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It’s Saturday night.
Kate’s asleep on the couch, head on Jo’s shoulder. She’s draped along Jo’s body, thigh tucked between her knees, chest expanding and contracting ever so slowly. It’s only a bit distracting. Jo’s been on the same page of this paperback novel for 30 minutes now. Her wrist is getting stiff from holding the book with only one hand. Her other one is tucked up the back of Kate’s jumper. She’s running her fingers up and down her back.
Jo gives up after she realizes she’s read the same sentence about six times in a row now. She slips the book onto the coffee table. She realizes Kate had been watching a rerun of Cats does Countdown with the volume off and subtitles on, likely done intentionally as to not disturb Jo. She can’t help but smile and gaze at the woman in her arms now.
Kate’s got a hand curled gently in Jo’s henley. She’s sleeping peacefully but there’s a little furrow in her brow. She always gets it when she naps, as if mildly perturbed that she was dozing off. It just made Jo smile more. She slipped a hand around Kate’s cheek and smoothed her thumb up between her eyebrows until the sleeping woman's face released the tension. She kissed Kate’s forehead and breathed deeply.
“Alright?” Kate asked, yawning but refusing to open her eyes.
“Aye.” Jo ran her fingers through Kate’s hair. The other woman knuckled her eyes and blinked blearily.
“What time is it?” Jo held her wrist up so Kate could see her watch. It was only half past nine. A bit early to turn in, even for them. “Christ.”
“S’okay.” Jo went back to cradling Kate's head, brushing kisses across her hairline and stroking her cheek. Kate preened under the attention.
“Didn't meant to fall asleep on you. Have I bored you?” She asked, a hint of self-consciousness leaking into the question.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Mmhm.” Jo kissed the bridge of Kate’s nose and then her lips.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Could lay here forever.” Kate sighed, starting to go boneless again. Jo suppressed a giggle at how blissed out Kate sounded.
“Well you won’t.” She tapped Kate’s nose with her knuckle playfully. “I’ve been holdin’ in a piss for 20 minutes and you’re cutting off all the circulation in the left half of my body.”
“You could have found a more romantic way to say that.”
“And last time we fell asleep on the couch we regretted it for a week.” Jo pointed out. Kate snorted and kissed Jo’s chin.
“Noted.” She withdrew her leg and shifted her weight so her girlfriend could slide off the couch.
“Fancy a glass of wine?” Kate called after her.
“Yes please!”
When Jo returned from the bathroom the TV was off and there was a healthy pour of Riesling waiting for her on the coffee table. In a mug. One of them (Kate) must have forgotten to wash dishes (again). Jo sighed but laughed, picking up the mug and joining Kate across the room, where she was flicking through their vinyl collection and booting up the record player. Jo took a long sip of wine and rested her chin on Kate’s shoulder, nuzzling into her neck after she swallowed. She sees Kate’s wine is in a beer stein.
“Did you-“
“I did not do the dishes, my beloved. Thank you for noticing. Keen eye you've got there. Detective worthy.” Kate sighs, grinning as she feels and hears Jo giggle into her shoulder. “It’s a problem for Sunday Kate. Saturday Kate is trying to decide between Back to Black and No Need to Argue.” She held up the respective record sleeves.
“Winehouse first, Cranberries second.” Jo kissed the back of Kate’s neck before pulling away and returning to the couch. Kate skipped Rehab and went straight to You Know I’m No Good just as a steady rain started to tap against the windows. She kept the volume low.
Kate returned to the couch, lifting Jo’s legs and draping them across her lap after she sat.
“Any plans tomorrow?” Kate asks, rubbing some of the tension out of the left thigh she had supposedly been depriving of circulation during her nap. Jo smiled and shrugged, taking another sip of her wine. “Cause if not…” Kate raised an eyebrow and slipped a hand a little further up Jo's thigh. Jo batted her away.
“If we don’t get out of bed and get down to the farmer’s market we’ll be eating takeaway for another week. And that's two in a row. We should at least attempt something green.”
“Spoil sport.” Kate teases.
“A mere hour of your morning, love.” Jo put on some mock sympathy. “I know it’s difficult, but we can go back to bed as soon as you’ve washed the bloody dishes.” Kate threw her head back against the couch and laughed.
“I’m sorry you? Jo Davidson? At the farmer’s market? For only an hour?”
“We only need the essentials.”
“Yeah but your essentials never get purchased until you’ve had two iced coffees from two different vendors, pet every dog we pass, and chat up the goat soap lady for at least 45 minutes. And that’s if we’re moving fast and got there before the flower stand has opened.” Jo goes a little pink and they’re both trying (failing) to be stern with each other. Jo cocks a knee up and shoves Kate’s thigh with the heel of her foot.
“Oi! I do not chat up Greta!” Kate grabs her ankle and tickles it. Jo shrieks and almost sends both their drinks flying.
“You’re on a first name basis with the soap stand lady? I’m fucking heart broken now.” Kate cackles.
“Kate she’s fucking 80!” They’re fully tearing up now, cracking up laughing over nothing. But it’s everything really. Jo pulls her sleeve down and wipes at her eyes and watches Kate down the rest of her drink. “Another?”
“Please.” Jo gets up and brings the bottle back from the kitchen. They tap the mug and beer stein together in a quiet cheers. Kate picks up the book Jo abandoned, scanning the back briefly before frowning.
“What?” Jo snickers, snatching her book back.
“You didn’t get enough of that in school?” Jo sighed again, but Kate was looking at her with such naked affection that the teasing had lost basically all of its bite.
“It’s a retelling of the Odyssey from a different character’s perspective. Not at all like reading the original. I think I like it. But literature was probably my worst subject in school.”
“Really?” Kate looked dubious then, but curious. And also delighted. The kind of expression that said tell me more. Or even tell me everything.
“I used to bunk off and go to the library.” Jo admitted. “I never wanted to read what we were reading in class. I liked myths but I think I liked fairy tales more. Folklore. Childish stuff, I guess.”
“Nah." Kate shook her head. "What was your best subject?” Jo thought it over a moment.
“History, probably. You?”
“Maths.”
“What? No jokes about PE?”
“I used to skip chemistry classes to hang out with our PE teacher during her free period. She'd help me with homework and was pretty good at maths.” Kate said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” Kate waited till Jo was about to swallow another sip of wine. “I mean, she was no Greta, but…” Jo nearly choked. Kate laughed so hard she spilt a little wine down her own shirt. Jo put both their glasses down after she caught her breath again.
“Always such nonsense with you.” She chided, pulling the giggly woman closer. Kate framed Jo’s face in her hands and kissed her softly. Jo hummed happily but Kate pulled away before she could deepen it.
“So. No nonsense. Business only. Tomorrow. Three or four hours at the farmer’s market. I’ll wash the dishes. You’ll run the hoover. Anything else need tending?”
“Me.” Jo tried to kiss Kate again but Kate dodged, kissing her cheek instead.
“Focus, love. We need an agenda or else we’ll be eating takeaway for another week.” Kate plagiarizing Jo’s own words had no right being that funny but they were well on their way to tipsy and half drunk just from the sound of each other’s laughter. Jo felt her chest ache with it. Laughter and sheer contentment.
Jo tipped forward, tugging the collar of Kate’s shirt aside so she could kiss the crook of her neck.
“You’re a menace to my health…” She felt Kate’s throat vibrate as she laughed. “I love you so much.” When she pulled back the other woman was practically glowing. Kate traced Jo’s jaw with her fingertips.
“Never thought I could have it this good, Jo.”
“Yeah?” Jo wonders, her own throat feeling a little tight all of a sudden. “Me neither.” She cupped a hand around the back of Kate’s where it was resting on her face. She tilted her chin down to kiss her fingers. Kate traced Jo’s bottom lip with her thumb.
“I could do this forever.”
“You could.” Jo cleared her throat. “If you want.”
“I do. So I guess I will be.” Jo pressed her lips to Kate’s palm.
“Is that a yes?”
“Was that a proposal?” Kate asks, drawing Jo into a kiss before she can answer.
“Oh no.” Jo says, so serious it nearly evokes some nostalgia for MIT briefings. “Definitely not. You’ll know when it is.”
“I’ll be sure to pay attention then.” Kate kisses her again. And again. And again. She’s nearly got Jo pressed into the couch cushions when Jo breaks away breathlessly.
“Kate, we need to finish the wine first.”
“What, seriously?”
“It won’t be nearly as good if we leave it out.”
“What did we get those fancy stoppers for then?” Jo dodges Kate’s kiss this time, nudging her up and out of the way so she can grab her drink.
“We don’t buy fancy enough wine for those to do their job.”
The record scratches. The A-side has finished playing. Kate groans as if wounded but presses a long and affectionate kiss to Jo’s forehead before getting up to flip the vinyl to the other side.
“Had to go and fall in love with a cheap wine snob, didn’t I?” She says as she crosses the room.
“I’ll buy you a good one tomorrow and we’ll see if you can even taste the difference.” Jo says, wrapping up in a throw blanket and sinking into the corner of the couch with her mug clutched to her chest, looking so relaxed and happy Kate nearly forgot what she was doing until she looked down at the record in her hands.
“Steady on sugar mama.” She jokes.
“Fuck off.” Jo snorts into her cup.
“I’d rather fuck you.”
“Drink up then.”