Stars Collide

by H. P. Munro

  “You set your alarm?” she laughed.

  “People set alarms Freya. It’s how you know when to get up,” Jordan replied haughtily.

  Freya narrowed her eyes. She moved her hand slowly down Jordan’s side, so as not to raise suspicion, then pressed her fingers into the soft flesh where she knew Jordan was ticklish. Jordan twisted to get away from Freya, who moved with impressive speed to straddle her lover.

  “Admit it Jordan, you set your alarm to get up and perv at me.”

  “I did no such thing,” Jordan huffed in between giggles. “It’s a coincidence,” she yelled, trying desperately to buck Freya off of her.

  “Admit it!” Freya laughed, adding a second hand to the onslaught, giving Jordan no respite as each hand took turns taunting her.

  “Okay, okay. I admit it, stop!”

  “What do you admit to?” Freya asked teasingly, threading her fingers through Jordan’s and pushing the blonde actress’s hands up above her head.

  “I admit to setting my alarm so that I could perv at you,” Jordan smiled, looking up at her naked lover. “I have to say, this morning’s view is the best yet.”

  “Pervert,” Freya smiled leaning down to kiss Jordan good morning.

  When they eventually separated Freya noticed a frown appearing on Jordan’s features. “You okay? Are you having second thoughts?” she asked trying not to sound too panicked at the thought.

  “What? No!” Jordan said gripping Freya tighter. “It’s just I’m worried about what happens if we run into a similar situation again. I’m not sure I could cope with losing you again.”

  Freya rolled off of Jordan onto her side and rested her head on her hand, “Me neither, so I propose we don’t let it happen again. My parents have been together for years and have managed not to let their careers get in the way of their relationship. Their approach is something we could adopt. They make decisions together and agree to a limit of the time they will allow a job to keep them apart and even then they make sure they speak to each other every day. It’s even easier now for them with video calls.” She nuzzled against Jordan’s neck, “I promise I won’t allow us to mess this up again. I love you too much to allow that to happen and Anna would have my hide.”

  Jordan slowly rolled Freya onto her back and settled comfortably on top of her, “I love you too.” She lowered her head and started to nibble on Freya’s ear, “Now what was that you called me again?”

  Freya gasped as Jordan’s hand cupped her between her legs, “I honestly can’t remember.”

  December 2013

  “So when’s she due back?” Dan asked as he flipped open the pizza box and pulled off a slice, dangling it into his mouth.

  Freya filled his glass with wine. “Saturday,” she answered, passing the glass over and snatching a slice of pizza before Dan hoovered it up. “Two days, three hours and,” she craned her neck past Dan to look at the clock on the cooker, which was the only part that Freya used, “thirty seven minutes.”

  Dan shot her a look of pity. “Anyone would think that you’ve never gone without sex before,” he withered. Lifting the box, and his glass, he walked through to the living room.

  “It’s not about sex,” Freya replied shaking her head.

  Dan was about to place the take-out onto the coffee table when Freya had spoken. His hand hovered in midair as he looked at her with one eyebrow raised skeptically.

  “Okay, so it’s partly about the sex,” Freya conceded rolling her eyes. “I just miss her presence though. The past six months have been amazing, I finally feel like I’m where I should be.” She looked up towards the ceiling as if trying to pluck the words that could describe the happiness that she was experiencing, “I mean we’re great and things are going well with the show now they’re putting us into a mid-season replacement slot next month. Eleanor’s confident that we’ll get a full season next year. So no job hunting stress.” She took a deep breath, “I’m going to do it Dan. I’m going to ask her.”

  Dan sank into the sofa, his wine in one hand and a pizza slice in the other. He took a measured sip from his wine, “Ask her what sweetie?”

  Tucking her leg behind her Freya sat down on the sofa beside her best friend, “To move in with me.”

  A look of confusion descended on Dan’s face. “Aren’t you already living together?” he asked through a mouthful of pizza.

  Leaning forward for another slice of pizza, Freya shook her head, “Not officially.”

  “Ahh, my mistake, what with you never being apart for the past six months and everything, it’s easy to get confused with the age-old lesbian u-haul shibboleth,” Dan replied smiling. “So you’re really going to ask her? That’s huge!” He caught the look of panic on Freya’s face. “Not huge, small, teeny actually, hardly worth the bother,” he added quickly.

  “So how am I going to do it?” she asked, sipping her wine.

  Dan let his head fall back in thought. It barely hit the back of the sofa when it shot back up. “Put her house up for sale! She’s away, it could be on the market before she returns in two days, thirty, whatever,” he waved his hand dismissively.

  “Will you be serious,” Freya growled.

  Scrunching his face up, Dan reached for another piece of pizza. “Who says I wasn’t,” he muttered under his breath.

  They sat in silence, considering what might be the best approach.

  “Get her drunk,” Dan mused. “Get her drunk, do the nubbing and ask her in the throws. She’ll give you anything, you could probably get a kidney from her as well.”

  “You’re no help.”

  Dan reached for a yellow Post-it pad on the table and grabbed a black sharpie. His face contorted in concentration as he wrote on the pad before detaching the Post-it and passing it to Freya. Written in his neat handwriting was…

  Get her drunk – tequila not wine, tequila makes her happy. wine = morose

  Get tipsy yourself – not drunk...you’re a messy drunk – you’ll barf

  FFS Ask... just ask her!...She’ll say yes

  Laughing Freya stuck the Post-it to the table, “So I have a three point plan.”

  “You do indeed, now entertain me wench. What DVD did you choose for our besties night?”

  Freya leapt up and grabbed the DVD box from beside the television. “The Grudge,” she said her eyes sparkling with excitement.

  “Again with the horror movies,” Dan sighed, pulling the cushion out from behind his back and positioning it on his lap ready to bury his head in it during the majority of the film.

  ***

  Jordan used her key to open Freya’s front door. She pulled her suitcase in behind her and left it propped against the wall in the hallway. She was beat after being in New York on a whistle stop tour of every chat show known to man promoting her, about to be released, full album of songs.

  “Freya, you home?” she pouted when she received no response. Slipping her feet out of her shoes, she groaned in pleasure at the sensation and padded through to the living room, flopping down onto Freya’s sofa.

  She closed her eyes and let out a long contented sigh at being home. She smiled at the thought that, when the cab driver had asked for her address, the first one that came out of her mouth wasn’t her own. She wanted to see Freya and didn’t want to wait. However, it appeared that her arrival was ill-timed as her girlfriend was obviously out somewhere. Deciding to go make herself a drink, Jordan wandered into the kitchen. She snorted at the DVD rental sitting waiting to go back, knowing that Freya must have had Dan round and tortured the poor man with horror movies while she was away.

  Grabbing a soda from the fridge, she made her way back towards the sofa intent on welding her backside to it until Freya returned. Her eyes absently scanned the coffee table. She smiled as she spotted a magazine with her girlfriend’s face looking back at her from the front cover, a white sheet draped around her naked body. Lifting the glossy, she gave a small laugh at the inset photograph of the two of them walking hand in hand down a stre
et, looking relaxed in jeans, T-shirts and sunglasses. Her eye was then drawn to a yellow piece of paper tucked inside the cover of the publication. Pulling it out, her eyebrows raised in surprise as she read the writing on it.

  Freya pulled the thin pocket out from inside the waistband of her running shorts. She snagged her key from the material and unlocked her front door, wiping a wet strand of hair from her sweat-laced face. She had put one foot over the threshold when she spotted Jordan’s case as she pulled the earphone buds from her ears and closed the door.

  “Jordan!” she yelled excitedly, skipping into the living room. Her progress stalled as she was greeted by Jordan reading the three point plan Post-it.

  Jordan’s lifted up her forefinger with the note stuck to it. “Hi, is there something you want to ask? Something that requires Dan to write you a list and apparently,” she looked at the note again, “also requires a lot of alcohol.”

  Gulping, Freya smiled weakly. She puffed out her cheeks.

  Now Easter, she thought, say it…do it…speak.

  “Iwantustolivetogether, here, or at yours, or somewhere else. Just together.”

  Smiling Jordan looked at the note again, “I have to say Dan knows us pretty well. One, tequila does make me happy. I might challenge morose though. Two, you do get messy when you’re drunk, funny, but messy and, well, number three.” She stood up and walked towards Freya who was looking at her, her expressive face a mix of apprehension and anticipation, “Number three, was never in doubt.”

  January 2014

  “Put it down over there,” Jordan gestured with her head, her arms busy trying to keep hold of Roxie in an attempt to keep the small dog from getting in everyone’s path. A very red looking Dan and Jackson carried the sideboard into the room and placed it down carefully where Jordan had indicated. The two men were out of breath from carrying various pieces of furniture and boxes from the rental van into Freya’s house while all the time navigating their way around Roxie, who was on hyper mode with all of her favorite people in one place and so much activity. She was continually being dragged away by either Jordan or Freya, much to the little dog’s chagrin.

  Finally, after much discussion, it was agreed that Jordan would move into Freya’s as it was a bigger property. There had been some last minute lobbying for the buying of somewhere completely new to both of them and beside the beach. However, both of them had ignored Dan and his pleas.

  “I’ll go get you both something to drink,” Jordan smiled, gratefully plonking Roxie down who immediately launched herself towards Dan and Jackson, dropping onto her back at their feet for a tummy tickle. Jordan rolled her eyes. “Tart,” she muttered towards the dog as she opened the kitchen door.

  Sabrina sat on a stool at the kitchen island with an open box in front of her. She was pulling things from it and handing them to Freya, who looked wide-eyed around the kitchen trying to decide where to put them. Jordan was prepared to not find anything she needed when she next cooked and made a mental note to reorganize the kitchen the next time Freya was out.

  “What’s this?” Sabrina asked, her face puckered in confusion, as she pulled out a kitchen appliance jumping slightly as she pressed the button and it made a noise. Freya looked at it and opened her mouth, pausing as she realized that she had no idea. She looked over helplessly at Jordan, who shook her head in disbelief.

  “Seriously?” she asked, looking at the two women. Then remembering who she was speaking to, she closed her eyes and gave a small headshake, “It’s a blender, I know you’ve seen a blender before.”

  Scowling Sabrina passed the appliance across to Freya. “I’ve seen blenders, just not like that,” she added indignantly.

  Freya took the blender and looked it over. “What she said,” she added before turning and crouching down to put it into a cupboard.

  Jordan wasn’t sure who’d put the two most clueless-in-the-kitchen people in charge of unpacking her kitchen things but, whoever it was, they were not high on her Christmas card list. She turned to the fridge to grab two sodas for Dan and Jackson, turning as she heard a snigger from Sabrina. She was holding Jordan’s turkey baster in her hand with a knowing smirk on her lips. Freya stood up and rolled her eyes, “Okay, even I know what that’s for.”

  “Sure you do,” Sabrina grinned. “You know if you two lady lovahs ever decide, I was a doctor.”

  “You’re an actress, you played a doctor,” Jordan scowled, snatching the baster from Sabrina. “And that’s for Thanksgiving.” She put the offending item down onto the kitchen island, ignoring Sabrina’s snorts.

  Sabrina picked the baster back up. “So have you thought about it?” she asked absently as she squeezed the bulb blowing air onto the palm of her hand.

  “What about you inserting kitchen accessories up my hooha?” Freya asked. “Have to say, not something I’ve given a lot of thought to.” She took the baster from Sabrina and stuffed it into a drawer, “If you’re talking about having kids, yes we have.”

  Sabrina raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Aaaand?”

  Freya exhaled loudly. “Aaaand when the time is right, then we will think about it some more. First thing is to get Jordan moved in,” she grinned.

  “You realize, she’s going to reorganize the entire kitchen don’t you,” Sabrina mused surveying the room.

  “As soon as my back is turned,” Freya replied with a nod.

  February 2014

  Jordan’s back arched, her feet pressed down onto the mattress lifting her hips up and she gripped the sheet on the bed as Freya continued to tease her, prolonging her orgasm. Her body quivering in small spasms as her girlfriend relentlessly caressed her with her tongue.

  Both were so enraptured in their love-making that neither heard the front door open and close. Dan burst into their bedroom.

  “He’s done it!” he exclaimed, starting to pace back and forth at the bottom of their bed, his wild eyes not registering the look of horror on Jordan’s face as she clutched the sheet up against her naked chest. “Honestly the bastard’s done it,” he ranted.

  Freya remained frozen between Jordan’s thighs, receiving a blow to the back of her head when she ran her tongue over where she knew Jordan would be overly sensitive following her cataclysmic, if somewhat rudely interrupted, orgasm.

  Jordan cleared her throat, “Done what?” she asked, heaving herself up slightly on the bed, her legs pulled up with her girlfriend still positioned between them under the covers.

  Dan stopped pacing and turned to face her. Taking in her position for the first time, his jaw dropped. “Is she in there?” he pointed between Jordan’s legs.

  Feeling her face start to flush Jordan opened her mouth. But before she could respond a muffled voice came out from under the bedclothes, “I’m here!”

  Jordan twirled her hand in the air with a look of fake nonchalance on her face. “She’s there,” she confirmed.

  “Did you hear me? He’s done it,” Dan repeated.

  Jordan yelped as Freya used her hip as leverage to propel herself up and out of the covers, momentarily lying on top of her girlfriend before rolling off, pulling the sheet up to cover them both as she went. “The whole damn street heard you. Did what? And this had better be bloody good Daniel Wright.”

  “You full-named me,” Dan said aghast. Assessing his best friend’s current arrangement he gave a small nod of acknowledgement, “Okay, probably deserved, given that I interrupted obvious nubbing. I’m sorry, but this is big, huge, massive.” He held his arms out wide.

  Jordan rubbed her hip under the cover, shooting Freya a disgruntled look, “What did Jackson do Dan?”

  Dan stood a look of disbelief on his face, “He’s only bloody asked me to marry him.”

  ***

  “I mean, marriage. I never!” Dan spluttered, his pacing had relocated from the bedroom to the kitchen as Jordan made them breakfast.

  Freya watched her friend’s movements, as if a spectator at a tennis match, her face contorting to the relevant faci
al responses to each of Dan’s new rants. “I never thought I’d meet someone that I loved enough to marry,” he admitted.

  Freya bit her bottom lip and nodded thoughtfully. “You know, as your ex-wife, I’m a little put out by that,” she said, ignoring the chuckle that came from the cooker where Jordan was cooking breakfast.

  Dan stopped pacing and looked at her incredulously. “No time for funnies Freya Easter, I’m having a frigging melt-down,” he wailed.

  Roxie started to bark as the front door opened and slammed close.

  “Good job I made extra eggs,” Jordan mused waiting on Jackson’s arrival.

  “Who does that?” Jackson yelled at Dan as he entered the kitchen.

  “Morning Jackson,” Freya said brightly, standing up on the stool and leaning over the table to snatch the orange juice from where Jordan had put it down.

  Jackson turned his head quickly towards her. “Morning Freya,” he acknowledged. “Jordan.”

  Jordan waved her spatula at him in response.

  “Who does that?” he repeated glaring at Dan.

  “I, I…” Dan started.

  “Who storms off, two seconds after he’s proposed to,” Jackson seethed. “What the fuck Dan. I love you and I want to marry you. So will you just get over whatever breakdown you’re having and say yes,” he bellowed.

  “I’ll say yes when I’m ready to say yes,” Dan roared in response.

  Jordan and Freya exchanged weary glances.

  “I love you and I’m scared, I’ve never loved someone like I love you,” Dan continued to holler. “So give me an arsing minute to have a ruddy great hissy fit. I never contemplated getting married to someone I love.”

  Freya raised her hand in the air, “Again, taking offence.” She was stopped from adding anything further as a dishcloth flew through the air and wrapped itself round her face. She pulled the material down and glared over at Jordan whose face was a picture of innocence.