Page 71 of Swept Up In You

Marie let out a high pitched squeal. “Yes! I thought my gaydar was pinging! She kinda seemed into you, but I also didn’t want to assume. And… everything with Liz…” she trailed off.

“Yeah, no, totally. It’s been a lot. And to be honest, it was a surprise for me too. She’s not out yet, so this stays between us, which she knows and is fine with.”

“Okay, cool.” Hayley nodded along. “So, please tell us she’s coming to the next games night, because now Ireallyneed to meet her. You know, friend requirement and all that,” she said with a shrug.

“It’s true. Now we need to properly suss her out,” Marie agreed seriously.

Taylor laughed. “Okay, you two. I’ll invite her, but it’s up to Sam if she wants to hang out with all of you weirdos again.”

They enjoyed the rest of the afternoon walking together from jetty to jetty, catching up on all the happenings over the last couple of weeks. One of Hayley’s niece’s had started walking, so she was in proud-aunty mode, and Marie spent most of the time going through her current board game wishlist and plotting strategies for their next catch up—when she wasn’t grilling Taylor on all things Sam, much to Hayley’s delight.

Taylor was back home in a cleaning frenzy. She was also running fashionably late… again. She’d spent so much time at the marina and Sam’s place lately, she thought it was about time she invited Sam over to her house for some—hopefully—cosy hangs. Jess was working a night shift at the restaurant, so they had the place to themselves for the next few hours.

They hadn’t seen each other since Taylor left on Sunday morning, and while they had texted, she was really looking forward to seeing Sam again in person. Now that they’d taken things to the next level, she hoped Sam was still okay with everything and didn’t have any regrets or weird feelings aroundTaylor. It was one thing to like a girl, but sleeping together could either scare her off, or hopefully have her begging for more. She smirked at the thought.Probably the latter with how vocal Sam had got last time.

A knock at the door scared the crap out of her as Belle bounded to the front to greet their guest, barking her little head off. Taylor opened the door to a very huggable-looking Sam. She’d taken her “cosy hangs” suggestion to heart and stood in trackies with an oversized hoodie, hair up in its usual ponytail and a devilish smile on her lips. Before she could say anything, Sam dropped the bag she was holding, her arms instantly wrapping around Taylor’s neck. Soft lips met hers in a kiss that was anything but sweet. Sam pulled back, giving Taylor a chance to catch her breath.

“Hi. Sorry. I’ve been wanting to do that since you last walked out of the door,” Sam said with a sheepish grin.

Most probably on the begging side, then.

“Fine by me.” Taylor smiled back.

They both looked down at the sound of rustling to see Belle snuffling through Sam’s bag. “Belle, out of it. Off you go, in your bed.” Belle did as she was told, skulking off into the lounge room.

“What’s in there?” Taylor asked, eyeing off the rather large bag.

“Well, I know you were probably thinking to get takeaway, but… I thought we could cook!” Sam picked up the bag, hefting it onto her shoulder.

Taylor lifted a brow. “You better be teaching me, because all I usually piece together is eggs on toast—with avo, if I’m feeling fancy. I’m alsoreallygood at heating up leftovers from Jess.”

“Luckily for us, I’ve chosen something super simple. Pasta!” Sam said as they made their way through the lounge and into thekitchen. Sam placed the bag up on the counter and started taking out the ingredients.

“You know I love your pasta.” Taylor watched to see what Sam had brought along with her. “Are we doing that pesto one you made last time?”

“We’re going creamy tonight,” she replied, plonking a large container of thickened cream next to a bulb of garlic. “Creamy Italian sausage pasta. And, we’re making the pasta from scratch.” She pulled out a bag of flour next, then a carton of eggs.

Taylor pretended to wipe at her mouth. “Can we just skip the cooking part and eat it already? That sounds wickedly good.”

“You’rewickedly good… with your fingers,” Sam deadpanned.

“Now listen. If you start talking like that—even joking—we aren’t going to get any cooking done.”

“Fine!” Sam put her hands up in defence. “I’ll behave myself. It’s worth it for how good this dish tastes, trust me.”

They got to work on the pasta first, Sam making Taylor crack the eggs into a flour well with a pinch of salt and olive oil. “That’s it?” Taylor said as she carefully started whisking it together.

“Yep, simple hey? Oh, watch the edges, you don’t want the flour ‘walls’ to break, or shit will get messy, fast.”

“Got it.”

Sam brought her hand over Taylor’s to show her a better technique. It was hard to concentrate on what she was showing her when all she could smell was her fresh shampoo, with a hint of coconut.Focus on the food Taylor.

She managed to make an adequate dough ball with Sam’s guidance, which they let rest while Taylor got them drinks and they caught up on their day. Taylor also made sure to give Sam the details for their next board game night, which she put straight in her calendar. Marie and Hayley would be very happy.

“Time to roll these bad boys out,” Sam said, cutting up the dough into sections and flouring Taylor’s benchtop. “Rolling pin?”

“Uhh…” Taylor went through about half the kitchen drawers, finally pulling one out from under a pile of spatulas. “This one okay?”

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