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“Hey, I have to quit,” Karen says, and Jessica’s still half-asleep when she turns over in bed to see Karen toe off her heels before she crawls in next to her, fully dressed.
“You don’t work for me, Page,” Jessica mumbles, glaring up at her. “You never worked for me.”
“I don’t know, I think I worked pretty hard last night,” Karen says, hovering over her with raised eyebrows.
“That was an equal exchange of labor,” Jessica replies, smirking up at her, pushing up into it when Karen leans down to press a kiss to her mouth. She tangles her fingers in Karen’s obnoxiously perfect curls to keep her there a little longer, drowsily kissing her back.
“Well, regardless,” Karen says, pulling away with a small gasp and collapsing on her back next to her, shifting so their arms are pressed together. “You are now sleeping with the secretary at a prestigious new law firm.”
Jessica wakes up a little more.
“Prestigious?” she asks, dryly. There are words that she could use to describe that particular dynamic duo and prestigious is not one of them.
“Well,” Karen says. “It’s definitely new.”
“How’d they con you into it?” Jessica asks, sitting up enough to get a look at Karen’s face. Karen smiles serenely at her.
“I went to visit,” she replies. “I need a job, they need. . .a lot of help.”
“That’s for goddamn sure,” Jessica says, snorting. “They can pay you?”
“Eh,” Karen says. “More or less.”
Jessica stares down at her for a second before she sighs.
“Then congratulations, I guess,” she says, dropping down to bury her face in Karen’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around her.
“You know it’s almost six, right?” Karen asks, laughing. “Like, at night?”
“Don’t judge me just because you’re gainfully employed,” Jessica murmurs. “I own my own business.”
Karen kisses the top of her head.
“Get up and I’ll make you dinner,” she says, warmly, squirming out of Jessica’s arms and getting to her feet. Jessica makes a sad noise, and Karen reaches down to comb fingers through her hair. “Oh, come on. It’s my grandmother’s recipe, you’ll love it.”
Jessica stays in bed until she hears the oven timer then stretches out and follows the sound of Karen moving quietly around her kitchen. When she walks in, Karen says, “Have a seat,” without turning around.
“This is real domestic,” Jessica says. “I’m surprised you aren’t wearing an apron and pearls.”
“I didn’t think you’d be into pearls,” Karen says, shooting her a smile over her shoulder.
“You’d have to asphyxiate me with them to get them around my neck,” Jessica says, settling into a chair, pulling her legs up to her chest. “But you, uh—you’d wear ‘em well.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“If you want it to be,” Jessica says.
Karen’s cheeks are pink when she turns around, holding a casserole dish.
“I might,” she says,
“Shit, that’s, like, real food,” Jessica says, leaning in to smell it as Karen sits it down on the table.
“My grandmother told me in no uncertain terms that I was only supposed to make this for my future husband,” Karen says, sitting an empty plate in front of Jessica before she freezes and makes a face. “Which I realize sounds creepy, now that I’ve said it. It’s just lasagna. I’m not weird.”
“You’re a little weird,” Jessica says.
“It’s supposed to be full of virtue,” Karen says, “. . .so take that however you will.”
“I feel like your grandmother would hate me,” Jessica says.
“Oh, she definitely would,” Karen says, nodding cheerfully. “I like you, though.”
Jessica bites her lip for a second before she reaches up to slide her fingers into Karen’s hair and pull her down into a kiss, slow and careful. Karen smiles against her mouth.
“You like me, too,” she says, a little singsong, squeezing Jessica’s shoulder.
“Yeah, sure,” Jessica murmurs, rolling her eyes. “Just give me your weird virtue lasagna.”
Karen leans in to kiss her on the cheek before she sits down, and Jessica hides a smile in her glass of wine. She might like her a little bit.