Chapter Text
The taxi pulled up in front of the hotel where the annual policing conference was being held, and Lisa took a deep breath as she opened the door to get out. It was a nice day, the weather mild but warmer than it had been recently. A clear sign spring was just around the corner. She allowed the driver to remove her bags from the boot, something she could’ve done herself. She knew he was just doing his job, but Lisa had a thing about people assuming she was weak just because she was a woman. However, she really didn’t have time to be aggravated by it. She was too busy being nervous.
This annual conference was mostly a bunch of boring sessions, boring networking, and more boring conversations capped off with a party where everyone got drunk and Lisa had to fake smile her way through it all. Until three years ago. Until Carla Connor.
Carla was a psychologist, a mental health liaison to the police in New York City, but her work originally took place closer to home, right at Weatherfield nick. That’s where she built a name for herself. That’s why, when the conference needed someone to step in for the mental health portion of the event, Carla’s name came up. Lisa and Carla had simply been acquaintances before, work colleagues, someone you recognise when you pass them in the hallway. But three years ago they became something more.
Lisa had been fresh out of a 10-year marriage, but she’d been with Becky for 14 years, a woman who she now recognised was emotionally abusive. But it was hard to admit that in the beginning. When Lisa met Carla, she wasn’t thinking about finding love again. She wasn’t thinking about ever loving again. Lisa thought she’d never be able to trust, never be able to feel. She’d made peace with that part of herself being in the past.
The pair of them hit it off at that first conference three years ago and had been friends ever since, meeting up at the same conference each year, but staying in touch with what had now become daily communications in between. Lisa knew now that her feelings for Carla went well beyond friendship. She just didn’t know what to do about it. She’d never said anything to Carla about it, but she yearned to. If she had any sort of inkling that those feelings were mutual, she wouldn’t hesitate. But the chance that they weren’t loomed large and that made being honest a little too scary for Lisa.
Lisa also wondered if she was even ready for something like this. If Carla returned her feelings, was she ready for that? Thanks to her avoidance issues, she was still processing the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-wife. It shattered her confidence in so many ways. She still chastised herself for staying so long, too long.
Then there was the trauma of Craig’s death she still hadn’t worked through. Her colleague and friend had been murdered while on duty just a few months ago. Lisa threw her entire focus into getting justice for him and then immediately threw herself into her next case. She hadn’t slowed down at all, not once. Carla called her on it. She saw right through Lisa’s façade. Even with an ocean between them. Whenever Lisa was dealing with something she tended to retreat, to pull away from the people in her life. Not that there were that many. She hadn’t wanted to tell Carla about Craig at all.
As she entered through the hotel’s sliding glass doors and approached the front desk to check in, Lisa wondered if this would be the weekend when she finally got a sense of Carla’s feelings towards her. Would this conference bring them closer together? Would she finally be able to say what was on her mind, in her heart?
As she waited for the desk clerk to get her keycards, Lisa looked at her watch. It was just after 2 pm. Carla’s flight should be landing about now. If everything was running on time, she’d be at the hotel within the next couple of hours. The thought of being in the same room as Carla, of seeing the brunette again, made Lisa’s heart beat a little faster.
Taking the keycards to her room, Lisa wheeled her luggage to the lifts and hit the button just as she heard her phone notification ding. She reached into her pocket to retrieve her phone, smiling when she saw the text preview on the screen. It was from Carla. She had landed.
Hey Swainy, plane just landed. Can’t wait to get out of here. The woman next to me talked my ear off for the last 3 hours! I’m exhausted, but counting on you to keep me awake so I can adjust to the time change. See you soon!
Lisa smiled to herself and felt butterflies in her stomach as she stared at the message. Carla would be here soon. What was she going to do?