"You're really touchy." Hanna tilted her head a little as she voiced out her observation to Shay, one of her closest friends, her eyes flicking towards Sasha who was walking away to talk to whoever was in charge in the Spa they were visiting that day. Sasha had been leaning her shoulder on Shay's shoulder while waiting to be called and Shay had had her arm draped across Sasha's legs, hand hanging off to the other side.
Shay looked up at Ashley, halfway into popping an almond into her mouth. Her movement slowed, but she popped it into her mouth anyway, and waited until she had chewed and swallowed before answering. "Am I not always?"
Ashley considered for a second. "You're right. Hugger, cuddler. I still remember almost completely carrying you when we went home from the club on your birthday. Because you refused to let go of me."
Shay blushed, and it was barely visible over her tanned skin. "I told you not to get me drunk."
"I repeatedly told you to stop drinking about two hours before we went home!" Ashley laughed, tipping the champagne glass to her lips to take a small sip.
"Uh-huh. Yeah. And an hour after that you invited everyone for shots."
"You didn't have to participate."
Shay gave her an incredulous look. "On my birthday?"
Ashley laughed again. "Then it wasn't a problem to get drunk."
Shay gave up trying to defend her dignity, and slumped in her seat. Ashley smiled at her and leaned back into her seat, too. "I kinda miss you. Our schedules haven't been synced for over a month now."
Shay couldn't make herself regret that because she'd made a really great friend in Sasha, but she smiled back at the blonde in front of her. "I missed you, too. It's entirely your fault. We were supposed to go out every month."
Ashley looked mock affronted, but she barked out a laugh anyway. "Why is everything my fault?"
"Hey, I invited you to this spa thing already. I'm the more proactive half of this friendship."
"That sounds sexual."
Shay and Ashley both turned towards the voice, Ashley's grin transforming into a smirk. "You know Shay. Always wants to be on top."
"Ash!"
"Sexy on the sheets," Sasha added, baiting the lone brunette in the group, and she smirked back at Ashely before looking at Shay, who had turned a very interesting shade of red.
Shay's mouth dropped open, before she shook her head. "I regret inviting you," she grumbled at Ashley.
Ashley just laughed, and she watched, half-amused and half-fascinated, when Sasha pressed her side to Shay's, and Sasha wrapped her arm around Shay to pull the taller girl down so she could place a chaste kiss to Shay's forehead. Shay's pout melted into a smile and she bumped her hip playfully against Sasha's, placated already.
"Wow."
The two of them looked up to Ashley who was looking at them as if she couldn't believe she had just seen what she did, but there was only curiosity in her gaze and not judgment. Ashley knew how two people who were progressively developing feelings together acted and this was like a prototypical example that Shay and Sasha were doing. She wondered if either of them noticed it, or it the heteronormative society they lived in made the two of them just a little bit wary of making any conclusions. From the slightly confused look Shay had given Ashley when Ashley had asked about her being touchy, Shay was at least on the wary end.
Ashley was aware that Shay was open to that kind of thing, though. She felt if Shay was wary, it wasn't because she was against the idea. The brunette was just feeling the usual uncertainty of having feelings for someone she didn't think would have the same kind of feelings for her. That was always difficult to deal with. Ashley had confided in Shay her fair share of uncertainty about the handful of relationships she'd had ever since they had become friends. Shay had been very supportive. Ashley thought she would offer the same to Shay. But Shay had to ask for help on her own.
Ashley didn't offer any of her thoughts to the girls in front of her, so Sasha shrugged, motioning for the two of them to follow her so they could start their series of activities for the day. They had all come from a light lunch and now they were ready to be pampered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had all planned to spend the night in the in-house hotel that was attached to the spa, but Ashley had received a call mid-afternoon from the guy she was currently and she had to leave after their simultaneous massages so she could spend the rest of her day with him. Shay had joked about not doing anything she wouldn't do, and Ashley had kept her voice low enough so Sasha wouldn't hear and told Shay that to do exactly the opposite and do what Ashley would do. Shay had blushed scarlet, finally getting to acknowledge feelings she had pretended only she was noticing. Ashley had always been someone she could talk freely with, so she had ducked her head, but smiled when Hanna pulled her in for an affectionate hug, shoulders shaking with teasing laughter.
"What was that about?" Sasha had asked, to which Shay had only shrugged, inviting the blonde left with her to the foot spa. Thinking nothing of Ashley's goodbye, Sasha agreed, tailing Shay towards their destination.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night had found Sasha and Shay in the fine dining restaurant that the spa boasted, sharing dessert like they always did after the sumptuous dinner.
"I ate too much," Shay moaned, lifting another spoonful of the dessert.
"Not nearly enough to make up for all your missed meals," Sasha chastised, licking her finger when she accidentally touched the ice cream while taking another bite.
Shay surreptitiously swallowed at the sight. "I'm making up for it, though," she tried to bargain in a mumble.
Sasha smiled. "You are. I don't know exactly how many meals you've missed, but by how guilty you look, I'm guessing it's more than I actually know about. Your kitchen's fully stocked, Shay. You never miss your exercise routines," Sasha added the last sentence pointedly.
"The exercise keeps me on the top models list."
"No, you do that effortlessly. I feel like even if you eat junk food for the rest of your life, you'd still be this sexy."
Shay bit her lip as she tried to control her blush. "That's not true."
"Uh huh. A month ago you ate, like, all your meals with me. And you almost always had larger servings," Sasha teased.
"I like to eat," Shay grumbled.
"I'm teasing," Sasha said, briefly leaning sidewards to place her head on Shay's shoulder, giving Shay's arm a slight squeeze at the same time before pulling back. "I'm glad for this day, though. Gives us a day to relax."
The corner of Shay's lips lifted. "Yeah. It's been a really busy past few weeks." She took her last bite of dessert and leaned back, finally thinking about what Ashley had brought up earlier before the blonde left. She couldn't believe Ashley had nonchalantly said that, even though she was aware that Ashley was really the only one who talked as freely as she did with Shay.
Shay also couldn't believe how shy she was acting around Sasha, especially when she had been so relaxed around the other girl in the past. In fact, she wasn't the type to be shy. The reason it was so easy for her to get deals is because most of the liaisons of magazines she met up with almost immediately warmed up to her because of her very free and relaxed nature. She was starting to be known in the modeling community as someone easy to work with and it was helping with her budding career. She was only a few years in, and she had been getting very good deals with very prestigious companies.
But here she was in front of Sasha, blushing at the slightest thing. She felt like shaking herself to snap out of whatever it was she was starting to slip into. There was nothing she could do about it, though, she was pretty sure. It was already a few months, and the feelings she had been trying to drown in work was just getting stronger. Spending more time away from Sasha had proven to be ineffective in trying to make herself feel less. In fact, she just happened to miss Sasha more and more. It was getting ridiculous.
"Shay?"
The brunette snapped her head up at the sound of her name, and she blushed--Damn it, she thought--yet again at being caught so deep in thought.
"Wow, am I boring you?" Sasha laughed, setting aside her spoon to lean back on her chair, motioning to a waiter for their check.
"No!" Shay sat up, but then forced herself to lean back on her chair again. "I- I mean, no. Of course not. I'm just a little-" A little attracted to you and maybe not really able to function as well as I should and it's getting a little out of hand and I don't know how to deal with it. "A little tense. About- about-" What the hell could she be tense about? "About my mom visiting on Monday."
"Your mom's visiting?" Sasha's eyebrows lifted.
Nope. "Yeah, um. We're meeting up for- for lunch." She was better at lying than this, Shay thought to herself with a mental slap.
"I was hoping we could have had lunch," Sasha admitted. "I actually cancelled lunch with Ian because I felt like we hadn't gone out in a while. But-"
"Oh, you can join us." The fuck. Her mom wasn't even coming.
"She wouldn't mind? You haven't seen her in a few months, right?" Sasha smiled at the invitation, but she had to make sure she wasn't interrupting possible mother-daughter time.
"Nope. She'd love to meet you, too. Get to know the girl her daughter's kissing on screen," Shay joked, and she finally relaxed. Good, she was joking again. Or was she flirting? Damn it, why was she a mess?
Sasha was oblivious to her internal struggle, laughing at the thought. "I feel like I have to make a really good impression, then." She scrunched her face. "I feel a bit nervous."
"You don't need to be. You're awesome without even trying, Sash."
Sasha pursed her lips, and shook her head while smiling. "You're way too biased."
"Let's hope the bias runs in the blood."
Sasha laughed this time. "Let's hope."
They both felt like this was more than just meeting a friend's parent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thanks for inviting me, sweetheart."
Shay smiled at her mother, feeling just a little bad that she had used her as a lie. Neither her mother, nor Sasha had to know, though. They all just had to get through this lunch and Shay could relax fully again and divert her attention to her developing feelings that she didn't even think were growing that rapidly until that weekend. She was hoping to ease into it, really, and maybe slowly make those said feelings be known to the girl she was developing them for, but nope. She was straight out falling.
"It's no problem. I've missed you. We were due for another lunch anyway. It just wasn't as soon as I wanted because I've been really busy." Shay smiled at her mom as they took a table. "It's ok that Sasha's joining us, right?"
"Of course. You know I love meeting your friends. I've already met the other four that you work with. I'm surprised I'm just meeting Sasha. Don't you work closely with her, too?" They were both handed menus, and they smiled at the waiter who was going to be serving them.
"It's only been lately that we've been really working close."
"Your characters are finally together?" Precious Mitchell smiled when she asked.
Shay grinned. "You'd have to watch to find out, mom." Her mother had always been shipping the two, oddly enough, and had been adamant in her protest against Paige and Emily because she had seen Paige try to drown her little girl, while Alison had been protecting Emily without Emily's knowledge. Shay thought it was adorable that her mother had been very protective of her character. Then again, those scenes where Emily had been in danger, Precious Mitchell had been watching her daughter play out. It was actually not all that unusual for her to be wary of characters who were attacking her daughter on screen.
Precious scoffed, closing her menu as she already picked what she was going to have. "I don't understand the aversion for spoilers. I would rather know that not know what's going to happen."
Shay laughed. "Only you, mom."
"Well, are you already together?"
Shay rolled her eyes. Her mom had been teasing her about her lesbian role since forever, saying the way she looked at Sasha couldn't be acted. "Just because I'm faking being a lesbian for a show..." Shay said, in a tone that seemed like this wasn't the first time she had to defend herself from her mother's teasing.
"Doesn't mean that you're not one."
Shay blinked. That was the first time her mom used that argument. She furrowed her brows. "What-"
"Hi, sorry I'm late!" Sasha sat beside Shay, giving Precious a wide smile. "The publicist needed to talk to me about something."
Precious lifted the glass of water they were served to hide the smirk on her lips when Shay had smiled affectionately at Sasha who had leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. When Precious lowered the glass, only a smile was visible. "It's no problem at all, honey. My daughter was entertaining enough anyway."
Shay made a face. "I didn't know I had to try." She made the introductions before looking back down to the menu to pick something.
"I'm joking, Shannon."
"Shannon?" Sasha grinned. "I didn't know anyone called you by that."
"Shay only started when she was in high school. Trying to be cool, right, sweetheart?"
Shay groaned. "It's not even five minutes, and you're embarrassing me already. You weren't like this with Ash."
"I found it a little discomfiting that you were both Ashleys," Precious explained, sliding the menu she used towards Sasha. "I'm paying for lunch, ok? I always pay when Shannon and I go out."
"Thanks, Mrs. Mitchell."
Precious made a face. "Precious, please."
"All right," Sasha smiled, opening the menu. "What are you having?," Sasha asked Shay.
"Steak."
"Then I'll have pasta."
Precious wondered why that sounded more conclusive than it should have. The three of them slid into a light conversation while they waited for their food. When they were served, Precious watched as Shay and Sasha moved in synchrony, navigating between plates to share the two dishes. They must have shared enough meals to pick dishes that they'd both want so they could share them. Precious didn't even know a lot of people who would eat steak with pasta. She only knew of her daughter. And now, apparently, so did Sasha. Precious watched as they both ate steak first before taking a forkful of pasta.
"You've eaten here before? I thought it just opened." Precious dug in to her own meal.
"We have. Shay and I make it a point to go to the new places that open, so we could try new stuff. We've even been to that... what was it?" Sasha looked towards Shay at her questions.
"Kainan. It was a Filipino joint. We shared a halo-halo. I haven't even had that ever. It was really good, though."
"And really different. It was only a small place, though. Along the strip of foreign food near the studio." Sasha nodded as she remembered that day. She and Shay had actually hidden in there for a while because the paparazzi had been extra persistent. Shay had just been featured in Vogue and they were all over her. Sasha accompanied her in her hideout, because Shay had been running out of places to avoid the paparazzi. They even camped out outside of Shay's house now. It would be better not to let Shay's mom know about that, though.
The conversation flowed, and by the time Precious needed to go, it was like she and Sasha were already best friends. It was 40% because they both found it amusing to make Shay blush.
"I can't believe she told you about my high school days." Shay scowled at the pavement, feeling betrayed by her own mother.
"Aww," Sasha cooed, smiling at the taller girl. "We were all a little embarrassing during high school, Shay. Don't be embarrassed."
"Uh huh. I'll stop feeling embarrassed when I start hearing about you sending guys love letters," she mumbled, still in disbelief that her mom told Sasha about how she did exactly that for a high school teacher.
Sasha laughed, but then disguised it as a cough when Shay gave her a dirty look. "Shay, she was just kidding."
Shay groaned, because she knew that but it was really the fact that it was Sasha hearing about it that made her feel worse. "Can we talk about something else?"
"She asked about us when you went to the bathroom."
"What?!" Shay stopped walking altogether.
"Well, I told her you were straight." Sasha reassured.
Shay tilted her head, momentarily distracted. "Are you not?"
"I've decided I'm questioning. Maybe a little bi-curious."
Shay bit her lip. "What made you decide that?"
Sasha simply looked at her, then smiled. "You don't have to worry about your mom, Shay. She doesn't seem to mind if you're anything."
"Wait, wait. What made you decide you're questioning? The last time we talked..." Shay's shoulders slumped. "We didn't really come to a conclusion the last time we talked."
"But you are straight, right? But open."
"I'm bi," Shay answered without hesitation. With all she was feeling for Sasha, it couldn't be that she was just curious.
It was Sasha's turn to look surprised. "What? I thought-"
"I only realized like... two weeks ago?"
"What made you decide that?"
Shay shrugged her shoulders. "It's not any one thing. I just haven't had any occasion to actually think about it because I didn't have any reason to. I've been attracted to girls before but my feelings for guys were easier to address since, well, that how I felt I needed to be attracted to someone. But I've always been open, yeah."
Sasha was silent, and they stood in the sidewalk for a few minutes, just silent. It was getting more crowded but they were both inside a bubble, like they were the only ones there. "So... so, there's occasion to think about it now?" Sasha's voice was breathless, and it was more quiet than usual.
Shay nodded, and she suddenly felt nervous. She didn't know how they've come to be talking about this. She thought she would have more time to actually process her feelings before she had to share anything to anyone, especially Sasha. "Yeah. There is."
"What... I mean who..." Sasha paused, wondering if she wanted this particular question answered. She wondered if she knew the answer. She wondered what she would do with the answer once she had it. She wondered if she would actually do anything with it. She didn't expect Shay to be this open about it, but the brunette had always been that way. "Who-"
"Sasha!"
They both turned towards the voice, and Sasha had never been both annoyed and relieved in her whole life. Ian walked towards the two of them, a large smile on his face.
A/N: Am I making you hate Ian, yet? :)))))) Dedication to my reviewers!!
JackyLittleLiar - Not anytime soon, lovely, sorry. :(
melilaguerra - I'm slowly showing how touchy they are but it needs to be subtle still. I'll be flashbacking (is that even a word.....) into the spa day in the next few chapters. ;)
MayethBalingasa - Real date will have to be much later still. But I hope this is ok for now! :)