Love is a Place Ch. 02: The Solution - Sex Stories

Love is a Place Ch. 02: The Solution

... working, I insist Stuart picks you up when he picks up Samantha. He can either drop you at your parents' house or you can spend Christmas with us. We'd love to have you here Sarah. There's genuine warmth in her voice that threatens to set me off crying again. I wasn't expecting this.

"Ok, well, if that's ok."

Of course it is. He'll be there in 40 minutes. He's going to leave now. You decide, but we'd love to see you.

I interrupt quickly. Phone calls with Rachael can go on a bit. "Ok... here, I'll pass you back to Samantha ... and, thank you."

I'm stunned. 12 hours ago I felt friendless and adrift, an empty husk. Now there are so many mixed emotions sloshing about inside me I'm at risk of brimming over with tears again.

"Bye Mum," Sarah hangs up and then heads for the kitchen. "Would you like tea?" she calls.

As she showers, I sip my tea and read through the multiple messages from Amanda, Louise and everyone else, seeing how very, very wrong I've been these past few days. I message them Merry Christmas and apologise. I tell them I'm fine. That we're fine.

I don't feel it yet. But I think it's going to be ok. I want to spend the day with Samantha: seeing her this morning had brought home how much I'd been missing her, a visceral ache that had been seated so deep inside me that I felt it in my bones. I hadn't felt really whole without her. That's gone now, but has been replaced with an older, more familiar yearning that is still laced with sick shame. I ...

... need to unpack my feelings, and examine them in the light of Samantha's not-quite-revealed feelings... which I also need to get to the bottom of. I need to try to shove these thoughts aside for now and just try to have a nice day, as a friend. I'll go to Samantha's; my parents won't care and their house will be rammed anyway.

By the time I've had my turn in the bathroom, we've barely got 5 minutes to pack presents. Luckily, I had bought some gifts for Christmas before the disaster of last Thursday night, so some can be repurposed for her family. I'll get something else for Amanda and Lydia in the sales. Just as I'm gearing up the courage to ask Samantha about the solution to her puzzle, her older brother Stuart is buzzing the door and we're heading out.

Stuart introduces us to his girlfriend Megan, whom I've heard about but never met. She apparently has zero tact or boundaries, because as soon as we're on the road, she's turning round from the front seat to quiz us about what's been going on.

"So... are you ok? You had everybody worried."

"Yes, I'm fine," I mumble back, avoiding her eyes, trying to make it clear I don't want to talk.

"I'm fine thanks Megan. I have Sarah now. Why were people worried about me?" Samantha, however, clearly thought the question was for her.

"Oh that's so sweet!" Megan squeals. "So are you two, like, a couple now? Are you girlfriends?"

"We are friends and we are girls and there are two of us," replies Samantha, in her typical ...