A Matter of Trust: A Carlsbad Village Lesbian Romance

“Fuck!” she exclaimed out loud.

The angry honking of the horn from the car behind her was finally enough to snap Morgan’s attention back to the task at hand: driving. The light was now green and it was all she could do to keep her eyes focused on the road instead of keeping her head turned so she could continue spying on Chloë and Sienna. Thankfully, the liquor store was only two blocks ahead and she was able to pull into its small parking lot, shut off her car and try to re-center herself.

The rational part of her brain was telling her that Chloë and Sienna were friends and have been for a long time. Friends meet up for drinks. Moreover, Morgan also knew that Chloë had had nothing particular planned for today. Perfectly natural, then, for Chloë to end up meeting her friend Sienna for some companionship, right? Right.

However, the emotional part of her brain was telling her that, no, Chloë and Sienna weren’t just friends, they were friends with benefits and have been for a long time. And it was obvious that they hadn’t just met up for drinks. Morgan knew Chloë well enough now to know that Chloë was not in the habit of wearing a bikini when she was just meeting someone for drinks. Her and Sienna had been at the beach.

Shit!

And who wouldn’t want to be at the beach with Sienna? Even with that brief glimpse Morgan had gotten from her car, Morgan could certainly imagine how nice it would be to spend time laying on the sand with Sienna.

Morgan no longer wanted to shop for wine; she wanted to be home. She wanted to feel cozy and safe in her new house and take some deep breaths and hopefully gain some perspective. She wanted to once more believe that she could trust Chloë completely.

But, damn, was it truly possible for any woman, let alone Chloë, to go from being friends with benefits with a young sex goddess like Sienna to just being friends?

Oh my god…what if I’m not good enough in bed?

Morgan gasped at that thought, feeling her heart fall into the pit of her stomach.

Sienna was an actual lesbian, after all. What if she knew things about having sex with a woman that Morgan hadn’t discovered yet? What if Chloë had been craving those things but had been too afraid to ask for fear of hurting Morgan’s feelings?

Shit!

This wasn’t helping, she decided. What she needed to do was get home and calm down. She’d have a chance to talk to Chloë tonight.

***

About an hour later, Chloë called Morgan. By then, Morgan had had two glasses of wine which had probably been a bad idea because it had done little to stop her imagination from depicting some rather graphic scenarios involving Chloë and Sienna. This was one of the things Morgan did not miss about being in a relationship: jealousy and how unavoidable it was sometimes and how quickly her mind started assuming things with very little evidence. She knew that last part was a character flaw of hers and as she had gotten older, had tried to be better at not making such assumptions while in relationships.

So, when Chloë called, Morgan made sure to sound perfectly normal, reminding herself that she did not know all the facts. She also presented her idea of going out for steaks, which Chloë enthusiastically endorsed.

The call ended with Chloë promising to be at Morgan’s within the hour. In the meantime, Morgan went upstairs to her bedroom to busy herself getting ready. She was going to treat this like any other date night with Chloë and not like she would end up throwing Chloë out of her house and life upon coaxing a confession of infidelity out of her.

“Hey!” Chloë said when Morgan opened the door to her, springing right into Morgan’s arms as usual. Part of Morgan wanted to gently push Chloë away until certain questions were answered but pushing Chloë away had become akin to resisting chocolate; in other words, next to impossible. She did, however, take a deep whiff, noting that her jealousy had now heightened her sense of smell, giving her the powers of a bloodhound, allowing her nose to identify the constituent parts of Chloë’s unique aroma: Sexy Secret perfume, coconut oil shampoo, that warm vanilla body wash by Dove which Chloë uses and today a still-lingering, almost-not-there hint of suntan lotion.

The smoking gun!

No trace of another woman that Morgan could detect, although it was obvious that Chloë had showered before coming over here. Was Sienna so easy to wash off?

“Are you ready to go?” Chloë asked. “I’m starving!”

“Um…almost. I just need to grab my purse.”

Morgan stepped over to that new coat rack/organizer thingy she had just bought from Ikea and which she employed to hang her two favorite purses on, as well as her coats. Opening her Coach bag while it was still on the hook, she pretended to look through it as if checking to make sure she had everything she needed.

“So, what did you do today?” she asked Chloë.

“Just slept in and then watched a bunch of TV,” her companion answered.

Morgan clenched her jaw. She felt her face begin to flush with anger. So, Chloë was going to lie, huh? She turned to face her, arms crossed, her weight balanced on one leg, staring daggers at the platinum blonde who seemed oblivious.

“And then I went to the beach with Sienna,” Chloë added. “We had a couple of drinks at that new bar on State Street and that was about it.”

This caught Morgan off-guard. Now her anger was replaced with confusion. A moment ago, when she thought Chloë was lying about her day, that made sense, but now Chloë was actually telling her that she was with Sienna today? What did that mean?

“Hey, are you okay?” Chloë asked, suddenly standing directly in front of Morgan, her hands gently grasping Morgan’s upper arms. “You’re white as a ghost!”

“Um…yeah, I’m fine,” Morgan murmured. “Just really hungry.”