The Secret Love Scandal

6

"I want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for what you did there," Samantha pulled open the glass door leading onto the small balcony. There was a roof ahead, thankfully. The light drizzle had gradually become heavier.

Adriana found the small space outside comforting. Her gaze wandered into the living room where Jordan was now buried between the pages of the first Harry Potter book. "Samantha, you need not thank me. This is cozy."

The blonde gestured at the brown leather settee baring two comfortable cushions. "After you."

"Quite the gentlewoman you are," the older woman acknowledged with a smile. She settled herself onto the soft seat and awaited Swan to sit beside her. Instead, Samantha leaned a hip onto the iron rail that bordered the small space. "Are you okay, my love?"

"Yeah," Samantha squinted at the sky, her face upturned, "kind of...I don't know...feeling a little mushy at the moment. I blame it all on you. How's the..." she gestured at her midsection with a frown.

"Oh it's perfectly fine," Adriana said, glancing down with a smirk. "It says hello," she teased.

"You really like doing that, don't you?" the blonde's cheeks flushed. "Getting to me somehow."

"I find it insulting that you wouldn't join me on this comfortable settee," Adriana said in a calm tone.

"Maybe it's because you'll make me feel uncomfortable in a good way," Samantha admitted with a shrug. Biting her lips, as their eyes met and a gaze was initiated, she smiled. "Geez, when you look at me like that, I just get this...fluttery feeling inside my chest. No one has ever looked at me like that before."

"Oh that's called love, dear," the brunette provided, that smirk still playing upon her red lips. "Admiration, attraction...Sit next to me. Come on. I'd like to have you close to me."

"In a minute," Samantha looked up at the sky again.

Adriana frowned. "Miss Swan, you do realize that we haven't kissed since that night when you...pushed me away."

"I kissed you in the hospital," the blonde reminded her. "Didn't you feel that?"

"It's not the same," Adriana's chest ached. She patted the seat next to her and sighed. "Samantha, sit next to me and let's have the conversation that has been prolonged enough."

"What conversation?" Swan complied, but slowly with a frown upon her face.

"Us," the older woman provided in hoarser tone whilst studying her hands. "You. Me. The wall between us."

"What?" Samantha tried to appear confused. "There is no wall."

"This..." Adriana began in a softer tone whilst their eyes met, "is you being defensive. Samantha, after that night, everything happened so fast. I was shot. Rushed to the hospital. And after then, you have tended to me like no one else has ever....done before. When I believed that you would leave me, you stayed by my side. Every single day you talked to me. We had conversations. You've shown me that I can love someone and they wouldn't run away because of my past or because of my broken pieces. But then...ever since I've come into your apartment, every single day you wake up, you check on me and then you're gone. When you get home..."

"Adriana..." Samantha began in a hurt tone.

"When you get home," the brunette continued, reaching out to grasp the blonde's hand, "you're so tired from work, you're off to bed without coming to sit with me and talk to me. I cannot keep denying my feelings and what I...want," Adriana admitted as her lips quivered. She however did not divert her eyes from green ones. "I very much would like to be so close to you at times, that it hurts me physically, Samantha. It hurts that you wouldn't even...lie next to me or embrace me."