Page 58 of Maybe Some Other Time
“We’re being silly,” Thelma said. “Are we not on a date?”
“Hey, uh… I try not to be too forward, you know.”
Such an admittance only emboldened Thelma. “I’ll have you know that I’m fairly experienced at these things, despite what Megan might tell you.”
“Does Megan actually know this about you?”
“She might soon enough.”
“Does she know we went out today?”
“Nobody does.” Thelma scooted a little closer to the woman who sat on the middle sofa cushion. The volume on the TV was still low. “Only because I don’t want them putting up a fuss. Even when they mean well, they can be a little… controlling. They think of me as a small child who needs her hand held in the supermarket.” Only the first time she visited a Ralph’s in 2018.From pioneering checkout stands to making me do it myself…The nerve.
“For what it’s worth,” Gretchen began, bright, beaming gaze never falling from Thelma’s form. “I don’t think you are.”
“Oh, you don’t?”
“Well, no.” Wasn’t she exceptionally adorable when slightly flustered? When attempting to flirt? Thelma couldn’t help it. In that moment, she was reminded of Sandy, who had no issue with being bold when she was convinced a woman liked her.I’ve learned from you, haven’t I?Because here Thelma was, offering Gretchen her undivided attention—a subtle attempt to keep her talking. “I think you’re like anyone else. Trying to figure things out with what you’re given.”
Thelma cuddled up beside her, head resting against Gretchen’s shoulder. At first, the other woman tensed. Yet as the seconds spun in circles around them, Gretchen relaxed, inviting Thelma closer until an arm was wrapped around her.
Heartbeats pounded against Thelma’s chest, attempting to pull her into nauseous anxiety. She refused to answer that call. “Thank you for the lovely day,” she whispered againstGretchen’s chest, which heaved up and down in time to Thelma’s heartbeats. “It’s been perfect.”
Perhaps Gretchen thought the same thing as her, but was also too shy to say it.“There are other ways to make this more perfect.”Thelma repressed a toothy smile to think it.Don’t get ahead of yourself.Yet she knew that Gretchen thought the same thing. She must, from the way her hand gingerly searched for the small of Thelma’s back and hung against the dip in her hip. Thelma, in turn, looped her arm across Gretchen’s chest and pressed her cheek into the soft fabric of an inviting T-shirt. When gravity eventually pulled her arm down to Gretchen’s midsection, they both sighed. Wasn’t one just waiting for the other to make a move?
But Thelma had a type. She liked a woman who knew there was mutual attraction, but Thelma was the one to beseduced.It could be as simple as taking her hand and leading her down a dormitory hallway where other girls lived and wouldn’t think twice about two best friends showing innocent affection.
She just needed something. A little push that allowed her to jump into the feelings that subsisted in her strange, time-traveling body.
Because there was nothing strange or vintage about the way Gretchen kissed her.
Just like that…Was Thelma easy? Maybe. Was she desperate to cling to the present, whatever year it might be? Yes. And did she want to know what it was like to kiss this woman who represented everything Thelma wanted for her life, now it was hers to choose again?
Yes…
For that first blessed minute, as the two of them entwined on the couch and kissed like kids on Lover’s Lane, Thelma forgot everything that tethered her to a brutal reality that made as little sense as science fiction. She didn’t have to think about whatyear it was—what generation people thought she was. She didn’t have children, neither young nor old. And she certainly wasn’t married. A widow, perhaps, but that was in the past. All that had happened to beright hereandright now,and the way Gretchen kissed her—and Thelma kissedherback—harkened to the way humans had been indulging in romance since the dawn of time.
Cavemen… Egyptians… Romans… Medieval peasants…
They kissed. They made merry. They often made love. The clothes on their bodies may change over the centuries, but the result was the same: bodies alit, and hearts opened.
“Mm…” Thelma let out the slightest protest as she fell prostrate on the couch, Gretchen following on top of her.I don’t want her to stop…Thelma needed that mouth on hers, those legs entwined with hers, and those hands exploring what she felt like both above and beneath her clothes. The only reason to protest was to fight back against her inner voice that warned her this was too soon. Didn’t she know what she was? Didn’t she think this was too fast? Should she really be indulging in the song of Sappho after all that had happened? After how a poor decision had thrust her decades into the future to reunite with her sickly daughter, bitter son, and the ghost of her husband?
“Fuck, I know…” Even Gretchen’s foul language was hot as she mistook Thelma’s muffled, senseless words as praise for the moment. “God, you’re hot.” She smothered her mouth against Thelma’s, her tongue coaxing the other woman to give in and make love right there.
I want to. I want to so badly…
A hand was up her shirt. Gasps erupted as Gretchen cupped her whole hand around Thelma’s breast and attempted to tease her nipple, all while Dorothy sobbed about wanting to return home to Kansas.
I know how you feel, Dorothy…
There were a dozen ways to end the moment, and all of them were perfectly viable in Thelma’s mind. She could fret over how Gretchen might find her naked, since two children had their way with stretch marks and some saggy skin. She might find Thelma unable to perform due to the underlying anxiety she still suffered after traveling sixty years into the future.God, there’s that.Thelma had no business doing this. She should not be ripping the clothes off a woman born almost thirty years after a fog swept Thelma away.She could be my granddaughter. She could easily be Debbie’s daughter… not me…
Thelma pulled her mouth away the moment she had the chance. Gretchen pushed herself up, apologizing.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, holding her arm at length to give distance between her and Thelma, who slowly got up and fixed her shirt. “I lost control a little. I should have checked that it was okay. I should…”
Thelma pushed her palm against Gretchen’s mouth to get her to stop talking. “No, I’m the one who is sorry,” she said as she stared at the floor. She no longer heard the movie. “I shouldn’t be doing this. It’s too soon.”
