Evie's Job

32: Evie

Evie took off her coat and scarf as she walked through Natalie’s front door. She dropped both on the floor, and kept walking. It was a different scarf to the one she’d worn the last time she saw Natalie. She only had one coat and one good pair of jeans so the scarf was the thing she could change. She’d thought of it at home, and made sure it was different, but she wasn’t actually sure whether Natalie had noticed. Not that it really mattered.

There had been music on when they walked in. Natalie’s fuck-music, it sounded like, the old sad jazz. Evie wondered whether Natalie had already been listening to it, or if she’d put it on right before she came downstairs. Evie suspected she might have. It seemed very Natalie to keep Evie waiting in the cold while she got the music sorted out. She’d probably been fiddling with the lights, as well, to make them all romantically dim.

Evie thought that was adorable.

Evie was carrying her cigarettes. She’d had one downstairs while she waited for Natalie, and was still holding the packet because sometimes she felt better just for having a packet in her hand. She put it away in her bag, and then dropped her bag on the floor beside her coat, and then walked over to Natalie, and kissed her.

Natalie seemed surprised, but kissed back.

Natalie kissed well. She kissed intensely, like she enjoyed kissing, and wasn’t in a rush to see what happened next. She kissed with just her mouth, Evie realized. Lots of people did stuff with their hands, stroking and caressing while they kissed, but Natalie kept her hands on Evie’s arms and only kissed with her mouth. Evie liked it. Being stroked at the same time was actually a little distracting. Kissing Natalie like this, everything she was feeling she felt with just her lips, which seemed to make it all more intimate.

She kissed, for a moment, and then remembered her cigarettes. “Does it bother you kissing me after I smoke?” she said.

“No. You taste like Lapsang Souchong.”

Evie stopped kissing and leaned back. “What’s that?”

“Tea. Smoky tea.”

“Oh,” Evie said, not really listening, and kissed Natalie again.

Evie had a buttoned shirt. She hadn’t actually planned it that way, but buttons down the front meant it was easy to take off while kissing, so she did. She started undoing it, and Natalie didn’t seem to notice. Evie unbuttoned her shirt all the way down her front, and pulled it open, then slid it off her arms, and it was only as Evie moved her arms around that Natalie seemed to realize.

“Oh,” Natalie said, and looked quite surprised.

“Yep,” Evie said, and started undoing her jeans. She’d always wanted to walk into someone’s house, dropping clothes in a line all the way to the bed. She never had before, but she wanted to. She grinned, and kept kissing, and stood on the back of one shoe so she could step out of it. She managed to, then did the other, and was suddenly very glad she’d worn ballet flats.

She pushed Natalie backwards a little, hoping to move her towards the bedroom, hoping to get a little space to undress so she didn’t hit Natalie with an elbow somehow. She undid her jeans, and pushed them down enough to be loose on her hips. She lifted one foot behind herself, reached backwards, and tugged at the cuff of that leg until it moved, then did the same to the other. Then, feeling a little awkward, she pushed the jeans down and stood on the ends of the cloth of the legs to kick them free of her feet.

Natalie was staring. She was staring at Evie, quite entranced, and Evie was terribly glad she was.

“You’re staring,” Evie said anyway.

“I know.”

“Do you like or something?” Evie said.

“Oh, I do.”

“I can stand here a bit longer,” Evie said. “If you like?”

“All right,” Natalie said, so, a little surprised at herself, Evie did.

Evie stood there, in her underwear, letting Natalie stare. Wishing she’d actually gone and bought an actual set that properly matched, because she had a feeling that Natalie’s did right now, and that all of Natalie’s did. Wishing, but not terribly strongly, since Natalie wasn’t really looking at her undies. She was looking at Evie terribly intensely, in a way that was unsettling, but flattering too.

Flattering enough Evie forgot to be nervous and took off her bra. Natalie looked pleased, and Evie was glad. She had been a little nervous about getting undressed, since there’d been such a build-up, and she didn’t want Natalie to be disappointed. She’d been worried that they might work better as flirting than fucking, since it had taken them so long to get this far, but Natalie stared, and Evie was pleased that it all seemed to be working.

It was working well, so Evie pushed her underwear down too, and then stood on them to get them off.

Natalie watched, and bit her lip, and seemed suddenly speechless.

Evie was standing naked in the middle of Natalie’s apartment, being stared at by Natalie and anyone else who’d managed to see in the big windows, and she was standing there quite happily. Surprisingly happily since it wasn’t really the sort of thing she usually did.

Evie stood there for a moment with her arms at her sides, and didn’t know quite what to do next. She suddenly remembered Natalie’s flat tummy, and sucked hers in a little.

Natalie was staring, which Evie always found odd when the other person had all the same parts as her. Natalie was staring, but Evie didn’t mind. She didn’t mind at all if Natalie wanted to look. If anything she felt relieved. She’d felt slightly nervous earlier, almost afraid, worrying what Natalie would think. She knew she probably didn’t need to. She was fairly sure that Natalie wanted her, and also fairly sure that being younger meant undressing was going to be more unsettling for Natalie than for her. All the same, she’d been worrying, until she saw Natalie’s face, and then she realized that she needn’t have worried at all. Natalie looked like she felt the same as Evie, wanting and worried too. Worried, like Evie, that this wouldn’t end how they both wanted it to, and probably worried she wouldn’t be enough for Evie.

“You’re perfect,” Natalie said, sounding a little breathless. “You’re beautiful.”

And suddenly Evie felt better. She smiled. She knew she was smiling a stupid smile, but she smiled it anyway.

“I’m not,” Evie said. “You keep saying that, but I’m not.”

“You are. You just are.”

“Nope,” Evie said. “But I’m really glad you’re silly enough to think so.”

Natalie smiled, and it was such as nice, heartfelt smile that Evie wanted her desperately, but she made herself stay still. She stood there, and let Natalie look. Let Natalie look at her legs and chest, at her tummy and hips, at her eyes and smile, too.

Natalie looked at all of Evie. She seemed quite thoroughly into Evie.

Evie grinned, and stood there, wondering what happened next.