OW! She banged her cut thumb on the closet door. Damn, damn, damn! She stamped her foot and gripped the thumb in her other hand.

The look of concern on Danas face when shed chopped herself with the knife practically stopped her breath. Omigod, you’re disfigured, Dana had gasped, I could have killed you. Lara had wanted to throw her arms around her and kiss her right then and there.

She probably would have jumped right out of her skin if I had, Lara shook her head. So, what to wear?

She fanned through the clothes on the hangers. Too corporate. She pushed the over-tailored interview dress away with one disgusted finger. Too many frills, terminally cute. She shoved that one to the side; an old party dress from a time best forgotten. Too plain. The plain one from her solitude and hermitry phase joined the cute one.

OH! She fingered the sundress. She always liked that fabric,
sensual without being TOO provocative; it lay nicely over her hips. Don’t want to scare her off.
Not too low cut, but nice spaghetti straps to show off her best
features: her shoulders. And it would take medium heels nicely. She
didn’t want to tower over Dana when she kissed her the next time. Her
lips recalled the warmth and feel of Dana’s mouth against hers, as
she’d leaned her against the locker and kissed her for the first time.
She hadn’t wanted to stop, didn’t want to pull away, but….
God, I haven’t given this much thought to clothes since. For a moment, all emotion sagged out with her breath. No. It won’t be like that again. I’ve changed.

She had
changed. Wiggling her toes, Lara could feel the lingering scars that
had once been bruised needle holes. She felt panic renewed and
squelched it immediately. That had been another time, she another girl.
There had been many contributing factors which caused her to spiral
into an illicit love affair with heroin. Making up her hours at one of
the busiest restaurants in L.A., under one of the nastiest, most
chauvinistic head chef’s on the planet had been a large part. Along
with alcohol, drugs were the most common way of dealing with the stress
of her fast-paced, nerve shattering occupation. It was Susan, however,
who had first introduced her to the drug that would turn out to be her
closest friend for six months. Susan.
A white heat shot through her body at the thought of her domineering,
abusive ex-girlfriend. She allowed the fury to fester for a few moments
before calling up the memory of Dana’s sweet, innocent face again. All
the anger drained away instantly and she bit the inside of her lip as
she felt guilty nervousness return.
She had changed. Lara hadn’t allowed herself to date since
she’d kicked her habit almost a year and a half ago. Fear had only been
a nominal reason. Mostly she had wanted to heal. She was not the same
person she had been back then. She would never be that girl again. Never.
Resolve flooded over her and she breathed slowly in, followed by an
equally gradual exhalation. She pushed all thoughts of the past out of
her head with a practiced ease and was able to smile once more; a
genuine, ***** smile, which she knew would melt Dana’s heart like butter
on a hot skillet.

Chapter TwoDana scrunched forward in the car,
both hands gripping the steering wheel, a sure sign of serious
nervousness. She tried to rehearse what she would say when she saw her.
Hi, Lara, you look nice. She groaned, oh god, how geeky is that?