Waist deep in a storage closet and frantically digging through an open box, Allison scattered all manner of tools and books on the floor around her. Most of her various belongings from culinary school hadn’t seen use since she’d graduated, and the majority of what remained hadn’t been touched since she’d been hired. None of it had seen the light of day in at least a year, resting in the large box in her storage closet and sitting largely forgotten. She was regretting not being more familiar with the contents of the box now that she needed something that may or may not be somewhere inside, not because of the frustration of not finding it nearly as much as everything she was seeing while she was searching. Everything was a reminder of the earliest days of her career, and most of them weren’t particularly pleasant.
Finally at her wit’s end after finding a stack of essays that she’d written in her first year, desperation led Allison to hope that what she needed was anywhere else. “Remy? Have you seen my knife rolls?”
“Your what?” Remy’s voice echoed from the bedroom, likely while she was still packing clothes into a suitcase.
“My knife rolls!”
There was a long silence as Allison waited for a response, wondering what was taking so long. When she stopped to think about it, she’d asked out of frustration without even considering the fact that Remy likely had no idea what a knife roll was, much less where she’d last seen one. What was strange in that moment wasn’t that Remy couldn’t confirm having seen them, but rather that she hadn’t said anything at all yet.
“Remy?”
“Plastic tote! Next to the front door!”
Remy’s response eventually came, but there was another noticeable delay. Allison rushed to the front door to find that, as Remy had said, she had already packed both knife rolls away some time ago along with various other necessities. After the moment of relief began to fade and her attention began to shift back to the mess she’d made in the storage closet, the question of Remy’s long pause resurfaced and began to pester her. As she began picking up the scattered books and old utensils, it occurred to Allison that Remy wasn’t one to do anything without a reason, even when that meant doing nothing at all. Suddenly feeling mischievous, Allison abandoned the mess to make her way to the bedroom.
As she’d expected, Remy was carefully folding clothes and placing them into either an open suitcase or hanging them inside of a garment bag in the closet. Despite the fact that she’d only entered the room for the sake of teasing, Allison couldn’t help the fluttering of her heart when she realized that the majority of the clothes Remy was packing weren’t her own. As always, Remy’s thoughts were always of Allison as much as herself. It occurred to Allison in that moment that it may explain why every time she lost something—which was more often than she cared to admit—Remy’s sixth sense that made itself apparent. The sudden flood of appreciation didn’t entirely quell Allison’s desire for teasing, but she did at least resolve to keep it to a minimum.
“So, my knife rolls…” Allison said the words as casually as she could manage as she approached Remy from behind and wrapped her arms around her waist.
“In the plastic tote—”
“Oh, I know. I found them.”
Allison’s voice remained calm, although not entirely steady. Judging by Remy’s posture that had suddenly gone rigid as she froze in place, she’d noticed the change. She didn’t turn to face Allison, but she certainly seemed as if she was paying more attention than she was a moment earlier.
“I take it there was something else?”
Still struggling to maintain control, Allison let out a soft chuckle as she leaned against Remy’s back. “How did you know what I was looking for?”
“You…told me?”
Gotcha.
Allison burst into a fit of laughter at the response, the note of uncertainty all of the confirmation she needed. She still didn’t know Remy nearly as well as she wanted to, but there had been a number of things that she’d learned to accept as laws of nature where she was concerned. As she’d noted earlier, Remy’s actions were always born of intent. Even the slightest amount of hesitation was a dead giveaway that something was off. Allison’s eyes began scanning the clothing scattered across the bed and, partially hidden by a sweater sleeve, she saw confirmation of another of her suspicions. Remy’s phone was in the center of the bed, nowhere near the bedside table where it was typically left charging. Following Allison’s gaze to the hastily discarded phone, Remy’s eyes went wide before she quickly turned away, her face immediately taking on its lovely burgundy tint.
“You pick the weirdest times to start paying attention.”
Ignoring Remy’s attempt to distract her with her usual grumbling, Allison’s laughter renewed itself as she attempted to look around Remy to see her face. “You are so—!”
“I most certainly am not.” Remy’s voice took on a tone of warning that was somewhat diluted by the deepening color of her face and her refusal to meet Allison’s eye.
“You looked it up!”
“W—well…” Again sounding entirely out of character, Remy sputtered as she tried to force out a response. “…how else was I supposed to find out?”
With a squeal, Allison squeezed Remy’s waist and ignored her groan of protest. Though she intended to maintain her resolve to not do too much teasing, she couldn’t resist at least some indulging. Since their first date, they’d fallen into a pattern of embarrassing each other by pointing out the things that each appreciated in the other. Neither of them seemed to be familiar enough with the thought of being genuinely appreciated to be entirely comfortable with it, Remy in particular. At the same time, though, the complaints always seemed to ring hollow. Allison hoped that it was the same for Remy as it was for her; as overwhelming as it could be for Allison to be told how much she was adored, there was always a deep aching to hear more. It also filled her with the urge to reciprocate and let Remy know about every little thing that she was coming to love about her.
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At the moment, what had Allison’s attention was Remy’s dedication to performing at her best, no matter how trivial the matter at hand happened to be. She was the only person Allison had ever met who would go through the trouble of looking up the answer to a question rather than simply ask, not to mention making it a point to not forget. Every day brought opportunities to learn something new, and Remy wasn’t one for letting them get past her, especially when it was for Allison’s sake. As much as Allison admired Remy’s dedication to her work, she couldn’t deny that it drew her attention even more that Remy went through so much trouble for her sake. Even at that moment, Remy was packing both of their suitcases, something that was undoubtedly a result of Allison’s increasingly frequent complaints about not wanting to go through the trouble the closer their departure grew. Now less than a day from taking to the highway without having started, it was also likely a factor that Remy had legitimate concerns that it wouldn’t get done in time.
Glancing down at the bed again, Allison saw her open suitcase already contained a number of things that she would’ve packed herself had the time finally forced her hand. Her favorite hoodie—one of Remy’s that she’d claimed for herself—was neatly folded on top of the jeans she always wore when she was too tired or in too bad a mood to be uncomfortable but couldn’t avoid going out. The sweater that had partially hidden Remy’s phone, resting next to the suitcase and apparently waiting to be added, was one that Allison had bought just for the trip. The thought drew Allison’s eye to the open closet where she noticed that several dresses she’d set aside for formal events were nowhere to be seen. The hanging garment bag, however, was noticeably thicker than it had been earlier in the day. Another scan of the room showed that several of the drawers in Allison’s lingerie chest were ajar, and another glance at the suitcase revealed that a smaller bag had been filled and placed inside. Allison looked up at Remy, still holding a blouse in her hands and staring at the ceiling as her cheeks continued to burn. Smiling, Allison reached up and kissed one of them.
“Do I want to know what that was for?”
Allison laughed softly as she again squeezed Remy’s waist. “For always taking care of me.”
The work of packing continued largely in silence, Allison finally relenting and joining in after beginning to feel guilty over just how much of her work had been done for her. She spent nearly as much time packing as she spent giving Remy furtive glances, her mind racing to process an idea slowly taking shape in her thoughts that she was having difficulty putting into words. The more she packed, the more she realized just how little of the clothing stretched across her bed had been Remy’s. It seemed that the majority of Remy’s packing had been done before she’d arrived at Allison’s apartment that morning, and she’d only bothered to bring her luggage for the sake of packing the few things she needed that she kept there. A brief conversation in which she’d playfully chided Allison for avoiding the task of packing for so long led to a response about how her problem was more with unpacking after a trip was over without the excitement to distract her, and that thought had sparked another.
Packing isn’t so bad with Remy here. Would unpacking…?
For the first time, Allison didn’t reflexively resist Lily’s incessant suggestions that the changes to their living arrangement become formal. As the endless arguments Lily had made flooded into Allison’s mind again, they became significantly more difficult to ignore when she saw the reality of the idea right in front of her eyes. Would it really be a bad thing? The question seemed ridiculous when she asked herself sincerely. Not only did she have no opposition to the thought, but finally giving it serious consideration immediately brought a sense of comfort. Her mind raced, but the only reason she could find to hesitate was the fear that Remy might not agree. She hadn’t given any reason to think that she’d be opposed, but she hadn’t expressed any interest, either.
She didn’t say anything about wanting a date, either. She still said yes. You just had to ask.
She’d heard so many iterations of the same thought in her conversations, Allison wasn’t sure if she was thinking the words herself or just remembering what Lily had said. No matter which was the case, though, there was no getting away from the fact that it was true. The one thing that could cause Remy to be indecisive was wanting something, and she’d never held any ill will toward Allison for nudging her forward. Even the frustration she managed to direct toward Kate and Jade were difficult to take seriously. On rare occasions, she’d even admitted that she appreciated them for pushing her toward what they knew she wanted.
But…is this something she wants?
The fear behind that thought made its source much more clear. Allison knew for a fact that Lily would be pouting fiercely at her if she’d voiced it in front of her. It seemed like a reasonable concern in her mind, though; they’d been dating for a relatively short period of time, and they’d covered a surprising amount of distance in that time. The relationship was still new and they were still learning how to navigate it in many ways, but they’d been moving in a positive direction the entire time. Was that a sign that this was just another natural step forward for them, or was this what could finally manage to derail their progress? Going back and forth between the possibilities and endless unknowns made Allison’s head spin in a way it hadn’t done since she’d been working her way up to their first date.
“Are you trying to burn a hole through me?”
Hearing Remy’s voice shook Allison from her thoughts long enough to realize that she’d been staring directly at Remy, apparently for some time. Remy’s voice was amused, but her expression carried unmistakable concern. It was a look that Allison knew well. She sighed, knowing that she’d unintentionally painted herself into a corner. She’d given Remy reason to think that something was wrong, and there was no putting that genie back in its bottle. The questions were coming and, while Remy would keep them to herself before risking upsetting Allison, she would also worry in silence until she was certain that the matter was resolved. There was no deterring her from her sense of duty, especially where Allison was concerned. Allison looked up at Remy with a faint smile as she thought about the irony of the situation. What frustrated her in the moment was one of the things she loved about Remy the most.
“I hate unpacking.”
Remy raised an eyebrow, looking as if she was trying to figure out what she was missing. “So you mentioned.”
Allison looked down at the pair of socks she was holding, folding them again and again just for something to do with her hands. “The only thing worse would be having to do it twice.” Seeing Remy’s expression go blank as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing, Allison took a deep breath. “Maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe when we get back, we…just do it once. Here.”
It wasn’t until the silence went on for too long to endure that Allison dared to look up at Remy, just in time to see her confusion fading into acknowledgment that immediately yielded to shock. Allison did her best to gauge the reaction, but Remy was unreadable. Aside from the fact that she was clearly caught unaware, it was impossible to tell what she might have been thinking in that moment.
“I—it’s…just…something to think about, I guess…I mean—”
Just as Allison was about to apologize and her mind was scrambling for the words to take back what she’d just said, she gasped as Remy took her into her arms. Their lips met, and the moment stretched on far longer than the silence before it. When they finally parted, Remy’s eyes burned with intent.
“So, yeah…I thought about it.”