Her phone number and 'Call me x', scribbled hastily on a piece of paper.
That was the moment for Amy. The moment when what could have been written off by her as a random, one night stand with another woman, something to file away in the secret depths of her memory to stay tucked away until she grew old, instead became something more.
As she walked down an LA street that Saturday morning having just left Luisa asleep in her apartment with only that note to remember her by, the warmth of the sunshine on her skin, a mild hangover from the night before lurking in the background, Amy felt a lightness, almost a feeling of elation, but also a feeling of nervousness.
Elation was easy to understand. Since she had started sleeping with her mentor Sarah a couple of months before, Amy had felt herself thinking more and more about women and less and less about men. Sarah had flicked a switch inside her, unleashing a side to Amy's sexuality that she'd never known existed. If someone had asked her before last night, she'd have said she was still straight, but straight with a big asterisk next to it. But after last night, well, she had the distinct feeling that she was going through a lesbian phase in her life, or at least bi.
Elation also because the woman she'd met and slept with the night before, Luisa, had been amazing. The sex with her had been as good as Amy had dared to hope that sex with a woman other than Sarah could be, but there was more than that. Yes, they may have both been a little drunk, and yes, Luisa was predominantly straight, and yes, it was a huge cliché for a straight woman to fall for her first proper lesbian hook-up, but there had been a spark. A strong spark. Amy felt like she'd just spent the night with a best friend she never knew she had. It was that, not the sex, not the physical attraction, but the spark that had led Amy to leave her number.
Nervousness though was the flipside of the coin. First, almost terror at the scale of the new world that had opened up to her, the sheer possibilities of being into women as well as men. And second, the implications. Particularly for her relationship with her boyfriend James, who she'd been with since university seven years ago and had, mostly, had a strong relationship with. She had a whole life, mutual friends, everything built up with him, she was virtually part of his family and her of his. It was telling that she was imagining what would happen if they were no longer together, but the feeling in the pit of her stomach spoke to how disruptive that would be. But also... she didn't go back to London for another week. Amy could worry about that when she got home.
Amy's life had reached one of those forks in the road that comes from time to time, but in the warm LA sunshine she hadn't yet realised it.
Getting back to her hotel room, the first thing that Amy did was get changed into more casual clothes before video calling her boyfriend, James. She'd promised to speak to him on Saturday morning and she knew that if she put it off it would get harder and harder as the day wore on. She told him about her night out, but skipping the fact that she'd been at a lesbian bar and club, and mentioning nothing of Luisa and how her night had ended and her morning had begun. She didn't know whether she would ever tell him, or whether this was one of those secrets that one half of a couple takes to their grave, but what she knew for certain was that telling him from five thousand miles away wasn't the answer.
Duty done, Amy decided to have a shower to try to wash her tequila hangover away. Stood there, the hot water cascading over her, she started to think more about the night before. No way had she planned to sleep with someone, let alone a woman, and yet she had. What did that mean? Strangely, just as when she first slept with Sarah, she didn't feel much guilt. She was still young enough in her late twenties to experiment in life, and she knew, having had such powerful fantasies in recent weeks, that she owed it to herself to see if these were something real or just something to stay in her imagination.
The trouble was, though, that having acted on these fantasies Amy had absolutely loved it. She felt alive in a way that she never had before. Everything about Luisa had been incredible, both emotionally and physically. Had Luisa felt the same? That was the million dollar question. Amy remembered with a sinking feeling that while Luisa had her phone number, she didn't have Luisa's. And she really doubted that she could find Luisa's apartment again if she looked for a thousand years, she'd left in a morning after daze that morning and had got firmly lost before getting a taxi back to the hotel.
What was Luisa's attitude to this? She'd said that she had slept with other women before, specifically other models, and hinted that it had happened relatively often, so what would another one night stand with a different woman mean to her? Maybe last night was just a typical one night stand when it was a woman rather than a man, Amy had no frame of reference so couldn't know. And Luisa had also said that while she'd slept with women, she hadn't dated women, so it was entirely plausible that even if she'd felt something last night she'd think twice about getting in touch.
Amy realised that she'd just have to wait and see, something she wasn't normally very good at doing. And of course it wasn't like she could start dating Luisa, even in secret, given that she was only in LA for another week and then didn't know if or when she might be back. Amy didn't even think that that was what she was wanted. But what she did want, she knew deep inside, was to somehow, somewhere see Luisa again.
What she could do though in the meantime was message Mia to thank her for her and her friends taking Amy under her wing the night before. Without her being so welcoming Amy would have finished her drink in the lesbian bar and probably gone to bed early rather than having the fantastic night that she did. Pulling out her phone, she sent her a message of thanks and soon found herself being invited out with Mia and her friends again that night. Tempting as it was Amy knew that she needed a night off, so instead made a vague arrangement to go and hang out with them if she was back in LA again.
The rest of the day was pure torture. Amy wanted, more than anything, to see a message pop up on her phone from Luisa. Something. Anything.
But nothing came. Amy went to the hotel swimming pool, sunbathing and then swimming, checking her phone every few minutes, and nothing.
She went to the hotel gym. Again nothing.
She had some dinner at a restaurant near her hotel. Nothing.
She had a bath when she got back. Nothing. Although she did take out her frustration by touching herself as she fantasised about Luisa doing things to her that she wasn't even sure were physically possible.
She lay in bed, reading but barely taking on board any words from the page. Nothing.
She went to sleep in turmoil, thinking non-stop about her night before and wondering why Luisa was having this effect on her.
Sunday came, and with it Sarah was due to arrive mid-afternoon along with other colleagues for the second week of the trip. They'd arranged that Sarah would get in touch with her when she'd got sorted out from the long flight and was in her room, and Amy knew that she had to do her best to put Luisa out of her mind before then. Sarah would expect that Amy was focused on her, and Amy did not want to disappoint.
Of course, thinking that was easier than doing that. Amy headed out for a long run on a route recommended by her hotel, running before the day got too hot for exercise, and the exercise helped her to relieve some of her angst. At least it did until she got back and checked her phone to see nothing from Luisa. Her heart sank a little as she started to realise that it really might have been a one-off thing for Luisa.
Swimming in the hotel pool was next, again a good distraction until she saw a message pop up on her phone and leapt out of the water to check, only to find that it was an update from her mobile phone operator telling her about mobile roaming costs.
After lunch Amy decided that some retail therapy was the answer and lost herself in a large mall not far from the hotel for several hours. Checking her phone as she finished, she saw that she still had nothing from Luisa. She was disappointed, but at the same time philosophical. When had she ever had a one night stand in the past where she wanted to see the other person again? Never. And if someone had left their number for her, would she have called it? No. If she messaged or called then great, but she wasn't going to let it ruin her reunion with Sarah that night.
Getting back to the hotel late afternoon, Sarah messaged to tell her that she'd arrived but was going to have a short sleep. Would Amy like to come over to her room at 6pm for a 'debrief on the last week'? Amy smiled, yes, she'd very much like to debrief on the last week.
A little before six Amy got changed into what she hoped would appeal to Sarah, wearing a light, summery dress with precisely nothing on underneath. Sarah had arranged for a second key card to be waiting for Amy at reception, so just after 6pm Amy knocked briefly, then tapped the key card on the scanner and let herself in.
It turned out that Sarah didn't like to slum it while travelling. While Amy had to make do with what was, while admittedly nice, a standard hotel room with a small balcony, Sarah was staying in a suite with a living room, a small terrace overlooking the pool several floors below, and from what Amy could see a grand double door leading through to presumably the bedroom.
"Amy?" called a familiar voice.
"Yes, it's me," she called back.
