Crossing Borderlines - 6/?
A/N: I am SO sorry for how long this took. It was a combination of utter lack of time, writer’s block, and a sudden inability to string sentences together. This morning, I had slight inspiration and it coincided with a couple hours of free time, so here is the result! I promise it won’t take so long for the next chapter to be posted.
Chapter 6
February 2013
To: ctorres@torreshotels.com
From: arobbins@gmail.com
Date: February 14, 2013
Re: Hi
Hi Friend,
Made me laugh writing “friend”. I loved seeing you last time I was in London. I’m going to be in town again next week, so I was wondering if you’d like to grab dinner again.
Love,
Callie
P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m pathetic and still at work at 8pm. I hope your day fared better.
o0o0o
February 2003
Callie woke up to the delicious feel of Arizona’s smooth, warm leg nestled in between her own. Arizona’s arm was flung possessively over her waist and her soft snores disappeared into the crook of Callie’s neck. If Callie had wanted to extricate herself (and she definitely did not), she would not have been able to. Callie had never considered herself a cuddler; no, she was decidedly a sprawler. She much preferred the diagonal-limbs-everywhere type of sleeping. Until now. Now, she was perfectly content being confined to a tiny sliver of the queen-sized bed, being the eucalyptus tree to Arizona’s ridiculously adorable koala.
Arizona nuzzled into Callie’s neck, almost mewling in her unconscious state. Callie simply pulled her closer so that most of Arizona’s weight was now on top of her.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Callie murmured in Arizona’s ear.
“Mmmm, happy Valentine’s Day,” Arizona grumbled back, though the phrase was almost incomprehensible.
Callie chuckled and swept some loose hairs off Arizona’s neck, before leaning down to kiss the soft skin between her chin and collarbone. “I’m so glad I have you,” Callie mumbled.
“Me too,” Arizona replied, wrapping her arms around Callie’s neck and effectively trapping her in place.
“As much as I’d love to stay in bed all day, we both have class, and I want to exchange presents before we go.”
“Oooh, presents!” Arizona grinned, having forgotten their promise to buy each other jewelry for their first Valentine’s Day together in her early morning haze. She slithered out from under Callie and over to her dresser, where she pulled a flat box from her underwear drawer.
Practically skipping back over to the bed, Arizona presented Callie the box with a flourish. Laughing, Callie reached down to get Arizona’s gift instead of taking hers from Arizona’s outstretched arms.
“Looks like we went to the same store,” Callie said, as she pulled a nearly identical box from her bag. The gift wrapping was the exact same, except that Arizona’s was tied with a gold ribbon, while Callie’s was silver.
Arizona laughed before shoving the box closer to Callie with one hand and grabbing her present from Callie’s hand with her other. “Open at the same time?”
Callie rolled her eyes but smiled good-naturedly. “Sure.”
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Arizona excitedly pulled at the ribbon holding the box closed and impatiently waited for Callie to do the same. “Ready?” Arizona asked expectantly and grinned when Callie nodded. “One…two…three,” she counted slowly, before ripping open her box.
When she saw its contents, Arizona threw her head back in laughter. Callie, having ignored Arizona’s rule about opening their presents together, furrowed her brow and frowned slightly. “You, uh, don’t like it?”
“Callie! You didn’t open yours at the same time,” Arizona chastised lightly.
Callie cocked her head to the side in disbelief, wanting some reassurance that Arizona liked her gift before she opened the one in her lap. Arizona raised her eyebrows, challenging Callie to deny her.
Grumbling something about Arizona knowing her too well, Callie finally lifted the lid to her own box. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. I love it, Calliope, which is why I bought the same one for you.”
“Great minds, huh?”
“The best,” Arizona said with a grin, while swiveling so that her back was towards Callie. She swept her hair to the side, waiting for Callie to hook the diamond-studded heart necklace around her neck. She turned back around to clasp an identical necklace around Callie’s neck. Lightly fingering the heart pendant, Arizona pulled Callie in for a light kiss.
“Perfect,” she murmured.
o0o0o
February 2013
“God, sorry I’m so late,” Arizona said as she rushed in and plopped herself on the open chair across from Callie. “Surgery ran late and then Rachel came over to get her things and that was just…awkward. But anyway, I’m here now and so ready for a big glass of Chardonnay,” Arizona finished with a grin. When she realized Callie was just staring at her without saying anything, she glanced down at herself self-consciously. “Oh man, does this shirt have a stain on it? I haven’t had the time to do much laundry recently,” Arizona admitted sheepishly.
Callie shook her head, her brain catching up with Arizona’s speed-talking. “What? No! You look…beautiful. I was just…Rachel had to come over to get her things?”
Arizona shrugged. “Yep, we broke up.”
Trying oh-so-hard not to sound excited, Callie took a sip of her wine before speaking. “Oh?”
“She thinks I’m too preoccupied with other…things.”
“I take it she doesn’t understand what being with a surgeon entails?”
“No, she’s actually fairly forgiving of canceled dates and rain checks because of emergency surgeries. I think maybe when I said things, I should have said people…or well, person,” Arizona said hesitantly. She glanced up at Callie and offered her a small smile when Callie’s eyes widened in realization.
“Oh,” Callie said with a gulp. She’d thought this moment would come, but she had never let herself prepare for it, in case it didn’t.
“She thinks I still have feelings for you,” Arizona continued, ignoring Callie’s increased nerves.
“And do you?” Callie asked softly.
“I never forgot what we had, Callie. I never stopped thinking about you. You were my first true love,” she hedged.
Callie sighed and picked apart the piece of bread she’d been eating, before looking back up and meeting Arizona’s confident gaze. Callie forced a smile, took a deep breath, and asked, “in that case, it wouldn't be wildly inappropriate for me to ask you out on a date? A real date?”
“Oh no, it's still wildly inappropriate given our history," Arizona said with a shake of her head.
Callie's smile immediately dropped. "So that's a no?"
Arizona shook her head once more. "It's most definitely a yes," she grinned.
o0o0o
Callie could not for the life of her remember why on earth she had agreed to a date in Arizona’s apartment. And it wasn’t just any date. It was their first date after breaking up ten years ago. Everything about the apartment screamed Arizona from the décor to the photographs to the coffee table books.
As Arizona uncorked a bottle of pinot grigio in the kitchen, Callie perused the living room, shocked when she came across a picture of the two of them in college tucked in a corner of one of the bookcases. She picked up the photograph and ran a finger over their smiling faces, remembering fondly the sunset picnic they’d been sharing when they decided to take that self-photo.
Sensing Arizona’s presence in the room, Callie turned, picture still in her hand. “I’m surprised to see this on your bookshelf,” she admitted.
“I could never really let you go, Callie,” Arizona confessed. “Maybe it was masochistic of me to keep that out, but it was my favorite, and I just couldn’t put it in the box with the rest of the stuff from our relationship.”
“I understand,” Callie replied. “There are pieces of you all over my house.” Needing some space from the intensity of the conversation, Callie placed the photo back in its place and glanced around the room. “Can I, um, use your bathroom before dinner?”
“Sure, why don’t you use mine? It’s right through that door on the left.”
Callie nodded and murmured her thanks, before slipping through the door into Arizona’s bedroom. The bedroom was just as Callie had imagined it would be. Everything was muted pastels and earth tones. It was pleasantly decorated and had a generally positive affect on anyone who entered. She shook her head with a smile as she headed to the bathroom. Careful not to mess up her make-up, Callie splashed a bit of water over her face. She couldn’t help but grin at her reflection. She was in Arizona’s bathroom. Arizona Robbins. The woman she thought she’d never see again and the woman she couldn’t forget no matter how much she tried.
“Come on, Torres. Don’t fuck this up,” she spoke to her reflection. With a sharp nod, she smoothed out the wrinkles in her deep purple fitted v-neck shirt. “You look hot.” She paused and cocked her head to the side. “And now you’re talking to yourself like a crazy person.”
Laughing at herself, she quickly exited the bathroom, resisting the urge to snoop through Arizona’s things. That was until a familiar shiny object caught her eye. Walking over to Arizona’s bureau, her suspicions were concerned. Laid out next to her other necklaces was the heart pendant they had exchanged for Valentine’s Day so many years before. She picked it up and fingered the intricate diamond-encrusted heart. Clasping the necklace in her fist, she walked back out to the living room.
“Arizona?”
“In the kitchen!” she called from the next room.
Callie laughed softly as she watched Arizona flit around the kitchen, making sure everything was prepared. Arizona whipped around when she heard the laughter and sent Callie a dazzling, dimpled smile. Her smile faltered when Callie let the necklace drop from her clenched fist, catching the chain with her forefinger.
“I, um…I don’t wear it,” Arizona promised.
“I figured,” Callie said. “And I wasn’t snooping, but I saw it on your bureau.”
“It would’ve been understandable if you had been snooping,” Arizona assured her. A silence fell over them while Arizona waited for Callie to say how she felt about the fact that Arizona still clearly kept the necklace on display.
Sighing, Callie stepped forward so that she was just inches from Arizona. “I was thinking that maybe…maybe you could wear it again?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously,” Callie replied, allowing a toothy smile to spread across her face.
“I’d love to.”