She knows how to breathe, first of all, because she’s been doing it all her life. She’s quite the expert.
Yolanda said something about ‘mindfulness’ once, about prolonged exhalation and its impact on the body’s parasympathetic nervous system.
“That’s why people sigh. To relieve stress. And that’s why people do breathing exercises. To… relieve stress.”
Baran’s hand swipes across the outside of her thigh again.
She must be disgusting, right?
She’s must be some kind of wicked, disgusting thing.
She’s thinking of Yolanda—Garcia, Garcia, Garcia—in Baran’s arms.
Curled on her chest, arms loose against each others, and legs tangled. She’s thinking about Yolanda.
“Oh. Uh, cool, I guess? Nice fun fact?”
“I’m asking you to breathe with me, Trinity.”
“Oh! No yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah.”
Trinity can hear the beating of Baran’s heart, that’s how close her ear is to the other woman’s neck. She can smell her. She can see her. Shit, what were the other senses?
“You’re not breathing right.”
“Sorry. S’kinda hard to copy you. I’ve got nothing to go off of.”
“Here. Put your… head on my chest.”
“Seriously, we don’t have to do this.”
“What? No, you’re the one who brought it up, just let me- okay okay, I got it. I’m fine.”
Funny thing. Trinity actually speaks while she’s inhaling, and the one drop of saliva in the wrong pipe may not be in the right position. She’s spluttering on the side of Baran’s face as the other woman laughs, cheeks warm with what must be embarrassment and lack of oxygen.
The thumb that wipes away the little dribble of drool is soft, and the eyes that crinkle at the edge that stare into her own are somehow softer.
How long has it been? A glance to the clock reveals nothing. She forgot the batteries were still dead. Whitaker needs to change them.
“Forty,” Baran offers, smile teetering on her lips.
“Huh?”, because Trinity still hasn’t found her bearings, and she’s quite sure she just passed out in her date-not-really-girlfriend-not-really-situationship’s arms and woke up without control of her face.
“You fell asleep,” she hums, adjusting herself slightly, curling her body toward Trinity’s, “it’s only been forty minutes.”
Trinity hadn’t fallen asleep with Yolanda.
Her hand had rested on the surgeon’s hip, squeezing gently, because she had complained about leaning on it weirdly at work.
Then Yolanda’s hand was on her waist, scratching lightly, and then her hands were on Trinity’s breast, and then something, something, something. They had laid together for about 8 minutes, because Trinity counted, because Yolanda’s clock actually works, and spent the rest of the afternoon panting into each other’s mouths.
Trinity had left the apartment with her own sore hip.
“Sorry, I… uh, I didn’t mean to. You’re just really warm-?”
She’s always liked the way Baran said her name. Baran says it lightly. Baran says it like it’s a cloud or something equally cheesy and dramatic. Trinity likes Baran’s name too. Baran. Baran. Baran.
“It’s okay. I’m not mad. I think it’s cute.” Trinity likes the way Baran says that too, the way the older woman’s face still remains soft and malleable and full of an expression that’s ready to change.
It’s not like Yolanda—Garcia—at all.
“Oh.” With half a smile, Trinity allows her head to fall back to Baran’s shoulder. “Okay. Right.”
Really, seriously, genuinely.
Trinity must be disgusting.
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