Rose frowned, seeing that Julia's brother had come into their apartment. She was frowning for two reasons. The first was that she and Julia had just finished showering together and he was interrupting their new dynamic. Second, he apparently had a key and no one had told her.
Oh wait, she realized there was a third reason. They'd dated briefly and then he'd left the country. That sucked too.
"Um, I gave him a key the last time he was in town, in case he ever needed a place to crash," Julia said, glancing at her roommate. Julia's eyes widened. Rose was wearing just a towel, just as she was.
Rose caught the look and then glanced down at herself. "Excuse me," she said, and she darted into her bedroom and closed the door.
She paced her room. Shit, shit, shit! She'd unexpectedly spent the night with Julia and they hadn't really come to any conclusions about what it meant. It had been fun and sexy, but neither of them had any prior experience with girls. It was confusing to discover you liked eating your best friend's pussy. Having her brother show up right afterwards was just delaying figuring it out and adding a complication.
She didn't need him to suspect what they'd been doing. It was awkward enough trying to figure out what it meant without adding a third party to the mix. Rose didn't know what it meant to her, she really didn't want to explain it to somebody else. Let alone to someone she had dated!
She tossed her towel in with the laundry and started to get dressed. Rose picked out a subdued outfit, just jeans and a t-shirt, so as to not give him any ideas. Julia's brother was a bit of a flirt, which had been why she had gone out with him and partly why they'd gone their separate ways. He was very, very confident, and she liked that and hated it at the same time.
Rose opened her door a crack to see if she could hear what was going on in the rest of the apartment. She really didn't want to deal with this right now.
"National Geographic, really?" Julia was saying. She couldn't see anything, but from the sound of it Rose thought they were over by the kitchen.
"Yeah, can you believe it? They have to get back to me, but it's looking good. Up until now it's just been travel magazines and websites, but that's always been my dream."
"Mom and Dad will be psyched!"
Rose chewed her lip. Julia and her brother were really close, being twins. Their parents had annoyingly named them Julia and Julian, and to solve the similarity problem they were known as Lia and Ian around the family house. Their grandparents had lived on a commune and their parents were into yoga and granola so everything they did was a little unconventional. Julia was a bit more mainstream, which was its own form of rebellion, but her brother had gone into photography and travelled around the world.
It sounded like he was possibly selling some of his photos and was maybe home to celebrate or wait to find out. She hadn't seen him in at least a year, back when they'd briefly dated. It had been going well until she realized that he wasn't going to stick around. She had school and he had wanderlust. Those two things weren't that compatible. They hadn't yet slept together when he left but it was pretty clear that he'd wanted to and Rose usually wanted a commitment. That wasn't something that was in the cards with Ian.
Why did he have to come back today?
Rose sighed and figured it was best to get on with the day instead of hiding in her room. She opened the door and entered the living room. Just as she'd guessed, Julia and Ian were over by the kitchen. She was leaning in the doorway with a cup of coffee, and he was standing with one of his own. They both glanced over when she came into view.
"Good morning," Ian called out. "Sorry about barging in."
Rose shrugged and put her hands in her pockets. "No biggie, just a head's up would be good."
Ian ran his fingers through his hair and looked sheepish. His sandy hair was longer than when she'd seen him last, and with the scruffy beard it looked annoyingly good. Though he was acting slightly bashful there was also a bit of a grin in the corner of his mouth. She knew he was thinking about how she had been only wearing a towel when he saw her last. That was just him. He was polite enough to be embarrassed but enough of a guy that he was probably still picturing it.
"Yeah, sorry about that too. I lost my phone in South Africa. I could only remember a couple of numbers and your cells aren't listed."
"You were in Africa?" Rose said.
"Yeah, it was pretty cool."
"Pretty cool?" Rose said. That was Ian too, downplaying something other people would find life-changing.
"I can show you both some pictures later, if you like."
Rose glanced at Julia, who mouthed "I'm sorry" while her brother was facing the other way. The pretty blonde shrugged apologetically. Rose shrugged too.
"Yeah, maybe later, if you want," Rose said. "I just really want to grab some breakfast."
"Oh, sure."
Ian moved to sit on the couch. Rose headed into the kitchen, and Julia followed her. Rose grabbed a bagel, popped it in their wide toaster, and got cream cheese from the fridge while she waited.
"Sorry," Julia said softly. "I forgot he was coming to town, thought it was next week. I would have told you. Mom only told me about it a few days ago."
"A lot of apologies this morning, it's not even lunch yet," Rose said.
"I know it's not great timing. But he's going to go to our parents' place later this week and then he'll be out of your hair."
"So not today?" Rose asked.
Julia shook her head. "They're not home until tomorrow, I think. He can crash in my room tonight, and then he's gone."
"What's wrong with the couch?"
Julia blushed and bit her lip.
"Seriously?" Rose asked, her eyes widening. "You want to... with me... tonight? With him here?"
Julia squirmed and drew on the countertop with her finger nervously. "I was hoping to. If you want me to wait until he's gone, I totally get it."
Rose felt warm all over. Julia was suggesting that she liked sleeping with Rose so much that they risk doing it again with her brother asleep in the next room. That was flattering, in a twisted sort of way. It was Rose's turn to blush.
"I thought it was just no-pressure fun?" Rose whispered.
