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to see Quinn's reaction. Quinn said nothing; she merely slid the two glasses of wine across the table until they were within Natalie's grasp, then stood and ran across the living room to the winding staircase leading up to the loft. Natalie heard a few glasses clinking around, and when she looked up Quinn was bounding back down the stairs, a bottle of Patron in one hand and two shot glasses in the other. After reclaiming her seat Quinn poured them each a shot and clinked their glasses together. Natalie took the shot without question and downed in unison with Quinn, her face screwing at the awful taste of the potent liquid. It burned the entire length of her throat and down into her stomach, but otherwise went to her brain with near immediacy.
    "I don't want to dwell on it or cry about it," Natalie began again. "I have no interest in talking about my feelings or in any way re-living what was undoubtedly the most painful 48 hours of my life. Things with James just got to the point where it was all too much to handle, and now it's over."
    Quinn opened her mouth but shut it again before she could speak. Instead she reached for Natalie's hand on the table and squeezed it gently. She held it there for a long while, the two of them sitting in the midnight silence of their shared living space, staring off into the distance.
    Finally, after a considerable amount of time passed, Quinn said, "But why Audra?"
    Natalie's lips picked up in a smile, at once breaking the gloomy mood that had settled between them. "Have you met the woman? She's intelligent, business savvy, and not to mention gorgeous." And after seeing her half naked all Natalie could think was why not Audra ? She shrugged and sipped from the white wine glass. "It wasn't planned or expected. It just kind of happened."
    "So you're..." Quinn's eyes roamed around the room as if the word she was looking for were sitting amongst the decoration somewhere. "Hooking up?" she finished.
    "It's casual. I'm attracted to her. Why not act on it?"
    "Does she know that it's just casual?"
    Natalie nodded. "The easiest part of being with Audra Robertson is that there is no expectation of a future." Being sure of that fact was a comfort she needed.
    "You know if you wanted to explore your sexuality you could have just asked me. I went to college; I had the requisite Sapphic fling." Natalie's eyes narrowed, her lips pursed. "What? It's true!"
    Without warning Natalie leaned across the table and planted her lips on Quinn's, suckling alternately on her top and bottom lip. When she pulled away Quinn looked a bit shell-shocked.
    "Did you feel anything?" Natalie asked.
    Quinn thought on it for a moment, then answered, "Not really."
    "When I kiss Audra it's like lighting a firecracker in my sternum. And her breasts," she added dreamily. "Oh my god her breasts-"
    "Okay!" Quinn cut her off. "Yes, great rack. Let's leave it at that." She poured them each another shot. "To kissing whomever you want to kiss. God bless America," Quinn toasted. Natalie clinked her glass to Quinn's.
    "Cheers."
    Natalie downed the liquid and slammed the glasses onto the table with Quinn, smiles breaking through their faces as the liquor coursed through Natalie's body.
    Quinn picked up the bottle, her shot glass, and stood from the table. "Okay, I've been dying to see what's in those boxes you had shipped home."
     
     
     
    Transcendently drunk and blissful, Natalie sank into the bathtub, a fizzy bath bomb exploding into a kaleidoscope of pastel color and sensual creamy rose at her feet. Though her mind was exhausted from travel and drink, her body was alight with bundling energy radiating from her center. Heated water lapped against her skin, re-sensitizing it to a state of heightened arousal. Her fingers roamed her body, skating over smooth wet skin beneath the sudsy surface. She breathed in slowly, her mind rewinding the hours to the plush queen size bed on the plane, Audra between her legs with her lips on Natalie's