it rest across Laura’s back. The tension left Laura’s shoulders and she leaned into Carmilla ever so slightly. The nervousness that she’d felt when Carmilla had first touched her now swimming in her stomach. Throwing caution to the wind seemed to be the theme of the night. What the hell, Laura thought again. She let her head fall gently to rest against Carmilla’s shoulder, unable to find frustration with how comfortable their height difference made it.
They stood still while the song played out, Laura humming along still and Carmilla with a small, secretive smile on her face. Laura pretended like she didn’t see it. For Carmilla’s sake.
When the song ended, Carmilla spoke up.
“Why did you want to come to a record store if you don’t know how to work a record player?”
Laura lifted her head from Carmilla’s shoulder, a little more reluctantly than she would have liked.
“Honestly, because it seemed like something you’d want to do.”
There goes that smile again. This time Carmilla didn’t try to hide it from her.
“Well, what do you say we put this up and take it to the counter? I think it’s a winner.”
Laura smiled back.
*****
After the record store, they decided to just walk around. Even though it wasn’t the holidays, there were still white lights strung around the trees. It was one of Laura’s favorite parts of the square, it always felt magical.
Somehow, they’d ended up holding hands. Laura couldn’t remember if it was her or Carmilla that had initiated the contact, but feeling the woman’s fingers between hers and the way Carmilla’s thumb tended to run up and down her hand, she wasn’t upset. At all. In the slightest.
In fact, she was over the moon, even though she was still bewildered out of her mind.
How did her night end up taking her here? She’d just planned to get her water bottle back from an alleged thief and ended up going on a date with one of the most gorgeous women she’d ever seen in her life. A woman who was surprisingly sweet, respectful, funny, and charming. Who was carrying her, once believed hostage, water bottle in her free hand.
Laura cracked a joke and Carmilla threw her head back and laughed so hard she almost snorted. They’d drifted apart, their joined hands pulling them back together. Carmilla bumped her shoulder against Laura’s and Laura bumped hers back.
“Why did you ask me out tonight?” Laura asked Carmilla. Carmilla gave her a quizzical look. “And also, how did you know I was gay?”
“Honestly? I was just planning on giving you back the water bottle.” Laura’s jaw dropped and the edges of Carmilla’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “But then you were ready to rip my head off because you’d thought I’d stolen it. And you were, and are, so terribly cute, so I just had to think of a way to spend more time with you.”
Laura was stunned into silence. Carmilla continued, “But to answer your second question, you have that sticker on your water bottle that says “Yes, homo.”, so I figured the odds were in my favor.”
Laura shook her head, unable to shake the smile from her face. “You are unbelievable.”
“There are worse things to be, cupcake.”
They’d made their way back to the bench where they’d met earlier. Carmilla reluctantly let go of Laura’s hand and tucked hers into her back pockets. Laura sighed audibly.
“So I guess this is goodnight?”
Carmilla extended her water bottle towards her. “I guess so.”
Laura took it from her and tried to find the words she wanted to say.
“You should, uh, call me. I know you already have my number and I had a really great time tonight with you.”
“That works for me.” There was still a small distance between them and Laura was hesitant to say anything else. Carmilla took a step forward. “Is it okay if I kiss you?”
“Please do.” Laura breathed out.
Carmilla closed the gap between them. Laura’s free hand found purchase in the fabric of Carmilla’s jacket, as Carmilla cupped her face gently pressing their lips together. It was short and sweet and Laura wanted her to do it over and over again.
Laura’s hand held tightly onto Carmilla’s jacket when she pulled away. “Call me.”
“I will.”