More than friends

Dawn pulled down and locked the rolling metal gate that blocked off the mall entrance to the Oz Fitness and said good-bye to the last client as they went out the glass door to the parking lot, locking it as well. There were perks to being the closing manager she thought as she walked into the women’s locker room. She reached into the shower and turned it on to heat up. Stepping over to the nearest bench she set her backpack down and unbuttoned her work shirt. She let the sleeves slide down her arms and dropped it on the ground. She rubbed the sore muscles in her neck and stretched before she pulled the bottom of her black cotton sports bra up over her well formed breasts, unconsciously sighing at the sensation of restriction vanishing from her chest. She pulled the bra over her head and flinched at the smell of the sweat soaked garment, dropping it with her shirt.
Sometimes it wasn’t easy being a personal trainer in this fast food age, especially in a mall where the food court was just down the hall and up the escalator. Kicking off her shoes she sat down on the bench and pulled off her socks. Shivering as her breasts came to rest on her knees and her nipples started to tingle she moaned. The butterflies in her stomach were back and she knew that she couldn’t put off the talk she was going over in her mind for the millionth time. Why did this have to happen to me? She moaned to herself as she stood up and pulled her black knee shorts slowly down offer her slender hips and stepped out of them.
Of all the people to fall in love with she had to pick her roommate and best friend. It was bad enough that the blonde witch had known her since her unnatural creation five years ago and been like a big sister to her. At least she knew that Tara was into girls so it wasn’t half as bad as it could have been. Steam rose from the shower and Dawn pulled her black thong off her hips and let it pool around her ankles as she stepped out of it.
The water was hot and made her tingle as she stood under the spray, leaning her head forward and letting the water work its magic on her stiff neck muscles she sighed in relaxation. A shiver ran down her spine as she straightened up and felt her back muscles unkinking. She closed her eyes and let her hair hang down behind her as the water cascaded over her face and tickled her scalp. Reaching up she smoothed her hair along her scalp and combed her hair with her fingers working the water into the length of it. She stood straight again and reached for the bottle of Jasmine scented shampoo, squeezing a generous dalup into the palm of her hand.
She had choosen this blend premeditatively for tonight’s discussion since Tara had told her that the smell of Jasmine always turned her on during one of their girl talk sessions a few months ago. After lathering, rinsing and repeating and took her shower scrunchy from the shelf and poured the Ocean Breeze body wash over it. Most of the knots were out of her muscles now and she lathered up and began to scrub the sweat from her body. The soapy water ran down her chest and her nipples perked up. Normally she would have taken the opportunity to release a little tension but she thought that she would chicken out of talking to Tara again if she did.
Finishing up in the shower she turned off the water and pulled the soft towel off the peg on the wall. She dried off and wrapped it around her head. She pulled a clean pair of lacey red panties and the matching front latch bra out of her backpack and put them on. She took a moment to adjust herself in them, they were the sexiest pair she owned, a birthday present from Tara actually. Then pulled on the ankle length denim skirt that was slit up to the knees. Sitting down she pulled on the long sleeve purple shirt that revealed a generous amount of cleavage and adjusted it so that you couldn’t see the bra. She always thought that looked trashy.
Finally pulled out her brush and the wooden hair piece and the carved wooden ‘chop sticks’ as she called them, also a present from Tara, and set about working her hair into as intricate a dew as she could manage by herself. The finishing touch was the cherry flavor lip gloss and light dusting of baby blue eye shadow that Tara said made the blue of her eyes pop. She contemplated the perfume she had bought a few weeks ago, but she didn’t want to go overboard, she hardly ever wore makeup as it was.

Gathering up all of her stuff she made a quick circuit to make sure all the doors were locked and all the machines were turned off and then she went the employee door that lead to the service hallways that mall goers never saw, hitting the light switches on the way out. The short hallway ended in another set of metal doors that opened into the main throughfair of the mall. The night janitor Billy, an older black man, smiled at Dawn as she came out and nodded politely as her. “Night Miss Summers” he said.
Dawn smiled at him. “Night Billy, don’t work too hard.” She said as she passed him.
Riding the escalator up to the food court and book store on the second floor of the tiny strip mall her stomach started to clench and groan. She took a deep breath to steady herself and as she rolled over the top and stepped off she saw the object of her inner turmoil at the information booth of the book store. She had a fleeting thought of trying to hide behind the pillar next to her but Tara glanced up at that exact moment and smiled her cute warm smile and Dawn melted and waved, how could she not have fallen in love with the beautiful, shy woman?

She strode over to the counter Tara stood behind trying to project confidence, but her stomach was doing a gymnastic floor routine that had to be visible to the naked eye even under her shirt. Smiling she leaned on the counter as much for support as to be casual.
“Hey Sweetie, how was your day?” Tara asked as she smiled at her roommate. Dawn smiled back and shrugged. “Not too bad, After Mr. Johnson left” she said “He always tries to see how much he can accidently rub up against my chest. What a perv.” Her voice held no malice though. He was one of those brainy computer nerd types that never learned any social interaction skills. Nodding understandingly Tara gave her a supportive look. “Well that’s good” she said.
“So when do you get off tonight?” Dawn asked. Tara glanced at her watch and replied “I’ll be finished in half an hour. “Ok, I’ll grab a table and wait. Want some Teriyaki when you’re done?” Tara thought about it for a minute and nodded “Sure, thanks.”
Dawn smiled as she headed over to get one of the tall tables that Tara liked, where your feet couldn’t reach the floor from the seat to the bar stool type chairs.

On the bus ride home Tara listened to her MP3 player, Which Dawn had gotten her for Christmas last year. Dawn was both happy and sad with this because it gave her time to try and play what she wanted say to Tara when they got home, but a little small talk might have calmed her inner turmoil she thought.
It didn’t take long to get to their apartment and Tara watched Dawn stealing furitive glances at her as they cut through the little park like area between the two and three story buildings that made up the complex. She wondered what was on her friends mind, but knew that Dawn would eventually get around to telling her. Sometimes, Tara thought, Dawn liked to torture herself with worry and internal dialog. She reminded herself that Dawn hadn’t had much life experience, reguardless of what those monks had tried to program her memory with.
Reaching building F Dawn checked the mail while Tara continued to their Door, 3207, and unlocked it. “Anything good?” Tara asked to try and get Dawn to relax as she dropped the small stack of envelopes on the table next to the door and hung her key on the caddy attached to the wall. “Mostly bills” she said wrinkling her nose. Tara giggled, mostly for Dawn’s benefit, she was so cute when she made that face.

Tara kicked off her Birkenstocks and sat in her favorite slider rocker, perching her feet on the matching foot stool, which glided back and forth as she moved, closing her eyes for a moment. Dawn loitered by the front door for a minute as Tara got settled and then took a deep breath to fortify her nerves, She wanted to get this over with so that she wouldn’t chicken out or spend all night tense and jittery.
She dropped her backpack on the couch and then sat on the floor next to Tara’s foot stool and took one foot firmly in her hands and began to message it absently. Tara moaned happily and opened her eyes a crack to look down at Dawn, noticing a little shiver run down her friend’s spine unconsciously. “Not that I wouldn’t let you do that forever but what’s up sweetie?” Dawn started to give a lame excuse and then stopped and glanced up into those deep blue eyes, best to be honest and strait forward. “I wanted to relax you so that we could talk about something” She said.
Tara sat up a little straiter and quit rocking but left her feet for Dawn to continue rubbing. “You can talk to me about anything, Dawn. I hope you know that.” Dawn nodded “Sure, sure” she mumbled out of habit. “Well” She swallowed “I’m not very good about these things but there is this person that I’ve been developing feelings for, for a while now and I’m not sure how to go about letting them know.”
Tara smiled at Dawn “That’s wonderful! Honey. What can I do to help?” she said. Dawn blushed as she looked up at Tara. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if they like me or not. We’ve been friends for a while but the subject hasn’t come up”. Tara nodded in understanding, thinking about the problem Dawn was struggling with. “Well I’ve certainly been there” she said “I’m not the most assertive person, as you know, but if you really like them then you need to work up the courage to let them know. It’s hard but If they feel the same way it’s a huge relief and if they don’t then you can begin to move past it and quit torturing yourself” She looked down at Dawn, to discover the younger woman hanging on her words. “And if they break your heart I’ll turn them into a newt for you” she said jokingly.
Dawn laughed at that and visibly relaxed. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought” she said nodding and thinking. Taking another deep breath Dawn stood up. “Was I any help?” Tara asked curiously? Dawn closed her eyes for a second and impulsively sat down on a surprised Tara’s lap. “Dawn?” she started but it came out more like “Da-muhff” as Dawn’s soft lips pressed against hers. Tara’s eyes went wide for a moment and then she closed her eyes too and grabbed the back of Dawn’s neck to pull her closer and hold her there. She let Dawn take the lead in the kiss, waiting to see where this would go.
Dawn screamed at herself silently, what are you doing! But she couldn’t stop now. She was committed to the kiss. She pressed her lips to Tara’s for a long time, then she sucked Tara’s bottom lip between hers and bit down gently on it stretching it before releasing it and sliding her tongue out to caress Tara’s moist soft lips. I hope I’m doing this right she thought, but she didn’t hear any complaining from Tara. She took a second to think about that and repeat it in her head She didn’t hear and complaining from Tara. She felt so happy she could explode. Tara opened her mouth slightly and brushed her tongue along Dawn’s inviting her in.
After what seemed an eternity Dawn pulled away breathlessly and looked up at Tara. Tara sat there with her eyes closed for a moment silently processing what had just happened. Opening her eyes, also slightly breathless she whispered “So do I know this person you are infatuated with?” a playful smile pulling up the corners of her lips.
Dawn went limp with the tension that flowed out of her tight muscles. “I think you might know her” she said and caressed Tara’s Cheek with the back of her hand. “So this is why you have been tense and ackward for the last six months?” Tara asked sweetly. Dawn blushed again the warmth going clear down to the tops of her breasts. “You noticed that long ago?” she wined a bit self consciously, shrugging helplessly.
Tara adjusted Dawn in her lap as she hugged her around the waist. “Like I said, I’m not the most assertive person and I didn’t want to step on your toes if it wasn’t what I thought.” She looked into Dawn’s lighter blue eyes, and smiled. “I’m glad you finally got the nerve to say something” she grinned as she unclasped her hands from Dawn’s hips and smacked her butt. “Oh! “ Dawn yelped in surprise as Tara pushed her off her lap so she could stand up.
Tara pulled Dawn into a tight hug leaning down to whisper “I love you too Dawn” into the other woman’s ear, and “I’ve been feeling things for you too, but I wanted you to make the first move, cause I’m a chicken”