Lisa texts her later that night.
Rosé's curled up on her bed, taking notes for one of her upcoming exams, books spread out all around her, when the notification pops up on her screen. Her stomach flips as she stares at the blinking light on her phone for a moment. She should wait. She should probably give it... at least half an hour or something. Her heart is beating a lot quicker inside her ribcage, though. She tries to turn her attention back to her notes, but the blinking light is very distracting. She stares at it again, biting her lip.
Then, she leans over and grabs her phone, sliding her fingers over the screen and quickly tapping on Lisa's message.
Fuck waiting.
It's a picture of the Starbucks coffee cup. The message attached to it reads best cappuccino of my life.
Rosé grins, tugging her bottom lip back with her teeth. She stares at her phone, letting her eyes go over the words a couple more times. The comment makes her feel a little bold, a little confident, so without properly thinking about she types back Which part of 'call me' are you interpreting as 'text me' exactly? She presses 'sent' before she can stop herself.
About ten seconds later, her phone starts ringing.
A heavy shiver runs down Rosé's spine. Fuck. Of course. Damn it, she even asked for it. After letting it ring for another ten seconds, she takes a deep breath, taps the screen and picks up.
"Hi," she says, praying that her voice doesn't give away the fact that her entire chest is suddenly tingling.
"Hey," Lisa says.
"Hey," Rosé says again, feeling stupid about it right away.
"Hi..." Lisa repeats and Rosé can see the teasing smile without seeing it. She closes her eyes and runs a hand through her hair - nervous habit. Why is it always so impossible to keep her act together around this girl? She leans back into the pillows, starting to feel a little hot, which she absentmindedly registers as a reoccurring thing when it comes to Lisa, so maybe she should start getting used to it.
"H-how are you?" Rosé stutters out then, because she has to say something.
"Really?" Lisa says, playful edge to her voice. "Is that why you told me to call you instead of text you? So you could ask me how I'm doing, even though you saw me, like, an hour ago."
"Well-" Rosé says, feeling herself get more embarrassed by the second. "-a lot can happen in an hour, right?"
Lisa chuckles. "Absolutely - and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I like hearing your voice."
God. It's a good thing that they're talking on the phone, because Rosé can just feel herself start blushing harder with every passing moment. Get it together.
"So..." she quickly continues, trying to shift into actual conversation instead of her just making a fool out of herself while Lisa grins on the other side of the line. "Are we still on for Saturday?"
She can hear Lisa laugh softly. "We're still on."
"Good..." Rosé breathes out, and then, because she is done with being shy and bashful all the time, she blurts out, "Let me take you out. You know - before the event."
There's a beat of silence and it sounds like Lisa takes in a sharp breath before she says, "Ok, y-yes, sure, I would - love that."
Rosé bites her lip, feeling her confidence kick back into place as she notices the sudden nervous edge to Lisa's voice. "Great. Text me your address. I'll come pick you up."
"Ok..." Lisa says, before adding, "It's a date."
"It's a date," Rosé replies, voice a little raspy, unable to stop smiling.
"All right, see you on Saturday then."
Rosé smiles. "See you on Saturday. Good night."
She falls back onto her mattress as soon as Lisa hangs up. For a moment she just slowly breathes in and out. But then it's like her entire body catches fire and she realizes what is happening, what they actually agreed on. She can't help but squeal out, kicking her legs against the bed, as all the excitement and tension and endorphins start to rush through her.
Fucking hell - they're going on a date.
:::
"Tell me one more time what happened."
Rosé groans in frustration, standing in front of the mirror in the tiny bathroom of her apartment, dress still half unzipped and make up only partially done. "Jennie... please pay attention." She takes a shaky breath, trying to calm down her nerves. "I already told you - we had coffee and we talked and then she stayed afterwards to write and I had to work, but I was obviously kind of distracted because she's just... she's so interesting and passionate about so many different things and she's so attractive, like, I've never even - well, anyway, I just couldn't really pay attention to work and I just thought to myself, maybe I should just do it, you know? Fuck being cliché. So I wrote down my number on one of the coffee cups and-"
"YES!" Jennie yells out, pumping her fist up in the air, before calling back to the kitchen. "Wendy, get your ass over here, you owe me twenty bucks!"
"No way!" Wendy's voice comes from the kitchen.
Rosé frowns at Jennie. "Wait, what-"
A moment later, her other roommate appears next to Jennie.
"Damn it, Chaeng..." Wendy mumbles out in frustration. "Couldn't you keep it in your pants for just one week longer?" She pulls a five dollar note out of the back pocket of her jeans and hands it to Jennie with a frown. "You'll get the rest later. Way to go, Chaeng..."
Rosé turns around to look at her roommates. "What do you mean, what are you talking about?" Her eyes go wide. "You guys made a bet?"
Jennie smiles proudly. "Wendy's idea."
"Wendy!"
"What?" Wendy smiles innocently. "Come on, Chaeng, any time we said something even remotely related to your job, you started talking about this girl. Lisa this, Lisa that... and then all this nonsense about never writing your number down on someone's coffee cup - of course we made a bet." She rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disbelief. "I guess I just had a little bit more faith in your stubborn ass than Jennie."
Jennie laughs loudly. "Please... We all know that Chaeng is whipped as fuck."
"Guys!" Rosé exclaims, feeling herself flush scarlet right away.
Wendy grins at Jennie, ignoring Rosé's comment completely. "She totally is, isn't she? Like a smitten fifteen year old."
"Oh my God..." Rosé breathes out, turning back to the mirror. "I hate you. Both of you."
Jennie laughs. "Your words mean nothing to me, Park. Remember that one time you said you would never, ever, write your number down on a Starbucks cup? Look how that turned out-"
She only has about a second to back up when Rosé abruptly spins around and tries to throw a towel in her roommate's face.
"You're not helping!" Rosé exclaims, sounding a little desperate. "God - can you two please stop being idiots for ten minutes and help me get ready for tonight?" She turns back to the mirror, voice a little shaky as she adds, "I'm really nervous, ok?"
Immediately, Wendy's face breaks into a sympathetic smile.
"All right, all right," she says, walking up and zipping Rosé's dress up from behind, straightening the fabric. "There's no need to be nervous, babe. I'm sure Lisa really likes you - and Chaeng, you look gorgeous, ok? We're just messing with you a little bit."
Rosé takes a deep breath. "I just - she makes me - God, I'm so awkward."
Jennie grins. "That's a fact."
Wendy shoots her an angry glare, so she puts up her hands in defense and quickly adds, "Hey, but this girl tried to get your number for weeks, right?" She grins, leaning back against the bathroom door. "I'm sure y'all are going to get married one day and do all of that romantic, cliché stuff that you always pretend to hate. And Wendy and I will have a field day because you'll tell us you won't ever do any of those things, and then you'll go ahead and do them anyway and we get to take each other's money for it." She leans forward and slaps Rosé's ass from behind. "Everyone happy."
Rosé doesn't even bother to reply with something witty. She just stares at her reflection in the mirror, at her messy hair and flushed cheeks. She doesn't even remember the last time she was so nervous about something. Her heart is racing in her chest as she glances at her phone to check the time. In an hour, she'll be picking Lisa up for a date. A date. An actual date.
Wendy smiles at her excitedly, Jennie just looks smug, and Rosé can't do anything besides blushing and running her hand through her hair.
God - why is she doing this again?
:::
As soon as Lisa opens the door, Rosé knows exactly why she is doing this.
Her breath hitches in the back of her throat as she just stares, taking in as many details of the moment as she can - the curve of Lisa's lips as she smiles; the line of her neck; the playful glint in her heavy brown eyes; the soft blush on her cheekbones; the way the fabric of her short, black dress falls against her hips, her legs, her collarbones-
"Wow," Rosé breathes out.
Lisa smiles and softly bites down on her lips. "You look so beautiful," she says, eyes tracing over the girl in front of her, making Rosé feel like her body is going to give out on her any second, because if Lisa thinks that she is beautiful-
"Have you seen yourself?" she mumbles, before leaning forward, pressing a quick kiss to Lisa's cheek as a greeting.
It only lasts about a second and Rosé pulls back right away, because she suddenly realizes what she's done, and she's never bold like that. She blushes scarlet in less than a second, but the look on Lisa's face is enough to make her heart shoot speed right up as a wave of confidence rushes through her chest and past her nerves.
"Where are we going?" Lisa says then and Rosé swears that her voice sounds slightly raspier than before.
She pulls the door to the passenger seat open, giving Lisa a smile. "Come and find out."
:::
"Ok - so, I know it's not really fancy, but I thought it would be nice to have some privacy - and we could still go out, you know, later - maybe after the event or something, like for drinks - if you want to, of course - I don't know, I just thought you might like this for dinner, but of course I don't really know what you like so I'm sorry if-"
"Rosé," Lisa cuts her off and Rosé falls silent.
She can feel her chest heaving up and down in short breaths, because she really isn't sure what Lisa thinks about it. She clenches her hands tightly together, digging her fingers into her palms, searching for any indication on Lisa's face as to whether or not this was a terrible idea. Lisa slowly turns around and bites her lip and Rosé is sure that she's not going to like it, sure that she-
"God, you know exactly what I like."
There's a sharp tug at the back of Rosé's stomach as the surprise rushes though her chest. "Wait - really?"
Lisa takes a step forward, onto the dock. "I can't believe you're even - I mean, this is just..." She spins around, dress twirling at the abrupt movement. She smiles, eyes locking right into Rosé's as she presses her hand down to her chest, right above her heart. "Forest fire. Right here."
Rosé can feel herself blush at the words. She quickly steps forward, onto the dock as well, hoping Lisa doesn't notice just how shy she's feeling. She walks to the end of it and spreads the thick blanket and the pillows that she brought along with her out of the wooden edge. Then, she quickly hurries back to where Lisa is standing, trying to keep her voice steady as she says, "Make yourself comfortable - I'll go get our dinner."
She takes everything she needs from the trunk of her car. As she turns around, she halts for a moment, slightly taken aback by the sight. Lisa is sitting on the edge of the dock, heels kicked off, toes dipped into the water, the ships and the lights of the harbor all around her, making her a small silhouette against the heated summer night.
Wow.
Rosé almost doesn't want to break the moment, but she also doesn't want the waffles that she spent an hour making, to get cold, so after taking a mental picture, she quickly hurries forward, slips out of heels and sits down on the edge of the dock as well.
"Should we go swimming?" Lisa says, with a bold smile. "Just take our clothes off and jump right off the dock?"
Rosé's breath hitches in her throat at the way Lisa actually manages to make take our clothes off sound like the most casual thing ever. She's trying very hard to keep her thoughts clear, before stammering out, half panicked, half joking, "I usually take a girl out on a date first, before I get naked with her."
Lisa's smile widens and her eyebrow kinks up. "Isn't that exactly what you're doing right now?"
"Uh, I mean-" Rosé stammers. "That's just - I mean - yeah. I... I guess." She coughs. "I - uh - are you hungry?"
She doesn't wait for Lisa's answer, just pulls the picnic basket closer, rambling her sentences together. "I made waffles - the whole breakfast for dinner idea. It's actually a Park family recipe. I also brought wine and strawberries and all these other things to put on them, like bananas and whipped cream and sprinkles. I hope they're still hot. I mean, I wrapped the tin in like twenty different towels, so they should be but-"
"Oh my God..." Lisa breathes out.
Rosé's a little startled. "What?"
Lisa smiles, not saying anything, letting the moment stretch. Her face is brightly lit by the sun sinking down into the water right in front of them, and when she speaks up again, Rosé is so captivated by her eyes and by her lips and everything that it takes her second to really hear the words when Lisa puts her hand to her chest again and breathes out softly, "I think you're going to make me burn right out of my skin tonight."
:::
"Tell me about something you've written about."
Lisa smiles and dips her toes a little further into the water, not saying anything.
"Come on," Rosé says. "I'm an English major. You can't deny me this."
They've been sitting on the end of the dock for almost an hour already, taking bites of the waffles and the fruit, talking about all sorts of different things while trying not to stare at each other for too long at a time. Rosé's whole body is buzzing with the good kind of tipsy, the delicious kind of tipsy - the one that makes her chest feel lighter and her mind bolder and her vision clearer.
"Please..." she says. "I'm really interested in it."
"All right, all right," Lisa says then, after taking another sip of wine. "You asked for it. But don't make fun of me, all right? I can't be responsible for my creative mind."
Rosé grins. "It's Harry Potter fanfiction, isn't it?"
Lisa laughs and Rosé thinks it's the best sound she's ever heard. Then, Lisa takes another sip of wine, before mumbling, "All right, then. I'm so going to regret this, but whatever... I'd like to know what you think, actually, so..."
She takes a deep breath, biting her lip before turning completely so she can look Rosé in the eyes. "I have this theory-" she says, "-that our lives are very long, but we should live them like they're short."
It suddenly feels like Rosé's senses amplify - all she feels is Lisa's bare thigh brushing lightly against her own, the strain of her fingertips as she tries to keep herself from reaching out and tracing her hand over the soft, smooth skin. The details of the night all around them; the faint salt on the wind, the sweetness of the wine, the sugar, the fruit, the light of the sun. All she sees is the glint in Lisa's eyes and all she hears is the husk in Lisa's voice as she starts to explain her theory.
"I have this thing," Lisa says, "where I can't stop thinking about time. Part of it is due to societal pressure, I think - you know, the whole, graduate before you're twenty-two, meet someone you love before twenty-five, marry them before you're thirty and then quickly have a baby because God forbid you're over thirty-five when you have children." Her exhale is long and drawn out. "But then there's also this other part of me, this very egocentric part of me that is constantly concerned with how I, personally, measure up to what I think I should be doing by what age."
She takes another strawberry, frowning slightly. "I keep thinking about all the stuff I could have done already, but didn't do and I just catch myself having all these anxious thoughts, like, fuck why haven't I published a book yet or why have I never taken up kick-boxing or what if my damn creative writing degree is going to get me nowhere. You know what I mean?"
Rosé swallows hard, before nodding. "Yeah, I have those kind of thoughts all the time."
For a moment, they're both silent. Then Lisa says, "But here's my theory..."
A small smile curls around the corner of her mouth as she sits up a little straighter. "I think the very last thing anyone should do - especially people our age, but actually anyone - is worry about time like that. Because it's bullshit." The glint in her eyes intensifies. "We are so young. We are so incredibly young and there is so much time and it's never too late to do anything. We think it's too late to start writing, or too late to take up kickboxing or too late to try and be a creative, intelligent, compassionate person in whatever it is that we're doing. And as a result, we give up or settle for something mediocre, something safe - an uninteresting degree and a boring job and a person that doesn't really have our heart. When the truth is, there is so much time. Every day and every hour and every fucking second we can start doing something that we're passionate about - and even if we mess up along the way or things don't go exactly as planned, there are still more days and more hours and more seconds."
She smiles and Rosé feels like she can't breathe because damn.
"But this is what I think," Lisa says. "I think that even though we have all this time, we should try to live like we don't. You know what I mean? Life is long, but we should live it like it's short. We should think; if I'd die next month, what kind of person do I want to be, what kind of things would I want to do, and how am I going to make sure that my heart burns as much as possible."
Her eyes lock into Rosé's. "It's a little bit paradoxical. We should know that it is never too late to start doing something - but at the same time, we should make choices as if we don't have all that time. Try and live a little. Make things count. Work hard. Love hard. Read the books we like to read. Kiss the people we want to kiss. Take risks. Create something, anything, that makes us feel a little proud. The whole forest fire idea."
She falls silent, before smiling softly. "So yeah - that sort of stuff is what I'm writing about." Then she grins. "That - and a couple of bad poems about how pretty you are and some unfinished Harry Potter fanfiction of course."
Rosé can't stop staring.
Lisa's words are spinning in her head and she can't stop herself from looking at her while her veins are heating up with feelings that she's not at all prepared for yet, but that she can't stop from flooding through her body. She breathes out long and slow. Then she forces herself not to look away from Lisa's gorgeous eyes as she mumbles, "I can't believe I waited so damn long to write my number down on that coffee cup."
Lisa laughs at that, softly bumping her shoulder against Rosé's. "I can't believe that either - way to make me doubt my game, Rosie."
Rosé's heart flutters at the nickname, but she still manages to smile kind of boldly as she replies, "You don't have to worry about your game for even a single second."
Lisa's eyes flick down to Rosé's lips, and immediately something shifts in the tension between them. Rosé's not sure if it's the wine or something else - but suddenly all her attention is focused solely on how close Lisa is and how easy it would be to just slowly lean forward and-
Lisa's voice is slightly raspy when she breaks the silence. "So - are we... um, what - what time is it? Should we go - or can we stay here and-"
Rosé snaps back right away, checking the time on her phone, a little flustered for thinking the thoughts that are on her mind. "Yeah," she breathes out. "Yeah, we should probably start to head to the theatre."
She moves to stand up, but before she can do anything, Lisa pulls her back softly, tugs her fingers under Rosé's chin and quickly presses her lips to Rosé's cheek, kissing her right below her cheekbone. She smiles at Rosé's flushed cheeks before saying, "Next time we're here, we're going to take our clothes off and go swimming." She grins. "You promise?"
Rosé bites her lip hard at the thought. All she manages to reply is a heated, "I promise."
:::
It turns out that they could have easily spent a little bit more time at the harbor, because they still have about half an hour of spare time before the poetry slam event begins. In fact, the theatre hasn't even opened its doors yet.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Lisa asks.
Rosé thinks about it. "We could go to my favorite bookstore? It's right around the corner and they're open until eleven on Saturdays."
Lisa grins. "Have I mentioned that I fucking love this date?"
There's a heavy tug in the center of Rosé's stomach at Lisa's words. She blushes a little, not sure what to say to that. Before she can say, anything, though, Lisa reaches out and grabs Rosé's hand, interlacing their fingers. "I haven't mentioned it? Oh, well, just so you know, I fucking love this date. Let's go to your favorite bookstore."
Holding hands with Lisa feels like the most natural yet most mind-blowing thing. As they make their way through the streets, Rosé can't help but absentmindedly trace her thumb slowly over the soft skin of Lisa's hand, noticing just how easy and comfortable it feels to hold hands like this, even though her stomach is a nervous mess of flutters. Too soon - and Rosé has never, ever thought that arriving at a bookstore could be 'too soon' - they arrive at the bookstore.
"This is it," she says, slowly pulling Lisa to the side.
It's a small, independent bookstore, tucked away between a restaurant and a women's clothing store that primarily sells dresses with floral patterns. From the outside, it doesn't look like much - but Rosé knows better.
She softly smiles and let's go of Lisa's hand, holding the door open so she can step inside.
"Oh, wow," Lisa says.
Rosé can feel a shiver of pride rush through her chest as she watches Lisa take in the space with wide eyes - the depth of the store, the strings of bright lights hanging across the ceiling, the various sofas and couches spread out through the store creating small reading nooks, the old typewriters where customers can write messages or poems on, and of course all the books.
Before she can say anything else, Lisa pulls Rosé into the store. "Oh my God, this is amazing."
Rosé is unable to stop smiling, tracing her fingers over the spines of the books as she watches Lisa's eyes light up constantly while they wander around. They take turns asking each other the same kind of questions - who's your favorite author? have you read this yet? what book made you cry the hardest? laugh the hardest? - and Rosé feels so unreasonably happy to be exactly where she is right now; in the middle of a bookstore with the most interesting girl she's ever met, talking and laughing and unable to stop looking away.
At some point, she catches sight of Rupi Kaur's milk & honey lying on a table - and she's not able to stop herself. She pulls her journal out of her bag and tears out one of the pages in the back.
"What are you doing?" Lisa says, walking up to her.
Rosé can feel herself blushing a little, but she smiles nevertheless. "There's this thing I do sometimes," she says. "It's a little bit crazy, but I like to put little notes inside the covers of my favorite books whenever I see them in bookstores, so that if people are picking them to see if they'll like them, they can read the recommendation and then maybe they'll actually buy the books. And this book-" She points to the poetry collection. "-happens to be one of my favorites."
Lisa stares at her hard.
"Oh," Rosé says, feeling a little nervous suddenly, "Is that stupid? I just kind of like the idea, I guess - someone finding an anonymous note from someone else who really loved the book. But maybe, it's a little weird, I don't know - What - w-what are you thinking?"
Lisa bites her lip and takes a shaky breath. "I'm thinking that if you're going to be any more amazing tonight, I'm not going to be able to wait with kissing you until the end of the night, like I told myself I should."
Oh.
Rosé swallows hard. Her eyes immediately flick down right to Lisa's lips. "I mean... Maybe you don't - I mean, I think I..."
Her head is spinning and she can't even think properly anymore with Lisa looking at that. Lisa's smile slowly turns a little wider at Rosé's flushed face. Then she breathes out, "Can I borrow a pen and some paper?"
Rosé's startled out of the moment immediately. "Uh - yeah," she says, running a hand through her hair and searching through her bag. "Here you go."
Lisa smiles at her. "Let's write some recommendation notes, shall we?"
:::
No matter what Rosé tries, after that, she's not able to stop thinking about what it would be like to kiss Lisa. She's thinking it while she tucks her notes between the pages of her favorite books. She's thinking about it any time they accidentally look at each other for too long. She's thinking about it even when she's specifically forcing herself not to think about it.
They end up in the back of the store and Rosé thinks about it, while Lisa is leaning back against the wall, writing down another note.
She's not able to keep her thoughts straight. She thinks she's never wanted to do anything more in her entire life, but at the same time she's not really the kind of person who just goes ahead and kisses someone, even if that someone is really gorgeous and her lips look like they're incredible soft and-
"How about this?" Lisa says, taking a deep breath and handing Rosé the note she just wrote.
"You want me to read it?" Rosé asks, taking the note from her a little hesitantly.
Lisa doesn't say anything, just slowly nods and Rosé's eyes trace over the words Lisa just penned down.
This book is every good thing in the world - steaming cappuccino's; beautiful eyes; intelligent conversations; the moment when the person you really like finally asks you out; waffles and strawberries; setting on the edge of a harbor dock with your toes in the water - all of that at the same time.
Rosé's breath hitches in her throat. There's a moment in which she looks up and all she notices is the heavy brown of Lisa's eyes and the way her lips are slightly parted-
-and then Rosé drops the note, leans forward and kisses her.
Oh my God.
It's soft and heated and Lisa only slightly stumbles back in surprise, before letting her hands falling down to Rosé's hips as she pulls her closer into her, kissing her back. Rosé's fingers tangle in Lisa's hair, while Lisa's hands dig into the fabric of Rosé's dress as she parts her lips and deepens the kiss - and then all Rosé feels is heat and shivers and never wanting to stop.
After a moment, though, the reality of what she's doing catches up with her and she forces herself to pull back.
Lisa's eyes are a little hazy and her cheeks are flushed and her lips are still parted and it feels like Rosé's heart is going to burst right out of her chest.
"I couldn't wait until the end of the night either," she mumbles a little breathlessly.
Something shifts over Lisa's face and then she breathes out, "Come here."
-and Rosé kisses her again.