“Sorry we had to stay in a hotel. The nurse is in the guest room at their house now, and I wanted to get her set up before we left.” Keira leaned down and kissed Emma’s lips. “I’ll be an hour at most.”
“Take your time.” Emma smiled up at her wife, who had dawned a more professional outfit than the hooded sweatshirt and jeans she’d had on yesterday at her parents’ house.
Emma did work herself for about an hour, waiting for Keira’s return to the hotel. She’d already packed their things – which was good because Keira wasn’t back in an hour. Emma texted her wife after another thirty minutes had ticked by. They had to leave for the airport soon, or they’d miss their flight.
“I know. I’m so sorry I’m late,” Keira said the moment she opened the door.
“That might have been the first thing you ever said to me,” Emma replied with a smile and a thought back to the day they met.
“Very funny. I’ve gotten a lot better since then.”
“That’s true. You’re rarely late now. What happened? Traffic?”
“Actually, no. Must be a Sunday thing, but there wasn’t any traffic.” She sat on the edge of the bed next to Emma.
“How was your candidate?”
“Terrible.” She laughed. “He was awful. I’m not sure what the recruiter saw in him, but I’ll talk to her later.”
“If he was that bad, what took so long?”
“Well, I was sitting at the Starbucks, wishing I could get out of the interview after about five minutes, when I looked past the guy across the street and noticed there was a ‘for lease’ sign on the building. I was able to cut the interview short, thankfully, and decided to walk over. I called the number on the sign, and it turns out, the building is owned by the same company that owns the condos next door. The manager came over and gave me a tour.”
“A tour of a building? Why?” Emma asked, turning toward her wife.
“It’s a three-story office building.”
“Why are you looking for offices? Your people in LA all work from home, right? That’s the plan?”
“You know Carey?”
“One of your planners, right?”
“No, that’s Carly. Carey is in marketing. She lives in North Hollywood with her fiancée, Drea.”
“Okay…” Emma lengthened out the word.
“She’s the one that comes up to the office every now and then, and–”
“Oh, Carey. Right.” Emma remembered. “We went out to drinks with her a couple of times, and she and Drea were at the holiday party. They’re really nice. Drea was hilarious, if I remember correctly.”
“You do. Anyway, when she called on Friday, Carey mentioned that working from home wasn’t something she particularly enjoyed all the time. Drea also works from home. They only have a one-bedroom apartment. I saw this place, took the tour, and I loved it, Em. It’s small enough to not be too big of an investment. It’s a three-year lease, so it’s not forever, and it’s big enough that we could grow the company here. Plus, the location is great. It’s right there on the corner of a busy street. The price is high, but not ridiculous; the business can afford it. If we invest more in this booking part of things, we can do it here, and it can grow faster than if we did it up there.”
“So, wait…” Emma held up her hand. “You want to put an office here, too?”
“Yes, I do.”
“The one you just saw, you didn’t sign a lease, did you?”
“No, Emma. I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first.” Keira placed a hand on Emma’s thigh. “I want to talk to my VPs and department heads first. It might be a terrible idea. I’m not as impulsive as I used to be.” She smiled at Emma. “I got the info, and I’ll share it with them tomorrow when I’m back at the office. But, I don’t know… It just felt right to me.”
“Let’s talk more on the way to the airport. We don’t want to miss our flight,” Emma said, standing.
Keira’s hand turned her around until Emma was in front of her and Keira’s hands were around Emma’s waist.
“We have time,” she said with a lifted eyebrow.
“Keira, what has gotten into you?” Emma laughed as Keira unbuttoned her jeans and unzipped them shortly after. “Babe, our flight.”
“We have time,” she repeated, lifting Emma’s shirt and kissing her stomach. “I can’t get on a plane without touching you first.”
“It’s a short flight,” Emma argued mostly for fun because she wasn’t about to turn Keira down when she was like this; all turned on and sexy.
“Not short enough.” Keira pulled down Emma’s jeans, revealing her underwear. “Kick them off, babe.”
Emma kicked her shoes off first, followed by the jeans. Keira pulled Emma’s shirt and bra off. Emma removed her underwear and stood nude as her wife stared at her body with smoky eyes.
“Aren’t you going to–”
“Nope,” Keira said, pulling Emma’s body into her. “Stand still.” She smirked.
A moment later, Emma felt Keira’s tongue swirl around a nipple. A few moments after that, she felt it a lot lower. Several minutes later, Emma came with her wife’s lips sucking on her clit while Keira’s fingers moved inside her. An hour later, they’d missed their flight and had to take the one after back to home.
◆◆◆
“Oh, wow,” Emma said.
“Yeah?” Keira asked as she climbed back on top of her wife. “Again?”
“Keira, I’ve lost count of the amount of orgasms I’ve had this week. My body is actually sore.” She chuckled as Keira kissed her neck.
“We haven’t been like this in so long, Em. I missed how we used to go at it like bunnies.”
“Me too. But can I ask what brought this on?” Emma brushed Keira’s long hair behind her ears as Keira sat up straddling her on their bed.
“I’m excited,” she said.
Emma looked down at Keira’s center and said, “Really?” She lifted her eyebrows and met Keira’s eyes. “Can I see?”
“I can do better than that, babe. You can feel.” She took Emma’s hand and slid it between her thighs, running it through her wetness. “And you feel good.”
Emma watched as Keira’s hips began to rock. She filled her with two fingers and stroked her with her thumb until Keira came above her. Emma stayed inside her; loving the feeling of being inside her wife when her wife was this happy. Keira leaned over her and kissed Emma long and slow. When Emma slid out of her, Keira used that as an opportunity to slide back into Emma. Emma laughed for a moment until Keira curled her fingers. Then, Emma stopped laughing.
Hours later, Keira was staring at her laptop. Emma was reading a study on the impact of physical education courses in higher education. She looked over at Keira, who was typing an email, and just decided to ask her the question that had been on her mind since they’d gotten back from LA.
“Key?”
“Yeah?” Keira looked over at her.
“Babe, do you want to move to Los Angeles?”
◆◆◆
“Huh?” Keira asked; not sure she heard Emma correctly.
“You’ve been so excited since we got back with the possibility of the new office. Your parents are there, and they’re not getting any younger. My parents are gone, so we’re not going to have to move near them.”
“So, you’re asking me if I want to move?” Keira closed her computer and turned her face toward her wife. “To LA?”
Emma turned her entire body toward Keira and said, “Be honest with me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Babe, are you happy here?”
“Emma, I love you. I’m very happy with you.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Emma smiled at her. “But I don’t just mean with me or within our marriage. We postponed After Dark because we went to see your parents. Hill and Amara could have gone this week, but you were busy working on the possibility of an office for Worthy Bash in LA. You were talking to Carey and Michael for over an hour last night.�
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“Well, Michael would work out of that office, too. And Jocelyn is here, but she said she’s wanted to move to LA for a while now and would be interested in relocating if we have an office there.”
Emma smiled and said, “I know. I’m not upset that you had to work last night, Keira. I’m happy because you sounded so happy. You and Carey were even setting up a double date for the four of us the next time we go down there.”
“She’s really nice. And you liked Drea.”
Keira was worried. Emma had been concerned about her happiness a lot lately. They’d had so many conversations about it, Keira was starting to get a complex. If she complained about her morning coffee, would Emma think there was something more going on than the lukewarm temperature of a beverage? If she made a comment about how Greene hadn’t called her back after the last two messages she’d left, would Emma try to reach out to Macon or Joanna on her behalf to find out what was going on? Keira knew her wife. She knew Emma valued her happiness over her own in the same way Keira valued Emma’s happiness over her own.
“I do like Drea. She’s funny. I told you that.” Emma smiled and gave a soft laugh as she reached over to cup Keira’s cheek. “I think you think I’m upset or concerned about moving. I’m not, Key. I just want you to tell me what you want. I know all your friends moving away has made the city less attractive to me.”
“It has?” Keira asked, turning completely now to face her wife.
“Yes. Babe, when I first moved here, I had no one. I’d just left all my Chicago friends behind. I had to start all the way over here, and I met you. You introduced me to this amazing group of women.” She paused. “And Kevin.”
“And Kevin,” Keira repeated.
“Your friends basically adopted me. I feel like even though I wasn’t there in the beginning, I got to watch Macon find the love of her life and Hillary dance around things with Amara forever before they finally figured things out. And even though I’m not as close to Kellan, I still got to be part of her wedding to Reese. I lost them when they all left, too, Keira.”
“I know.” She patted Emma’s thigh. “What are you saying though? You’d actually consider moving to LA?”
“I haven’t heard you laugh as much as I have this past week in… I don’t know how long.”
“I’ve been having fun.” Keira smiled.
“I know. If you’re doing this office thing, it makes sense to have a leader there to support it,” Emma replied. “Do you want that to be you?”
Keira thought for a minute and asked, “Remember when we first started dating? We thought I was going to have to move to LA and live with my parents.”
“I remember,” Emma said with a smile. She took Keira’s hand. “This time is different, though, Keira.”
“Emma, how would we even do this? You work up here. We live up here.”
“We find a place down there. We can buy or rent until we find something we want. I can find a job down there.”
“You’re willing to just change jobs like that?”
“If it means you’re happier – definitely.”
Keira squinted at her wife and said, “Emma, are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“I keep asking you if you like your new job and you keep telling me you just need time to get used to the workload and this new team. Is there more to it than that?”
Keira had noticed her wife’s change in demeanor since she’d taken this promotion. She’d been complaining about her new team more and more along with the problems she had to solve for them. Her assistant wasn’t nearly as good as the one she used to have. She’d been working at home more and more, and her usual joy from the work she did in public health just wasn’t there anymore.
“I don’t know. I just feel like I’m in a rut at work. I can’t seem to get ahead of the things I need to do and the things that are being asked of me on top of those things. I was hoping the people I took on would be better at managing their teams and their problems. Instead, I think I spend most of my day with people in my office, trying to help them figure something out. I have no time left over to do my actual job.”
“I knew something was up. Why didn’t you tell me?” Keira asked, sliding her hand up to Emma’s stomach and using it to encourage her wife to lie back, which she did.
“Because I thought I’d get better at this eventually. And you’ve been dealing with stuff at work, too. Rose leaving was only the most recent thing. You had that guy who accepted the VP offer decide to take something else at the last minute, and you had to start over. You’ve been dealing with missing all your friends, and – I don’t know… I just thought it was my turn to worry about you.”
Keira looked down as she moved more into her wife, leaving her hand on Emma’s stomach but sliding it up under her shirt to caress the skin. She smiled softly, leaned down, and kissed Emma sweetly.
“I love you for that, but you know that’s not how this works. I always worry about you, and you always worry about me.”
“I know.”
“Do you want another job, Em? Here or anywhere else?”
Emma seemed to consider it for a moment and said, “I think I might.”
“Then, you should get your resume out there, babe. I’ll help however I can; whatever you need. I’d hire you myself, but I don’t think you have any event planning skills.”
“Hey! Technically, I planned our wedding,” Emma argued.
“Actually, you planned the proposal. The wedding was a spontaneous thing.” Keira placed her hand between Emma’s breasts to feel her heartbeat. “And I’d do that all over again with you.”
Emma placed her hand over Keira’s and said, “Me too.”
“Why don’t we look at the finance tomorrow? Maybe you can put in your notice, and we can be fine without you working for a while. You can take some time off until you find something.”
“I don’t know that I need time off. I mean, don’t get me wrong: a vacation does sound nice. But I’d only be interested in that if you could take time off with me. It sounds like that’s impossible.” She smiled up at Keira. “You’re opening a new office in Los Angeles.”
“Apparently,” Keira replied. “Would you really consider moving to LA?”
“I’m here because of you, babe.” She cupped Keira’s cheek again. “I moved here for a job, but I stayed this long for you.”
“Carey and Drea go to these monthly poker nights with a few friends they said we might like, and Michael’s sister owns a lesbian bar in West Hollywood. Indy is actually thinking about taking a job there.”
“Bartender at After Dark, Indy? When did you talk to her about this?”
“She’s still working like a million jobs. I hire her as the bartender at events sometimes; you know that.” Emma’s eyebrow lifted, and she gave Keira a glare. “I know you know I’m married to you. Indy hasn’t hit on me in years, and if you remember correctly, she also used to hit on you.”
“Well, she’s still single, so I’m just checking,” Emma replied.
Keira slid her hand to cover Emma’s bare breast and said, “And I’m totally hot for my wife and no one else.” She squeezed Emma’s breast before she started toying with her nipple lightly.
“We were having a serious conversation,” Emma reminded.
“We were; until you brought up Indy as if you should ever be jealous of her,” Keira said while twisting Emma’s nipple a little, earning a small wince from her wife. “Understood now?”
“Yes,” Emma answered as she moved Keira’s hair away from her face. “LA?”
Keira climbed on top of Emma and said, “I like the idea, yes. Let’s talk more about it tomorrow, okay? I’ll have the official decision from everyone at the office on whether or not this other office is a good idea and if this building is the right building for us.”
“And if it’s a go?” Emma asked as she slid her hands into Keira’s shorts under her panties and clenched her ass.
“Then, we take a
trip to LA and see about finding a place to live.” She smiled wider than she had in a very long time.
They made love and fell asleep satisfied in one another’s arms. Before Keira’s mind finally calmed enough to let her doze off alongside Emma, she thought about the woman lying next to her. It still amazed her, even after all these years, how well Emma knew her. She loved her friends dearly and missed them, which was part of her melancholy, but she could find new friends to add to their group. She would never be able to find another Emma. Her wife was the one person on this earth Keira was supposed to spend the rest of her life with, and the fact that she was willing to move to LA, made it even more obvious to Keira.
She hadn’t thought about moving until Emma said it. But the moment it registered what Emma was suggesting, Keira’s heart had sped up, and the ideas and thoughts of what their life could be down there just kept coming. They could live close to her parents, but not so close that they’d expect them to stop by every other night for dinner. She’d be able to check in on her father and make sure her mom had what she needed to take care of him and herself. The office would need a leader down there. Keira had enough people in the main office to run the show up here without her needing to be there every day. She could fly up once a month or more often if needed.
Her main concern now, though, was her wife. She watched Emma sleep for a bit before she closed her own eyes. She wanted to make sure this was the right decision for both of them. It couldn’t just be about her. If Emma was miserable at her job, Keira would make sure she found the perfect one for her. If it was in San Francisco or somewhere else in the bay area, they’d stay. Keira wouldn’t let Emma sacrifice her happiness at work just for her.
◆◆◆
“So, LA?” Hailey asked.
“Maybe,” Emma said.
“I guess I can see you living there. I mean, I couldn’t really picture you in New Jersey, but then you went to college, and it made sense. Then, I couldn’t picture you in San Francisco, but you met Keira and her friends, and it made sense. Now, I think I can picture you in Los Angeles.”
“Hails, it’s not official yet. Keira is running it by everyone at work.”
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