Chapter Text
Hope sat down at the small table next to the window of the SkyCity restaurant at the top of the Space Needle and sucked in a gasp at the view of the Seattle cityscape, the lights of the skyscrapers glowing in the distance. She looked back at Kelley with surprise. “It’s my favorite view!” she exclaimed gleefully.
“No way, is it?” Kelley replied, eyes wide in wonder as she pushed up out of her chair to take in the view better. She looked back to Hope, her smile wide and incredulous, with a hint of playfulness.
Hope smiled back and nodded, “Must have been fate.”
“Must have been,” Kelley agreed with a smug smile.
“Did you plan this?” Hope asked, tilting her head and squinting her eyes at the younger woman.
“Um, no?” Kelley responded, barely able to keep her smile off her face. When Hope narrowed her eyes at her, she caved, “Ok, so maybe when I checked in for our reservation, I may have mentioned that we’d like a table on this side.”
Hope laughed and fixed Kelley with an adoring look, “This is pretty amazing you know. I’ve never eaten here.”
“What a coincidence! Me either,” Kelley joked and snorted a laugh.
“Shut up, I was being serious,” Hope rolled her eyes at the forward, but was still unable to contain the smile on her face. It had been plastered there since the younger woman told her she loved her.
“As was I!” Kelley exclaimed in mock offense, going as far as placing her hand over her heart.
Hope shook her head at Kelley, who smiled back widely, and sighed. The waiter came over and took their drink orders. After he left Hope looked at Kelley for a moment and somewhat shyly asked, “So this is really happening, right?”
Sensing the seriousness of Hope’s question, Kelley swallowed and nodded, “Yes, it really is. I was honestly not sure if we’d ever get here, but I’m really glad we are.”
“Me too,” Hope replied, her voice low and conspiratorial. She met Kelley’s eyes and felt the corners of her mouth quirk up. “So you’re dying to tell me how you set all this up aren’t you.”
“Oh my god yes!” Kelley hissed, her voice growing higher in pitch as the words ran together.
“Well, you’re going to have to wait until after we order because I’m starving,” Hope laughed, teasing the younger woman.
“Ugh, not fair!” Kelley retorted, picking up her menu. She scanned it and put it down quickly.
“Do you seriously already know what you want?” Hope asked her raising a slender eyebrow.
Kelley smirked and replied, “I may have looked at the menu before I made the reservation and already decided what I wanted.”
“So you’re having the short ribs?” Hope asked innocently.
Kelley regarded her for a moment, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “It’s possible,” she replied with a huff.
Hope snorted a laugh, “Good to know you are still so predictable.”
“I am not!” Kelley said adamantly, scrunching up her nose.
“Yes, it appears that you are,” Hope countered, wagging her head back and forth in jest.
“Prove it,” Kelley challenged, leaning forward, her forearms resting on the table.
“Oh I will. Later,” Hope said with a knowing smirk, her eyebrows raised suggestively.
Kelley froze and stared at Hope, her mind working furiously behind her eyes, a faint blush pinkening her cheeks. She swallowed thickly before leaning back in her chair and raised an eyebrow at Hope. Finally, she said, “For your information, I am a southern belle and I will have you know that I don’t put out on the first date.”
“Mh, is that right Miss O’Hara? Well I never said when later. I just said later, so you’ll just have to wait,” Hope said, her eyes twinkling in challenge.
Kelley raised both eyebrows and licked her lips in preparation for a response, but was silenced by the arrival of the waiter. They ordered quickly, with Kelley indeed ordering the short ribs and Hope stifling a laugh into her wine glass. When the waiter walked away, Kelley turned back to Hope and shot her a pleading look. “Can I puh-lease tell you now?” she begged.
“Um, not yet,” Hope replied, setting down her wine glass. “I need to explain myself first.”
“Explain yourself?” Kelley asked, abandoning her begging.
“Yes, I need to tell you why I ran out of your house like an idiot. I want to be honest with you this time. I think it’s important if this is going to work,” she said, looking down at the table briefly, before looking back at Kelley.
Kelley nodded and picked up her wine glass. “Ok, I’m ready,” she said, taking a sip. “As long as there’s no apologizing.”
Hope sighed, “Kell I’ve done a lot of shitty things. You’re going to have to let me apologize sometimes.”
Kelley nodded thoughtfully before answering, “You’ve made all of your apologies. And you don’t need to apologize for freaking out when we kissed. But if you ever do need to apologize for something I’ll let you know, ‘kay?”
“Ok,” Hope agreed, a small smile tugging at her lips, her eyes full of adoration. “But really, I feel like I owe you an explanation. I ran out because I knew if I stayed we would just fall into our old pattern and I didn’t want that. We could never have had this. And honestly at the time I didn’t think we ever could, but I didn’t want to ruin the chance.”
“Mh,” Kelley responded thoughtfully. “So you’re saying you ran out against your will?”
“Something like that,” Hope laughed, shaking her head at Kelley’s simplicity. “No, I just knew that if I stayed I’d wonder if we could have had something real. If you really felt the way I did or if it was just a rebound.”
“You’re definitely not a rebound,” Kelley replied quietly, setting down her wine glass, her eyes seeking Hope’s in earnest.
Hope nodded and tore her eyes away from Kelley’s momentarily. She took in a deep breath and continued, “Well that was my worry at the time. I wasn’t sure then how you felt and you had just gotten out of a relationship. So when you asked me to stay and then you kissed me, my first thought was that maybe it was just a hook up.”
“You were never just a hook up,” Kelley told her, shaking her head.
“Yeah, well neither were you, but sometimes the lines were blurry. But yeah, you kissed me, I freaked out and then ran. I’m sorry for that. I thought my running away days were in the past,” Hope replied, looking down at the table in embarrassment.
“You make it sound way more dramatic than it was. I asked you to stay and then I kissed you and then you broke off the kiss and told me why and then you left. I will admit that you hustled down the stairs, but it’s not like you fled,” Kelley snorted.
“I did hustle down the stairs,” Hope laughed, taking a sip of wine, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
“Well you are quite the athlete as I recall. It was graceful. But after you left I started thinking about what you said and you were right. We’d never done this for real. We were all about sneaking around and keeping secrets, not having anything remotely real. So yeah, I kicked myself later for trying to seduce you that night. Especially because I wanted something real. We’d just never tried. It was never the right time. So I cooked up this whole scheme as a grand romantic gesture,” Kelley admitted, a smirk emerging from the corner of her mouth.
“Mm, well it was a good one,” Hope said with a smile of her own.
Kelley’s response was momentarily interrupted by the arrival of their dinner. Hope chuckled quietly as Kelley warred with her desire to tell her story and her desire to tear into her short ribs. Ultimately the story had to wait as she picked up her fork and quickly dug in. A small moan of pleasure escaped her and Hope raised a slender eyebrow in her direction. “Oh my god this is to die for,” she told the older woman.
“Worth making me wait to hear how you cooked this up?” Hope asked, her voice teasing and happy, a sound Kelley thought she could get used to hearing.
“Yes, yes, very much so yes,” Kelley replied as she shoved another bite into her mouth. Hope laughed and tilted her head appreciatively at Kelley, which made Kelley pause mid-chew. “What?”
Hope shook her head and laughed. “Nothing,” she responded. “You’re adorable.”
Kelley’s cheeks pinked slightly at the compliment and she swallowed her bite. “I don’t think you’ve ever said that to me before,” she said quietly, her shy smile lighting up her face.
Hope felt color rising in her own cheeks, but played it off, “Then I’ve been remiss. You were saying? Something about a romantic gesture?”
“Mmhm, hold on,” Kelley muttered before shoving another bite in her mouth. Hope shook her head and took a bite off her own plate, barely taking her eyes off Kelley. When the younger woman finally swallowed a healthy sip of wine, she continued, “Yeah so where was I? Right, so I figured I’d ask Pinoe for advice since she knows you and the city so well, but you were there too so I figured I’d just ask you, but I was nervous about it because I didn’t want to tip you off, so in hindsight, I should have just asked Pinoe later.”
Hope smiled at Kelley’s rambling and replied, “Yeah, I thought maybe you were asking because you were moving on and asking someone out.”
“Yeah well funny how I was trying to ask you out, but anyway, Pinoe told me how it came off later, so I decided to write you that letter and just put it all out there. And you know Pinoe, she was all for a dramatic gesture,” Kelley explained.
Hope snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes at Megan’s involvement. “That sounds like her. So did you run this whole thing by her?” she asked.
“Well I didn’t plan to, but Pinoe said she wouldn’t help me unless I laid out the whole plan and she had what she called ‘creative control,’” Kelley replied, her fingers curling up in air quotes at the end.
“Of course. She had advice for me too. I will spare you the details, but it was basically along the lines of ‘woman up,’” Hope responded, using air quotes of her own.
“Freaking Pinoe,” Kelley laughed. “So yeah, I gave her the letter and came up here and fretted until you showed up.”
“I’m sorry that I kept you waiting,” Hope said softly, her voice serious and apologetic.
“You’re worth the wait,” Kelley replied confidently. “But really, I was up here longer than I needed to be and I’m glad you took some time to think about it. I kinda said a lot.”
“You did,” Hope agreed. “Ultimately I was just happy you felt the same way I did. That took a minute to sink in.”
“I imagine it did. I didn’t give you much indication. Especially after you sort of told me how you were feeling in your backyard that night. Maybe if I had you wouldn’t have thought I was trying to pick up someone else,” Kelley laughed quietly.
Hope offered a small shrug in response. “Maybe, but I think we are on the same page now,” she said.
“Me too. And what an amazing page it is,” Kelley smiled, raising her glass. Hope nodded, a grin spreading slowly on her face, and raised her glass to meet Kelley’s. They finished their meal, enjoying each other’s company and laughing at their shared interactions with Pinoe throughout their whole ordeal. They decided they owed the midfielder a debt of gratitude and a little bit of a hard time for her interference.
As the evening wound down, they were reluctant to end the night, but finally decided they had to, as it was the eve of a game night. They made their way back toward the ground, their hands interlaced, both lost in their own happiness. When they stepped out into the night air back on the ground, Hope asked, “Hey so where did you park?”
Kelley chuckled before replying, “Um, so I took an Uber in hopes that you’d drive me home and walk me to my door.”
Hope laughed and squeezed Kelley’s hand, “Sure. I’m having déjà vu. Haven’t we done this before?”
Kelley fought to keep the smirk off of her face, but ultimately lost. “Maybe,” she shrugged. Hope shook her head and offered Kelley an amused smile. They walked leisurely to Hope’s SUV, neither wanting the night to end.
They arrived at Kelley’s apartment much too quickly for their liking, continuing their conversation long after Hope had parked and turned off the engine. Kelley made the mistake of glancing at her watch and frowned. Hope patted her leg, “It’s getting late, you should get going. Harvey will kill me if she finds out I kept you out this late.”
“Ugh, yeah,” Kelley agreed. “Walk me to me door?”
“Of course,” Hope replied, a twinge of nervousness in her voice. She swallowed it down and stepped out of the SUV. Her heart hammered in her chest as they walked up the steps to Kelley’s door. She chastised herself for being nervous, it was just Kelley after all. That thought made her smile. She turned to face the younger woman, who was smiling obnoxiously at her, and said, “So…”
“So,” Kelley responded, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “I had a nice time.”
“You’re such a dork, shut up,” Hope laughed, her nerves slowly leeching away. “So what happens now?”
“I don’t know what happens tomorrow or the next day or what we tell anyone, but we can figure that out later. I think this is the part where you kiss me,” Kelley breathed, her voice softening as she grew playful.
“Oh yeah, is that how this works?” Hope asked, pulling Kelley toward her. She felt a faint vibration as Kelley wrapped her arms around her. “Was that your phone?”
“Yeah,” Kelley laughed, leaning back and looking up into Hope’s eyes. “It’s probably Pinoe. She’s most likely freaking out by now.”
“Yeah she’s texted me seven times and called twice,” Hope replied, rolling her eyes at their nosy friend.
“Of course she has. She’s been blowing up my phone for the last hour. Do you want to deal with her or do you want me to?” Kelley asked.
“I’d love to let her sit and wonder, but she’s relentless and she’ll call every half hour if we don’t respond. I’ll call her on the way home. Better text her though so she leaves you alone,” Hope advised.
“Good call. Now where were we?” Kelley responded, her eyebrows raised, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Here,” Hope replied, leaning down and meeting Kelley’s lips with her own in a soft kiss. They stood at the top of the stairs lost in one another until the slamming of a car door returned them to their senses. Hope smiled against Kelley’s lips and slowly pulled away. “Goodnight Kell.”
Kelley’s hazel eyes were slightly dazed as they met Hope’s. “Goodnight Hope,” she replied, an air of amazement coloring her voice.
Hope reluctantly released her hold on Kelley, immediately feeling the void left by the absence of the younger woman. She stepped back and said, “See you tomorrow,” with a conspiratorial wink.
Kelley laughed and nodded, “See ya.” She put her hands in her pockets, suddenly cold without Hope’s arms around her. She watched her walk slowly down the stairs and into the night, unable to wipe the smile from her face, knowing that this time, Hope’s walking away was only temporary.