2. So, You're Gay?
The next day
“You got this. You’re Nicole Haught. All you have to do is walk in there and order your coffee, make some small talk, and don’t mention her unfortunate choice in men.” Nicole exhaled shortly in confidence as she stared at the front door from the driver’s seat.
“Did you really just give yourself a pep talk?” Dolls asked in amusement.
“Shut up.” Nicole replied sharply before getting out of the car. She looked down at her watch. 7:44 a.m. “Three, two, one…” 7:45 a.m. She walked up to the door and stepped inside, immediately noticing Waverly’s perfect hair. Normally it would be up in a messy bun or back in a ponytail, and if it was down it would be untouched – aside from a quick brush through. But today, it was in perfect waves. The irony wasn’t lost on her.
“Hey Waves.” Nicole waved. She quickly realized the unintentional nickname. “I mean, Waverly.”
“Waves is fine!” The brunette quickly reassured. “I mean, if you want. Waverly is okay too. I mean, it is my name, so obviously it’s okay. But if you want to call me Waves to save time, I’m okay with that. Or not! It’s up to you and I won’t be offended either way.” She prayed to whatever gods that she didn’t come off as a total geek with her verbal diarrhea.
Nicole was amused by how cute the barista was. “How about I just surprise you.” She leaned against the counter.
“Deal.” Waverly relaxed as she smiled. “Oh, here’s your coffee.” She picked up the cup and held it out to the redhead.
“You remembered my drink again,” Nicole said, staring into Waverly’s eyes as she reached out for the cup, her fingertips brushing against the smaller woman’s.
As soon as Nicole’s fingertips touched hers, Waverly felt the electricity surge through her core, causing her breath to hitch. She felt tranced by the taller woman’s gaze. A strong fluttering sensation entered in the pit of her stomach, as if it had just consumed an entire army of butterflies. If she kept touching Nicole and looking into her eyes like this, she would end up with an uncomfortable ache between her legs that she knew she wouldn’t be able to make go away until after her very long shift. So she quickly retracted her hand from the cup and stared back down at the cash register.
“Um, I better get back to work,” she said, continuing where she had left off before with counting the money.
“Yeah, I better get going too. Here you go.” The officer threw a five-dollar bill down onto the counter. “And you can keep the change.” She smiled at Waverly, who grabbed the bill to put into the register without looking up.
As Nicole turned around to walk away, Waverly took the opportunity to look up. There’s that perfect ass again. “Same time tomorrow?” She quickly asked before Nicole left, not wanting their interaction to end with her inability to make eye contact.
The redhead’s mouth formed into a gentle smile. “Same time tomorrow, Waves.”
That one little nickname was all it took to get Waverly’s heart racing. If she were back in high school, this would be the moment where she would draw “NH + WE” all over her notebook. But she wasn’t in high school, she was at work. So, she let the feeling wash over herself for a moment longer before retuning her attention to the money once more.
---
A few hours and 57 drinks later, Waverly found herself taking inventory in the back.
“Hey baby!” Said a voice unexpectedly from right behind her, causing her to drop the box of coffee filters that she was holding.
“Jesus Champ! You scared the shit out of me!” She yelled, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
“Sorry. I was just trying to surprise you.”
“Didn’t you see the sign outside?”
“The one that says ‘On break. Be back at 1:30’? Yeah, I saw it.” He smirked.
“Then why did you come in when it’s only…” She looked at her watch, “1:12?”
“Because I missed you. I haven’t seen you all day.”
She rolled her eyes and attempted to continue her work.
“So, did Officer What’s-Her-Face come back in here today?” Champ asked as he slumped down into the chair that Waverly was using as a table after he had pushed all of the stuff off of it.
“It’s Officer Haught.” She corrected, unamused.
“Officer Hot-And-Bothered.” He laughed at his own joke, which really made Waverly’s blood boil. “Did she come in today?”
“She did," Waverly replied without looking up from the clipboard she was marking on.
“Ugh, why can’t she just find somewhere else to get her coffee? It’s not like this is the only coffee shop in town.”
She slammed the clipboard down onto one of the boxes and turned to face him. “Oh, so you want to drive away my customers? Is that it?”
He quickly stood up from the chair. “What? No, I just think she shouldn’t be bothering you while you’re working.”
“Kind of like you are right now?” She crossed her arms.
“What’s your problem? Why are you getting mad at me?”
“Because, I’m clearly trying to get stuff done and you won’t leave me alone!”
He gave her a puzzled look as he tried to figure out what he had done wrong. His face softened once he realized the answer. “Oh, I get it. It’s that time of the month, right?” He winked.
Waverly couldn’t believe how ignorant he was. “Wow. You really know how to talk to women, don’t you Champ?” She scoffed.
“I do.” He stated proudly as he took the compliment – or at least what he thought was a compliment, since he wasn’t very fluent in sarcasm. “And I’m even better at fucking them.” He grabbed Waverly’s waist and pulled her into him in an attempt to kiss her.
“What the fuck!” She yelled angrily as she shoved him off of her, causing him to stumble over the chair and fall backwards onto the floor.
“I’m just trying to give you want you want!” He stood up and brushed himself off.
“I know this is hard for you to believe, Champ, but your dick is not what I want right now!”
“I can see that! We haven’t had real sex in weeks, and it’s starting to get annoying. I’m your boyfriend Waverly. I’m supposed to be able to have sex with my girlfriend!”
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it? Getting laid!” She shouted.
“No, it’s not all I care about, but I do care about it. And there are plenty of girls in this town who want it from me. So if you don’t, then I might as well just go to them.” He huffed.
“By all means, have at it,” she said nonchalantly before turning around to resume counting the boxes.
“I mean it, Waverly. I’m getting impatient and sick of you constantly blowing me off. You’re going to lose me.”
She laughed. “You’re getting impatient? Champ, I’m the one getting impatient here. Impatient with you finding a real job, impatient with you not treating me like an object anymore, impatient with you never doing anything thoughtful for me, and impatient with you actually giving me an orgasm for once. But most importantly, I’m impatient waiting for you to grow the hell up. So, if you want to go out and bang other women, that’s fine by me. Because I’m done with you.” She untied her apron and threw it on the floor.
“Where are you going?” He said in a tone that was a mix of anger and surprise.
“Anywhere you aren’t. I still have 13 minutes of my break left, and I’d like to spend it jackass free. So you better be gone by the time I get back,” she said through gritted teeth before stomping out the door.
She had no idea why she was crying. Sure, she had been with Champ for a little over four years, but it’s not like he ever treated her right. It’s not like she was really losing anything. If she were being completely honest with herself, she never even enjoyed being around him. She only started dating him because her friends in high school told her that they would make a cute couple, and she just stayed in the relationship because she never had any real reason to leave. But now, everything was different. Now she was beginning to feel things for someone else. A woman. She didn’t know what that meant, but she wasn’t going to figure it out with Champ constantly breathing down her neck, begging for attention.
“Hey, are you okay?” She heard from the car that was driving next to where she was walking. When she looked over, she noticed red hair.
“Oh, hey Nicole! Yeah, I’m fine. Peachy!”
“Really?” Nicole asked in genuine concern. “You’re crying.”
Waverly’s face dropped. “Oh. Right.”
Nicole watched her wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Hey, do you want to cash in that complimentary squad car ride I owe you?”
“I only have 10 more minutes until my break is over,” Waverly shrugged.
“Okay. Do you want to cash in that 10-minute complimentary squad car ride I owe you?” She playfully grinned in an attempt to cheer up the smaller woman.
Waverly sighed. How could this woman be so sexy and adorable all at the same time? “Sure.” She smiled. She walked around to the passenger’s side of the car and got in.
“So, do you want to talk about it?” Nicole asked after a few seconds of silence.
“Well, it’s just that I, uh…well, Champ and I broke up.” She said hesitantly. Talking with Nicole about Champ was not something she was looking forward to.
“Oh?” Nicole tried her best to stifle a grin. She wanted to be supportive, even though this was the best news she’d ever gotten. “Did he break up with you, or did you break up with him?”
“I broke up with him.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Well I mean, if he had broken up with you then that would mean that he's even more of an idiot than I had previously thought.”
Waverly turned to look out the passenger’s window, trying to hide her dopey smile from the police officer. “I’m the one who did the breaking, so what does that make me?” She asked, head still turned in the opposite direction.
“Smart.” Nicole said bluntly, looking over at Waverly for a quick second before turning back to look ahead at the road.
They had slipped into a moment of comfortable silence before Waverly couldn’t help but get her worries off her chest. “I don’t know,” she sighed. “Part of me feels relieved. Like, I’m free from something I never really wanted in the first place? But another part of me feels like, what if I made a huge mistake?”
“Why do you think it was a mistake?”
“What if I don’t find anyone else? What if I end up alone? Like one of those ladies who lives with their 27 cats.”
Nicole let out a snort.
“What’s so funny?” Waverly asked, offended that she wasn’t being taken seriously.
“No, nothing. It’s just, I can’t imagine you having trouble finding someone else.”
“Why not?”
“Because, I mean, look at you! You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen!" she raved. “No, scratch that. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Waverly felt her heart rate begin to speed up. Is Nicole flirting with me? No, there’s no way. She’s just trying to make me feel better. Come on Waverly, don’t go inventing false situations in your head again.
“Ahem,” Nicole cleared her throat, getting a little nervous at the awkward silence that followed her failed attempt – or at least in her mind – at flirting. “But either way, even if you end up alone with 27 cats, which you won’t, it’ll still be an upgrade from Champ Hardy. I mean, what did you ever even see in that guy?”
“I don’t know. When we were in high school, everyone kept saying that we would look good together. He was the popular boy, and I was the head cheerleader. I just assumed that we had to be together.”
Of course she was head cheerleader in high school. “Waverly, you don’t have to be with anyone you don’t want to be with,” she comforted. “You should be with whoever makes you happy, and that’s your choice.” She looked over once again, but this time caught soft brown eyes, which she wasn’t prepared for. She was prepared for Waverly to be looking out the window still, or at least straight ahead, but she wasn’t expecting her to be looking at her. They held eye contact for what felt like an eternity, until Nicole finally looked away.
“So, uh, how long were you and Champ together?”
“Four years.”
“Four years?!” She nearly choked. “You’ve been putting up with that asshole for four years?!”
“It wasn’t all bad! He had some good moments.”
“Oh yeah, like what?”
“Well, he…um…” She couldn’t believe that she couldn’t think of a single nice thing that Champ had done for her in the past four years; over 1,460 days. When Nicole had done 18 nice things for her – small things, but nice things nonetheless – in the past 94 days, and they hadn’t even seen each other outside of the coffee shop until last night...and they weren’t even dating. “I can’t think of anything specific right now, but they exist.”
“Mhm,” Nicole hummed, clearly unconvinced. “Waverly, can I ask you a personal question?”
“Um, yeah?” She faltered.
“How old are you?” Nicole already knew the answer to this from looking at her file, but Waverly didn’t know that.
“21.”
“And how old is Champ?” Again, a question she already knew the answer to.
“21.”
“See, that’s your problem right there.”
“What?”
“Champ is still a child. Everyone knows that women mature before men. You want someone on your level of maturity? You have to date someone older. By at least a few years.”
“Well, how old are you?”
“26.”
She’s a few years older. Was she talking about herself? Was she hitting on me? Does she even like women? I have to find out. “So does that mean that your boyfriend is over 30 then?”
Nicole couldn’t contain her laughter. She knew it wasn’t fair to expect Waverly to just know that she was gay, but she had been out for so long that anybody asking about a boyfriend just seemed ridiculous to her.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, it’s just, um, I don’t have a boyfriend.” Nicole parked the car in her usual space in front of the coffee shop.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed.”
“It’s okay.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Waverly really hoped she didn’t offend Nicole with this question. She really hoped that she was gay, or at least open to dating women, but she didn’t know for sure. And today was the day she was going to find out.
Nicole stopped laughing. Her facial expression was replaced by a serious one. She was caught off guard by that question, since she wasn’t expecting Waverly to ever ask her that. Anyone here who asked if she had a boyfriend or husband always just assumed that she was single if her answer was no, and that would be the end of the conversation. Nobody ever considered that she might have a girlfriend or a wife. But of course, Waverly was much smarter than anyone else in this Podunk town.
“I’m sorry,” Waverly began to panic at Nicole’s lack of response. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m not assuming that you’re, like…you know.” She didn’t want to say ‘gay’ and end up making things even worse if Nicole was offended. “I just didn’t want to assume that you were single if you weren't with a man.”
“No, that’s-“ Nicole smiled down at the steering wheel and lightly shook her head in disbelief before looking up at Waverly. “You’re the first person here to give me the opportunity to explain myself.”
Waverly smiled back, letting Nicole continue.
“No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m not seeing anyone right now. But I do like women.”
Waverly inhaled sharply and nodded. She was internally celebrating, but externally she was trying not to make a big deal out of it. “So, you’re gay?”
“Yeah. Is that okay?” She hesitated, unsure of how the brunette would actually take her confession.
“Are you kidding? Of course it’s okay! Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I just didn’t think you guys had a lot of gays in this town.”
“Well, we don’t. Actually, I think you’re the first gay person I’ve ever met in real life…now that I think about it.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is, I swear.”
“You’re telling me that in the past 21 years of your life, you’ve never met anyone who wasn’t straight?”
“Not that I know of. But then again, I’ve been here in Purgatory all my life, so it’s not like I’ve really had a chance to branch out and meet different kinds of people.”
“Huh. I’m sure you’ve come across a lot of queer people here, you just didn’t know that they were queer. I don’t blame them. I can’t imagine questioning your sexuality in a town like this.”
“Ha ha, yeah.” Waverly shifted uncomfortably. Nicole had no idea that at that very moment, Waverly was questioning her sexuality in a town like that. In that town. “Um, so are you looking for an older woman then?”
“Well, that’s the beauty of liking women. I don’t have to wait for my prospects to mature.” She smiled. “I’m not super picky about age, but I prefer women that are younger.”
“Oh.” She felt the butterflies again. “How much younger?”
“At least 21.” Nicole smirked.
Waverly looked at Nicole. Her mind was racing. She was actually a prospect for being Nicole’s girlfriend. Officer Nicole Haught’s girlfriend. She studied her face. The way her brown eyes complimented her short, red hair, which caught like fire in the sunlight that was shining through the window. The way that the dimple in her left cheek was deeper than the subtle one in her right cheek when she smiled. And her lips…Waverly wondered what it would be like to kiss those soft, plump…
“Waves?”
“Yeah!” Waverly was brought out of her thoughts as she looked up from Nicole’s lips to her eyes, which caused the redhead to chuckle in amusement.
“It’s been 10 minutes.”
“Oh, shit. I have to get back to work.”
“I know.” Nicole gave her a comforting smile as she rubbed her shoulder. “But, I hope I was able to make you feel a little bit better?”
“Better?”
“Yeah. About your break up? …with Champ?”
“Oh, right! Yes, my break up with Champ. You did. Much better. I mean, me. I feel. I mean, I’m feeling much better.” Just the mere touch of Nicole’s hand anywhere on Waverly's body apparently made her lose all form of coherence.
“Good. I’m glad I could help.” She dropped her hand from Waverly’s shoulder down to her own lap. “So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yep! I’ll be here. Serving coffee.”
“And I’ll be here…buying it.” Both of the women giggled.
“Well, I’ll uh, I’ll see you tomorrow, Nicole.”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Waverly.”
She smiled at Nicole for a second longer before getting out of the car and rushing through the door, after snatching the ‘On break. Be back at 1:30’ sign off of it.
Nicole relaxed her head back into her headrest and sighed as she watched the petite woman walk into the shop.
“Okay Nicole, don’t get ahead of yourself,” she whispered to herself. “She just broke up with her boyfriend. There’s not much of a chance that she’s into you, or even likes women. She probably wasn’t even flirting. She was just being nice to make you feel better about being gay and coming out to her. Don’t go inventing false situations in your head again.”
She blew an audible amount of air out of her mouth as her cheeks puffed.
“I’m so screwed.”