- Hawaii lust - Jenna Ortega

050

"Actually...yes," Dahlia nods, looking at her. Dahlia sees Jenna take in a breath from the corner of her eye. "We have something to tell you."

"And that is...?" Her mom asks and narrows her eyes; a small, curious smile on her lips. She must know it's not bad news since Dahlia's been smiling this entire time.

"Well," she starts, then glances over at Jenna. Dahlia's been so focused on getting her through dealing with her nerves, that she didn't even realize she had a whole bunch of her own. "You know how I went with Jenna on the trip so we could pretend to date? So her family would get off her back?"

"Yes..." Her mom nods, then looks between them like she just might know where this is going.

"Once we got home, I sort of realized I had feelings for her," Dahlia breathes out, glancing over at Jenna again. Jenna's staring down at the table, her fingers curling under the sides of her thighs nervously. "And once I learned the feeling was mutual...we decided to do something about it. So we're together now. We thought you should know."

And then Dahlia reaches over and grabs Jenna's hand. Jenna looks at her and she smiles, and she gives a weak smile back, before they both turn to her mom.

It all sounded stupidly simple that way, even though it was really much more painful, complicated, and meaningful than that. But Dahlia just wanted to get straight to the point, lay it on the table, and maybe just tell her mom the full story one day when Jenna's not around to be embarrassed by her telling it.

"Dahlia," Her mom gasps and laughs, and she has tears in her eyes, and everyone's staring but it's very obvious she doesn't care because she reaches up and grabs both of their hands in hers. And now they're in a hand-holding circle, and Dahlia feels like Jenna and her mom are both going to break her fingers off for different reasons. "I love this, and I love you guys, and I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks," they both reply in unison, Jenna taking in a breath of relief and finally smiling.

"I have to say, Maddie's been predicting this for a while now," Her mom laughs, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, she sort of...predicted a lot," Dahlia nods and laughs with her, glancing at Jenna. They look at each other, both thinking of the "wall" thing. They quickly look away though, pushing it from their minds. If there was ever a time not to think about drunkenly making out with Jenna, and then drunkenly eating out Jenna, this is definitely it.

"I always thought there might have been something there, but I didn't want to push if you weren't ready. And before the trip, the way you acted with each other...I could tell you weren't," Her mom tilts her head, still smiling as she looks between them. "I'm just glad you both came to the realization on your own. I'm incredibly happy for you both, and I can tell you are too."

And then, together again, they say: "Thanks."

Her mom eventually lets go of their hands when the waitress approaches them, and Dahlia and Jenna both order the first things they see off the menu because they didn't have any real time to look at it.

They talk more about how it happened when her mom asks, but it's nothing too embarrassing, so even Jenna surprisingly answers some of the questions herself.

Eventually they part ways and Dahlia promises her mom she's going to stay in touch more, before they hail a cab back home.

"That wasn't so bad, huh?" Dahlia nudges Jenna's arm in the backseat, smiling as she watches her buckle her seatbelt.

"Yeah, it wasn't bad at all," Jenna nods, but seems happy that it's done and over with. "She's so great. You're lucky."

"You're lucky too, because you're going to be seeing her a lot more now," Dahlia assures her, smiling and leaning her head back against the seat as she looks at her. "I love you."