They were in the bathroom and the Italian had just rinsed her mouth, whereas the blonde had always full of toothpaste.
- "tell me, I thought... For London."
- "hmmmm?"
- "I would like to introduce you to Charles"
-----
Maya had spit her toothpaste on the glass.
- "What?!"
- "I'd like you to meet Charles."
- "Charles as in Charles your former husband, or did you not tell me you knew the king?!"
- "Maya..." Carina said, looking at her through the mirror.
- "No, but Carina, do you realize that you want me to meet the father of your son, the guy you married, when I proposed to you like three hundred times?"
- "at least!" They'd stared at each other through the mirror, then the blonde had looked away to clean up the foam she'd spit on the mirror.
"Maya..." Made the Italian in a small voice as she came to take her hips and placed her chin on her shoulder. A way for her to ask her again, without pronouncing the words.
-"Carina..." Answered she, the defeatist voice, as to answer that she could not ask her that.
-"He meant a lot to me, and I've never been in love with him. I'm going to want to see him when we go... And believe me, I think it will be more unpleasant for him than for you."
- "Well thank you"
- "he knows I was always in love with you"
- "he didn't mind marrying you"
- "he didn't know it yet..."
- "would you like me to introduce you to the girls I slept with?"
Carina had removed her hands from Maya's hips and stepped back.
-"If any of them meant anything to you, yes... if not, no thanks, I don't think my life would be long enough."
- "what is that supposed to mean?"
- "already before we met you had a well-filled hunting list, I think that in thirteen years the word list is not enough"
- "oh yes, you would have preferred that I get married and have children?!"
Carina had blinked, keeping her eyes closed for a few more seconds. It was as if she couldn't believe that Maya would say that.
"love excuse me, I didn't mean that" she made as she tried to grab Carina's hand, who had raised her hands in the air so she wouldn't touch her and backed away.
-"I think you should go home and sleep there."
- "no, wait Carina-"
- "I think you've said enough, Maya"
- "you know I didn't mean it"
- "why did you say it, if you didn't mean it?!"
- "and you really think I'm ... What? An easy girl? A slut?"
-"I never used those words!"
- "but you seem to think so"
- "you know what?! Go to sleep. I'll sleep in one of the guest rooms."
Carina had retrieved her pillow from the bed and gone to one of the guest rooms. Before the blonde could even hold her back she had locked the door.
How did they go from moving in together, to having separate bedrooms in one evening, in one sentence.
-"Carina... Carina ... amore" Maya put her hand and forehead on the door.
The Italian hadn't answered despite the four times the blonde had called her.
When the brunette had gotten up four hours later, to go to the bathroom, the blonde was asleep sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall next to her door.
Carina had seen her and when she returned to the guest room, she had not locked the door.
Maya had gotten up two minutes later, of course her girlfriend had woken her up, but she had pretended to still be asleep. She had pushed the door open and lay down next to the brunette, who was on her side, facing away from her.
The blonde had placed her lips on the brunette's cheek and she had had a salty taste on her mouth, Carina had cried.
She had kissed her cheek on the way to her lips. Still with her eyes closed, as if she was sleeping, the Italian had begun to turn her head towards her.
The blonde had put her hand on the opposite cheek of her girlfriend and found her lips.
They had slowly opened their mouths a little more and kissed sensually. Carina's hand had come to rest on the back of Maya's neck.
They had kissed until the brunette broke their kiss and came to stick her forehead to the blonde's.
-"I'm so in love with you Maya. Don't ever think that I can see you as an easy girl, or that vulgar word you used" she had whispered as a few tears had escaped from her eyes again. "You are the love of my life, forgive me"
Maya had passed her thumb on one of the cheeks of the Italian to erase her tears.
-"I am the one who is-" but Carina hadn't let her finish her sentence. She had come to kiss her again.
They had kissed long minutes before finally falling asleep, entwined, in the arms of the one of the other.
When Carina had opened her eyes on Saturday morning, Maya had been looking at her facial features. The blonde's eyes were sad, probably one of the saddest looks the Italian had ever seen on her girlfriend.
- "bambina?" she asked worried
The captain had looked her in the eyes and had made a not at all convincing smile.
"What is it?"
- "I made you... I made you cry" she had struggled to say that sentence. "I, I hurt your feelings."
- "but it's okay now, I'm in your arms"
-"I had not seen that night that you had cried so much... Your eyes... They are all red and swollen. You cried because of me."
-"hey" Carina stroked her cheek, seeing that it was Maya who was on the verge of crying now.
-"I promised myself I would never hurt you, never make you cry, no pain, and yesterday I... I said... When I don't even mean it... What-"
- "bambina... You thought I said you were an easy girl... I think we're even"
- "in this sentence what can hurt me is that you think that. If half the world thinks that about me, I don't care, what would hurt me is that you think that."
- "I'm just jealous of all those girls. But that doesn't mean you're an easy girl, or a slut. Do they say a guy who has many conquests is a slut, no. So why should a girl, as beautiful as she is, as talented as she is, as adorable as she is, and who breaks hearts like no one else, be one? You are Dona Juana... But your career is over, you're mine now, for life"
- "and we're not even, I shouldn't have said that. Even if Charlie had still been there, it wasn't fair of me".
- "Maya, do you love me?"
- "more than anything."
- "you and I are forever?"
- "and even beyond"
- "that's all I care about."
- "you can't forgive me that easily"
- "you forgave me because I had a child and got married"
- "it's not the same"
- "you forgave me, because you love me and you can't live without me?"
- "there was nothing to forgive, because we were not together"
- "except in my heart... But you could have been angry with me... Know that if you don't blame me, because it would be more difficult for you to live without me, than with me and my past... Well know that it's easier for me to forgive you for a sentence that came out when you were angry, than to live without you... You are the love of my life Maya Bishop"
The blonde had brought her lips to the brunette and she had come to kiss her.
- "will you ever say yes to me?" Asked the captain against the lips of her companion.
- "don't doubt it"
Maya had lightly pushed Carina's body onto her back and she had come to lie on top of her, to continue their kissing session.
On Sunday morning, they were getting ready, still in their underwear, in the Italian's bathroom. They had spent part of their Saturday deciding whether they should live at Carina's or Maya's.
There were several pros and cons to each of the accommodations; notably, Carina's was bigger, and no other girl, or boy, had slept in her sheets, and the rent was less as her company paid some of it. But the apartment was rented. On the other hand, Maya's apartment belonged to her, was finished to be paid, but it was smaller and indeed, conquests of the blonde had come in this housing.
So on Sunday mornings they were always arguing.
-"But you remember... When we were younger, I told you that I wanted to have a pool table later on in our house... If we live in your apartment, goodbye to the idea of a pool table, whereas there is space here"
- "your only motivation for having a pool table is... What I proved to you yesterday? That could happen, even on a classic table?"
Asked Maya, looking at Carina who was behind her through the mirror.
The Italian had blushed and bitten her lip.
- "It's disloyal..."
- "you didn't seem to think so yesterday"
- "I still want a pool table, because playing against you was... Exquisite, and there are looks or gestures, which I can't decently do, if we are going to play in a public place."
- "oh yeah?"
- "a strip pool... Stick my buttocks against you when I have to bend over to play, put my hands on your thighs... Like this" she said, putting her hands on Maya's thighs and pulling them up against her legs.
- "okay, okay, okay, the pool table is a must."
- "essential..." Carina repeated in her ear. "and I want to take you on this pool table..."
Answered the Italian coming to stick to the body of her girlfriend.
- "Carina... We have to get ready to go to my parents".
- "I'm a little stressed to see ... Lane"
- "you, do you want me to cancel?" Maya asked as she went to put on lipstick.
- "no... And no, wait" Carina said as she held the captain's arm. "On the other hand I wouldn't say no, to relax before we go"
She answered by passing her index finger along the spine of the blonde.
-"We have only thirty minutes before leaving".
- "wide..."
- "you want us to go -"
- "here's fine" she replied, putting her hand on the clasp of Maya's bra and leaning forward. Coming to rub against her buttocks.
- "ah because-"
-"I want to lick you... But I already put on my foundation and everything..."
-"you're pretty raw sometimes," Maya replied, looking at her in the mirror.
- "ché ? Don't blame me for my cravings, you want to go back two weeks? When you couldn't make love to me, Or kiss me?"
- "no, that reality is much more..."
- "more?" Carina asked as she came to run her fingers between her skin and her lace thong.
"Maya... In case I forgot to mention it, you in that kind of underwear... It is a highway to impure thoughts... You are simply... Lickable. And not as in 'tantalizing'... though you are too, but really to, further, lick."
- "I prefer this reality."
The Italian had lowered Maya's bottom to her knees and on her way up had kissed the blonde's buttock, then along her spine, before coming closer for her to turn her head and kiss her on the lips.
Carina had slightly shifted, to better reach her lips, and her hand had slipped in the back of the captain, then against her buttock, between her thighs, she had gone up in her vulvar slit, before coming in her.
- "I understand why you did not want me to put my lipstick" once their little escapade finished.
- "you don't need it anymore... I can't help it if I'm addicted to your lips".
- "Which ones?"
- "all of them"
- "what if we stayed here and made love instead of going?"
- "no bambina, we'll go, and we'll show your father he was wrong... And then we'll go home and have sex".
Once in the bedroom, Carina had put on a classic pair of straight cut pants, with a shirt and bazer over them. It was a simple outfit and one that she wore almost every day but Maya couldn't help but look at her and swallow, every time.
Once her trance state had passed, the captain had put on a white V-neck sweater.
- "by the way, it's yes."
- "about?"
- "I would like to meet Charles"
- "no, I saw the other night that it was a problem and I don't want anything or anyone to interfere with our relationship"
- "It won't. I shouldn't have gotten so upset, you didn't force it on me, it was a question. And I got carried away, I shouldn't have. And so it's yes, I would like to meet him."
- "bambina..."
Maya had walked over and taken Carina's hands.
- "I promise my love, I want to meet him. And like you said... You married him for Charlie, not because you loved him with love."
- "I had affection, but I wasn't in love with him, not like I love you... Not even the way I loved you, when you were annoying me for flirting with her, or when I wanted you without daring to say it, after our first time..."
- "sixteen years... Sixteen years I've been madly in love with you Carina DeLuca".
- "it counts, right? All the years between? We'd still be together, if, if we hadn't been separated?"
- "of course we would, you mean everything to me"
- "it ... We have to go, because I want to close that door and put you in that bed and sweat... A lot... For hours"
- "your program is much more attractive than the one your parents offer us"
- "you don't even know what we eat"
- "believe me when I tell you that the only thing that tastes better than what's between your legs is the lips of your mouth... So no matter what your mother cooked... Nothing tastes better than your body".
- "Let's go Mrs. DeLuca because I'm gonna lose my temper"
They had left and arrived at Katherine and Lane's house, they had waited for Mason to arrive, which he did two minutes later.
After saying hello, they went to the door.
-"Should we knock?" Mason asked.
-"Do you think so? We've all lived here" replied Maya.
-"I'd be more comfortable if we knock" said Carina.
-"Then we'll knock" said her girlfriend and her brother-in-law.
They had done so and Katherine had come to open the door.
- "my loves!!!"
One thing is for sure, Katherine was always happy to see them.
They had come in and Katherine had taken turns hugging them. Then the fateful moment had come. She waved them into the living room where Lane was waiting, standing by the sofa.
Carina had the impression of having gone back fifteen years. The room was still laid out the same way. The color of the walls had changed and there were no longer two sofas but a large one at an angle.
Mase had been the first to go and shake his father's hand. Maya had hugged him quickly and then she had extended her hand to Carina who had approached. She had reached out to Lane and shaken his hand.
- "Lane."
- "Carina, it's been a long time."
- "thirteen years"
- "London..." He did as if he had blacked out this memory from his mind.
"When Maya became Olympic Champion."
- "she was already a champion, long before she won"
- "well who wants to drink what?" Katherine asked.
- "I'll come and help you mom" said Mase.
Mason, Maya and Lane had a beer. Carina and Katherine had taken a glass of white wine each, that the two young women had brought.
Mase and her mother were still in the kitchen and the other three protagonists had settled around the coffee table in the living room, on the sofa. The Italian had looked at the blonde and she had leaned towards her, to whisper in her ear.
-"When I moved out, I got the couch... And my parents bought this one... For years, I had memories of us on that sofa..."
The Italian woman had turned red and lowered her head.
Mason and Katherine had returned with the drinks and with the aperitif.
- "so how are you doing my darlings?"
-"good thanks" Maya answered, taking Carina's hand, which earned her father a look at their joined hands.
-"How long have you two been... Da- are you seeing each other again?" Lane asked.
-"We met at the reunion in mid-June," said Carina.
-"and we've been together ever since... I told you that Carina was the woman of my life, it was only a matter of time."
- "and then my beautiful, what have you become all these years?" Katherine asked.
-"I studied to become a teacher, I was at Oxford... Hence my presence in London in two-thousand-two" she had turned her head towards Maya and smiled.
"And then I became a teacher. I was a teacher in a college, in the suburbs of London. Then..."
She had looked at the blonde and she had nodded positively, she had turned her head again to her companion's parents, "... I met a man, well a young man my age, I was almost twenty-two. I am, I got pregnant ... And Charles, that's his first name, he's from a very religious family. So ... I got married and I had a beautiful boy. Charlie. When I was pregnant, my... Ex-husband came across some pictures of Maya... And he asked me who she was... And I said she was..." She had turned to her lover again, she had looked at Maya's lips, then her eyes, "the love of my life..."
She had turned her head towards the blonde's parents. "I was always in love with your daughter, I never stopped. So before I was twenty two I got pregnant, at twenty two I got married, divorced and became a mother."
- "quite a statement" Lane made with an indecipherable reaction.
-"You could have brought your son," Katherine replied. But from the look in Mase and Maya's eyes, she knew there was more to it.
-"He, he, he past away. He had cystic fibrosis, the most aggressive form. I stopped teaching. I did organ donations, he had transplants and so on... But he contracted a bacterium before he was five. And after that... I tried to go back to colleges to teach, but it was too much for me. I couldn't spend my days around children. I stopped working. I went to therapy, but it wasn't until I saw Maya again that I really started to get better... She is the only person in the world who could heal my wounds. And I don't replace one love with another, because I can't replace the love I had as a mother for my son, or vice versa, I couldn't forget Maya, with Charlie. And so a few years ago I started working at Relentless, I was promoted and the head office is here, so I didn't hesitate for a second... Seattle, seeing Maya again, having a chance, if she was still single, to make her fall in love with me again."
- "ooooh, I'm sorry, honey," Katherine said as she came to hug Carina. "Sorry for the loss of your son."
- "Maya ate her fetal twin" Lane replied, as if that were comparable. From the looks he received he added, "I'm sorry for your loss."
-"Thank you, both of you."
The three young people wondered if Lane had been sincere, or if he had received orders before they came.
They had continued to talk over an aperitif. The part, probably the most difficult, had passed. It had been important for Carina to tell her parents-in-law that. She didn't want any secrets, she didn't want them to learn about Charlie in the course of a conversation. So it was done.
Katherine was now looking at her with the saddest eyes in the world and Maya was trying to get her to stop looking at her girlfriend that way.
They had told a little about what had happened in their lives during those fifteen years, the life of the Bishops had been much less eventful.
Then, they went to the table.
They could all see that Lane was holding back on every intimate gesture between the two women.
After the entrée, Carina got up, helped Kathy and went to the kitchen with her.
-"I've missed having you in this house so much," the brunette's mother-in-law whispered.
-"And I'm so happy to be here... Finally seeing you again."
- "do you have a picture of your son?"
- "yes of course" Carina answered with a huge sincere smile.
- "well, if you don't mind"
- "no, of course not... You could just be..."
- "I could just be what?"
The Italian woman had turned her phone over.
"Oh my god!!! he was gorgeous. You know who was blonde like that and had big blue eyes like that?"
- "Maya" they said at the same time.
-"I know" Carina replied with a loving look before biting her lip.
-"He was really beautiful, your son, Carina. Although, with a mother like you, it could not have been otherwise."
- "Thank you Katherine"
- "It must be me, but... He has a look of, of Maya... I know it's probably not-"
-"no that's exactly what I wanted to tell you before I showed you the picture... I know he wasn't related to Maya by blood... But whenever I saw him... I couldn't help but think that he looked like her. Il Bambino più bello del Mundo e la Bambina più Bella del Mundo anch'io"
-"And you have become even more beautiful than when you were seventeen... You know, Maya never looked at anyone the way she looks at you. She never fell in love again, I would have seen it... Like I knew, when she fell in love with you"
- "I,... It's mean to say this, but I wasn't in love with my husband. It's never been just your daughter to me. And she's really the most exceptional person I know. I'm glad she had you in her life, I'm not sure with just Lane, she would have turned out like this. She didn't even... I mean, she found out I got married and that was the first thing she did... Pushed into my teeth. There's no other word. But the second she knew my story, she, she didn't blame me, not for a moment. she's so perfect."
- "you two are made for each other. I always knew that."
- "for the greatest happiness of your husband"
- "we don't care about him"
The two of them had talked for a while in the kitchen. While Maya, Mason and Lane were in the dining room.
- "you are required to..."
- "Dad, I'm going to marry her one day, and you can take it or leave it. If you want to keep seeing us... At least I do, Mason is an adult, he does what he wants... I'm queer. You've known that for fifteen years. I always spared you that... At least, the other girls... But Carina, she's... Carina is the love of my life. I had to try to live without her for too long. I wouldn't let my chance go by."
- "okay."
- "okay? That's your answer?"
- "yes, okay. I'll, I'll go with it. It's not like I have a choice."
- "indeed it's, it's my life. I'm an adult."
Then they had gone a while without talking.
- "but what are they doing?!" Lane said.
- "they're probably talking"
- "it doesn't bother you that she has a child"
- "that she had. And even if he was still there, no I don't have a problem with that."
- "her son, he looked like Maya as a baby" Mason added.
- "but he might not have wanted you as a stepmother"
- "my Charlie would have loved Maya. He wanted to meet her." Said the Italian woman as she walked back into the living room.
- "Did you tell your son about Maya?" asked Mason.
-"Not... On purpose. My e- Charles, he got back together and Charlie heard his girlfriend say I was in love with a woman. So my baby asked me if that was true. And he asked me if I could show him a picture and he asked me when he would meet her..." She had caressed Maya's cheek: "I would have loved that."
- "me too."
-"He asked me if I was in love with Maya because she had blonde hair and blue eyes like him. Then he said he liked her because I was smiling with her." She had looked at Lane, then Katherine before looking at Mason. "He was a very savvy little boy. The smartest."
She had sat down next to her girlfriend again and they had finished the meal with a lighter mood.
After dessert, they stayed a while to talk, before the three young people decided to take their leave of Kathy and Lane.
The father said goodbye to the three young people in the living room and Katherine accompanied them to the door. She hugged them again to say goodbye.
-"I hope to see you again soon."
- "you will come to eat with us" made the Italian.
- "us?" asked Katherine.
- "yes, Carina asked me to move in with her"
- "but that's wonderful news!"
- "we just need to agree on a place", said the Italian woman, running her hand down the back of Maya's neck.
- "don't put your hand on the back of my neck..."
- "and why is that?"
- "because I'll say yes to anything you want"
- "interesting" replied Carina with her most charming smile and running her hand down her neck again.
Mason and Katherine had laughed.
Then they had finally gone out.
- "we survived!" Mason said.
- "we survived!" replied Maya
- "but what happened when we were in my kitchen? Your father was different afterwards."
-"Let's say that Maya told him that one day you will be married and that he could take it or leave it, if he wanted to continue having children."
- "and you why were you so long?"
- "your mother wanted to see Charlie"
- "oh no, I'm sorry... I-"
- "not me. I was happy to show her, and then she said my baby looked like you... I couldn't have been happier."
They had finally separated and Maya and Carina were sent to the Italian woman's house to finish what they had started that morning.
-----
Ciao!
How did you think Lane would react? What about Maya and Carina's discussion on Friday night?
See you
xx
-¥-
PS: alloraaaaaa?! Last night's episode... OMFG! We got our shower scene !!!!! And what a shower scene! Mamma mia!!! I don't think we'll ever get over it.
And the scene in the bedroom! My god, Maya shows once again that Carina comes first... And in the bar, the memories of their first night together and their wedding ... And the "our kids" of Carina and Maya just looking at her lovingly, not afraid. This episode was from a Marina point of view, perfect! I would have just added a shot of Carina's hand on her belly when she's behind her back in the shower. And Maya hugging her fingers to Carina's against the shower window... But otherwise .... Perfection!!!
And for those of you who have read the Military School and other stories of mine I was thrilled when Maya talked about the picnic in Discovery Park and the Pink Door! Exactly like in the chapter about their second third date for the park, (by the way... A similar shower scene in this chapter...) and the Pink Door is just mythical in my stories since 2021! Anyway! I'm really going to end up believing that one of the writers is reading me!