Aya was quiet for a moment, the sounds of the whirlpool jets creating a type of white noise that now unnerved Genevieve. “I see. In a way, you were still hoping to get back with her, weren’t you?”
“I never pushed it. We both have moved on. She’s got a serious girlfriend now. A Mainlander.”
Aya raised her eyebrows.
“China,” Genevieve reworded. “People outside of the continent call those from the PRC Mainlanders.”
“So the world goes ’round, as one of my American friends would say.”
That brought Genevieve back to a more scintillating topic. “How long did you live in America?”
“Only a couple of years, cumulatively. Mostly for school. Before the pandemic, I would go back every year or two for vacation. I’ve always been drawn to America more than the other English-speaking places. I’ve been to Australia, though. I keep meaning to check out Europe.”
“Where I’m from, people only care about the UK. If you didn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge, you might as well leave. Even in their wills, my parents stipulated that I was to go to Britain for my studies. Harvard if I absolutely insisted. But in Singapore, British culture can feel more prestigious if you’re from a more traditional family.”
“So, did you go to Oxford?”
Genevieve reveled in her wet body brushing up against Aya’s. “Only after I got Sorbonne out of my system. I had always wanted to live in France for a while. So, I did that, then transferred to Oxford.”
“Your parents got to you from behind the grave.”
“Welcome to having Chinese parents. It’s built into the system.”
“Hey, I get it. Japanese parents can be like that, too. Ask me how my mother took to me coming out.”
“You actually came out to your mom?”
“Yeah, made the mistake of thinking she’d be cool with it, unlike my friends’ moms. First thing she did was cry, then she immediately tried setting me up with every single man she knew. One of them had to break me down, right?”
Genevieve nuzzled into Aya’s side, their arms entwining as they indulged in the corner of the whirlpool tub. “I’m glad they didn’t. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this bath right now. You know, together. Naked.”
“Heaven forbid.” A soft kiss touched the tip of Genevieve’s nose. “Although, am I really enough woman for you? I hear you like it kinky.”
Genevieve stood up in the bath, the water dripping from her shoulders, back, and arms as she presented Aya with everything she could have if she was willing to put in the effort for an on-again, off-again long-distance romance. “I like a lot of things. Doesn’t mean I’m pigeonholed into a single way of life.”
Aya contemplated the naked body before. “Pigeonholed?”
“It means I don’t have to be one way. Neither do you.” Genevieve leaned down, hands grasping the sides of the tub as her long hair threatened to fall out of its shoddy bun. “There are lots of ways for couples to express themselves. Even when it comes to getting… kinky, I guess.”
Aya was nothing but seductive smiles as she accepted the kiss coming for her forehead. “I can still tie you up sometimes, though, right?”
“Does the thought get you excited? I could teach you all the best knots.”
“I bet you could teach me all sorts of things.”
“I could.”
Aya bit her lip. “Maybe I like the sound of that.”
Genevieve didn’t want to get her hopes up, but admissions like that threatened to knock her heart right out of her chest. “You wouldn’t be the first woman I trained.”
“Will I be the last, though?”
Don’t get your hopes up. Every time that happened, Genevieve got her heart broken. Yet she couldn’t let that show on her face as she pressed herself upon Aya and granted her a heady kiss that knocked them both closer to the water.
They didn’t have much time left in that tub. Or together. It would be another short night, with not enough time to really express how they were beginning to feel.