Room for improvement

Lily woke up feeling like a stampede of bison had run roughshod over her brain. Quinn wasn’t in much better shape as they stirred and made eye contact. “Jesus christ my head, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck me” Quinn winced at the sunlight, as Lily groaned in commiseration. Reaching for her phone Quinn placed a mobile order for breakfast burritos and coffee, stumbling in search of Pedialyte and painkillers.

Within an hour both women felt at least partially alive, munching on burritos and alternatively chugging caffeine and electrolyte heavy beverages. They hadn’t broached the topic of Cassie yet, Quinn taking a delicate approach. Lily called out of work for the first time in her life, a disgruntled Teddy accepting the call of duty to cover her in exchange for the juicy details of what kind of night she’d had. Lily winced at the thought and placated Teddy with promises to tell him all about it another time.

Quinn placed a sympathetic hand on Lily’s knee “Look Lilz, I don’t want to pretend like this isn’t going to be tough to deal with, but accidents happen. From what you’ve told me about your cousin, I think your friendship is strong enough to handle this.” Lily sniffled, trying not to cry as she disclosed the awkward interaction at the café when Cassie had seen her haircut and eyebrow, and Teddy’s unflattering assessment of Cassie’s attitude towards queer people.

Quinn handwaved away Teddy’s thoughts as nonsense “Look, Teddy saw what he wanted to see, trust me Cassie is definitely not going to disown you for being bisexual.” Lily wasn’t convinced but Quinn went on “Ok so, I um actually know Cassie. We went to highschool together for a bit and even back then I knew she couldn’t really be homophobic.”

Lily looked at Quinn inquisitively, sensing there was more to the story. Quinn looked slightly sheepish “ok so I might have hooked up with your cousin a couple times in highschool. She’s not homophobic but her parents definitely were, they caught us and were so mad they changed schools. I tried to keep in touch but we haven’t talked in a couple years, whatever her folks said or did must have been brutal.” Quinn stroked Lily’s cheek “Cassie isn’t going to hate you, I promise. Now let’s cuddle and watch a shitty horror movie and just fucking veg today.”

Lily smiled, a small sliver of hope and relief took hold in her heart. She kissed Quinn tenderly on the cheek “I really like you Quinn, you’re pretty amazing you know.” Quinn bit Lily’s lip mischievously “don’t let anyone know, I’ve got a reputation.”

They passed the day cuddling and watching terrible movies and ordering more takeout. Other than the occasional kiss or pat on the butt, the day stayed platonic, the two simply enjoying the pleasure of the other’s company. It was an odd sensation, the mundane of a normal day hanging out doing couple like things. Lily helped clean the house, and by the time evening came around it was almost fit for human habitation again. Reluctantly, Lily acknowledged she should probably head home to get a change of clothes and not skip another day of work.

Quinn wrapped her up in a final hug, kissing her lovingly on the lips. “If you need anything at all just text me babes, it’s all gonna work out fine.” Lily thanked her, sneaking in a cheeky squeeze of Quinn’s firm ass “You’re the absolute best Quinners, thank you. I really appreciate you- let’s hang out again soon ok?” Quinn promised they would, coyly suggesting a date night on Wednesday. Lily smiled ear to ear and kissed her lover goodbye and made her way home to promptly pass the fuck out.